District 86 Curriculum Alignment Process

Goal 1 - What We Will Achieve

All students are engaged in a rigorous education resulting in college, career, and life readiness.

Goal 1 - What Is Our Priority Work

Strategy 1 - Course and instructional units include common critical competencies, aligned assessments between the two high schools, and multiple measures of success.

Strategy 2 - Students explore big ideas, leverage technology, make real-world connections, and use authentic ways to demonstrate their knowledge and interests.

Strategy 3 - Students use their individual data to shape decisions about career and life readiness.

Accomplishments and Initiatives

Accomplishments from the 2021-22 School Year

Special education program team completed Phase 1 of their work and will present the results of that work at a community forum to PTAC and the board in the fall.
All academic content areas continued Phase 2 of their work.
All developmental teams started using common curriculum guides and templates.
The science program writing team completed the Phase 3 work for the PCB sequence, AP Biology and AP Chemistry, and started Phase 3 alignment for the freshman biology courses within the biology-first pathway.
The math program writing team completed the Phase 3 alignment work for Algebra, College Prep Math and Algebraic Reinforcement.
Work on grading practices continued.
- Learning Leadership Team reviewed data and discussed revisions to practices.
- PTAC and board received updates and discussed practices.
- Academic cabinet, curriculum leadership team performed data review and discussed practices.
- Flex Day discussions by departments and course teams.
- Building and district administration participated in listening sessions and visited department meetings.
- Superintendent’s Roundtable provided feedback.
- HHSTA leadership provided feedback.

Initiatives for the 2022-23 School Year

Curriculum Alignment - Phases 2 and 3 Focus

CTE - Introduction to Business(Earned Honors), Consumer Economics, Marketing, Exploring FACS, Culinary 1 & 2, Pre-Engineering 1 & 2, Woods
English - Jr/Sr courses and English 1 (&H)
Fine Arts - Drawing & Painting, 3D Art Classes, Photography, Orchestra, Choir
Math - Geometry (&H), Multivariable Calculus
PHD - Tumbling, Intro to Sports Medicine
Science - Earth Science Capstone, Anatomy & Physiology, APES, AP Physics C, AP Physics C-M
Social Studies - World Cultures (&H), APUSH, AP Modern World, US History, AP Psychology
World Languages - Spanish 3 (&H), Spanish 4, Latin 2 (&H), French 2 (&H), German 1 (&H)
Aligned (digital) D86 Program of Studies is on track for use in the 23-24 school year.
Pandemic Pivot: Slowed the alignment work; extending the expected completion date by 2 years (SY 25-26)

Earned Honors Credit Pilot

Four courses: Exploring Visual Arts, Introduction to Business, Psychology in Literature and Creative Nonfiction.
Families with students enrolled in the courses will receive communications about the pilot during the summer and at beginning of school year.

Grade Category Weight Revisions for the 2022-23 School Year
Course teams used the final Flex Days to reflect, discuss, and potentially make revisions to their grading practices in preparation for the 2022-23 school year. The revisions to the grade category weights for next year include:

A shift to a majority of courses with a 70/30 summative to formative weight.
Aligned shift to higher summative weights for honors/capstone/AP classes.
10 courses adding a Learning Readiness category in their gradebook.
Teams completing curriculum alignment have identical grade weights and reassessment practices.
All teams completing alignment work (Phase 3) are also aligning reassessment practices.

Grading Practices
Grading practices that are staying the same next year include:

Common grading philosophy.
Common grading scale.
Common gradebook weights.
Common alpha indicator for missing work.
All course teams will continue to develop relearning and reassessment opportunities.
The Learning Leadership Team will shift back to being a study/research team.

Professional development for next year will be focused on core assessment concepts, student self-assessment, relearning and reassessment, and coaching and effective feedback.

Revisions to the grading practices for next year include:

The Missing and Essential (ME) indicator will no longer be used.
An “M” indicator now represents all missing work. Missing work will no longer automatically translate to an IC grade.
When a student does not submit an assignment or take an assessment, they will receive an "M" (Missing), which will be calculated as a ZERO in the gradebook.

The revisions to the grading practices will be applied for all grading categories (summative, formative and learning readiness) in the following ways:

If completed/submitted by the assigned due date, and in alignment with the standard or instructions, the 50-100 grading scale will be applied.
Students in need of additional time must advocate for themselves: students must request and receive approval for an extension from their instructor before the assignment/assessments’ due date and demonstrate that they are taking advantage of academic support services (examples may include: tutoring, interventionist, early release Wednesdays, before and after school, etc.).
Students absent from class on the day an assignment/assessment is due are required to complete the assignment the next school day (unless an extension is approved in advance of the assessment by the instructor).
"M" scores will remain in the gradebook and will continue to be calculated as ZEROs, so students are highly encouraged to submit assignments/assessments on time.
For an assignment or assessment to receive credit (and scored on the 50-100 scale) the work attempt must comply with the instructions provided (i.e. completed in good faith).

Communications

Grading (summer and fall) - district communication to staff about grade practice changes; district communication to the board about grade practice changes; district and building communication to families about grade practice changes; teacher communication to classes on syllabus and during Curriculum Night; PTAC discussion and board update.
PTAC discussions - Academic health (August), AP scores, SAT/PSAT/MAP growth, chronic absenteeism, grade analysis, MTSS/intervention.
Potential topics for monthly PTAC meetings - curriculum alignment, continuum of SPED services, grading, final exams, earned honors pilot and college/career readiness.

In This Section