District Academic Committee Summaries

District Academic Committees met on October 28, 2019

District Instructional Strategies Committee

The DISC Committee meet and broke into Secondary and Elementary groups to discuss presenting standards-based grading in professional development sessions. There were many new members, especially in the secondary group, so time was also spent reviewing what the committee has done up to this point. Next month the two groups will continue their discussions and start to make plans to move forward.

District Social Studies Committee

• We discussed the results of the Professional Development Needs Survey sent out during the month of September
• Divided by grade levels to collaborate and work on alignment of new McGraw Hill Curriculum to Utah Core Standards, Student Profile, and Curriculum Notebooks
• We will be sending out a survey to 4th & 7th-grade teachers to address their curriculum needs

District Math Committee

The Elementary Math Committee continued the work of recommending a math curriculum for adoption by the end of this school year by reviewing the progress of the first phase of this process. Subcommittees met in October to:

1. create a student profile indicating what we want PCSD students to be able to do in the subject of math
2. consider essential learning standards and pacing guides
3. review of the current math curriculum. The committee also reviewed survey results of over 200 teachers with regard to their current use of the Curriculum Notebook, specifically, essential standards, pacing guides, assessments, and curriculum.

Finally, the committee reviewed the newly established math essentials from USBE (called the “Major Work” of each grade) and determined that the state essential learning standards will replace our current P1 and P2 essential standards for Fall 2020. The DMC will be moving to phase 2 of the curriculum adoption process in December 2019.

District Science Committee

The Science Committee reviewed preliminary student profiles created last year in preparation for the creation of an RFP. After a presentation from Dr. Daniel Horns (UVU) about student profiles for college students in the Sciences the student profile was adjusted to better align across grade levels, with SEED standards, and in preparation for continuing Science studies and careers. The committee also reviewed student learning data in the last few years to further evaluate the needs of students moving forwards