St. Louis Park principals report progress on curriculum alignment, restorative practices and multilingual supports

St. Louis Park Public Schools heard progress reports Tuesday on site-level continuous improvement plans that outline how each school is aligning instruction to Minnesota standards, expanding targeted interventions and expanding restorative practices.

Sophie Lafayette, director of assessment, research and evaluation, told the board the district’s continuous improvement planning process began last spring and moves in four steps: planning, implementation of strategies, evaluating progress, and planning for the next year. "Our continuous improvement planning process actually started last spring," Lafayette said as she introduced site leaders who presented updates from middle, high and elementary schools.

At the middle school, Principal Kalinowski described four goals: (1) CARE-team work to help teachers incorporate students’ lived experiences into instruction; (2) aligning instruction to Minnesota state standards and grade-level benchmarks after an audit found gaps in math instruction; (3) amplifying multilingual learners’ voices and language development; and (4) improving family communication, including updated site academic pages and use of Schoology calendars. Kalinowski said the building adopted CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) this year and has provided professional development to help teachers teach to the standards.

The high school principal reported a multiyear effort to write outward-facing curriculum documents for every course, strengthen retention in AP/IB and concurrent-enrollment courses for students of color, implement MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) to reduce failing grades and lower suspensions through restorative practices. The principal said the school recently analyzed three years of failure-rate data and is piloting tiered interventions and restorative circles with student leaders.

Elementary leaders described site goals that mirror district priorities: Collaborative Classroom literacy rollout in three schools, Bridges math adoption, increased family engagement and use of MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) as a formative measure to guide instruction and identify students for interventions ahead of the spring MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments). At one elementary site a literacy instructional assistant and coaches are being used to pull small groups and support teachers based on disaggregated MAP data.

Across buildings presenters emphasized professional development, data dives by grade-level teams, and frequent care-cycle meetings where teachers analyze student work and plan next steps. Several principals said they had invested district professional-development funds to give teachers time for benchmark unpacking and curriculum planning.

A recurring thread was restorative practice: high school and elementary leaders outlined plans for community-building circles, staff training to avoid exclusionary discipline, and measuring reductions in suspensions. One high school principal said suspensions remain “predictably” disproportionate for Black students and described a multi-pronged approach—staff training, student retreats and quarterly community-building—to reduce exclusions.

Board members asked for more detail on benchmarks, timelines and how interventions are measured. Director Davis asked whether a curriculum change or purchase prompted the middle school’s math alignment; the principal said CPM had been adopted because teachers’ prior instruction had “watered down” standards during the pandemic and needed leveling up.

Leaders also described family-engagement steps: weekly multilingual newsletters with higher open rates at one site, Spanish-language family advisory feedback groups, and community nights to discuss curriculum and supports.

The presentations closed with board members thanking staff for the site-level work and asking for continued sharing of data. Lafayette told the board site leaders will provide final CIP reports in the spring as teams prepare goals for next year.