‘Critical Friends’ Look At Newtown K-12 Math Program

By Tanjua Damon

The Tri-State Standards Consortium team who came to evaluate the Newtown School system’s K-12 math program were described as “critical friends” Tuesday night at the Board of Education workshop meeting at the district office.

The visiting team came to Newtown for three days, April 26 through April 28, to receive and gather evidence to evaluate the school system’s math program from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The visiting team of 10 members interviewed parents, students, teachers, administrators, and the mathematics curriculum review committee. The team also reviewed evidence provided by the district of what was already occurring in the math programs throughout the district.

Assistant Superintendent Robert Kuklis explained to the board that the results from the report are being used as a planning document to improve math districtwide.

“This process lead to a great deal of discussion among us and I’m sure the visiting team,” Dr Kuklis said. “One of the things we have learned, this is a very difficult process. This is not a PR process. The purpose of the report is for continuous improvement.”

The report’s executive summary praises the administration for the high morale throughout the district. It also states, “We are impressed by the support of four mathematics specialists, one at each elementary school, which has enabled the district to write a common K-5 curriculum and has provided elementary teachers training in the use of specialized materials to support the curriculum.” The visiting team feels that the district is ready to “develop a more sophisticated system of documentation of student growth and achievement, both individually and in cohorts.”

“I think the visiting team felt the base for what you need for continuous improvement is here,” Dr Kuklis said. “I don’t think we’ve reached that level of sophistication. But I don’t think most districts have.”

Superintendent John R. Reed said one challenge in curriculum is long-term planning, and the Tri-State process has helped the district as a whole come up with some long term goals.

“I’d like to thank Bob and the group that’s here,” he said. “We’ve always taken a low profile. The purpose is how can we help each other become better than we already are. They came as critical friends. But make no mistake, they came to make us better.”

Dr Kuklis told the board the Tri-State process is an investment in three things: money, time, and resources.

“It provided significant dividends to the district. This really is the first time Tri-State is helping our district as a district,” he said. “Secondly, it reports on the curriculum review process. This is one that I really enjoy. It was not manufactured for the visit. It was here. Third, it is a review of our K-12 math program.”

Newtown has made a four-year plan based on the 15 indicators reviewed and assessed in the report done by the visiting team. Some of the indicators include performance assessment, standardized testing, students as active participants in the learning process, supervision and evaluation linked to use of assessment data, and budget development aligned with learning improvement.

“We really do have a strategic plan. It’s based on four years,” Dr Kuklis said. “The best way to plan is to plan by the indicators.”

Some of the plan’s highlights include having technology in place by the end of this year for data collection, expansion of the practice throughout the district of linking instruction to assessment data, ongoing with further documentation on the elementary level, and district focus on differentiated instruction. Several things will be implemented over a four-year period.

Next year the language arts area will go through the same process and the math program will again be evaluated by the Tri-State in 2004.