This is a Year of Great Expectations

Now I get it!
Farm families help
District put technology
into science classrooms
Students making
gains with RTI
The Pirate Post
Nov. 2014
Quarterly Superintendent’s Newsletter for Perry County School District 32
The District 32 family recently celebrated time and to be prepared each and every day.
a wonderful Homecoming weekend with stu- We’ve again set building goals to eliminate
dents, staff, alumni and community support- tardies and continually increase student atteners. It’s a great time to be a Perryville Pirate, dance.
I’m also incredibly excited by our Rebecause we get to see ourselves through the
sponse To Intervention (RTI) inieyes of our visitors. We heard lots of
tiative. RTI provides our district
great things about our young people
with an organizational framework
and our campus, which makes us all
to create a responsive and effective
very proud. We also received a great
learning environment for students
deal of positive feedback about our
at all skill levels. We are truly crefocus on increasing student and staff
ating educational reform here that
achievement.
will provide positive outcomes for
I was very proud to announce in
all of our children. Research and
September the results of the Perryville
data again play a huge role in this
High School annual performance report, which showed an impressive Superintendent process, and the results are immeScott Ireland diate. We are increasing students’
8-point increase over the previous
depth of knowledge and focusyear. This proves that the teaching
ing on analytic instruction instead
strategies we implemented last year,
which rely heavily on interpreting student of simply asking them to recall information.
data and staff collaboration, are working as This helps students develop their higher-level
well as we’d anticipated. PHS scored 94.8 thinking skills to become productive problempercent on the APR, but we’re not stopping solvers.
I am so incredibly proud of my staff for
there. We have even greater expectations for
rising to the challenges facing us as a school
this school year!
We have implemented a district-wide district. Our teachers are responding to new
teacher evaluation process which is designed demands on their time, a shift in methods of
with one goal in mind: to help educators grow teaching, and changing technology with enin their profession. Building administrators are thusiasm and determination. This is, without
observing each teacher 10 times in the class- a doubt, the most dedicated school staff in our
room during the school year and then meeting state!
I hope that you join us in celebrating these
with their teachers to discuss the evaluations
and set goals for improvement. You can read advances in our instructional processes and
increases in student achievement. I invite you
more about this process in this newsletter.
Students can’t learn if they aren’t in school, to keep up with the latest news about District
so we are focused on ensuring that our parents 32 by visiting our Facebook page or our Weband children are making every effort to be on site at www.perryville.k12.mo.us.
Projects completed,
more planned
Superintendent Scott Ireland reports
that a number of projects have been completed at District 32, and more improvements are planned to better serve students
and the community.
“I’m very proud that most of these projects were added into last year’s and the
current year’s budget, without having to
allocate additional dollars,” Ireland said.
Completed projects include:
Purchase of complete math textbook
Rseries
for Grades K-12, a $250,000
investment in student achievement.
parent drop-off and pick up road
RonNew
campus, a $167,000 project that
significantly eases traffic congestion
near Perryville Elementary School.
Gym windows replaced and highRefficiency
lighting installed in PHS
Gym (additions to the air-conditioning
installation).
Security and technology upgrades
Racross
campus, including increasing
bandwith to support Internet access.
Å
This is a Year of Great Expectations
Coming soon:
Joint project with City of Perryville
to add crosswalk and sidewalks on
Schindler Road, as well as student
walkways between campus buildings.
“An effective curriculum should change constantly. If you have a lesson that was
a failure, you add another lesson to help your students achieve mastery of that
skill. World events change curriculum as new countries are formed, laws change
and wars occur. It’s ever-evolving. You never want your curriculum to become
stagnant.”
Jeanie White, Assistant Superintendent
Common language, student data used to develop strong curriculum
District 32 schools aren’t just teaching ABCs – they are
also focused on GLEs, ELOs and PLCs.
“Educational jargon can sound like alphabet soup,” said
Jeanie White, assistant superintendent of schools. “With all
of the acronyms we use, it’s no wonder that people aren’t
always clear what’s happening in schools. It can even be
confusing for educators within the same district!”
That’s why District 32 is working with EduOptimus as it
aligns its curriculum. “We are in the process of evaluating
and updating our curriculum,” White explained. “We
work from the top down, and from large ideas
to specific goals, to identify all of the skills that
students must master to be college- or careerready when they graduate high school. During
this process, we realized that we weren’t all
using the same terms to describe the same ideas
or processes.
“We talk about Essential Learning Outcomes
or ELOs, which are the big ideas that children need
to master before moving on to the next grade level,”
White said. “For example, in first grade math, one
of the ELOs could be that the student can
count money up to $1 using the same
coins. We examine student data during
PLC, or Professional Learning Community, meetings. We have to meet
Grade Level Expectations, or GLEs.
We’re most successful when we all
understand what’s being said. We
are now working with a common
vocabulary throughout all the
buildings, which makes it easier to
work vertically, or to create a curriculum that flows seamlessly from
kindergarten through grade 12.”
Common language is important
when speaking to students as well,
White said.
“For instance, at high school, we are
teaching about independent and dependent variables, but in lower grades we are
calling that ‘x variable’ and ‘y variable,’” she
said. “So as we refresh our curriculum, we
make sure that when this idea is introduced
in elementary school, we start off by calling it dependent
and independent variables. As the instruction and material
becomes more complicated, it helps students to have this
continuation in foundational knowledge.”
Amy Youngblood from EduOptimus has been training the
administrative team how to spot the “missing pieces” in the
district’s curriculum, White said.
“The first step is identifying your ELOs,” she explained.
“You map out all of the big ideas that our students must
master, then we use student data - the results of assessments and tests – to identify where we may not be
providing the correct instruction at the correct time. We
start at the top, or high school, and work our way backwards through the curriculum as we break those big
ideas down into standards and lessons. At each lower
grade level, we make sure we’re providing effective
lessons that students will need as the foundation for
their future learning. The goal is a curriculum that is a
constant, upwards spiral of learning.”
White said that a great curriculum is everchanging.
“It’s a living, breathing document,”
she said. “
Youngblood is helping the
administration update the curriculum for math and Englishlanguage arts this fall. In January,
the administrative team will then
begin working with their teaching teams to update curriculum
for science, social studies, and
other content areas.
“It’s an exciting time for us as
a district,” White said. “We are
completely focused on our mission to increase student achievement, and this process plays a huge
role in that outcome.”
Want to know what your child is expected to
know at each grade level? View the Missouri
Learning Standards by grade level and subject at http://dese.mo.gov/college-careerreadiness/curriculum/missouri-learningstandards
Local farm families
put technology in
hands of children
District 32 is taking a leap into the future,
thanks to local farmers and a grant from
Monsanto that benefits the elementary science program. “The district has received a
$10,000 grant from America’s Farmers Grow
Rural Education program sponsored by the
Monsanto Fund,” explained Dr. Linda Buerck,
director of curriculum and instruction. Perryville Elementary School will use the grant to
purchase 30 iPad Minis, along with charging
stations and software, to be used in third
grade science classes. Grow Rural Education encourages farmers to nominate a local
public school district, which can then compete
for a grant of up to $25,000. The local farmers
who endorsed District 32 for this grant were
Beverly and Lowell Fritsche, Lynn and Julie
Fritsche, and Leroy and Lois Fritsche, all of
Farrar; Paul, Nancy and Tyler Schmidt of
Frohna; Marion, Patti and Tyson Brown, and
Dana Kluender, all of St. Mary; and Hannah
Fritsche Donze, Gary and Sharon Hoff, Carol
Kueker, Gerald Fritsche, Jeff Fritsche, Mike
and Sherry Kueker, Natalie Fritsche-Kasten,
Ralph and Nancy Reisenbichler, Steve Reisenbichler, Steve and Jane Kueker, Eugene
and Vera Fritsche, Willard Fritsche, DeAnna
Kluender, and Roger Hoff, all of Perryville.
Linda Arnold, the Monsanto Customer Advo-
cacy Lead, said, “Agriculture has become one
of the most technologically advanced industries, so farmers are very aware of the need
for superior math and science education,
particularly in their own communities. We’re
proud to partner with farmers to support the
things that are most important to them –
schools, youth, and their communities.” The
grant was formally presented to District 32
during the Oct. 8 Board of Education meeting.
More details are available at www.perryville.
k12.mo.us.
Individualized instruction helping students advance
Students are receiving highly-individualized instruction as Disvery good at math may be in the math enrichment group, but he
trict 32 continues to focus on increasing academic achievement.
struggles with reading so he’s in the intervention group for that.
At Perryville Elementary School, all 870 students are receiving
Or maybe she has mastered subtraction but needs additional help
this specialized instruction three days per week.
with measurements. RTI allows us to quickly identify areas where
“On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 2:30 to 3 pm,
each student needs some extra help, provide it quickly, and then
every student and every teacher participates in RTI time,” said
reassess to make sure they ‘get it.’ It also allows students who have
Principal Jennifer Streiler. “The Response To
mastered a concept to move forward
Intervention, or RTI, model provides intense
with their instruction instead of waiting
intervention or enrichment instruction to
for everyone else to catch up. It’s a truly
every student, depending on how the student
individualized form of education.”
masters individual concepts during regular
RTI is based on the realization that evclassroom lessons. It is data-driven, studentery person learns in different ways, said
specific, and shows immediate results.”
Assistant Superintendent Jeanie White.
Students assessment data is reviewed by
This focus on individual achievement is a
groups of teachers working in their Professhift from the traditional classroom.
sional Learning Communities, or PLCs, and
“Education is changing to meet the
then students are assigned to one of four
needs of our changing society,” White
service groups:
said. “We have seen cultural changes,
• Enrichment – Students have mastered
busier schedules for families, and techthe concept prior to teaching
nology has actually impacted the way
• On-Level – Students mastered the conchildren learn. The entire focus of our
See full story and more photos at society has become the individual. Many
cept after lesson was taught
• Intervention – Students will need adpeople are more connected to devices
ditional instruction
than to other people.”
• Intensive – Students need reteaching
Streiler agreed. “Historically, the teachusing a variety of methods
er taught the unit, the students were tested and given their grade,
and the teacher moved on. Period. As educators, we know that
“RTI can look very different from classroom to classroom, and
not all students are going to understand that unit, so we don’t wait
students aren’t always in the same group,” Streiler said. “One
until the unit is over and the child has failed before we intervene.
classroom may be doing intensive reteaching about verbs, while
We’re constantly assessing and reteaching as needed.”
another is doing enrichment reading activities. A student who is
www.perryville.k12.mo.us
to
from
Superintendent Scott Ireland
Perry County School District 32
326 College St.
Perryville, MO 63775
PRSRT STD
Non-Profit
U.S. Postage Paid
Perryville, MO
63775
Permit No. 29
POSTAL CUSTOMER
Missouri Educator
Evaluation System
Highlights
•Teachers observed while
teaching 10 times during school
year
•Post-evaluation meetings
held with administrators
•DESE designed process to
help teachers improve throughout school year, every year
Sample Teacher Standard
Standard #4 Critical Thinking
The teacher uses a variety of
instructional strategies and resources to encourage students’
critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills. [SB
291 Section 160.045.2 (1) Students actively participate and are
successful in the learning process.]
•Quality Indicator 1: Instructional strategies leading to student engagement in problemsolving and critical thinking
•Quality Indicator 2: Appropriate use of instructional resources
to enhance student learning
•Quality Indicator 3: Cooperative, small group and independent learning
Source: https://dese.mo.gov/educator-quality/
educator-effectiveness/educator-standards/
teacher-standards
Teachers have high standards at District 32
Teachers across Missouri are being evaluated
“When I first learned about this teacher
using Missouri’s Educator Evaluation System
evaluation system, I was confused,” she said.
developed by the Missouri Department of El“As with many teachers in the district, I thought
ementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
that since I had received high evaluation scores
At District 32, every teacher will be observed
in the past, I would again receive high marks.
while teaching on 10 different occassions by
This year, we have implemented the statean administrator or team of administrators.
mandated growth goal process. We have three
They are evaluated using the Missouri Teacher
goals. One is selected by the district, one at the
Standards, and administrators have attended
building level, and each teacher selects their
training to develop effective evaluation skills.
own growth goal as well.
There are 9 standards, and each standard has
“The first time I was evaluated, I learned that
between 3 and 6 quality
we will receive lower
indicators.
scores at the beginning of
“To be an effective
the school year because
educator, our teachers
it’s a growth model, and
must meet every stuwe must show progress.
dents’ educational needs
“When our principals
through differentiated
observe us in the classinstructuction,” said Suroom, they are looking for
perintdendent Scott Irespecific things to occur,
land. “They must engage
according to our goals.
students and help each
While those things may
individual child meet his
occur during every lesson,
or her highest potential.
the specific item they
That’s what administraare looking for may not
PHS math instructor Cathy Gremaud
tors are looking for, and
happen during the obleads an Algebra 2 lesson.
these standards help the
servation period, so that
district’s administrative
results in a lower score.
team evaluate teachers, then offer clear recom“As teachers, we have many opportunities
mendations for improvement.”
throughout the year for our principals to obIreland said that the Missouri Teacher Stanserve those behaviors, which results in higher
dards provide a way for educators to develop
marks on the evaluation.
classroom management skills, set student and
“Next year, we will set new goals and begin
personal goals, and develop instructional and
the process again,” she explained.
professional collaborative strategies.
Gremaud, who has been a math teacher at
“This is the district’s first year of implemenPerryville High School for 25 years, says it’s
tation of this new evaluation process,” Ireland
good for teachers to set goals for improvement
said. “It’s an intensive program, but one that is
in their profession.
designed to foster teacher growth, not arbitrari“I feel every teacher has something they can
ly attempt to measure teacher competence.”
improve on,” she said.
Teacher Cathy Gremaud said that the evaluation process is a shift from “grading” teachers
to “guiding” them.