Huntsville City Schools Curriculum Audit Report Board for Education August 16, 2012 Dennis King, Ed.D.

Visit Summary May 14-17, 2012 Schools Visited Site Visits Ridgecrest Elementary, West Mastin Elementary, Blossomwood Elementary, Westlawn Middle , Ed White Middle, Hampton Grove Middle, Johnson High and Grissom High Schools

Visit Summary (con’t) Process Half-day visit at each school 30 – 60 minutes with the principal 60 minutes with key teacher leaders (leadership team) Classroom Visits focusing on English, Language Arts and Math

Data Collection Pre-visit survey was distributed to the principals for completion by the school’s teacher leadership team Areas of focus: Curriculum, Instruction and Collaboration Teacher and Principal Reflection To what extent do we engage in this behavior or address this issue? How much will a change in our practices of this team increase the achievement of students? How much effort will it take to significantly change our practices regarding this issue?

General Observations Principals and teachers truly care about students and student learning. Strong site based management creates challenges for systemic implementation of the curriculum and key school improvement initiatives.

Curriculum- Summary The curriculum contains inconsistencies in implementation throughout the district. The viability of the curriculum is up to individual teacher’s interpretation. Alignment to the district reading curriculum in elementary schools was not consistent.

Summary - Instruction Intensive interventions were either within the classroom or in selected intervention programs determined by the school. Schools did not discuss district-wide intensive reading or math interventions

Summary - Instruction A wide variety of student engagement was taking place in the classrooms Technology use by students lacked consistency throughout the district.

Summary – Teams/Collaboration Teachers and principals indicated that most meetings take place informally or as Response to Intervention (RTI) meetings. Teams struggle to have effective meetings. Collaboration has been a challenge and teachers are not able to discuss the specific curriculum in their schools.  

Team Summary Summative common assessments are being developed but lack formative assessments system-wide. Teachers utilize data rooms to help guide student support from the STAR targets. Teachers look at data from STAR exams, however, collectively, they do not discuss classroom student performance of students in the same content or grade level. Teams could not show specific evidence of their meetings such as common assessments, learning targets, SMART goals and team protocols.

Recommendations Development of a district conceptual framework for school improvement – including areas such as Professional Learning Communities, Curriculum, Assessment, Data and Interventions Identify common products that will be produced from schools/team to support the district conceptual framework Implementation of the district curriculum though a common curriculum format

Recommendations Alignment of school improvement plans to the district conceptual framework for school improvement Provide professional development for principals and teacher leaders on key concepts within the conceptual framework Onsite coaching and monitoring to embed the critical concepts of the conceptual framework into each school site