School Committee Meeting Update

It’s been a long time since a meeting focused on something other than the budget.  A few comments opened the evening.  Dr. Jackson reported that Principal of the Miller School, Mr. Keim hosted a principal from Kuwait, who was visiting on a sponsorship from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  Mr. Cornely informed the Committee that evaluators from an independent company looking at the Reading Street program were here for two days this week (more on Reading Street at the next SC meeting). The calendar of events for graduating seniors was distributed; graduation was take place on 2:00 pm on Sunday, June 6^th.  We hope for safe and happy celebrations for everyone.

Presentations opened with a visit from Holliston’s Videilis/Pennypacker Destination Imagination Team.  This team placed first in both the Regional and State finals and are on their way to the Globals in Knoxville, TN at the end of May.  Out of the 740 teams in Massachusetts, who have been working since October, they are the ones who will represent Holliston. They are an impressive group of students who need to raise $8000 to make their way down south.  They are selling raffle tickets and hosting a pasta dinner, so please be on the lookout and assist them if you are able!

The next presentation of the evening was introduced by Mr. Cornely and was on Atlas Rubicon, the technological curriculum mapping tool that is now being used in our curriculum design process. Curriculum design in the 21^st century must ensure a guaranteed and viable curriculum: guaranteed, meaning that, no matter who teaches a give course or grade level, the school can guarantee that certain content is going to be addressed adequately; and, viable, meaning that the content that is guaranteed can actually be addressed in the time available to teachers.

The professional development work in curriculum for more than over a year has focused on a backward design model.  This entails a shift in thinking: identify the desired results (what are the big ideas we want student to learn, and what are the enduring understandings we want them to take away); how will we teach it (formative and summative assessments and planned learning experiences); and, what will we do if they don’t understand.  (A number of curriculum reviews and recommendations have already been presented to the School Committee, and the next one in line is Foreign Language). The professional development process to date has included District training (in-house graduate course, standardizing existing best practices, and designing standards-based units) and High School Faculty training (in department and faculty meetings, and on all Professional Development days). 

Mr. Cornely shared the history of curriculum development, which included 1980’s paper-based work, moving through the ‘90s word processing documents, the early part of the century, which focused on shared drives, and now, in 2010, is web-based collaboration.  These tools, of which Atlas Rubicon is one, allow for world-wide sharing of information. It was designed to electronically facilitate and document the curriculum development process.   Atlas Rubicon electronically incorporates curriculum mapping, tracks gaps and repetition in instruction, aligns curriculum to benchmarks and standards, produces reports to encourage partnerships, and facilitates sharing of ideas and rapid communication across buildings, school, and grades.