District outlines Jan. 19 professional‑development day; principals describe student‑friendly scales work
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Summary
District staff said Jan. 19 will include required state testing training in the morning and building‑level work in the afternoon; Reynolds Elementary and the middle school described leader/action teams and work to create student‑friendly proficiency scales and success criteria to increase clarity and instructional alignment.
District staff briefed the Southeast Polk board on the Jan. 19 professional development (PD) day, explaining the morning will cover required state‑assessment training and test security while building staff will use the afternoon for school improvement work tailored to each building.
Doctor Latham (presenting district context) said the morning will include ISASP test security and administration training, ELPA21 and alternate assessment requirements, and new training tied to the early literacy law and added elementary math expectations. For the afternoon, staff said each building will select activities aligned to its school improvement plan.
Reynolds Elementary principal Jake Bridal outlined his afternoon plan: leadership, culture and academic action teams will use the time to set attendance and academic goals (example target: chronic absenteeism to 5% or less) and to work on unit planning and data teams. Bridal highlighted the use of new curricula for grades 3–5 and the timing of FAST testing and iReady windows.
Middle‑school presenter Josh Griffith described development of student‑friendly proficiency scales aligned to standards and Karen Hess’s cognitive rigor matrix. Griffith said the goal is to translate teacher language into student‑facing success criteria so students can self‑assess and give peer feedback; he estimated the full program (scales and aligned assessments) will be a multi‑year effort (roughly three to five years to fully develop and implement assessments). Griffith described classroom examples where students used success criteria to peer‑review work with notable results.
Board members raised questions about providing individual reflection time during PD and the timeline for finishing the scales and associated assessments. A board member expressed caution about introducing a multi‑year change while other grading initiatives continue; presenters said the work aims to tighten grading consistency and student clarity.