24 - 25 District Theme: Raise the Bar

Each spring, USD 202 district leaders decide on a district-wide theme for the upcoming school year. This theme is woven into district professional development and initiatives throughout the year.

For the 24 - 25 school year, the district theme is “Raise the Bar.” When we talk about this concept, it applies to all facets of our organization and community. Student achievement and success is our primary focus, and accomplishing that requires high expectations for our students, staff, and families.

So, what does it mean to “Raise the Bar”?

In USD 202, we believe that every one of our students is fully capable of achieving their academic and social goals with the correct support. As educators and families, it is our job to help kids meet these outcomes.

This ideology has always been part of our district’s ethos. In fact, our district’s long-standing mission is, “Achieving Success by Expecting the Best from Everyone.”

So, although this concept is not new, it is something that will be at front of mind this year for staff.

During the district’s annual Convocation, a gathering of all staff during their first week back from summer break, USD 202 alumni Tony Gutierrez spoke to the group. In his years since graduating from Turner High School, he has worked his way towards his current role as co-owner of AAA Midwest Roofing. He shared a story of how his teachers in high school held him accountable and encouraged him to be present at school.

“They would check on me when I was gone, correct me and give me tough love when I needed it. They challenged me, pushed me and saw things inside of me that I couldn’t see. That made a huge impact on my life. I felt like someone cared. Even now, they are retired, and they still make it a point to check in on me. I'll always be grateful for them.”

Gutierrez’s experience mirrors that of many students - he had teachers who held him to high expectations and encouraged him to be his best despite challenges. In short, they encouraged him to “Raise the Bar.”

Raising the Bar through Academic Curriculum

In recent years, a change that has impacted all buildings in our district is the purchasing of new academic curriculum.

The district purchases new curriculum every six to eight years. It is a lengthy process to determine which option is preferred by administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers. It initially starts with several different curriculums that are presented to subject matter teacher representatives from each grade level. These representatives spend many hours learning about the curriculum, both on their own and from consultants with the curriculum company.

There are many factors taken into account, and ultimately, one curriculum is chosen. Most recently, new math curriculum district-wide and language arts curriculum at the secondary level have been implemented.

While the curriculum are different, staff agree on one commonality between them - the updated approaches to teaching this content is “Raising the Bar” in the classroom.

SpringBoard ELA Curriculum

Students in 6th - 12th grade language arts started last school year with the SpringBoard curriculum. Compared to previous curriculum, SpringBoard uses challenging, rigorous texts and has a stronger focus on academic writing assignments. It asks students to read texts closely and write often.

Teachers feel that a strength of the curriculum is its alignment across grade levels, so they are using similar reading, writing, and speaking skills year after year with more challenging texts and more pieces of the process added in each year.

Kate Roth, who teaches English Language Arts 10, shared that while the more rigorous expectations have been a struggle for some students to adjust to, “I have seen many rise to the challenge and really be successful to the repetition of how often we use the same strategies to accomplish our reading and writing tasks.”

Sarah Tidwell, Instructional Coach at Turner Sixth Grade Academy points out the importance of high expectations, “research shows that if you believe a student can do it, they’ll believe in themselves.”

Roth shared that students from last school year have told her they are much more confident in their writing after going through a year of the SpringBoard curriculum.

Eureka Math Squared (EM2)

The Eureka Math Squared curriculum is on its third school year of being in USD 202 elementary school classrooms. For our elementary school parents, there may have been a realization as they help their students with homework that modern math instruction is different than when they were students.

Rather than simply memorizing math formulas and facts, students are challenged to think more conceptually. “Students are also expected to be able to explain ‘how’ they came to a certain solution, both verbally and in writing,” said Instructional Coach Cassidy Stauffer.

Typically, these math lessons begin with a “fluency” portion where students review previously learned skills to ensure they are retaining information.

Next, students move into the “launch” portion where they make connections with the concept of the day to a real-world scenario, which leads to “learn” where students work through problems as a group and develop a conceptual understanding of the skill that is being taught. This is done both independently and with teacher support.

Lastly during the "land" section of the lesson, students debrief on the lesson and synthesize their learning for the day and are then given a quick exit ticket to provide the teacher with some data that can help inform their instruction.

“As we begin year three of EM2 implementation, it has been wonderful to see how much our students have grown in math,” said Stauffer. “Our teachers have spent countless hours learning the program to ensure that they are successful with the new material, and in turn our students are successful. I am excited to see the growth that we continue to make.”