South Kitsap School District
Policy Governance
Policy Type: Executive Limitation
EL-12:
Instructional Program
The Superintendent shall not fail to ensure that the district implements a program of instruction that
includes clearly defined academic standards, a comprehensive and cohesive curriculum to help students
achieve the standards, and a program of assessment to determine student progress toward achieving or
exceeding the standards. All testing and assessments will meet state and federal requirements.
Accordingly, the Superintendent may not:
1. Fail to develop and implement academic standards that meet or exceed state and nationallyrecognized model standards.
2. Fail to develop a curriculum aligned with and designed to enable students to meet or exceed the
established standards.
3. Fail to maintain a cohesive curriculum across all grade levels, K-12.
4. Fail to develop assessments that will adequately measure each student’s progress toward
achieving the standards.
5. Fail to ensure that the instructional program includes all legally required courses and programs.
6. Fail to consider a reasonable balance between the instructional needs and the extracurricular
involvement of students.
7. Fail to ensure that the instructional program includes opportunities for students to develop talents
and interests in more specialized areas.
8. Fail to ensure that the instructional program addresses the different learning styles and needs of
students of various backgrounds and abilities.
9. Fail to encourage innovative, research-based programs, carefully monitoring and evaluating the
effectiveness of all such programs.
10. Fail to ensure that all instructional programs, including both content and instructional practice,
are regularly evaluated and modified as necessary to assure their continuing effectiveness.
11. Fail to ensure that the Board is informed of any deletions of, additions to, or significant
modifications of any instructional programs.
Superintendent’s Interpretation:
With limited resources to meet Board Ends for ALL students (i.e. staffing, resources/materials, time), it
is expected that the Superintendent will ensure that the district’s instructional program is:
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Research Based
Data Driven
Aligned with State and National Standards
Encompass the learning and developmental needs of the whole child
Relevant to today’s world
Further, the Superintendent is responsible for a district plan/instructional program that “supplements”
the core program with additional resources to meet the data driven/identified needs of our current
student population. This responsibility must also be met with a diligent, collaborative, and researchbased process of material selection and intervention programming.
It is the responsibility of the Superintendent to align district practices (materials, resources, and
assessment) with State and Federal assessments and accountability measures.
Further, it is the responsibility of the Superintendent to develop and implement a system of professional
development for staff that enhances skills and knowledge in order to best meet the needs of all students
in pursuit of Board adopted Ends.
Certification:
I hereby present my monitoring report on Executive Limitations Policy EL-12 “Instructional Program"
in accordance with the monitoring schedule set forth in board policy. I certify that the information
contained in the report is true as of November 3, 2010.
Evidence of Compliance: November 3, 2010
At the time of this report, I believe I am in compliance with the Board’s expectations associated with
this policy. I have not, to use language consistent with EL-12, failed to ensure that the district implement
a program of instruction with clearly defined academic standards, a comprehensive and cohesive
curriculum to help students achieve the standards, and a program of assessment to determine student
progress toward achieving or exceeding the standards. Indicators Include:
Standards and Our System:
 Bridge Goals: All Students, Whole Child;
 Ends Statements and Declaration of Interdependence
 Target Math (Bridge Goals, District Improvement Plan and Building Action Plans)
o Grades 3 – 6 exceed state average in math by 9-14% points
o All Title I schools meet AYP
o Improvements in Targeted areas (some sites)
 Low Income
 Special Education
 Increased Pathways to Success:
o On-Line K-12
o All Day K
o Arts Grants
 Standards:
o 09-10 Emphasis on Mathematics and “New Standards”
 In-House Specialist for Mathematics
 Every School Site Trained
 Extended Professional Development at most sites
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Resources collaboratively developed to aid in the implementation and assessment
of new standards
 Developing district wide priority standards that are aligned with state standards
and the new common core standards
o Content Area Specific Leadership Teams
 Curriculum Coordinators for All Content Areas
 On-going meetings that are differentiated based on changing State and National
Standards, increased graduation requirements, etc.
 Monthly Training and alignment with Instructional Specialists and Literacy
Coaches from every building
 We have 3 teachers leaders who serve on Regional Math and Science Leadership
Team for ESD 114 (Lisa, Matt Davis, and Stephanie Winslow)
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PLC and Collaboration:
o Extensive, District Wide Professional Development
 Hundreds of staff members from every school, trained as Teams at State, National,
Local and In-House training, work-shops and in-services.
o Focus on Question #1: What do we want kids to know? The emphasis is on establishing
Power or Priority Standards (from State Standards). What MUST our students know –
what can’t we afford for them NOT to know?
o Focus on Question #2: How do we know if they know it? The emphasis here is on
developing common, formative assessments – timely progress monitoring to determine if
students are mastering the identified essential standards.
o Focus on Question #3: What do we do if they don’t? This has driven our work, as a
system, around RTI (Response to Intervention):
 Every School has several team members trained
 Hosted in House training with Mike Mattos, expert in RTI
 Virtually all sites have modified their scheduled and their use of “extended day”
resources to build in daily, timely interventions for students that are directly
aligned with standards
 Systems for ALL: Training around differentiation and emphasis on Tiered
Support (i.e. Tier I, II, III) – for strategic, individualized support based directly on
student progress
Research, Data, Best Practices:
o Principal In-Service: Emphasis on Data Analysis, Best Instructional Practices (based on
data in our own classrooms that consistently perform at high levels); and leadership
within Professional Learning Communities
 Establishing our own “Characteristics of the Highly Effective Classroom”
 Principal PLC’s: Book Studies on Best Instructional Practices
o Navigation Team:
 Data, Research and Investigation: What works, and why? Systems analysis and
elimination of the variance
o Professional Development District Wide – over 500 staff members impacted:
 Pyramid Response to Intervention Training Teams
 Mike Mattos – Author and Expert in PLC and RTI
 Teacher Leader Conference
 2010 Summer Institute
 2009 PLC Conference
 RTI Math
 Planned: Mike Mattos – December 12
 6 professional development/meeting days for Curriculum Coordinators (focus on
capacity building teacher leaders, formative assessment)
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2 days of grade level training for grades K-6 focusing on Questions 1 & 2 (as a
horizontal district team)
2 days of content area training for 7th-9th grade science, Algebra and Geometry
3 days of content training for 7th grade teachers to implement WA State History
Supplemental Materials and Professional Development Provided District Wide for
Teachers and Para Educators
Aligned Professional Development – District Bridge Goals, District Improvement
Plan and School Improvement Plans