Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
Our Purpose
Central Montcalm Public School's Multi-Tiered System of Support provides durable and sustained structures for carrying out the curriculum, instruction and assessment of academics and behavior at each RTI tier, and is communicated through the district and school improvement plans.
Curriculum
At Central Montcalm Public School (CMPS), we believe that the curriculum, instruction, and assessment
in all subject areas has certain essential components that provide stakeholders (students, staff, parents,
and administrators) with the content they need to plan, implement, assess, and communicate what is
being taught at every grade level. All students at CMPS deserve to have a well aligned, coherent, and
rigorous curriculum in order to help them meet their academic goals. Teachers also deserve to bring
their own style of teaching into the classroom to meet the needs of their students while making
insuring that all students have the best chance for success.
Content Area Standards
Instructional Resources
Central Montcalm engages in a collaborative process for purchasing primary resources in each subject area. No resource (textbooks, worksheets, assessments) is perfect but many are better than others. The following resources have been selected by the curriculum committees and approved by District School Improvement Team (DSIT) as the primary resource for the following grade level subjects:
- enVisionmath 2.0, K-5 Math – Pearson, 2016
- Go Math!, 6-8 Math – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
- Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra 2, 9-12 Math - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
- Treasures Reading Program K-5 Reading – McGraw-Hill, 2010
- Variety of fiction and non-fiction texts 9-12 ELA
- Michigan Open Book Project – 3-12 Social Studies, 2017
- Michael Heggerty’s Phonemic Awareness – K-1 ELA, 2016
Assessment
As teachers guide students through a unit of instruction, it is important to gather evidence that the student is on track to mastering that content standard(s).
Universal Screeners
Universal screening is the systematic assessment of all students on academic and/or social-emotional indicators for the purpose of identifying students who are at-risk, and may require support that varies in terms of level, intensity, and duration. Universal screeners are typically given 3 times per year.
At Central Montcalm, we use the following academic Universal Screeners:
- Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Next (DIBELS Next) three times a year to screen students in the area of reading grades K-6
- HMH Reading Inventory (SRI) three times a year to screen students in the area of reading grades 6-12
- easyCBM CCSS Math three times a year to screen students in the area of math grades K-5
- HMH Math Inventory (SMI) three times a year to screen students in the area of math grades 6-12
Summative assessments
Summative assessments are given at the end of a unit to make a final determination of what a student has learned after teaching, re-teaching and supplemental support when necessary. Typically, summative assessments are assigned a grade and recorded in the gradebook and used to calculate a final grade for the report card. Central Montcalm continues to work at building quality, aligned summative assessments.
M-STEP, MI-Access, P-SAT (grades 9-10), SAT (grade 11), and WIDA (K-12 English language students) are also summative State and National assessments and are used to make large-scale curricular and instructional decisions.
Formative Assessments
Formative assessments are systematic checks, usually mid-way through unit, that provides the teacher with information about what a student has currently mastered. Formative assessments also provide the student with actionable feedback that keeps them on track or make helps them make course corrections. PLCs should use data from formative assessments in an effort to group students for reteaching or extension activities.