CONGRATULATIONS to the Dakota High School Pep Band!!! They have been chosen to be the "official pep band" for Friday, November 15th at the IHSA State Volleyball Tournament at Red Bird Arena in Normal, IL!! Congratulations to the Band!!

November blog

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:

http://www.isbe.net/common_core/default.htm

Common Core IL, a project of the Core Coalition:

http://commoncoreil.org/real-learning/

Common Core State Standards Initiative:

http://www.corestandards.org/

 

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. 

Common Core video

Attached is link to a three minute video discussing the Common core Standards.
http://www.commoncoreworks.org/Page/378

Illinois State report card

The new state school report card has been released today.  If you would like to see the report card go to

http://illinoisreportcard.com/

Common Core Top Ten

Create top ten of Common Core

http://www.pasco.k12.fl.us/library/ccss/top_10_poster.pdf

New ISAT Cut Scores

The higher performance levels for the ISAT will result in a sharp drop in the number of students whose 2013 ISAT scores meet or exceed standards. Remember that this decline in performance does not mean that our students know less or are less capable than they were in previous years. It also is not a reflection on teacher performance. Instead, ISBE simply raised the bar to give a better indication of how well students are prepared to meet college and career readiness benchmarks. Learn more about the cuts scores at http://www.isbe.net/hot-topics.htm#cut.

Common Core Information

Did you know that fewer than 40% of Illinois students earn degrees from either a two- or four-year postsecondary institution (http://commoncoreil.org/faq/)? Our schools can and need to do better! Under the new Common Core standards, our students will gain skills, knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to the challenges facing them after graduation. All students deserve to succeed in co...llege and the work force.

The Common Core standards are all about depth over breadth to ensure that our students really know their stuff! With fewer topics to learn in math and English language arts, students will become real pros in the material they do cover.

For relevant resources and stories about how lessons and assignments might look under the new standards, please visit Commmon Core IL at http://commoncoreil.org/resources/