Teachers strengthen 'key concepts'

Sisters teachers spent two days at the end of the school year trying to ensure that students will "get" the key concepts they need to grasp as they move from one grade level to the next.

Forty Sisters teachers were selected to attend the district's first "Summer Institute," June 14-15 at Sisters High School (SHS). Each day the teachers were guided through a series of workshops designed to further the "vertical alignment" project that they started in January 2012.

To achieve vertical alignment, all the teachers in a given discipline (math, reading, etc.) from first through 12th grade get together as a group to make sure that the key concepts being taught at one grade level include the key concepts necessary to be successful at the next level.

At the end of the first day of the institute, the teachers engaged in a process called "step back consulting." In this process, the teachers in one discipline group brainstorm solutions for a key problem facing another discipline.

Two consistent challenges face math teachers. The first major concern is making sure that the students were being taught the key concepts that they were later being tested on. The second major concern, given the recent funding and personnel cuts, was finding sufficient time and resources to help struggling students get back on track.

The current curriculum focuses on the standards that the students are tested on in the state-wide annual OAKS tests. However, a number of these key standards are different from or not included in the soon-to-be-adopted "Common Core standards" (www.corestandards.org).

Oregon is moving to adopt the nationally normed Common Core standards and testing in two years. The question becomes, do you prepare your students with curriculum designed to meet the Common Core standards, or do you continue with the old curriculum for two more years until the end of the OAKS testing?

(Norm-referenced tests compare a student's score against the scores of a group of students who have already taken the same exam, called the "norming group." The SAT and ACT tests are examples of nationally normed tests.)

The second major concern was consistent between the elementary-, middle- and high-school teachers: With the reduced number of teachers, they are losing their remediation resources (math labs, homework clubs, and study sessions). The concern is that the kids that need the help the most will fall to the wayside.

Superintendent Jim Golden, SHS Principal Joe Hosang and Sisters Middle School Principal Mark Stewart indicated after the session that they expect to have resources in place to alleviate the remediation concerns.

Golden praised the teachers for their project work that earned the district a $98,000 grant from the State of Oregon to continue this level of professional development next year.