As children and their parents prepare to return to school, the Evesham Township School District Board of Education was also getting ready for the new school year during its Aug. 21 meeting.
In particular, Superintendent John Scavelli gave an update for the district’s Goals 2017 plan, the six-year strategic alignment plan that has severed as a broad set of directions for the district since 2012 and until 2017.
According to Scavelli, there were no major changes to the curriculum for the 2014–2015 year, aside from the constant updates that already occur normally.
“We’re constantly revising the units of study, but no new curriculum this year,” Scavelli said. “We’re taking a lot of what we’re already doing and continuing to improve on it.”
The 2014–2015 year will also be the first where every middle school student will have a Chromebook, the lightweight laptop computer running the Chrome operating system from Google.
This is in addition to students in the lower grades who also have access to iPads and Chromebooks, albeit not at a one-to-one ratio.
“In the day and age where you’re using a lot of websites, you’re doing research on projects, and it’s just information at their fingertips,” Scavelli said. “Our teaching staff uses the Google Apps and they can communicate back and forth on the assignments, so as the kids are working, information might be going right to the teacher in the classroom, and that teacher can communicate and can give them instant feedback on what they’re working on.”
Scavelli said the Chromebooks also tie into the new state-mandated Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC test, as the students will take the test using the Chromebooks.
In the 2014–2015 school year, PARCC testing will replace statewide tests such as the NJASK in grades three through eight and HSPA in high schools.
The tests are aligned with the Common Core State Standards, which, according to the state Department of Education, are designed to measure students’ ability to apply their knowledge of concepts rather than memorizing facts.
Scavelli said he believe the district will be ready for the tests.
“We’re working toward it,” Scavelli said. “We participated in the state pilot projects last year, and we’ve upgraded our bandwidth, we’ve done upgrades where we need to do them, so I think we’re in good shape.”
In the 2014–2015 year, the district will also continue implementing a “Responsive Classroom” approach, which focuses on the academic as well as the social and emotional growth of students.
The approach focuses on the five socials skills of cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self-control, or CARES, to shape children as they grow and learn.
Scavelli said he believes that focus is making a difference.
“It helps the kids to gain respect for one another. It helps them to be able to talk appropriately to each other, so these are all tied in and embedded into the program and into other parts of our curriculum as well,” Scavelli said.
The first day of school for students is scheduled for Thursday, Sept 4.
“We look to provide their (parents’) kids with a safe and secure environment, and we look forward to a successful school year with their children and with them,” Scavelli said.
