Mount Scott Elementary
Site Council Meeting
November 18, 2015
Members Attending: Cam Kitchen, Michal Pitzl, Dixie Daniels, Julia Loudermilk, LeeAnn Starrett, Angie Richen,
Merrilee Cornia, Gladys Savage
Overview:
Site Council staff met on Weds. 11/4 - Minutes from the 11/4 meeting are attached and will be posted on the website. In
the future we will send Minutes out electronically to all staff as well as parent Site Council members.
District Direction:
Continuing from last year and moving forward. Predictable results shared in August with staff (state testing results from
last year). Results from Mount Scott and View Acres were very similar in both schools. Can predict scores and success
rates based on race, language acquisition and opportunity. This has to do with population of students throughout the
district. In language acquisition last year measured growth – growth was exceptional except for students with
language/communication deficiencies. Language is a key piece and the new math curriculum is heavy in language – some
students with learning disabilities also have language deficiencies. It was noted that there are lots of dual identified
students at Mount Scott. Sample size is small and changes every year.
Summary:
Revolves around instruction/building relationships and growth mindset. Talked through SIP goals for 15/16. 80% of staff
has gone through equity workshop (Taking It Up). Cam meets with staff at end of workshop – reminds us all that we need
to practice interrupting inequities – both classified and certified. We need to make a commitment to action - 30 of 46 staff
members made a commitment this year.
What are examples of interrupting inequities i.e., hearing conversations and stepping up to interrupt i.e., what do you mean
by that? Look at systems and see how equitable they are for students. Things that are part of tradition in education are hard
to interrupt. We want to interrupt in any situation be it student to student/student to staff/staff to staff/staff to parents, etc.
We want to work and get skilled at this – Part is taking risks and part is because of going through the workshop we are
more aware of what is being said/done. We are more conscious and we are tending to catch ourselves. This is a big step
and it will take time to work at it. We are making our actions public and saying we want to be accountable. A good
reminder is that the students are looking up to staff to see how we act and how to respond to situations. It provides
learning experiences for students every day. Continue to be brave. Nonaction is really an action as well – it’s a vote for
what is happening – it shows you are okay with what is going on. Lots of talk about being a bystander – don’t just stand
there, get involved. Use teaching moments when they happen – i.e., stopping a lesson to discuss what has been said or
what has happened in the moment. As a staff there has been huge movement around the whole idea of equity. In a three
year span there has been a big swing and much more consciousness of what is going on.
Baseline Growth Data
Reading 81% made adequate growth. Median 48%
Math 76% made adequate growth. Median is 56%
Star growth data from last year.
Also shared grade level proficient levels to start this year. This is based on the beginning of this year and what they need to
know for this school year. We don’t know growth rate yet for this year. Growth – defined as adequate (Standardized
assessment – takes everyone in the pool – figures out the adequate amount of growth that everyone has made). We have
never been able to measure growth in past years. Now we can measure it and standardize it.
enVisionsmath.
First thing you do to start a new topic is review the vocabulary. Use index cards, write the word on one side. Picture on the
other. After that the solve and share is projected digitally – kids have in front of them as well. As a group we work through
the problem and solve it. You want kids to struggle a bit – it is a problem based model – look at other people’s work - see
how they are doing it.
Next we watch a quick video – (All grades have a visual learning that zeroes in on the target). Time is given in video to
pause for questions. There is a lot of information before the first pause – doing lots of vocabulary instruction pausing.
Sometimes some of this has been pre-taught so kids have a jumping off point. We are always building on skills learned in
lower grades.
Lots of this work is really guided. There are lots of sentence frames. This is digital so it can be manipulated electronically.
Partner talk is big – math discussion – share ideas out loud and then write. Sentence frames help get thoughts in order. If
they understand the concept they will be able to write it. The writing component is new to everyone. Students who have
had walk to language already have some skills with sentence frames. In SBAC students have to be able to write their
thoughts. In intermediate grades students can also cross talk – they can write their own thoughts or something that is
someone else’s ideas. To start core part of lesson all students need to be with you for the explanation – then we can break
apart.. After a few problems decided together students can work independently. The language piece is the hard part for
students. Kids don’t have the language to explain their thinking yet. Healthy arguments are good. The best part is all the
sharing – kids want to show how they got their answer – having multiple strategies helps kids fully understand the concepts
Is the fundamental idea behind it geared towards the way we are testing? No, we want students to fully understand the
concepts. Do we feel this way of teaching is better than what has been done in the past? No, it is just a deeper teaching.
Generally teachers are thumbs up – more engaging – not just worksheets with 30-40 problems.
Every single kid sees the pictures and they think they know what to do but they don’t read the questions fully. Lots of time
this program throws in something that hasn’t been taught yet. It causes students to think. As we learn more about the
program, teachers are getting more efficient. About 12-15 minutes of group time and then students get into independent
work. For years kids have been able to do the math and write the answer but when asked if the answer is reasonable, most
kids couldn’t respond. Kids can now look at the problem solving involved and understand that the answer is not
reasonable. The reasonable part comes from the problem solving. It’s all about understanding and learning about each
topic, not just getting the answer. Story problems are the hardest for students. Are you finding that the questions being
asked in the books are realistic? Yes – teaching students to problem solve - throw kids into a problem with their friends
and the tools and let them struggle. In the real world adults are thrown into real life situations. Throw the kids in, let them
struggle and then teach – they are hungry for the teaching after the struggles so they know how they can do it. You can
hear the kids arguing – they are forced to communicate their learning more clearly to help someone else understand. There
is an intervention built in – a kit – follows reading RTI model – during independent work time you can pull the kids who
are struggling together and give additional help. There is lots of repetition with many different tools i.e. bar diagrams,
arrays, facts, tricks, etc.
An intentional decision is to say we are going to use this curriculum only. It’s easy to move back to what you know. It’s
amazing that even though people are struggling, they are staying with it – lots of kid support and peer support. It’s
encouraging to see how excited the teachers are - Huge changes have happened. We have had Common Core standards for
3 years but no curriculum. The work is learning the curriculum not creating it. We have wanted to adopt math for 4 years
but didn’t have the money till last year. enVisionsmath is written by Pearson. Heidi Turner and Amanda Hayhurst with
Heather Harris were part of the adoption committee. The work was done in one year and it usually takes two years.
Teachers piloted the program and then the adoption was made. We do adoptions about every 10 years. There is a scoring
guide and rubric and you must score every element that you have teased out. Science adoption theory is that we will be
done this year - currently about 3-4 chosen to look at. All must be cleared by the state to consider it. Merrilee has been
impressed with and is enjoying learning how to do math. BThe STAR math scores tend to be high but assessments are
lower. As we go through the topics and get more language, scores should improve. Kid’s number sense is so much greater
with this program.
Teachers thought it was important to share this with parents. We will be sending out Parent Letter for each topic. Have
conversations about it. There is a technology component that we are starting to work on as well – will be filtered out to
parents also.
What kind of support do we need? Whatever you can do at home, just do - spread the word that it is a good program – it is
working. Parents need to be flexible in their thinking – try to do what you can – math is changing – it looks different. This
is stuff we all learned but it may have been high school or college. We all sat in math classes that we hated – the program
builds. Go back and think about what you’ve done in the past – things have moved around – if you are not struggling, you
are not studying hard enough. It means you are learning. If it’s too easy you need to be thinking more. Did you do it more
than one way – Did you prove your answer? enVisionsmath asks kids to show multiple ways - talk to your kids – math is
not a genetic trait. An article is going out to parents in newsletter. Now is the time to make mistakes. No one cares if you
make a mistake – you just have to try a different way.
Next meeting for parents will be March 9th . Last parent meeting will be June 8.
Staff will meet 12/9 not 12/2