The School Board, district administration, and school administrations have been seriously considering the idea of Student Achievement Teams.

Essentially, Student Achievement Teams are teachers collaborating and sharing ideas to improve student performance. They are guided by four critical questions: 1) What do we want students to learn? 2) How will we know if they have learned it? 3) What will we do if they don’t learn it? 4) What will we do if they already know it?

The four critical guidelines of Student Achievement Teams can be summed up as: standards, assessments, intervention, and extension.

First, teachers will develop common essential learning objectives. Second, teachers will create and administer common pre-assessments. Third, teachers will teach the material that needs to be taught according to the pre-assessments. Fourth, teachers will create and administer common post-assessments. Fifth, teachers will analyze the results of the post-assessments and student performance to identify student needs and potential instructional improvements. Lastly, summative assessments (i.e. ACT, SAT, SBAT, CCSS, etc.) will be administered. Throughout the whole process, teachers will analyze student performance and improve their instruction to adapt to student needs.

While the Board and administration agree Student Achievement Teams are necessary and beneficial, the greatest problem is time — when teachers can actually collaborate.

Schedule changes will be made, but not at a fundamental level. At the elementary schools, students may have to sit in the cafeteria on certain mornings while teachers are in Student Achievement Teams. Homeroom times at the middle school level may be changed to incorporate Student Achievement Teams. Schedule changes at the high school level are still uncertain.

The Board, administration, and teachers will all cooperate to find additional time for collaboration time.

At this moment, however, no schedule changes for the 2013-2014 school year can be made certain.