Iowa Department of Education Comes to Town

Every five years, school districts in Iowa participate in a comprehensive site visit with the Iowa Department of Education. The visit serves two important functions. First, it is to ensure compliance with the laws that govern all public schools in Iowa. Commonly referred to as Chapter 12 Code of Iowa, these rules and regulations govern many things; such as the courses that are taught in the district and making certain all teachers are properly certified to teach in their respective content area or grade level. 

In addition to the compliance portion of the visit, the DE (Department of Education) will verify that we have policies in place to address a multitude of issues ranging from the legal authority granted to school boards all the way to how we go about cancelling school in the case of inclement weather! Once the DE has determined that all the laws and regulations are being followed, we maintain our accreditation and are in compliance for the next five years. If a regulation isn't in place, an issue of 'non compliance' is noted and the district has 45 days to respond. In the majority of cases it is a relatively minor issue that can be easily corrected. Luckily, the Department provides technical assistance to ensure seamless resolution. At the writing of this column we are right in the middle of the review, so it is uncertain whether or not we will need to make any corrections.

While an important function of the site visit is compliance, we are most interested in the second function of the visit-which is to assess continuous improvement in the district. During the next couple of days our visitors will meet with a whole host of stakeholder groups-from administrators to students and gain their perspective of the school district. They will ask many questions about our school programs. To give just a few examples, they will inquire about the rigor of the classes we offer, district communication, and how our students are doing on standardized tests. 

When they issue the report, not only will they share areas of non compliance, but the will also highlight the strengths of our district programs and offer suggestions in areas we may wish to improve. We started the preparation for this visit back in August, and have worked diligently since then. Many of you have given up time to serve on one of our various interview committees, while others have had to sit through meetings with me as I took notes and asked even more questions. It has been well worth the effort! What I have learned through this process is that we  have an awesome school district with a variety of programs designed to meet the needs of all learners. There is no doubt in my mind that our Core Purpose is alive and well in the Hudson Community School District. 

The presentation above is the overview that was given to begin the visit. There are so many wonderful things going on in our district! I hope you are as proud of the Hudson Community School District as I am!

Alignment

Last week we spent a great deal of time discussing how we go about providing our students with a guaranteed and viable curriculum. We are going to continue along this thematic path for a few weeks to hopefully give you a better picture of how curriculum is developed in our district.

In review,  a guaranteed and viable curriculum means that no matter what teacher is assigned to your child, they can expect to receive the same curricular content at the same depth. The mastery of that content is an article for another day, but you can be assured this critical component will be revisited at a later time.

You will recall the discussion focused on ensuring our curriculum aligns to what we have identified as the essential learning outcomes (which are then aligned to the Iowa Common Core). Once our 3rd grade teachers [for example] have agreed to the essential learning outcomes, we can probably state that they will provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum to all the 3rd grade students. This is often times referred to as horizontal alignment.

Vertical alignment is a process where we work to ensure that our students learn what is necessary to prepare them for 4th grade (for example). During these discussions, teachers from across grade levels meet to see that they are not duplicating content, and identifying and eliminating gaps in the curriculum. Take our butterfly example from last week. What if your child learns about butterflies in 3rd grade only to go on to 4th grade...and butterflies again! Unless the units build on one another (for example in 3rd grade the concept is introduced and in 4th grade it is mastered), we would have a problem.

An even bigger problem is if something else is missed as a result! Using our same examples, let's say we covered butterflies in 3rd grade, duplicated them again in 4th grade, and as a result missed our essential learning about turtles. Then, when our students are administered the Iowa Assessments in 4th grade, they get all the questions on turtles wrong! 

Our staff is working hard to make certain that all of our curriculum is aligned both horizontally (all sections of 3rd grade are the same), and vertically (between grade levels). This process strengthens instruction and helps us to eliminate gaps in our curriculum! The end result is higher student achievement!