Friday, August 8, 2003
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Friday, August 8, 2003 |
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New school year brings plenty of changes As Coweta County students start back to classes on today, teachers will be working with some new curriculum or instructional methods. Perhaps most significant among them is a change in classroom organization for kindergarten through fourth grade in the county's 16 elementary schools. Beginning this year, K-4 classes will follow the "self-contained" model, meaning that students will remain in one class during most of the instructional day. Though students will still learn under different teachers for classes like P.E. and art, they will not change classes for social studies, science, language arts and math, for example - one teacher will be responsible for a class of students during most of the instructional day. "What a lot of research shows us is that students develop better when they can identify with a single, significant teacher during their school day. They feel safer and more secure and, in turn, one teacher has a greater ability to work with students year-long and identify their academic strengths and weaknesses and work with them as necessary," said Dr. Pat Hodge, assistant superintendent for curriculum. Children will still study the same variety of topics, but under the principal direction of one teacher. Secondary benefits to the change will be that some class changes will be eliminated, which will result in less disruption of the day, and the classes may reduce the anxiety of some very young students who have difficulty in adapting to different teacher's styles. The change to self-contained classes is being made for a number of reasons. But chief among them are school reform efforts like No Child Left Behind and state education reform programs. Those efforts rely heavily on standardized testing, with the Criterion Reference Competency Test the one most used in Georgia. Research demonstrates that young students in self-contained classes typically perform higher on such tests. "That's not unusual," said Dr. Hodge. "The CRCT and similar exams principally test students language and math skills. In self-contained classes, there is a greater day-long emphasis on just those sorts of skills. Even when teachers move on to different subjects, they can still easily incorporate relevant language and math skills into social studies or science lessons. "Plus, a teacher can better come to know a student's needs and meet those when they are familiar with their whole learning day," said Dr. Hodge. Research from other school systems who have moved to self-contained elementary classes have also shown that the classes allow for more enrichment classes as well. Dr. Hodge stresses that self-contained classes will not follow a "one size fits all" curriculum. Classes can be divided as necessary into various skill levels to allow students greater individuation of study or enrichment. "This will allow a teacher greater ability and flexibility to differentiate teaching styles and meet the individual ability levels of students." The change is not being made in fifth grade, because of differences in teacher certification in that grade. But Dr. Hodge said the school system will continue to analyze the issue in light of federal and state standards over the course of the 2003-04 school year. Other curriculum or instruction methods of note for the 2003-04 school year include: The middle school class schedule will change from six to five classes per day, allowing for longer (75-minute) classes. The change was approved last spring following a recommendation made by middle school teachers and principals and school curriculum administrators. The new class schedule takes into account state standards for instructional time in middle schools, but also responds to concerns raised by parents in last year's Board of Education Town Hall meetings, that not enough time is allowed for Connections classes such as chorus and band. The new class schedule allows for a Connections class every day (music classes can meet consistently), and also allows for two gifted classes during the day for six graders, rather than just one. "The longer classes will require that teachers use different strategies and lesson plans for this sort of class structure, so it has meant a good bit of work," said Dr. Hodge, "but it will also allow for a greater depth of instruction and then time to lead students in applying their lessons, so this goes hand-in-hand with the school system's focus on providing students engaging classroom work. Plus, this new schedule will allow - and require - that teachers meet regularly within their teaching teams to plan together and share best practices." The addition of a pilot Latin class at one middle school (Smokey Road), and the addition of music courses in middle schools, including strings at three middle schools and keyboard/piano at two more. The Latin class is being added based on the level of popularity of high school-level Latin offerings at the Central Educational Center. "Those classes remain full," said Dr. Hodge, about high school Latin. "It has been a great program and is very popular with students." If the Smokey Road program is successful, the class may be expanded to other middle schools. The study of foreign language - Latin in particular - tends to help young students learn other foreign languages later, and tends to aid in academic achievement in other subjects, said Dr. Hodge. No changes have been made to the school system's dress codes for middle and high schools, including the requirements of a clear or mesh book bags for 5th through 8th grade students. Elementary grade curriculum plans will be accessible to parents on the school system's Web site in the coming year, allowing parents to follow along with what students are learning and providing some tools to help at home. The school system will continue with the school system's Instructional Support Specialists program, which allows accomplished classroom teachers to use part of the day to provide staff development, descriptive reviews (reviewing actual student work and providing teaching practices advice to teachers), classroom observation and peer coaching. The program won't be expanded this year because of budget constraints, but schools that do not currently have an ISS teacher assigned to them will be paired with school that do, and staff development and best practices instruction will be shared between the schools. Based on widespread request from teachers, time will be set aside for grade level and subject teachers to meet in system-wide settings to share best classroom practices, lesson plans, and discuss common challenges.
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