Ready for a Break

I know they don’t show it but our teachers have been working extra-hard this year. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that have been uniquely stressful.

We created a time in each school where teams of teachers have almost 90 minutes each week to collaborate and plan together. It’s most noticeable at the high school where they do it every Wednesday, causing a 2 hour late start for high school kids. In the elementary and middle schools we’ve managed to create that time within the school day, so it’s not obvious to the general public when it happens.

During this time, which we refer to as PLC time (Professional Learning Communities), all the teachers for one grade level or all those who teach the same subject, plan and confer on the best strategies for teaching your children. Much of this time has been spent in the development of curriculum, or teaching units, that are aligned with the state and national standards. We also require these units be developed to represent the best teaching practices from Learning Focused Strategies. Some schools even pay teachers for extra time after school to do this.

We also use the PLC time to analyze student performance results on bench mark tests and on the new state test known as DCAS.

DCAS is the second contributor to stress on our teachers. It is all new. It is administered on-line. It still has some bugs and kinks to work out. The tests at each grade level have been assigned cut scores that are much higher than the old test, causing the experts to predict that more of the children in Delaware will fail to reach proficiency. It’s like changing the score needed to pass an exam from 70 to 85. Whoever normally scores between 70 and 85 will now fail.

The good thing is, because the test is administered on-line, we can do it a couple of times and get results immediately. So, our teachers have reviewed student performance on DCAS and made adjustments in their teaching. They will give the DCAS again in January and then again in May.

Finally, the state will be redesigning the teacher evaluation to include student performance measures in each teacher’s evaluation. Next year, if students don’t gain a year academically as measured by DCAS and other tests, the teacher cannot be rated exemplary.

So, is it any wonder that our teachers may be feeling a little stressed? The holiday break is welcome this year - perhaps more than usual.

On behalf of Lake Forest School District we wish all of our families, those of our children and those of our employees, a very restful, family-filled holiday season and a happy, successful New Year.