Montpelier Roxbury School District

December 20, 2022

A Note From Superintendent Libby Bonesteel

Each blog post, our principals detail the work their school is doing in one area of our Theory of Growth. Throughout the fall, it has been awesome to read each post and see how connected the work is in each of our buildings. We are all working to improve our collective responsibility and collaborative practices. Every school has a common understanding of what an effective system of support is. Instructional leaders are doing monthly classroom rounds in each building to come to consensus on what engagement looks like in our classrooms through high quality instruction. Our curriculum teams are well on their way to a prioritized curriculum with common proficiency scales to bring clarity to what skills we believe every child needs to be proficient in. We are making such good progress in every one of these four areas.

We are also learning a lot. We know that our intervention team is continually refining how to write small, achievable goals based on a universal skill. If our educators get better at this, we can plan more intentional instruction leading to better outcomes. Every small success that can be celebrated with a child who is not proficient increases their confidence as a learner which makes them more open to take a risk on the next challenge. We also know that because of how the schedule works in our high school, students are not getting the same number of doses as they do in the elementary school. We are working through conversations about how to fix that. General classroom teachers are figuring out how they want to collaborate when they see a group of students needing more time with a prioritized skill and what that reteaching might look like to get different results. This is great work for our educators to be doing and will make such a difference for our students' future as learners.

To that end, have a look at this week’s VLOG post with our Union Elementary intervention team. I am so proud of these educators. This year they have changed their system, are conducting action research to better their practice, and are so dedicated to student success. They are seeing results! Check it out!

Formalized Essential Learning at MHS

By: Jason Gingold

Formalized Essential Learning at Montpelier High School is the guaranteed and viable curriculum that allows for our educators to focus on the learning that has staying power. We will ensure that every child has access to grade-level priorities that have leverage for future learning. We believe a guaranteed and viable curriculum starts with understanding:

What do students need to know and be able to do?
How will we know if our students are learning?
How will we respond when students don’t learn?
How will we respond when they already know it?

This year we began concentrating on Formalized Essential Learning back in August with each subject department formalizing their essential standards. These essential standards are what every student will know and be able to do regardless of which section or teacher they would have as a class. Each department has been identifying these standards and prioritizing the list. Some departments have moved on to identifying the proficiency scales so students can understand what is needed in their learning process. And some departments have moved on to common forms of assessment, which they share and then review student data to make improvements in instruction.

This is not a quick process but when done correctly we will be able to identify which students need immediate intervention and which students may need an extension of learning because they have already met proficiency. We know the research states clearly that when schools have a viable and guaranteed curriculum and teachers work collaboratively to discuss student learning the percent increase in student achievement is the highest.

The other day when observing classes I had the opportunity to see our viable curriculum in action. I happened to see two biology classes Friday morning both working on the same unit, the same lab assignment, and the same priority standards. The unit is "Intro to Cellular Biology." and the lab is the "Osmosis/Diffusion Lab." Students have a very clear scale describing what they need to know in order to be proficient.

The next process would be the two science teachers collaborating on the lab assessment results to review the data to have an understanding of student comprehension, which can lead to re-teaching or intervention. This is a great example of formalized essential learning.

We also recognize that to learn at high levels students must have access to a grade-level curriculum. While every student may not be proficient in each and every course level standard, every student must be proficient in the MRPS Universal grade level standards such as “Add or subtract rational expressions,” and be prepared for whatever future learning experience wait for a student after MHS. When a student needs intervention we ensure they are working with a content subject expert on the universal and essential standards to continue to learn at grade level. By having a guaranteed viable curriculum MHS is building a schoolwide system of support because teachers are clear on what students need to know and how we can effectively support all students.

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Written By Montpelier High School Principal Jason Gingold

The author of this blog will rotate each week between MRPS administrators. Subscribe by clicking the orange 'Follow Montpelier Roxbury School District' below or on the right-hand side of this page.