LA Adoption before School Board, Wed., Jan 20th
David Grosskopf
This last year has seen some promising movements in the alignment
process with the appointment of the new Chief Academic Officer, Susan
Enfield, and this has caused me and my colleagues to let our guard
down a bit.
First, some of the big positives: Last Spring, Roosevelt’s Language
Arts department met with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and staff and agreed that
the skills standard were the most important piece of the process; we
further agreed to a vetting process whereby Roosevelt 11th and 12th
grade option courses could be evaluated and approved side-by-side with
LA 11 and LA 12. Earlier this Fall, Susan Enfield came to Roosevelt
and reinforced the greater importance of the alignment to skill
standards. We also learned that the adopted book list would include
many books from which to choose each grade year, rather than four
particular titles all students would need to read across the district,
allowing teachers and programs much greater flexibility. Lastly, I
have been going to Language Arts department chair meetings downtown
this year, and Kathleen Vasquez has been welcoming. It feels, at those
meetings, as though no one will be forcing LA 11 or LA 12 onto
Roosevelt, and we are all working together on the reading, writing,
and communications standards piece.
But there remain concerns. People downtown seem to think Roosevelt is
satisfied with the process now, even though the vetting process to
which we agreed has seen no further action, and despite the fact that
staffers expect to see all the changes next year, and despite the fact
that I’ve reminded the district that we are registering students for
existing classes now. The theme of each year also remains out of whack
with what we do, such that many key titles in our team-taught,
globally focused literature in ninth grade moved to tenth grade,
which, district-wide, now has an international focus. The latest
literature adoption list has been attached to this page. But my
greatest worry is that I’ve let my guard down and trusted district
staff prematurely.
The agenda at this Wednesday’s school board meeting is the Language
Arts adoption, so this would be a good time to voice concerns and
cautions. I doubt the plan says anything about the agreed-upon vetting
process for courses outside of LA 9, LA 10, LA 11 and LA 12. Will
someone be there? Will someone contact school board members about
lingering concerns?
Hope all is well.
David Grosskopf