District outlines Jan. 19 professional development day and rollout of student-friendly proficiency scales
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Summary
District leaders said Jan. 8 that the Jan. 19 professional development day will combine mandated state testing training with building-level PLC work focused on student-friendly proficiency scales, unit planning and data analysis; middle- and elementary-school presenters described plans to create clearer success criteria and assessments over the next 1–3 years.
District instructional leaders told the board Jan. 8 that the Jan. 19 professional development day will include a district-mandated morning for required testing training (ISASP, ELPA21, FastBridge) and building-level afternoons for collaborative work.
Reynolds Elementary principal Jake Bridal said building staff will spend the afternoon in action teams (leadership, culture and academic teams) and work on attendance and the "motivated learner" metric; he said the building aims to reduce chronic absenteeism and to have teachers work on unit planning and data teams.
Josh Griffith described middle-school plans for student-friendly proficiency scales: teachers will use standards, the Karen Hess rigor matrix, and success criteria to create scales that students can use for self- and peer-assessment. Griffith said the work is time intensive and that the district anticipates it could take up to three to five years to complete full assessment alignment across buildings.
Board members asked whether teachers would have individual work time; presenters said most afternoon time is structured for PLC collaboration rather than long individual work blocks, although some time to complete team tasks will be available.
Ending: The district will hold the Jan. 19 professional development day with testing training in the morning and building-directed PLC work in the afternoon; staff will report progress to the board as scales and aligned assessments are developed.