Recommendations Arise From Hopkins Elementary Study

A group studying Hopkins' elementary education program recommends in-depth studies of key issues, consistency between schools, accelerating the pace of some curriculum reviews and other changes.  

Over 40 members of the elementary school community have been meeting bi-weekly for most of the 2010-2011 school year to determine which facets of the elementary program work and which need revision.

The study committee reviewed elementary program components, class size, community survey results, supplementary texts and school pairing models.

They presented the following recommendations to the school board Thursday.

(Click on the PDF to the right of this article to read the group's full report.)

Challenge programming

What they want to do:

• Develop consistent programming at each elementary school with a set of standard practices and expectations for each program. 
• Move the 'Challenge Curriculum Review' into the 2011-2012 school year.

Why they want to do it:

Challenge is Hopkins' program for gifted students. The board wants to see consistency among the schools. Moving the 'Challenge Curriculum Review' up will allow the board to see its successes and faults so as to improve it once it goes into full swing in the 2012-2013 school year.

"We expect the same curriculum to be delivered to our students regardless of where they live," said Diane Schimelpfenig, director of teaching and learning. "We have very clear standards on how much time is spent on reading in every classroom. However, we would never want to take away the creativity of any given teacher."

Class size and elementary school structures

What they want to do: 

• Evaluate current class size and create a modeling system to determine whether class size can continue to be raised.
• A committee will analyze the cost and benefit of using additional paraprofessionals to lower the adult to student ratio.
• Evaluate the impact multi-age classrooms and school pairings have with regards to lowering class size.

Why they want to do it:

The board is tyring to find the best ways to give the most attention to each student. Whether this comes from one source or a combination of the above will be decided based on the model's findings.

Global awareness

What they want to do:

• A global awareness work group will be created for the 2012-2013 school year. 
• Deal with issues such as implementing a working definition of global awareness, exploring the feasibility of offering world language instruction and working global awareness into ethical behavior and self-development skills.
• Review, revise and/or develop lesson plans highlighting global awareness.

Why they want to do it: 

Global awareness is necessary in the 21st century. By highlighting global awareness, the students are further introduced to equality and a larger world. Developing a working definition of global awareness will allow further consistency across schools.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum

What they want to do:

• Create an elementary STEM work group for the 2011-2012 school year to ensure that the sciences are highlighted in the everyday curriculum. 
• The current 'Engineering is Elementary' curriculum, which is currently utilized in third through fifth grades, will be further developed to the junior high.
• Commit the same amount of STEM instructional time across all schools.

Why they want to do it:

STEM is becoming increasingly important. The amount of educational technology is also increasing and the school board is trying to find the best way to implement it. Committing the same amount of STEM instructional time across all schools will also increase consistency.

Family and parent engagement

What they want to do:

• Form a family and parent work group for the 2011-2012 school year. 
• Develop strategies for reaching out to unengaged families.
• Train staff members on the use of telelanguage and interpreters.

Why they want to do it:

The work group will focus on equity, inclusion and communication. Increasing the exposure to these values will, hopefully, also increase the level of parent/student conversation. The school board would like to lessen the gaps between parents, students and administrators.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

What they want to do:

• Implement professional learning communities during the 2011-2012 school year in grades K-12. 

Why they want to do it:

PLCs are a growing organizational arrangement that emphasize sharing techniques, knowledge and subject matter between all levels of staff which, in turn, benefits the students. 

Ethical behavior standards and self development skills

What they want to do:

• Evaluate core values and beliefs through review and feedback provided by community members, parents, staff and the school board. 
• Review each of the current elements for relevance, developmental appropriateness and connections to other systems in use.

Why they want to do it:

The school board would like to reinforce behaviors that predict success in schools—such as timeliness, accountability and overall respect. The curriculum needs to be reviewed because the last time the ethical behavior standards were analyzed was in the mid-'90s.