WCUUSD Curriculum Newsletter

Hi, WCUUSD educators--

One of the greatest parts of my job is that I get to see the incredible work that happens in all of our schools from PreK-Graduation. I am routinely blown away by the collective wisdom, experience, creativity, and innovation that exists in our district.

On January 20 you got to bear witness to our amazing work, too. The gallery walk of artifacts related to the implementation of the Education Quality Standards was simply stunning. THANK YOU to all who shared their work.

As reported below, I will share more feedback about the Jan. 20 inservice day in the next newsletter after the Humanity and Justice Coalition and our student participants have the opportunity to review and reflect on the feedback.

In the meantime, though, many of you have asked if we can somehow share the artifacts with each other in an ongoing way. Some of you wanted more time for the gallery walk. Others want to take a closer look and get ideas that will inform your own practice.

I've created this Google doc to collect your wonderful work. I hope that you will consider sharing it here.

Warmly,

Jen

Curriculum Council had decided to draft talking points during our second meeting in January. Alas, that meeting was canceled due to the snow day. In December and January our major agenda items have included analyzing fall data related to Continuous Improvement Plans, reviewing school-based plans for professional learning, and considering how we will evaluate the impact of our professional learning on teacher practice and student performance.

Stay tuned for more official talking points in the next newsletter.

• Berlin: Celia Guggemos, Melissa Maring

• Calais: Ainsley Burroughs, Jenna Howard, Jarrod Weiss

• Doty: Allison Fayle, Gillian Fuqua

• East Montpelier: Alicia Lyford, Hilary Paquet, Dave Willard

• Rumney: Veronica Fair, Karoline May

• U-32: Jenn Ingersoll, Brittany Perry, Becca Tatistcheff

• WCUUSD: Ellen Dorsey, Jen Miller-Arsenault

The EQC met on January 21 and focused on progress monitoring our Continuous Improvement Plans (CIP). We focused primarily on the actions that we are taking across schools and the district related to our CIP goals and less on the data, as we are currently in the middle of our winter assessment window. Each principal recorded a brief video update to share with the Education Quality Committee. Here is the slideshow where you can access updated CIP's and the videos.

The next meeting of the Education Quality Committee is February 18. The focus is Scientific Inquiry and Content. We will review our science standards, instructional highlights, report card and transcript data, and VTCAP scores.

The feedback from our inservice day was overwhelmingly positive. Wow! Participants appreciated both the student panel and the gallery walk.

The Humanity and Justice Coalition (and student participants) will analyze the qualitative survey results at their next meeting on February 11. Stay tuned for a summary of themes in the next newsletter. In the meantime, below are the quantitative results. Included in the results below is feedback from all 3 sessions regarding the Education Quality Standards professional learning modules.

Also, as noted above, many folks have asked if we could share our artifacts beyond the gallery walk. To that end, for now I have created this Google doc so that folks can link their artifacts. The gallery walk was an incredible testament to the great work that is being done across our district! Please consider contributing to this collection and sharing your awesome work with your colleagues.

Thank you to the 36 people who provided feedback about the elementary professional learning half day that took place last month. Despite dicey weather and concerns about an upcoming school board meeting--both of which were duly noted--the feedback was quite strong. See the photos below for quantitative results.

In terms of qualitative feedback, some themes are:

• Deep appreciation for grade and subject alike time
• Appreciation for time to talk about writing with colleagues and look at student work together
• Appreciation for menu choices, and hope that future menu time is longer
• Need more training and support related to executive functioning skills

Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, and U-32 were selected to participate in the NAEP this year. Principals and/or their designees have been meeting with NAEP representatives to ensure that their schools are prepared for this assessment. Students in Grades 4 and 8 will participate in the NAEP. Here is the testing schedule:

• Berlin: February 19
• Calais: February 12
• East Montpelier: March 5
• U-32: March 6

Each year we are required to administer statewide assessments in literacy, mathematics, and science. The statewide testing window is mid-March through April break. More details and training will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, here is a summary of recent preparations:

• School Coordinators engaged in preliminary training this month
• The district assessment coordinator (Jen), technology director (Dave), and district testing coordinator (Tim) met to map out a plan for tech support
• Students have been rostered in the test management platform, ADAM

And here are some next steps:

• The leadership team will identify testing dates at each school
• Case managers will identify the accommodations and designated supports that our students need
• School Coordinators will finish their required training
• Proctos will engage in required training with the support of School Coordinators

We've been selected to host Responsive Classroom courses again next summer. This is great news! If there is enough interest, we will host both elementary and middle school levels. More information will be forthcoming. For now, save the date: August 11-13, 2026.

Applications for renewals inadvertently went out in late December. This was a vendor error! Applications are set to open in early February. If you are due for renewal this year, please hold off until the applications officially open in February.

Our Local Standards Board is committed to helping folks navigate the new system. We have and will continue to put guidelines and templates on our local LSB site. We encourage you to use them and to work directly with our LSB representative as we all familiarize ourselves with the new platform.