Teaching & Learning Committee Meeting Summaries for October

In the month of October, 2024 the Math Curriculum Review Committee, the Fine Arts Curriculum Review Committee, and the Literacy Committee met.  Review summaries of those meetings below.

Math Curriculum Review Committee Meeting Summary

The CRC K-12 Math Committee Meeting on October 28, 2024 revisited the responsibilities for the next three phases of the math curriculum review, emphasizing proactively seeking feedback from building educators and regular attendance by committee members. Participants discussed ways to engage teacher voice in the feedback loop through PLC or faculty meetings, emails, and other means. The priority for Phase 1 is determining a needs assessment across the district. The committee began this work by looking closely at the district’s math performance student data over the past six years by analyzing key metrics including math proficiency in Acadience math measures, Into Math Growth measures, Aspire plus, and ACT composite and math subscores. The committee focused on noticing positive trends as well as areas of concern. The meeting concluded with a request for members to widely distribute a survey to math teachers in their buildings to gather feedback on what is being utilized with regard to math essentials, pacing guides, curriculum and assessments throughout the district.

Fine Arts Curriculum Review Committee Meeting Summary

The Fine Arts Curriculum Review Cycle Committee convened on October 28, 2024. Members collaborated in groups specific to the content areas: drama, music, and visual arts, to identify priority standards. The committee welcomed Liz Bunker, USBE Fine Arts K-12 Education Specialist, who offered insights into the structure of the fine arts standards. She primarily engaged with visual arts educators from our district, highlighting the broad scope of the visual arts standards to include disciplines such as drawing, ceramics, jewelry making, painting, etc. Utah’s fine arts core standards are derived from the National Art Standards, which emphasize a conceptual approach structured around four artistic processes: Create, Perform, Respond, and Connect. Each art form group had dedicated work time and will continue to connect with the fine arts teachers in our district, refining priority standards and aligning them with the curriculum.

Literacy Committee Meeting Summary

After a brief welcome, we split into secondary and elementary groups to address the specific needs for the implementation of the StudySync curriculum in each school.

Secondary

• We highlighted the Continuum of Practice as our primary method to assess teachers’ familiarity with StudySync and identify where additional support and training are needed. By evaluating each teacher’s progress along this continuum, we can ensure that future PD sessions are targeted, meaningful, and address specific needs at each stage.
• Discussed the approval process for novels and materials to identify solutions to streamline the process of approving books already in the school bookrooms.

Elementary

The 6th grade committee members discussed the following topics:

• Feedback, questions, and training needs from 6th grade teachers across the district
• Current training needs and priorities
• The format and structure of the proposed training