|
||||||||
December Minutes
Site Council Minutes December 8, 2008 In attendance: Lisa Pearlstein Richard Cherry Jay Hoover Kathy Hunt Constance Plager Brett Hut Wagner Cynthia MacCleod Michela McMahon Differentiated Instructions Part of the settlement for the recent law suit included differentiated instructions and a majority of the meeting was spent discussing how this could work at Irvington. How can the status quo of pullouts and in-class groupings be altered to be responsive to the promised Corrective Action Plan in the settlement? One alternative would be walking to read or math. Though this was mentioned in passing at the last staff meeting, no presentation was made nor was there time for a discussion. It was agreed that this fuller discussion with the faculty was first step. The discussion touched on the scheduling considerations, the additional coordination around conferences and grades required, and the benefits of teaching for a sustained period at a kids’ level to the teacher and the kids. Although the extremes are often thought of as the beneficiaries, it is the group in the middle who may benefit the most. The issue of stigma was discussed with a general agreement that groups must be kept fluid and that kids are already conscious of how they compare with their classrooms. E.g., the test results showed movement at the bottom but not as many “meets” were moving to “exceeds.” It was eventually resolved to focus on reading with the group leaning toward starting with 3rd to 5th. As a next step, we will gather some research, get feedback from faculty discussion and start the process of looking at scheduling options to see was is possible. Retaining 5th Grade Students The new strength of the middle school program needs to be communicated to families as they are deciding on transfer at the end of January. Parental meeting on the 13th at 6:30 to discuss curriculum, schedule, meet teachers, and hear from parents who recently made the transition. Kids will meet middle school teachers during attendance assembly on the 9th. Transitioning 8th to High School Tabled until January meeting due to time. Principal MacCleod said that planning is already under way. Shadowing invites are already planned and a letter to parents with all the High School Open Houses is in draft form.
Last updated by jhoover on Jan 27, 2009 at 11:57 PM |
||||||||
|
All items purchesed from Amazon after clicking on one of the links below help fund Irvington's school programs | ||||||||