Superintendent’s Presentation to LCUSD Governing Board
Superintendent Sinnette made a presentation to the LCUSD Governing Board on June 26, 2018 at 7PM to give her final report of her year-long goal on reviewing math instruction and delivery in the elementary grades. In her presentation, she gave a review of the goal, her actions to achieve that goal, her personal reflections on the process, and her recommendations for action to the Board. A copy of the presentation slides she used is archived below:
[ Wendy_Goal_Summary.2018.06.26 ]
The Superintendent’s presentation consisted a restatement of her goal, the process she used to pursue her goal, a summary of her meetings with staff and teachers the first part of the school year, a summary and review of the two elementary math forums with parents and teachers, and a summary of her Elementary Math Advisory Committee’s purpose, meetings, and findings. And to wrap up the presentation she presented her personal and articulated staff views on the goal and her recommendations to the Board for action:
- Articulated LCUSD Staff Views and Perspectives:
- Staff recognized the passionate dedication parents have towards their student’s elementary math experience.
- Staff feel that the LCUSD adopted curriculum is strong and is meeting the needs of their learners – over time instructional delivery will only improve.
- The programmatic needs in math according to student numbers call more for investments in opportunities for intervention than for acceleration.
- Teachers are committed to teaching their grade level standards and differentiating.
- Staff are open to designing communication and enrichment opportunities.
- Superintendent Reflections:
- Appreciation for the engaged dialogue, largely collaborative process between stakeholder groups
- Process did not necessarily adhere to the Superintendent’s Goal as written
- Need for communication, transparency, and collaboration between stakeholder
groups - Need to explicate constraints of public education while creatively endorsing providing world class educational opportunities where possible
- The work to refine, improve, and celebrate math instruction across the district will be an on-going effort
- Importance of valuing the integrity of the Elementary Education experience
- Recommendations:
- Develop Comprehensive Site Plans:
- More frequent parent teacher conferences (formal or informal)
- Maintain/Foster strong classroom community
- Parent opportunities to observe math instruction
- Requirements/recommendations to ensure both conceptual understanding and computational fluency
- Programmatically defined supplemental materials
- Strategic inclusion of Mathzilla and Math Olympiad questions peppered into regular classroom curriculum
- Explore increased programmatic approach to After-School Enrichment Opportunities
- Explore Math Camp Program – Opportunities, Needs, and Resources
- Continue/Develop meaningful Parent Education Opportunities on Math Curriculum
- Explore with Elementary Sites the role and efficacy of an Upper Elementary Math Specialist
- Provide Student Study Team (SST) meetings and plans for qualifying students identified by both the teacher and parent as accelerated/gifted
- Digital Learning Opportunities for Differentiation, Acceleration, and Intervention:
- EPGY, Redbird, review and potentially purchase DreamBox
- These opportunities if organized strategically will provide opportunities for more homogeneous math instruction within the mixed ability grouping format
It should be noted that none of the recommendations offered by the Superintendent included any of the major recommendations advanced by parents on the Elementary Math Advisory Committee, rather they were a mixed-bag of less-important and easier-to-implement proposals. The two major proposals advanced by parents, cross-grade homogeneous grouping in mathematics and cohort-based acceleration, were either implicitly rejected or ignored.