Dear Parents/Guardians and Community Members,
It is hard to believe that we are at
the second quarter of the school year.
The beginning of the school year always brings with it excitement. This school year as we had hoped began very
smoothly. The smooth beginning is the
outcome of significant time spent planning and preparing on the part the
teachers, support staff, and building principals. I would like to thank everyone for their
commitment to educating the youth of our community.
DCUSD 201 has been making great
strides in the area of curriculum. The
vision of the district is to prepare students to make positive contributions in
an ever-changing world. The DCUSD does this
in all aspects. The district prides
itself of teaching the whole child. We
focus on the skills that students will need to succeed in college and the work
force and also the soft skills (citizenship) they will need to survive in
society.
This year we started the school year
off with a program called “Rachel’s Challenge.”
Rachel's Challenge is an
organization that was started by the family of Rachel Joy Scott. Rachel was the
first student killed at the school shooting at Columbine High School in April
1999. Rachel left a legacy of reaching out to those who were different, who
were picked on by others, or who were new at her school. Shortly before her
death she wrote, "I have this theory that if one person can go out of
their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same.
People will never know how far a little kindness can go." At Dakota, we
would like to carry on Rachel's legacy. There were two assemblies (K-6 and
7-12), as well as training for 100 randomly selected 7-12th graders. This
training offered specific ways we can create that positive change at Dakota.
There was a community event for all parents and community members to hear about
Rachel's Challenge on September 19th, in the high school gym. This challenges
students to be kind to each other and to pay it forward.
The DCUSD takes pride in the
curriculum that is designed and delivered to each and every student on a daily
basis throughout the course of the school year.
The curriculum has been aligned to the Illinois State Standards for
Learning; however, as the district continues to move forward on challenging
every student to reach an even higher level of learning, there has been an even
greater emphasis placed on the National standards. The new Common Core Standards for learning
that were developed are currently being infused into the DCUSD K-12 curriculum.
Keep in mind these are just standards, the school district continues to
determine the curriculum. These new
standards are raising the bar for our students and educators. Students are
having to think more critically and are responsible for coming up with the
solutions. In the past there has been
more rote learning (memorization) and teachers providing the answers. Right
now we are aligning our curriculum in the areas of English, Math and
Science. As a Professional Learning
Community (PLC), the staff continues to monitor student progress in each
curricular area. Moreover, Grade levels,
School Improvement teams, and District –wide curriculum teams have been meeting
on a regular basis to redesign each subject are in preparation for the new
PARCC assessment that will be required by the Illinois State Board of Education
(ISBE). Please visit the following sites
for more information:
Illinois State Board of
Education:
Common
Core IL, a project of the Core Coalition:
Common
Core State Standards Initiative:
The DCUSD utilizes a three step
process to measure the learning of the students. Grant Wiggins and Richard Stiggins are two
educators that have summarized this process in the following way. Essentially, the three step process is simply
asking the following questions: 1) What
is it that we want our students to know and be able to do? 2) How are we going to know if they are
learning what we want them to learn? 3) What are we going to do if they are not
learning? The first step begins with
clear measurable targets. We set a clear
challenge for where the students should be in May. The second step revolves around the
assessments. Our students have taken
local benchmarks and also a MAP assessment that measures a student’s progress
in the beginning of the school year, the middle of the school year, and the end
of the school year. The teachers will be
reviewing student data with the parents at the Nov. Parent/Teacher
conferences. All of this leads to the
third and final step where the teachers will either reteach a concept, and/or
redesign the question if results indicate that the students didn’t understand a
particular standard. It is not about a
grade, it is about what the student has and/or has not learned.
The DCUSD 201 continues to educate
our student by providing quality and diverse learning opportunities. I am excited to see the progress that the
students continue to make throughout the school year. Communication is important to the success of
our children. If you have any questions
please contact your child’s teacher or building administrator if you have
further questions about your child’s education. Please continue to follow our
website www.dakota201.com you will also see a link to our facebook page.
