Page 8 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • March 13, 2013 Franklin Lakes Director explains how education is changing by Frank J. McMahon Changes in education that are impacting schools throughout the country were recently explained to the public at a meeting held at the Franklin Lakes Middle School. Cherly Best, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, made a presentation about the new Common Core State Standards that must be functional in all grades by September 2013 and which will involve new ways of learning in language arts and mathematics. “It is an enormous change to education in this country,” Best said. “These are not state standards, but national standards, which is something we have never had before.” Best explained how the CCSS were created and the major curriculum and instructional shifts that will be necessary in math, language arts, and other instructional areas. She also explained how the assessment of students will be changing and the types of tests that will be administered to evaluate student performance and achievement. In addition, she described how school districts, individual schools, and the teachers, will be held accountable for their students’ achievement and “growth percentiles.” “Never before has a teacher’s career been based on their students’ achievement,” Best said. “Never before has the success of the children been linked to the teacher’s success.” Best also explained what the school district is doing to prepare for the new CCSS and the shifts in curriculum and instruction. She said that, after she was hired by the district, the district’s curriculum was evaluated. Math in Focus, a new K-5 program, was implemented, the district’s math staff development was implemented, and ongoing training was found to be necessary. A language arts staff developer position was created, district-wide teacher meetings were held to evaluate the consistency of the K-5 language arts program, and recommendations were made for long- and shortterm improvement. In addition, a new spelling program was purchased for grades three to five and a study of the K-5 report card was initiated to bring consistency to grading and to align it with the core standards and instructional best practices. In the 2011-12 school year, the curriculum was centralized through the purchase of a Rubicon Atlas and initial teacher training was conducted in its use. An in-house math consultant was hired to continue math training with an emphasis on coaching and CCSS alignment, and a benchmark was developed for mid-year and end-ofyear-tests for math in grades one to five to assess math implementation and to drive instruction. A K-5 English Language Arts Curriculum Committee was developed to research, review, and recommend instructional resources and to write new CCSS aligned units of study for the curriculum, and a scope and sequence was developed and implemented for grammar and mechanics with marking period editing checklists for writing. All K-5 teachers were provided with mentor texts to standardize and support a writers’ workshop and monthly standard prompts and rubrics for on-demand writing and test preparation were initiated. In addition, a standardized writing assessment program known as “WrAP” was implemented to drive rigorous instruction and improve student writing in grades five to seven. This school year, all the curriculum in Rubicon Atlas is being aligned to the newest standards and a teacher planning section is being developed in the Atlas so teachers can conduct planning within the curriculum where standards are available to them. A revised K-5 report card has been launched with CCSS-aligned grading rubrics and new CCSS-aligned English language arts curriculum materials The Franklin Lakes Lions Club will host a Wine Tasting Night on Friday, March 22. The event will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Indian Trail Club in Franklin Lakes. The cost for the event is $85 per person and will include the tasting of wines, an assortment of butler served appetizers, fruit platters, salad, assorted vegetables, a pasta station, grilled salmon, sliced flank steak, Lions host Wine Tasting Night dessert, and coffee. The Wine Seller of Ridgewood will be showcasing approximately 30 wines to sample for the evening. All proceeds will benefit the various charities supported by the Franklin Lakes Lions Club. For further information and reservations, contact Dr. Robert Warsak at (201) 891-6065 or drrobertwarsak@verizon.net. for reading, writing, and word study have been launched. The reading program has been balanced among independent, small group, and whole group, shared-inquiry instruction, and leveled, non-fiction focused classroom libraries are being placed in every K-5 class. Guided reading has also begun to help students move up in text complexity. Committee work has been initiated with middle school teachers to align the middle school math and English language arts curriculum to the CCSS, and math benchmark testing has been increased to three times per year using data to drive professional development and instruction. Grades using WrAP have been expanded, and all grade three to eight teachers are being trained in the use of benchmark data to drive writing instruction. A committee is working to choose a new teacher instructional model and evaluation tool for the district. Work has also been initiated on a new CCSS-aligned media literacy curriculum for use in the K-8 library program. Best has given this presentation to the Woodside Avenue School Parent Teacher Association and plans to present it to the parent teacher associations at Colonial Road and High Mountain Road schools this month. Plans are also being formulated for a daytime presentation at the middle school. The entire presentation with all the details can be heard on the school district’s website at http://districtweb.franklinlakes. k12.nj.us. Select “Programs” and then “Curriculum and Instruction.”