Jared Ryan, Gilbert Public Schools' assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, address the governing board about the district's plans to adopt a new math curriculum.
Gilbert Public Schools has embarked on a yearlong process to identify new math curriculum for grades K-12, one officials hope will make for a smoother transition from one grade to the next.
District officials presented to the governing board Aug. 8 their plans to select the curriculum and then implement it districtwide.
If all goes well, the district will present their curriculum choices to the board during the fourth quarter of this school year, and training will begin for teachers in the 2024-25 school year with a slow rollout over that year. Full implementation will be in place for the 2025-26 school year.
The current curriculum has been in place since 2012 for elementary school math and 2014 for high school sections.
Jared Ryan, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, said the district believes it is important to make a change at this time because the district has identified gaps in the learning between grade levels.
He said the new curriculum represents a significant investment for the district and thus they want to make certain it is done right and aligns with state standards.
In achieving that, he said the district will be looking at the curriculum’s “vertical alignment” from kindergarten to 12th grade — the idea of students moving smoothly up the learning ladder by grade and topic — faculty support, collaboration, measurable targets and consistent learning.
Board Member Chad Thompson, noting the declining state assessment scores throughout the state and in the district, asked if Gilbert Public Schools is spending enough time laying a foundation in math skills as opposed to supporting different ways of thinking on problem solving.
Ryan agreed that is important and said he is passionate about it.
“There are foundational skills that every student needs and must have,” he said. “And we have to guarantee that every student across the board and within each grade band or course description or course selection receives that. Now, above and beyond, we talk about the individual approach of the teacher, now we talk about the cooperative learning opportunities, now we talk about the engagement strategies. All of that works together.”
The district is forming a curriculum adoption committee this month of teachers, campus and district administrators, community stakeholders and parents. The committee will review materials sent by publishers and vendors and select resources to pilot.
Those resources will be piloted in a single unit from selected teachers at a few campuses. A 60-day public review also will be held in the spring before the governing board adopts the selected curriculum resource in the fourth quarter.
Training and professional development will be done across the 2024-25 school year.
“This is truly what it’s going to take to drive this into a new level of success than maybe we have had in some other rollouts and implementations,” Ryan said.
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here