HiCap Parents Council
June Meeting
District Office
6/11/2024 - 10 AM - 12 Noon
In Person Attendance: Amity B, Andrea S, Hong Z, Jenine F, Austina D, Allen T, Carson S, Jenn C, Holly M, Liz P, Ashley W, Angie H., Faustine W., Mairéad
Zoom Meeting Attendance: Elizabeth W, Imen H, Veronica W, Terri K, Julienne M, Sudhakar, Elisa, Nikhat R, Ekta
Zoom Late: Karen Smith
Secretary: Liz P.
NEXT MEETING: September TBA
Discussion - Austina DeBonte’s Dissertation and Presentation
On the NSD website, you can find the assessment information for our specific district
If folks have questions, refer them to email
Quotes in slideshow are worth a read. Carson comments that this is might be what is happening at the middle school – we didn’t push hard enough so we are defaulting back into what is comfortable
“You have to go far enough fast enough not to slide back to where you were before you made the changes. And I think there's a certain level of inertia…that the system has to spin out of, otherwise it gets sucked back to what it always did.” – District Leader
With certainty, we can be confident that we are not overidentifying kids at NSD. Other districts throughout the nation would see our identification rates if they did the work
Doesn’t always feel like NSD teachers have this overview. Example - Skyview teachers are still debating about if all the kids in the advanced classes should be there.
Comment: The push for integrated classes is coming at a difficult time as the budget is contracting. Teachers are remarking that they need more help to make these classrooms work well. But we can’t give that to them right now.
Service delivery may be easier in self-contained classroom model
When researchers see this piece, the common remark is, “Wow, there has been so much success, without very much training and professional development.” And then we can start to imagine what would have been possible with training and development. Open research question.
Professional development for teachers – 100 clock hours every 5 years; most certificates expire in June. 15 has to be STEM. Portion needs to be equity hours. Compared to neighboring areas, NSD provides more clock hours. NSD is also an approved clock hour provider.
WAETAG is another provider and it specializes in HiCap kids. They often offer free webinar hours.
NAGC 24 Conference will also offer clock hours.
“What if teachers believed that their fundamental purpose in schools was to help students identify, develop, and refine their personal strengths and interests? Rather than trying to standardize all students to have no perceived weaknesses or differences, arguably an impossible goal, what if the goal of education was actually not to remove weaknesses, but to maximize strengths?” - Page 370
Amity Updates
District is reorging and downsizing a bit. Amity’s role will change, but will still include Accelerated Models.
Graduating HiCap Senior Student survey.
Some of these are kids that would have started at Bear Creek then separated all over the place for middle schools. Some kids went to three different elementary schools.
The answers really are all over the place. Still need some coding to see trends.
Some of the kids love being pushed while others did not. There is no one program delivery that will ever serve every kid.
We will receive copies of it with the names removed.
MHS - Jack Naglieri’s newest assessments
1st and 2nd grade students will move to Naglieri quantitative test for next year instead of taking the IOWA math test during second assessment phase.
It has national norms now
IOWA reading test will remain
We think that the youngest learners cannot prep for this test. We want to test them on their aptitude, not test their discrete skills.
Older kids will need those discrete skills to jump in later.
NNAT 3 will go to the Naglieri Non Verbal. This is for the universal screen for 1st and 5th grade.
Will be announced on website in August.
Data from Integrated Model
Data pull won’t happen until June 14
Parents survey
Complete. NSD will send it out.
Playdates won’t be announced through Amity’s office.
Frank Love Elementary conversation
ELA feels a little more nebulous
Teachers have resources K-6, it is all digital. Each teacher does have a hard copy of their own grade level.
This was a whole new curriculum for the teachers this year. So they are adjusting to that.
Best PD is when Andrea meets with teachers by grade level and shows examples and walks them through.
Andrea is creating pacing guides for each grade level. K is drafted and out to teachers for feedbacks.
Could we include Art Docent program in Reading Remakes (Andrea will share resource)
Teachers can borrow Rigby readers from other teachers, so they could pull high level books.
Council Questions/Updates
Skyview Middle School principal is leaving. They will be interviewing for new principals soon. Taking input now!
Elementary math complaints for 4 & 5 grade.
Start coding email [HPC Board] at subject of email
Schedule your playdates. More information by email.
Voting
Ekta - Northcreek Feeder Pattern - Voted in for 1 year.
