District Administration - October 2010 - (Page 3)

ADVERTISEMENT A rigorous curriculum promotes higher-order thinking skills in students SpringBoard®, from the College Board, gives students in a Florida district a leg up on college readiness t HillsborougH County as they became more familiar with the Public schools in tampa, Fla., ways springboard supported Hillsborcollege readiness is a districtough’s long-term initiative to develop wide goal for all students. With independent learning strategies in its a diverse mix of over 190,000 students, students. the nation’s eighth-largest school district springboard’s language arts curturned to the College board for help. riculum explores real-world text through three years ago, the district began short passages. the amount of text stuimplementing springboard, the official dents are asked to master is less than in Pre-AP program from the College board traditional curriculums, but it requires that provides rigorous instruction in a far more intense effort by the student English language arts and math for stuto understand increasingly higher-level dents in grades six through 12, in four of concepts. students move from answerits high schools. then, in 2008, Hillsbor“From shipping materials to ing factual questions to more inferential ough’s college readiness effort picked up top-notch trainers to onsite inquires, and each level builds upon itsteam when the district received three self. visits to program feedback, large federal grants and decided to exbecause the curriculum was compand springboard to its remaining 23 pletely new, “ all of our language arts SpringBoard’s support high schools and its 46 middle schools. teachers became first-year teachers in was unwavering.” the decision to expand the springthe summer of 2007,” when the second board implementation was based on the wave of training was scheduled for math early results seen with the program, acand English teachers, bergholm said. cording to Eric bergholm, general director, advanced academic “it was a tremendous effort to train some 2,000 teachers, but access. He said reading scores on state tests and enrollment in springboard provided an incredible cadre of trainers who unAP courses were up and discipline referrals were down in the derstood our state tests and what we were trying to do.” four schools where springboard had been first implemented. support didn’t stop there. “springboard’s leadership team “When you undertake a program like this one that is likely to helped us make the program sustainable by developing inbe successful, you Must implement the program for all stu- house trainers who can step into that function if grant money dents. if not, whose child do you leave out?” stated MaryEllen or the partnership should end,” bergholm recalled. “From shipElia, superintendent of schools. ping materials to top-notch trainers to onsite visits to program Another factor that tipped the balance to go district-wide feedback, springboard’s support was unwavering.” with springboard was what was happening in the classroom. the effort seems to be paying off. two years into the probergholm said students were retaining what they learned the gram, the number of students enrolled in AP courses has inprevious year, so teachers didn’t have to spend time covering creased, and this past year 1,300 more students received a old ground at the start of the next term. qualifying or better score on their AP exams. “to see increases As the implementation progressed, acceptance of spring- in both enrollment and scores so close to initial implementaboard techniques in math was fairly straightforward. spring- tion is almost unheard of,” said bergholm. board’s approach, which emphasizes higher-order thinking skills, dovetailed nicely with revised state standards that fo- For more information please visit www.collegeboard.com/ cused on a select number of concepts. English, however, was springboardinfo. another matter. some teachers felt the program didn’t give them enough flexibility in reading assignments. “At first, they didn’t understand that our objective isn’t about reading a specific author but instead teaching kids the skills to access increasingly difficult reading material,” said bergholm. He added that the English teachers were won over A http://www.collegeboard.com/springboardinfo http://www.collegeboard.com/springboardinfo http://www.collegeboard.com/springboardinfo

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2010

District Administration - October 2010
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Curriculum Update
Facilities Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Conversations
The Price of a Good Education
Dividing Arizona
Making Your School Future-Proof
Connecting Curriculum with Community
A Small District’s Big Innovator
New Books
New Products
Product Focus
Tech Disruptions
Superintendent’s Insights
Online Edge
Professional Opinion

District Administration - October 2010