Okay.
Thank you, everyone, for being at our curriculum council meeting.
Will call order at 4:04 p.m..
Our summary notes are attached for your review
time.
Just a point of housekeeping order on the on the minutes
since Terry and Maria and Lindsay aren't members
of the committee, they probably shouldn't be marked as absent.
They probably can just be.
Their name has just been deleted.
I guess
if we can talk about that separately, that would be great
because the whole everybody is informed and invited to come.
So tracking who is here and who is not is something
that we really haven't discussed, but that Missy and I have talked about.
So we don't want to take them off of the agenda
because they can see the agenda, but they're not here.
So we're not quite sure how to track that.
If we could
get the minutes and everything exactly.
But just not counted as exactly and I don't
there's not really a way for us to do that in here.
Well, they can they can see an agenda planner.
They can see the
the minutes and the agenda and put everything up.
So, for example, I'm not on the
communication community
Engagement Committee, but yet everything comes to me.
I get I can pull it up.
I can see everything, even among the committee.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you.
Forgive me.
I'm just making a note so I don't forget
anything else of the minutes.
Thank you.
Okay.
We do have a high school grading update.
Our last or last report for high school grading from Mr.
Smith today.
They've come to some conclusions,
and I'm going to turn it over to him to share where they're at.
All right. Thank you.
So one of the goals was to examine the high school grade scale.
And we had some discussion about this in the fall.
We brought this to department chairs, department chairs, worked on this
throughout the entire year.
I gave an update a couple months ago about where we were
and focused on why we were the ultimate drive to consider the change.
So after examining a number of grade scales, this is what the department chairs
agreed on a plus or minus grade scale with the appropriate percentages
and then a corresponding GPA to go with the letter grades.
So just as a refresher, currently on our report cards, we report number of grades.
That number grade has a corresponding GPA number associated with it.
And that corresponding GPA was where some of the concern was because
it it
was reporting much lower than our neighboring schools.
So we were tasked to give it a look.
And so this is what we came up with.
There was discussion about the A-plus,
and we thought that the department chairs
there was unanimous agreement that we needed a separator
for the more high achieving students in that age range.
And to note with this, there will be no rounding of grades.
So a 96.88 will be considered and a will not be rounded up to a 97.
So there will be no rounding with with this grade scale.
With our current grade scale, there is rounding.
It's just normal rounding.
If you have a 95.5, it goes to a 96.
If you have a 95.4, it goes to the 95.
So that was part of the discussion with us as well.
When the teachers enter into the grade book, wherever you do
it, does it give you 2/100?
The two percentage points are just one.
We can that can.
It's my understanding that can be programed any manner that we wish.
If that's a setting.
So we
are requesting that we can have to the hundredth spot.
And this was our year long project.
Yeah.
So does a as an A-minus a 3.67
that I'll a on my first class or is it a B to me.
But I'm trying to do the math What
it's not a it's it's almost like
an A-minus is lower than in a.
No And I would be a for an A-minus.
If it does exactly my question.
So when you look at this, the first chart, you get the grade
in terms of if the teacher is grading,
if they have me grading on 100% scale, they put it in the book, calls
it an A-plus or a minus S, the conversion makes it a GPA on a 4.0 scale. Yes.
So my one of my concerns would be
the conversion scenes seems fine on the points scale over.
But then when you drop to they're giving it a 4.0 recognition, we're
going back to penalizing someone with an AA to get lower than lower than the 4.0.
Then we're back in the same boat we were before that.
I could have all I could have all A's.
But there are three minuses
competing with other schools.
It's going to look like I have a B, It's not a 4.8.
Yeah, that's that's what that's the whole thing with the,
you know, and A's and A's and I understand the, you know, the A-plus thing.
But I that's my looking at that.
That's the first thing that, that glares at me.
So I'm kind of all A's but come out having a three, you know a 37
and look inferior
when looking at when being compared to other schools.
Did you get this scale from other schools?
Yes, there are a number of schools that use the scale of scores
that we looked at.
I don't know the exact particular one that we but there's a couple
that had this type of a grade scale that were comparable in achievement to
our school.
I think.
I mean, first of all, I applaud you guys
because this is I know this is a very complex issue.
And I think the, you know, part one conversion is fine. My
my only question or request would be to
I would not be interested
in minuses at all, A minus B, minus C minus, because then we're
we're splitting hairs between a 92, 93.
Right.
Well, currently a 92.9 is a 3.47 on our scale.
So when we when I made the, when I gave the presentation,
this is this is the recommendation from the department chairs at the high school,
we took time to deliberate.
We looked at our neighboring schools.
We looked at schools across the state.
We even stepped out of state boundaries.
And we looked at we looked at private schools, public schools.
But then we were trying to make our decision.
We really focused in on schools that look like Hershey,
the higher achieving schools we could use. U.S.
News and World Report.
You can use whatever ranking system they are, have some variation.
But we really wanted to compare ourselves to the higher achieving schools.
So that's how we came about with this.
I think when you calculate the whole thing, it probably works itself out.
Like if you're if a student has eight different grades,
pluses and minuses, A's,
I mean. That's that's
why you could
look at it sort of We tried to give what we thought,
Well, the department chairs this isn't the Geoff Smith grade scale.
We we've given this
a lot of thought and discussion and this is what they thought was best.
We compared it a lot to and I
in the fall I held this piece of paper up dot matrix printer
of what how we actually do our current GPA grade scale.
And so this grade scale does give more quality points
based on the based on the grade or the average or however you.
Look at it.
Can I ask, did we pull a sampling of our students
to see how they like some of our, you know, how they're ranking just to see
how this grade scale would work out with maybe the current senior class?
We we didn't pull per se,
but every every letter grade on here
is higher than once you get below the 100% average.
This is higher.
So, for example, a a 99.2 is a 3.94 currently.
So everyone would have a higher GPA with this grade scale.
And we think it tells a
a truer story of performance.
So in essence, you have an error.
Used to be 1010 points, 91, 92, 93, 94, ten different options.
Now we're breaking into three, which I think is a definite improvement.
My only my main the main issue that I've heard from people
is that like differentiating a 90
to A at this point would be a 90.
So a 93 would be an A-minus.
Whereas a 94 sorry.
93 isn't a I'm sorry, 92 point.
Nine, 9293 would be an A, which is a 4.0, but a 92 would not be.
And over the last 15 years, the one of the most consistent
comments among students was that
it really depends
on your teacher, whether you're a 90 or 95,
it could be the same or the same subject and that it doesn't really
doesn't really do justice to
kids who might be in an a harder a harder grading situation.
And that's why, you know, my whole sense was an A's and B's and a
I understand the A-plus, because I think that is definitely you
know, that's that's in 98, 99.
That's hard to maintain across everything.
But you could be doing the same work,
different teacher and 98 of 93, 92, 90 versus 94.
There's really little difference.
And what I want to get away from is students not only nitpicking
for those points, but also
wanting certain teachers because of the ease
or the hardness in a grade and really, is there really that much difference?
I would say unless it's the same teacher giving every single grade
a 92, a 93 could be very different.
But because of the subjectivity across all the different courses,
I hear it all the time. Yes, it does.
Teacher, You're going to get a higher grade,
this teacher You might learn more, but you got to get a lower grade.
And that that's the piece that I that I think is important.
But then also when we compare to other districts
where an A is a 4.0 and you have an A-minus, you're now a36.
Yes, that's so.
But I mean, I think I mean, I think this is a real improvement.
But there's still that that little component of subjectivity
that really affects those.
We have so many students that are students.
If you remember in the fall
when we started talking about this conversation,
we talked about there's two different levels that we're talking about here.
And you're talking about the second level, which we have started to now
approach, and that is the consistency and
collaboration when it comes to grading, which is a that's a
it's a different and bigger issue than just changing the grade scale.
And and that that work did begin on March 15th.
We had a very, very good in-service at the at the high school
starting to take a look Mr.
Smith, myself, Mr. Eber and Mrs.
Brown all went to Tom Gorski training in December
so that we could really take a look at that element of it
and what we're doing with
implementing collaborative teams, which is still in a very rudimentary
stages at the high school,
but is going to force teachers to share assessments, look at each
other's grading, come to consensus on what this really means.
But that is a bigger and longer process than one year.
Right?
And because of that, we could have students who are all
A's, all across the board, but it might only be at the 92 level.
And they're going against if they're going up against students
across the state that have a 4.0, always.
That's all that's you know, that's I mean, I hear what you're saying.
I've seen it in in the dot matrix on our own navy on system
what what our what our scaling did
for students in terms of acceptances versus other schools.
I just want them to have the best our students to have the best reflection
of what they do and not penalize them for having a 92.
You know, I mean, always in A's and B's and A in so many ways.
So. Well, let's talk about somebody who has all C minuses.
They could have a 1.67 GPA tonight.
It looks like you have a D, I guess because I work at
how can I deal with people's grades and advise students
like to graduate, You have to have a 2.0 or more, which is a C,
And if we did
this at Hack and you had a 1.67, you have a C,
but you can't graduate like,
I don't want to hurt the minus students.
And I thank you so much for doing all this work.
And I'm sure it's
frustrating for us to comment at the top when you've been working so hard
this okay.
I just I don't want to hurt any students. No.
And I look, this is and I think there's a lot of various perspectives in the room,
which is why I deferred to
the professionals that are leading our departments at the high school
and using the GPA as a, for example, a 2.0 to a 3.0
is is a B, a 3.0
to a 4.0 is the A range. So
I think
we have to be careful about saying, you know, a 2.5 is a C,
A 2.5 is really a B in terms of GPA,
like a 3.2 is really in the A range and that would make anything below
a four considered a B and it's not so those ranges
and you know, we
there's there's a lot of rocks that were turned over.
There was a significant debate and
the decision is going to be whatever the decision is.
But to go back to the drawing board, we had 250 years of teaching experience
putting the needs of the kids in the front
and the teachers that were when we were having these debates.
They believe there is some need
for separation between someone with a 91 and someone with a 96,
because even though
there may be some districts that grade on a 90 to 100,
the group felt that the separation was valid.
And it's it's completely much different than what we currently have in place.
And this will start for next year's incoming.
Freshman class of 2023.
And for my own understanding, what's going to get
reported is going to be that number of 3.5, 3.65, three point.
That's yes, that's numbers three point right.
When you give your your. Okay.
When you get the transcript, though, for college,
it will have final letter grades and it will have cumulative GPA by year.
Right.
But but the numbers, what's going to be the right number will be there.
Okay.
I mean, there's there's no system you can put in place
which is going to address the non uniformity among instructors
that's been there since the beginning of time.
And it's going to be there long after we're all gone.
That's just the way that is,
I think
since I've since since since dinosaurs
walked the earth and I was getting grades,
you know, everybody knows 3.5, three point everybody knows.
And this looks good to me.
I personally would love to see the minuses go away
because even if it once again, a 92 to a 96 may,
when I'm looking how we're comparing ourselves to other
other schools, I don't want someone who has always to not have a 4.0.
That's that's just how I feel, because they're going to be
when they're applying to colleges, they're going to be compared
to other students that are a 4.0 that could look exactly like them.
Now, I came from a school that was just a B.
We never had the conversion we got in 98, we're going to call this.
It was either A, B or C, so it's just a wide or you're either now A, B, C,
you could also say you're an eight plus A minus.
You're 99, 98, 97.
There could be infinite numbers within that age range
where we're deciding that I feel that we have so many strong students
to to try to force them into those little those comparisons
that are very subjective only hurts them when we're comparing to the outside world.
That's how I feel.
We don't know what every other school does.
So does
will this be sent to the colleges like as an addendum to someone's transcript,
or how do the colleges know that this is how we do it?
And A-minus is a 3.67 for.
The class of 2023.
This would go to every college and it would go on on our profile.
They just have to know what we do.
I mean, everyone's going to be different, right?
That's that's exactly. But
the fact of the matter is, especially the large
the school gets their Yes, they get those reports.
They know where schools come from.
They know what school standards are, they know our reputation, etc..
But when push comes to shove, when they're getting 60,000 applications,
they're looking at what's the quickest thing we can look at.
We're looking at GPA and they can't get into the weeds for every single student.
And the only reason I know that is because we you know, I looked on Navient
for so many different schools and comparisons and I was like, what?
You know, why?
Why are we why do we have a worst profile?
And getting students accepted then Aldi, a school like Aldi
and you looked at schools like Penn State, right?
The big one.
See Drexel, St Joe's, I don't remember.
There are a bunch of them in there.
And that was, that was great evidence and it's what led to this discussion.
And I do think that one of the things that we have to remember
as curriculum counselors, we tasked the high school with doing this.
They did it.
It's not something that we approve or disapprove because that's not our role.
They have taken a look at it and they are sharing what their system is.
There's going to be moving forward and they put a ton of time and work into it.
And I think we need to
allow that to occur
because they've done what we what we task them with doing.
And I think it's a great is a great improvement because that's what we wanted.
We wanted to decrease the amount of students that are getting
not getting their best when they're when they're straight-A student.
I want to write students to be recognized and get into where they want to go.
I just I, I guess I'm just looking at
why are why can't we pull former students,
former students who maybe didn't get into some of their schools of choice,
for which just to see how does that now play out on our scale?
Everyone will be higher.
Okay.
I just by looking at the.
Way with the kids, we are just.
I would say that it depends how you define significant.
But I would say that, you know, considering right now and not let's use 95
is the number considering a 95 is a36 currently.
And if we deferred to
this scale, every three six would go to a four.
And so if we think about over the
you know, we think about the top half, I want to say top of the top half,
there's probably a lot of 90 fives that were awarded a three, six, three
that would be awarded a40, that's 4/10 of a point over
12 or 15 grades.
I mean, now now you're averaging it in.
So I would think it would be fairly significant.
And that might be enough to support, you know, her need to want to see that
some of our students are not being
now denied that it actually does make that
that type of mathematical difference in their grade.
You know is is to see that how does that do
play out with some of our students to see you know, some of that?
I'm just thinking that that would be,
you know, the evidence for for some who are doubting
what that's doing for the grade yet.
Remember I mean, I can look at the original
I mean, like I said, this is a huge improvement.
I can look at the original Dot's scatter and we looked at here, we.
Examined what in Penn State mean.
Penn State Honors, Northwestern, New York University, Villanova,
Boston University, Boston College and George Washington.
They were the schools that we picked to focus on
because we had a number of our students that apply to those schools.
You know, I don't know what a three what a36367 for an A-minus.
What they're likely to getting it is versus a 4.0,
because they're all you know, they're both a student.
And it's it's and the and everyone knows getting in college is
it is a quick look at the GPA but there's so much more that goes into it
than just looking at GPA.
You know, I got to sit in
and I know Sherry was there as well.
The conversation was rich,
the conversation was passionate.
And it was I think it really brought the group together.
That, coupled with some of the focus that we've had
from our March PD
and now how we're going to be moving forward
with professional learning communities, I think it's all part
of how we're going to start looking at this a little bit differently.
Not not that it hasn't been in the past, but it hasn't been recently.
And so, you know, the schools that we looked at and I pulled the list out,
we looked at all the top 15 schools, including us from U.S.
News and World Report.
And then we had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
12 other schools.
We have Maryland, New Hampshire, Illinois, bunch of New York.
So we
the chairs really did go over and above with this.
It was it was on our agenda at least once a month.
We had a lot of side conversations with different groups of people.
And I think it's a step in the right direction.
I give I give the department chairs a lot of credit
because whenever you change something like this,
I didn't see the anxiety that was occurring in department meetings.
It was reported to me.
We had some discussions about it.
This is a big deal and there's part of teachers
that they understand how important that is,
but they also want to have some integrity about what that great actually means.
And that's where this discussion came in because we didn't have a plus on here.
Yeah.
Originally the A-plus was something that we added
because we talked about some of these real high achieving kids
and we had discussions like a 94 is not the same as a 99.
And how can we reward that?
You know, just like there was discussion about the A-minus, B-plus. And
but that was the A-plus
is a little bit different than some of what you would say
and things that we did to make it our own.
But what you can have any grade scale you want.
I mean, you could have like I just what, Downingtown stem they work on a500 scale.
So what happens is when when they get their GPAs, there's all
kinds of calculations that happens because they go up to a5o on their scale.
So no, they don't.
They take a look at Downingtown STEM, who happens to be one of the best schools
in the state in terms of rankings.
I would say Hershey's better, but
they are they have to recalculate a lot.
But if you're more traditional in your approach,
there's less of the recalculating that goes on.
And I've our counselors would hear they could speak to it.
But I know, I. Know.
There is a lot of when you inflate your GPA
too much, there's there's a lot of calculation that goes on
because I think and I believe personally that it loses some of the integrity
of what that grade actually means and what a student actually earned.
And I think that we have to be careful and when we're considering.
So thank you.
We're very good at not overinflating our grades
because we don't give any honors extra credit, which most schools do,
and only AP can only give.
AP It's a small point.
058 Yeah, we don't have over inflation, which is which I think is what
Thank you for all the work that everybody did on this.
And I'm sure that we missed out on a lot of good discussions and I apologize.
I did not see this attachment before.
I must have looked at it Friday and it wasn't there.
It wasn't.
So this is the first time I've gotten a good look at it,
but it's growing on me as I just literally looked at it now.
But it's it's great.
I think it's going to be good for
it. So we will have kids who will have over a 4.0.
Now, we did not have that in the past.
Well, we do have hundreds,
but it stops it.
You can't get above four. Oh, it can you?
I don't think you can.
What used to show up is 100% actually on it. 102.
We have kids under 100.
I know, but that doesn't translate to your GPA.
We never converted it before.
Yeah, we're going to be.
Oh, okay.
I'm doing my my kids transcripts.
Just have 100 We would convert it for for colleges and scholarships
at was okay okay we didn't put it on or anything
and that that's what Jeff was talking about with the Mr.
Smith was talking about with the old dot
matrix list where our old conversion was much lower than what this is.
Oh yeah, that was really bad. Yeah.
Yes. And look, and so part of
the decisions with all these people, you know, when we're sitting in the room,
many of them have children of their own or they have nieces and nephews.
And we want to, we want to make it
fairer and be more fair representation of what's happening.
I think what
the decision that we came to was a very good decision.
And looking at the goals for next year, this is something
that we plan on revisiting and paying attention to.
If we take this recommendation and move forward.
There's a lot of work behind the scenes that has to happen,
you know, electronically with the school and all the programmers, because it's
not as simple as, oh, just, you know, because we have a lot of mixed classes.
And so the way we report, we're going to have to be really careful with that and,
you know, and be consistent.
So when we come up to report card time, two weeks before report card
time, we're going to have to pull report cards
to make sure that everything is appropriate
because we can't put something out that's not right.
So whenever you make a change like this, there's
there's a ridiculous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes
because you don't want wrong information to get the parents.
That's just that.
That's unfair and unfortunate.
So parents will get the information will include both of these.
So we're assuming that the teachers are still
growing grading on 200 point scale and then converting it.
They're going to grade on 100 point scale.
They're going to put their grades in the exact same way in their grade book.
It's going to look the same when we get to report card.
It's going to look different,
Right?
And we'll have this listed. It will say
class of 20, 20, 20, 21, 2022.
We'll be using the following grade scale and grade reporting system, class
of 20, 20, 23 and beyond.
And will the the app
are we able to affect that app to the hack app?
Yeah.
So everything should perfect, but that's as much as it seems easy to us
like we just tell a computer what to do.
So and I know there are schools that there are schools that use
this similar system, that use school.
So that's that's not that shouldn't be a problem.
It's for the programmers.
I don't see that as an issue.
Very brief personal anecdote
since I just completed the whole college
entrance process
at one, except did students stay.
A parent asked a question specifically about about GPAs,
and the response was All GPA is only used in conjunction
with the number of honors and AP courses the kid took.
If you go to a school
that offers no honors or AP courses, you can take any well,
that's not going to get hold of get held against you.
But if you go to a school that, you know, there's 20 honors in AP courses
and you can take any that is going to count significantly against you.
So I think that's where Hershey does
a tremendous job with the honors and AP courses.
Can't say enough about that.
And I think this is just this is just tweaking around the margin personally.
I mean, this little you know, this is I think this is wonderful.
And I would encourage the world to get out there to the parents
and the kids that if you're serious about a competitive school,
you better be taking honors and AP courses.
Thank you.
Excellent discussion.
Any other comments or questions?
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Thank you, Mrs.
Duffy.
I know you were very instrumental in those conversations, too.
Thank you both very much.
Okay.
Item for discussion is our Curriculum Council goals
for 1920.
And there are some pieces of this that have remained the same
and there are some that have changed rather significantly.
So Mrs.
Sikka and I worked on these after our last meeting
and tried to incorporate some of the things that we really have
talked about extensively, both as a district
and an on the council.
So just to run through these quickly,
number one is changing and that we
are looking at current areas for examination, which we have.
This is something that we have not done in the past several years,
but we do have four areas of of
of of kind of tasking the district to
do to look at curriculum wise.
The first is looking at secondary health
curriculum, especially the human sexuality unit.
And I did just receive the summer curriculum project forms from
those teachers for that work.
So that's exciting
too is looking at the elementary health curriculum, especially in regards
to early intervention for alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
We're looking at some ways
that we might be able to do that creatively
because we really don't have time in the schedule.
So we're looking at some some other initiatives
that we might be able to bring in there.
As I suppose these conversations are in the works,
but I think it's important to have them as a goal
for curriculum counsel because they don't fall off the radar.
You know, it's definitely important to keep going with it.
Number three to secondary college and career ready courses to ensure strong
learning and communication, creativity, adaptability,
agility and decision making, tech arts and academic literacy in particular.
I just saw that there's a typo there. I'll fix that. Then later.
And I did just have
the tech apps summer work form come in also.
So academic literacy, we're still struggling with
where we want to go exactly with that course,
but that is a course that we will continue to take a look at.
But tech Apps definitely gives us an avenue for some of this work.
And then finally, looking at strengthening the collaborative relationship
with virtually all things diversity
to provide learning in regards to community equity issues.
And we are partnering with Hershey, all things diversity
and in the spring hope to be able to help, to plan,
to be able to offer two of their sessions in our facilities,
allow our teachers to have some free time credit
to attend, encourage our students to attend,
and DeSaulnier will actually be she's our school
social worker, will be one of the presenters for
poverty in the Hershey area in the January session.
So pretty excited too, to move forward with that work.
And then I also, particularly
in Smart Girl style, who, what, where and so forth,
which is their
goal too, is staying the same because that was a three year
goal that we had established and this was only our first year.
We we have had a few minor hiccups that full day kindergarten has been wonderful.
And one of the one of the pieces that, you know, we will continue to look at is
how big we got that we were anticipating that happening.
Since we don't have a census.
That was something that took us a little bit by surprise.
But we are working with some creative ideas
for for how to best house our children
with with a strong learning environment.
So I'm sure we will have updates on that for you as we move along.
And then the third goal
is to stay abreast and informed
on the implementation of the updated grade reporting practices at the high school
via regular updates from high school administrators in and monitor
that implementation and roll out with supports for adjustments
and celebration of successes over this four year period of time
since that was the really big change and there are some other pieces
that are going with it.
We thought it was really important to maintain that
as a goal,
and I always do attach to this
also the curriculum review process for the next several years, 2026.
So what we have on here, I think there was probably a time
that I chuckled at the idea of 2020 and that's right around the corner.
So I shouldn't probably be chuckling at my 26 kids that will be here tomorrow.
But you can see how our
how our departments are in work.
And right now we have social studies is in formal revision.
We do have some some pieces happening with science
and ELA in particular on math too.
And because curriculum is a very dynamic process
and even though they're not in full revision,
there are pieces that need to be looked at and and tweaked
because we are continually learning and for our
related arts classes
we have ESL, which is now called ELC, and we just keep
putting both of them on there so it doesn't confuse everybody.
Now we know what it is that's English as a second language or
English language
development.
Relevant.
I am struggling with the change
and they took an L off of it.
That was English learners and English language learners
for the students
at library Tuck ed Computer out in business
and ESL are all in form over vision
for the next two years.
Are there any questions, comments, thoughts?
I just want to say thank you because it sounds like a lot of this stuff. It's
nice to see a lot of the conversations that we had walked back into the calls.
So I just want to thank you for that.
And then the other question I just had was, are we incorporating
climate change studies like climate change
literacy or problem solving solutions into any of this?
Yeah.
So there are climate change discussions and classes in the environmental
science classes and also in
the social studies classes.
Okay.
This conversation has happened there
and I know they're worked into other curriculum as it is appropriate
for nonfiction and green, that sort of thing.
Yeah, but yes, it is.
It's an ongoing and continual conversation.
A huge unit in eighth grade sciences, renewable energy
resources and why they're important.
I would have to
go in Rubicon Atlas and actually look at the units,
but you would be able to see where where those kinds of things would be hit
if you wanted to go in to the public site and look at that.
And it's kind of across the board.
You know, at
the elementary, they talk a lot about landforms
and erosion and those sorts of things and how weather impacts that.
So that's a piece of it.
I'm just trying to think I know in seventh grade
social studies, it's a major part of their global studies.
It's an Eastern geography course.
So they talk about how it's impacted around the world.
So it's yeah, it's hit all over the place, thinking different areas.
Sure.
And I the
question the so right now we're reviewing social studies.
Yes. Curriculum. So does that include.
I'm sure it does.
But like I know one of the big changes that was made a couple of years ago was
U.S. history
as a requirement
that AP history was added in as an option.
You didn't have to take regular U.S.
and then AP, it was you either take US honors or AP
will you be assessing to see what other AP?
I mean, we have, as Kim said, we have so many AP courses.
When I look at schools that don't have it is really a disservice
to their students because it's such a it serves a number of purposes.
One, the level of instruction is so much higher in there and they're
having to learn
more information and learn how to study better is good.
They get college credits, which saves a lot of money.
And then thirdly, it helps in getting in because of their the rigor of their
of course, selection is great, so has so many benefits.
I don't know what all the world history
I don't know if there's like a world history we have for social studies.
We have AP psychology, AP, human geography,
AP, US history, AP zero.
So the only we don't have I don't even know
if there is a world history or something, and there is AP world.
So 10th grade
is, you know, so that's a suggestion look into, you know,
so add an additional AP courses.
I don't think we have the staffing for it.
So I will I will share that.
I will also share that in
my former district, we moved away from AP and went to AP World.
AP World is a giant course.
And the only way we felt that we could do it justice
and what we had done there, and I have shared like
this is an opportunity to look at scope and sequence alignment also.
So we may take a look a little bit of that.
But in my former district, we a lot we got rid of honors courses
and just had college prep and AP.
But what we did with AP World was we did
the first half of AP World in ninth grade and the second half of AP World
in 10th grade because it is massive, it is the beginning of time until now.
That is, it's a ton
and it's a lot of writing and it's it's a lot for kids to tackle.
And if you're going to do it in a scope and sequence
fashion, that way, it kind of comes first.
So it's a lot for ninth graders to take on to do, you know,
if someone would just like, for example, what if somebody just wanted to take
part one, would that satisfy our our world history?
And then kids were really into it, could do it as an elective later, Like what if
that's not how we did it?
At my former district, we did it as a this is this is yeah, this,
these are your required social studies courses
and this is how you have our three right now.
We do.
Okay. Yeah. And what about civics?
We don't have there's, there is no AP civics, there's AP government.
Okay.
We do not have that And we teach civics right now in ninth grade.
That's one of the pieces where we might look at scope and sequence revision.
Ninth graders are fine with civics.
It's not like they can't learn it, but it's a much more engaging course
for 11th graders when their students are getting ready to vote.
It has a lot more impact and meaning for those kiddos.
We may not need every AP course as long as that's part of the process,
because I think it's it's good. Absolutely.
Because I know my older kids AP us was not a thing
and the ones who have had it have loved it.
Like why don't you take that? And we didn't.
I mean, so I there's some, some of those AP courses are just phenomenal.
They are they're great courses.
Thank you.
Sure. Any other questions or comments?
Looking at our goals or with curriculum revision.
So we want to make these our final goals.
And so we don't really vote on the goals,
but if there's any objections, this is the time to speak out.
Voice those
and we will move them forward.
Then we will formally submit these to to Mrs.
Sicker and Mr.
McFarland for the for the board to have at their disposal.
All right.
Thank you all very much of you.
We do not have any new business, but we do have quite a bit of old business
where we have
materials that have been on display for the last 30 days out on the credenza.
I like saying the word credentials.
And so these
would now be we'd be voting for a second read on these items.
And if we approve them for a second read, we will then be forwarding them
to the school board for full board approval.
That would probably be the first meeting in June.
For that turnaround time.
We might be able to get them on the second meeting for this month.
It might be the first meeting in June.
Sorry, I can see.
So we
when we approve them for first reading, we did do some combinations.
Are we open to combining for this?
These votes?
Okay.
So the first three textbook recommendations are for new novels
to be added into
the upper level French courses.
So if we can take a look at may have a motion to combine those three,
Can we make a motion
to combine them all or do we want to separate them out?
Well, we can do that if you would like.
I, I move to combine all of the textbooks
into one booth, second sector, second. Q
I'm sorry, miss.
He's not here to take my notes, so I know it's going to.
All right.
May I have a motion to approve all of the listed
textbooks and resources for a second read?
So moved.
Second, I have second.
Is there any discussion?
I'm sorry.
Who had the second? Second.
Thank you.
Okay.
All those in favor say I oppose him saying
thank you very much.
We will be very happy to clean off the credenza.
We don't have any public today.
Did you?
Can attendance as messy as in here?
I did it okay.
While Mr. Smith was giving his great. Okay.
Thank you.
Oh, our next meeting then will be on June ten
and we are adjourned at 448.