Benjamin Ditkowsky's blog

How will the CAMEL be used?

The CAMEL will be used to prioritize our next steps in staff development.
Each item on the CAMEL includes three dimensions, the level of current use, the predicted student benefits, and the degree of effort required to make a practice happen in our district. From these dimensions, each item will be summarized with a holistic score. A holistic score is a “value” that is thought to represent the overall meaning of the collection of ratings for that item. The holistic score is obtained based on three assumptions.

Assumptions:

Assumption #1: Student improvement is our first priority.

Assumption #2: The amount of effort it will take to make a practice is critical. If a practice is overwhelming, then it is less likely to be successful than if it is a “piece of cake”

The Response to intervention task force met on 11/30. The meeting helped the group to synthesize and integrate our readings with the implications for the district. At this meeting we discussed the RTI document from The National Association of State Directors of Special Education entitled: Response to Intervention: Policy Considerations and Implementation

Changes in State and Federal legislation have brought district 74 to the beginning stages of developing a plan for what the process of Response to Intervention will look like at each of our buildings. Although this will change some facets of how we do business, we hope that the process will help teachers continue to do a great job and improve outcomes for students who are at-risk. We have created the Response to Intervention (RTI) Task Force to represent staff from across the district. We are also seeking parental participation on the task force to make sure that the community voice is present in our planning and decision-making.

NCLB the reauthorization of ESEA

In 1965, the federal government authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, since that time there have been several reauthorizations of this law, most notably the recent reauthorization generally referred to as The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. NCLB requires all states to measure each public school's and district's achievement and establish annual achievement targets for the state. The overarching goal is for all students to meet or exceed standards in reading and mathematics by 2014. To accomplish this goal, each state has been required to define what it means to meet or exceed standards. Scores on the state assessments are used to measure adequate yearly progress (AYP) for all public schools.

Assessment and Learning in Lincolnwood