Stafford, CT – July 22, 2024
At Monday’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting, the members quickly reviewed several agenda items. Early on in the meeting, board member Aaron Hoffman reported on the curriculum meeting that preceded the regular BOE meeting and had a lot to report, as summer is a time when curricula typically get overhauled.
Much of the work is addressing the adoption of the Amplify CKLA and Bridges III programs. CKLA, which was piloted in grades K-5 this past year, will now be piloted in the middle school to ensure the alignment of the curriculum. Hoffman also noted that the Bridges program, which helps in mathematics instruction, has a Math At Home Program. In several meetings, Hoffman has noted the importance of getting parents involved at home to help students and took the opportunity to make that point again. “It’s not always in the classroom that we can get to every student, every moment, every subject,” he said, encouraging any parents watching the meeting to take advantage of the math At Home program.
Spanish and health curricula are also being examined this summer, according to Hoffman, not only to align with state standards but also to “give teachers the kinds of programs they want to teach.”
He also noted that a look at the psychology and sociology classes revealed that they are “in dire need of textbook updates.” He said it was important for the board and the community to hear that students are using 15 and 20-year-old textbooks, respectively. “Textbooks should be five, six, seven years old,” saying that updating these textbooks is an investment in the students and the community.
This summer, the Curriculum Committee is also looking at the assessment inventory. “How do we have meaningful assessment and testing done of our children that is not an over-testing of our children?” Hoffman asked. He suggested that over-testing leads to burnout and that students may not put in the same effort at the end of the year as they do at the beginning of the year, possibly skewing results. He also noted that EduClimber, a new system, will be used to help store data and use data to assess students better. Here are a few more points he touched on:
A focus on vertical integration between buildings and subject areas.
The state approved Stafford’s Education Evaluation Support Plan, and implementation will begin in the fall.
High-dosage tutoring will continue in middle school as an early intervention, which Hoffman says is already showing results.
