The Manatee County School District has this year implemented a new curriculum guide that all Manatee County teachers must adhere to for the core subjects of math, reading, science, social studies and writing. These “road maps” are aimed at providing uniformity and continuity in the timing and structure of lessons taught across the school district.
Anna Maria Elementary School Principal Tom Levengood provided The Islander with some background on the driving force behind the new curriculum road maps, and shared how the new guidelines implemented for the first time this year are impacting Island teachers.
“For a number of years, the state has been trying to raise the bar in student achievement and standardized test scores,” said Levengood.
The district invested in an independent research company, Kaplan, to look at all its schools and identify weaknesses as an overall district.
Levengood said the research showed a highly transitional district with students transferring between schools from year to year, as well as several times within the same school year.
The research also showed that while the district-provided curriculum plan Kaleidoscope — a framework that tells what needs to be taught at each grade level — individual schools were allowed to decide what materials to use to reach established benchmarks.
A student transferring between schools would not learn from the same textbook series, explained Levengood. In addition, each school was able to set its own sequence for introducing required concepts, leaving a student who transfers during the school year at risk for repeating some core concepts and missing others.
Mapping a solution
Following the Kaplan study, the district required all schools to use the same textbook series.
The district also determined there must be uniformity in the scope and sequence in which subject matters are taught. To address scope and sequence, the district prepared a curriculum “road map” for each core subject and grade level.
Levengood said the road maps outline what skills are taught at grade levels, when those skills are taught and how much time — to the day — a teacher can spend on topics. It allows some leeway for remediation and review.
This is the first school year road maps have been fully implemented across the district. Levengood said every teacher received a binder of road maps, which further specifies which pages and chapters in the textbooks to complete. For example, a kindergarten teacher will know that starting on a specific day she should begin teaching numbers 0 to 10, that this is covered in chapters 1 through 3 in the Go Math book series, and that she has 35 days to complete the corresponding lessons.
AME finds challenges
The implementation of the road maps has been seamless, with the exception of math. Unlike the other core subjects, the sequencing within the new Go Math textbooks doesn’t fit the road map seamlessly, causing teachers and students to jump around the book.
Although the Go Math series was one that AME teachers were in favor of the school district adopting, Levengood said there have been some adjustment challenges.
“For the first time in my 35 years in education, all the math books for all elementary school grade levels are consumable,” said Levengood. There are no hard copies of textbooks for grades three through five. All books have detachable worksheets.
This adds preparation time for teachers, who must remove appropriate sheets for students. Tearing out the sheets alone was costing teachers and teacher aides 30 minutes of the school day, so Levengood said the school has been enlisting volunteers to organize math work.
Levengood notes another challenge in utilizing the new math series in conjunction with the district road map is the manner in which the new book presents core concepts.
“Kids learn best with a concrete example, especially in math, to understand concepts like adding double-digit numbers, for example,” said Levengood. “This book series teaches a lot of abstract concepts to demonstrate shortcuts to calculating an answer.”
For example, on day one of a new unit the core concept of adding double digits will be presented, but the next day’s work demonstrates alternate methods of calculating answers to double-digit problems. And, for the next two days after that, two more alternate, abstract thinking methods are presented.
While Levengood doesn’t object to teaching students how to figure out math problems mentally or with shortcuts, he believes students need to spend time mastering a basic methodology first.
“This method of presentation becomes confusing at the primary level because the student just learned four ways to do the same thing,” said Levengood. “So the series has been frustrating for teachers.”
Levengood adds that in order to follow the scope and sequence provided by the district road map, it has meant teachers have had to jump around the book.
Teachers are required to follow the road map explicitly. “It is non-negotiable,” said Levengood, “and I am required to check that teachers are working within the timeframe provided by the district. They can’t fake it.”
If a topic is to be completed in 15 days and it’s day 16, the teacher is required to move on to the next topic.
Levengood’s strategy
Levengood said he is doing what he can to map strategies for his teachers to adhere to the curriculum road maps and help students who may need more time to grasp a core concept.
While Levengood says teachers feel the road maps take the fun out of teaching, he believes there’s room to be creative as long as the students are meeting academic benchmarks.
For example, Levengood pointed out many schools have done away with student performances because they can’t afford time away from academics. While he admits to reducing practice time available to AME students, he doesn’t want to see students do without this type of enrichment.
While teachers may find the road map a limitation on flexibility, they are faced with the additional challenge of finding time within the school day not only for lesson planning, but also for remediation with students who need more work on math, writing and reading skills.
Levengood anticipated his teacher’s needs and devised a weekly schedule aimed at easing the time crunch. Every teacher is required to have a 40-minute planning period within the school day, as well as a built-in remediation slot of 30 minutes. Add to that, the requirement for an uninterrupted 90-minute reading block, 55 minutes for math, and teachers are soon left with less time to do extra activities with students.
In a small school like AME, Levengood knows it is difficult to cover the teacher planning period without additional help. But he was able to provide teachers this time without the need for additional staff.
Levengood said that because AME has fulltime music, art and physical education teachers he was able to arrange a planning period for each grade-level teacher one morning a week to coincide with their class’ music, art and physical education time slots.
Levengood said he also provides a 40-minute planning period after early dismissal on Wednesday.
Levengood also added a second 30-minute time slot for specials classes each day in order for teachers to provide remediation in reading, math and writing. “This is not a break or planning time for teachers,” Levengood said. “The district’s curriculum team has been known to show up unannounced and request to visit a specific grade level during our remediation time period.”
Levengood also has implemented a schedule to regularly meet with his teachers in small groups to problem-solve issues and monitor progress.
“We’re one of the few schools lucky enough to have the ability to work extra planning time into the schedule,” said Levengood.
The bottom line, Levengood said is the district’s focus is on quality teaching. The teachers, he says, understand that having the same text, curriculum, scope and sequence means there shouldn’t be holes in a student’s education.
“I’m blessed to be at a school with great teachers,” said Levengood.