The work to identify priority standards started last winter, as part of efforts to enhance communication with families about what their students will learn in a given course or year.  These efforts ramped up as COVID-19 impacted school schedules and our instructional time with students.  Given less contact time with students - last spring and into this year - it's important for us to have shared understanding about what merits prioritized time and instruction.

The Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) convened a Task Force for Learning Acceleration  in Summer 2020 to advance this work at the state level, with the recommendation that disitricts engage teachers in identifying priority standards. 

Not at all.  Our instruction is guided by our curriculum, which has not changed, but circumstances may require us to spend more time on specific skills and less time on others.  Having district-wide priority standards in place will help ensure our teachers place additional focus on the same skills when curriculum must be compacted and/or instruction adjusted.

No, although we recognize that COVID-19 is having an impact our students and their learning.  We remain committed to providing high quality instruction, supported by robust curricula and resources.  Student thinking is at the core of these curricula, and this emphasis will be supported with priority standards in place.  While our curriculum remains in tact, we know instructional adjustments have been necessary since March, given the usual circumstances.

Our goal is for all students to meet priority standards by the end of the school year.  While some standards may be "met" during first quarter, any standards not yet met will be measured throughout the year as students have more instruction and time.  Teachers will add to report cards throughout the year as students master additional skills.

Learning will continue if your child meets a given standard.  We have always believed in meeting our students where they are academically, helping move their learning forward.  If a child has already met expectations, our instruction will fpcus on helping themm move past these expectations, whenever possible.

Learning for our middle school students will still be measured using a 1-2-3-4 rubric scale and a standards-based report card.  There is no plan to change middle school report cards this year.

We continue to update our website with general curricular information.  Most curricula are available to teachers in Schoology (not public-facing), but we are happy to provide information to parents or community members upon request.  Pleease contact Sarah Jaeger or Liz Grana for additional information. 

Sarah Jaeger - sarah.jaeger@kirkwoodschools.org

Liz Grana - liz.grana@kirkwoodschools.org

314-213-6104

Report cards will be available to our K-5 parents via the Infinite Campus Parent Portal, beginning October 30.  Once you are logged into Infinite Campus, click on the menu bars (top left), then Documents, then the report you want to review.

Please complete this form if you need to create an Infinite Campus parent account or recover your username/password for an existing account. For other questions or issues with Infinite Campus please contact icportal@kirkwoodschools.org.

Please complete this form if you need to create an Infinite Campus parent account or recover your username/password for an existing account. For other questions or issues with Infinite Campus please contact icportal@kirkwoodschools.org.