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District highlights Hemingway STEAM projects and reports strong early-grade reading gains
Summary
Hemingway's STEAM program was showcased with cross-grade project examples; Assistant Superintendent Johnson reported strong winter reading assessment results with 75% of kindergarten and 76% of first graders in Tier 1 on the normed Amira assessment.
A presenter from Hemingway Elementary described hands-on STEAM instruction at the March 10 board meeting, illustrating how kindergarten engineering challenges, second-grade units on matter, fourth-grade Oregon Trail wagon projects and a fifth-grade U.S. road-trip project integrate science, technology, engineering, art and math with language arts and math standards. The presenter emphasized school-wide practices such as the engineering design process, weekly "STEAM buddies" that pair younger and older students, and monthly exploration stations.
Assistant Superintendent Johnson reported winter reading-assessment results using the district's new vendor (Amira). Johnson said the district saw "tremendous growth," with kindergarten showing 75% of students in Tier 1 and first grade at 76% for the winter testing window; she noted the Amira test was renormed and that the district reset longitudinal comparisons when the vendor changed. Johnson attributed gains to multiple factors, including teacher participation in the SMART Consortium training on the science of reading, adoption of multisensory reading curricula in many classrooms, robust summer programs, and targeted intervention systems in buildings.
Trustees asked about STEAM accreditation requirements and ongoing funding; the presenter described a multistep accreditation process with artifacts and an evaluator visit and said funding for the STEAM designation had been reduced by recent legislation but that project-based learning training opportunities remain.
