Minutes from Harbor Hill Education Meeting 10/11/07

Amy Katz and Carrie Gordon, co-chairs of Education, introduced themselves, and explained the goals and procedures for the Education Committee.  Carrie and Amy will ask Dr. Brenner to attend the next Education meeting.  There is a possibility that Dr. Brenner will be attending a District Education meeting, which will be open to all parents.  Also, Carrie explained that there have been some “glitches” with the online textbooks and it is being worked on by Dr. Salina.

Board of Education member, Meryl Ben-Levy stated that one of the Board goals and Central Office goals of this year is to have consistency and articulation between the Elementary schools.  Team meetings with the leadership of the buildings will be conducted. These are now referred to as Cabinet Meetings.  In addition, Meryl explained that the English curriculum has been rewritten for the 6^th grade.  Lastly, Superintendent’s Conference Day, is now being called Professional Development Day.

Questions raised by parents:

·       Differentiated Learning – there was a lot of talk about programs and consultants coming to teach our staff and implement a differentiated learning program - what is the status of that; there has been talk that it will be at the Middle School level, not at the Elementary level as previously discussed.  Also – what is the correct definition of Differentiated Learning or Instruction?  Ms. Liguori gave examples of how Differentiated Instruction is being used, in the higher grades. It used in the lower grades with both Math and Reading with instructional grouping. All grades have manipulatives which are used in Differentiated Learning.   Mrs. Liguori and Mrs. Berman have both participated in teachers’ observations in which Differentiated Instruction is being used. Dr. Brenner clarified that Differentiated Learning will be continuing in the elementary schools.

·       Test scores – why are the differences between HH and EH not shown/discussed in Dr. Brenner’s presentation?  What are they? Dr. Brenner will discuss this further at the Dec. 17^th meeting.

·       The kids that are being pulled out into Reading Lab/Math Lab (current 6^th graders) – does this add to the test taking anxiety of the children.  Dr. Brenner will discuss this further at the Dec. 17^th meeting.

·       Have the parameters changed for the ELA? Dr. Brenner will discuss this further at the Dec. 17^th meeting.

·       Are the ELA/Math assessments assessing what our district need to work on and are we using that information – what exactly is being done? Dr. Brenner will discuss this further at the Dec. 17^th meeting.

·       What are the philosophies of the new superintendent and what is his role in increasing our ELA scores? Dr. Brenner will discuss this further at the Dec. 17^th meeting.

·       Is it possible to have the teachers put constructive criticism on papers and give more feedback – for example, after handing in a paper, returning it with comments and have the child do a re-write?  This is teacher specific and it was suggested that parents speak to the teacher directly.

·       The rubric that is being used needs more detail, and guidelines as to what should be in a detailed paragraph. The rubrics do change at each grade level and can be discussed with the teachers individually.

·       Concern over “grade inflation” from 5^th – 6^th grade.  Kids leave elementary school having always received “excellent” and then in 6^th grade, the grading is much more difficult.  Elementary school is meant to be a very positive, encouraging experience.  Teachers want to make this a very positive learning experience.

·       What are class sizes this year?  How much of an increase has there been from last year to this?  Can we evaluate and track if the ELA scores are affected by the increase in class size?  What is the allowable range?  Classes are within the guidelines, with the largest increase in class size occurring in the current 4^th grade.  There were also more first graders that registered at the end of August, than initially expected.  Current Grades are 1^st: 21-22, 2^nd: 20, 3^rd: 22-23, 4^th: 22-24, 5^th-21.

·       What is the role of the music teacher with regard to off topic discussions?  As with any teacher, the music teacher may start a conversation that is music related, and very often the kids take it on a tangent, but the teacher knows how to regroup the class and get back on task.

·       How many students took the Explore test, was the criterion changed for whom the test is given and why was the length of the program shortened to just 45 minutes every other week, from 2 ½ hours every other week? Tier 3 is a service, not a program, which is different than Omni. High 4s in both ELA and Math were eligible to take the Explore test.  In addition, teacher input is included in this process.  9 HH students were eligible for the Explore test. After taking the Explore test, 1 child received a score high enough to take the IQ portion of the exam, 3 from EH took the IQ test.  None of the students received the IQ score which would provide them with this service.

·       Keyboarding – what is the schedule and is it still in the curriculum?  The Mavis Beacon program is being used in the 4^th grade computer lab, for 6-7 weeks, once a week.

Please attend our next meeting with Dr. Dan Brenner on Monday, December 17^th at 9:15 am.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Katz (katzkar1@verizon.net) & Carrie Gordon (chaagordon@aol.com)