U-46 students return to school Aug. 17

Staff members at Elgin Area School District U-46 are finalizing lesson plans, waxing floors, firing up school buses and leading team practices and teacher professional development as they prepare to open school doors Monday, Aug. 17, for the 2015-16 school year.

"There is something special, almost magical, about the first day of the school year," said Tony Sanders, U-46 chief executive officer. "We're excited to start the year and welcome back our staff, students and families."

More than 92 percent of students have completed the online registration process to date, reflecting the largest number of students registered in advance of the school year in recent history. The district is expected to serve about 40,000 students in its 53 schools this year.

Among the new initiatives rolling out this year, is the use of Eureka Math resources for kindergarten through sixth grade math classrooms. For several years, teachers have been adjusting their lessons to meet the more rigorous demands of the new Illinois Learning Standards in math and English Language Arts.

A group of U-46 teachers who started using the Eureka Math resources last year have already seen success with their students. Select teachers will begin implementing Eureka Math at the middle school level this year.

The new Illinois Learning Standards, based on the Common Core, have prompted a shift in the way teachers across the country approach math education. For years, math curriculum in the United States has been criticized for being "a mile wide and an inch deep," meaning students are exposed to many concepts each year, but they don't learn much about any of them.

Eureka Math resources aim to help students move through a logical progression of math concepts. The goal is to help students develop a fluency and conceptual understanding that few students had been able to achieve in the past. The resources facilitate a true understanding of how math works and how it applies to the real world.

At the secondary English Language Arts level, students in sixth through 10th grade will see the implementation of StudySync resources for English Language Arts classrooms, as well as a new reading curriculum and resources for seventh- through 12th-graders and technology in literacy classrooms for sixth through 12th-graders.

These resources will help develop a variety of skills, from reading comprehension to writing.

Districtwide, schools will continue to implement Standards-Based Grading, which involves measuring students' proficiency on well-defined course objectives. The purpose of Standards-Based Grading is to ensure that a student's grade accurately reflects the learning progress for the objectives of the course.

In a traditional system, a student's grades on assignments and assessments are averaged. A student who may perform poorly early in the semester, but masters skills by the conclusion of the semester, is likely to receive a lower grade because all assessments are averaged. However, Standards-Based Grading provides a grade based on the student's most recent demonstration of learning.

The district also will continue to work with community partners to improve opportunities for students through a variety of community advisory groups, including the new Alignment for Collaborative Education, or ACE. This communitywide effort will initially focus on early childhood education, dropout prevention and recovery, and Career and Technical Education.

Other highlights of the new school year include:

• About 134 new teachers, including some who worked as substitutes or in other positions last year, will join the district this year.

• The district will serve 200 additional preschoolers in 10 new classrooms funded through a federal grant. Families will have access to transportation for the full-day program.

• Gifted programs continue to expand. The Access to Inquiry and Meaning (AIM) Talent Development Program, already in second grade, will be implemented in third grade.

• Kenyon Wood Middle School has been added as a School within a School (SWAS) site.

• Universal screening will take place at third and sixth grades this year in an effort to provide equitable access to the identification pool for IGNITE and Dual Language IGNITE at the elementary level and Middle School SWAS.

• Students in Advanced Placement chemistry, U.S. history, world history, and biology will have access to newly-adopted materials.

• Middle school health education will implement a new nine-week curriculum aligned to the new Illinois Learning Standards in Health Education. The course will take place during physical education in seventh and eighth grade. Teachers will share during the first week of school a syllabus, highlighting the units to be covered and when they will cover these topics.

• To enhance student learning in classrooms, the district is adding 5,130 new computing devices.

• Wireless coverage is expanding learning opportunities as well. Four of five high schools now have wireless throughout the school, with the fifth high school (Larkin) scheduled for this fall. All schools are expected to have wireless coverage by the end of summer 2016.

• The district undertook 22 capital projects, many involving multiple buildings, this summer. The full interior of three buildings, Abbott Middle School, Canton Middle School and Gifford Street High School, were painted while other saw some specific renovations and infrastructure improvements.