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Stakeholder involvement in organized shared leadership drive change in District 102. Paramount to continuous improvement are the interpersonal relationships that flourish from our collaboration. Together, we are creating 21st Century learning environments resulting in more student engagement, contentment, and achievement. Every success in teaching and learning begins with the end in mind, the district vision.

The vision of District 102 can be summarized in the following way: "Every day, every student will come to school and be met with learning opportunities at his/her personal developmental level in all subject areas. He/she will leave school having been challenged, feeling successful, and looking foward to tomorrow."

To this end, annual district goals are designed and everyone works in concert to achieve the goals.

District 102 has structured its DRIVE cycle (i.e., curriculum review & development process) to develop and revise programs, select and pilot resources, implement programs, and evaluate their impact over a five year period. Throughout the DRIVE cycle, intensive and ongoing professional development is provided to develop teacher capacity and to ensure efficacy and fidelity of curriculum and resource implementation. In 2009, the DRIVE cycle was aligned with the curriculum review cycles of the other elementary districts in the Area 125 Consortium.

District 102 implemented new Language Arts resources during the 2008-2009 school year. Teachers and other instructional leaders used the Illinois Language Arts Learning Standards (K-8) as a guide for developing the curriculum. Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Treasures resources were purchased by the District to support the implementation of the Language Arts curriculum at the Kindergarten through fifth grade levels. Additionally, Treasure Chest is aligned with Treasures, but is tailored to the needs of English Language Learners (ELL).  To enhance writing instruction, Vantage Learning’s MyAccess!, an online writing laboratory that provides immediate feedback to students, was implemented at the seventh and eighth grade levels in 2008. This resource was expanded to fourth, fifth and sixth grades in early 2010. Through online access, students are able to draft, revise and edit work with the benefits of immediate feedback and corrective instruction from any location with Internet access. The cornerstone of instruction is for each student to become more proficient in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The Mathematics curriculum review cycle is aligned with the Area 125 Consortium for program review in 2013-2014. The Math Subject Area Leadership Team (SALT) continues to research best practices and refine strategies to differentiate instruction at all levels, with a focus on the transitional middle school level. The middle school is currently piloting the Glencoe Course 1 resources to meet the needs of students requiring increasing levels of rigor to provide an appropriate transition from the elementary school math programs. Holt McDougal Littell’s Middle School Math Edition Course 2 was also introduced to the middle school in 2009-2010 as a resource to support and sustain rigorous Mathematics instruction at the fifth and sixth grades. The Middle School Math Edition Course 2 includes the Middle School Math eEdition online subscription for students to access the textbook and tutorials online. Students in fifth through eighth grade also began a pilot of Cambium Learning Group’s Voyager VMath Live, an online resource designed to support and enhance Mathematics skill development through online challenges with students around the world.

Teachers used the Illinois Science Learning Standards to develop the Science curriculum. Holt McDougal’s Holt Science & Technology resources were selected to support the implementation of the Science curriculum at the eighth grade level. These resources include the Holt Science & Technology eEdition Online for students and teachers. Pearson’s Interactive Science resources  were selected in 2010 to support the implementation of the Science curriculum at the seventh grade level. These resources include subscriptions to MyScienceOnline.com for students to extend their learning through online interactive resources. Middle school  Science classes use Harcourt’s HSP Illinois Science resources which also include online resources to extend learning opportunities. Elementary Science instruction emphasizes “hands on” learning, aligned with Illinois Learning Standards, through rich curriculum combined with Science kit resources developed and provided through ECA.

Teachers’ Curriculum Institute (TCI Approach) resources were piloted and purchased in 2007 to support the Social Studies curriculum developed by instructional leaders in the District. This approach includes History Alive!, Geography Alive! and Social Studies Alive! which explore and expand understanding about global interdependence and historical origins of our nation. Following a comprehensive study and review, District 102 implemented TCI Digital resources across all grade levels in 2010-2011. TeachTCI and LearnTCI afford teachers and students online access to this innovative approach. Moreover, as events in the global landscape unfold, TCI Digital resources are updated and made available to schools automatically, without requiring an additional purchase of updated books or resources.

In 2010-2011, the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) SALT selected the Lions Quest resources after three years of research and curriculum development. Following a pilot of three different programs, Lions Quest was selected to support implementation of the curriculum as it was determined to be a perfect fit for the District 102 standards. Grades K-5 are utilizing the Skills for Growing Series in the Lions Quest program while Grades 6-8 are using the Skills for Adolescence Program. Building-level teams have reported that the topics in the Lions Quest resource are relevant and beneficial for students. Social workers and teachers alike have shared that students seem engaged and interested in the program.  At all four schools, the social workers have enhanced the program to include support for students who need assistance outside the regular education setting.

In the 2007-2008 school year, the district also implemented Response to Intervention or RTI in reading and now plans to expand into writing, math and social emotional learning in the current school year. Response to Intervention (RtI) is “the practice of providing 1) high-quality instruction/intervention matched to student needs and 2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to 3) make important educational decisions” (Batsche, et al., 2005). To support this initiative, the Board of Education approved and added an additional five (5) highly qualified teachers as interventionists.  These are the people who provide students extra (tiered) service in addition to their regular math and language arts blocks.

While guided by the State-approved Technology Plan, twenty-four major initiatives were pursued in 2007-2008 including upgrades of servers and client workstations across the District, installation and migration of services to a fiber optic infrastructure between all buildings and the Illinois Century Network, expansion of the wireless network in all buildings providing ubiquitous access for students and teacher laptops, and a complete migration of the Skyward system (our financial and student management system) to a dedicated server room with redundant data storage and power solutions. These operational elements were implemented in 2007-2008 to support the instructional capacity of student, teacher, and community learning environments envisioned by the 21st Century Committee. This committee, comprised of faculty, staff, parent and community stakeholders, meets formally three times per year to establish and monitor growth toward the realization of 21st Century Learning Environments across the entire learning community.

The current phase of the committee’s work on the technology planning process has brought forth the realization of an ongoing professional development strategy providing access to 21st Century Tools for all teachers in the District. As such, a pilot of interactive whiteboard technology was expanded to include nine SMARTboards, one Promethean ActivBoard, and one Interwrite board (in addition to their related peripherals including student response systems, slates, and projectors) in the 2007-2008 school year. Now over 60% of classrooms are configured with Interactive WhiteBoards (IWB) with 100% of core classrooms slated for implementation for the 2011-2012 school year. Teachers continue to use OpenText’s First Class software with students to allow project collaboration and student/teacher interaction to occur at home, school, or any other location providing access to the Internet. The goal of this initiative is to develop engaging learning activities accessible to all learners at any time and from any location. As we move forward with our study of mobile technology across the district, FirstClass and other online collaborative tools will still be critical to sustaining the continuous communication and file sharing between students, teachers and home.

Even though our district goals are not written "to raise ISAT scores", district scores on state tests continue to increase. Over 90% of our students consistently meet and exceed on the Reading and Math ISAT tests. 

2010 ISAT Results
GRADE    READING      MATH
3rd                93%             95%
4th                93%             97%
5th                93%             95%
6th                97%             97%
7th                94%             97%
8th                97%             93%

The 6th through 8th grade Spring MAP scores continue to be about four years ahead of in the 2011 norm group. Additional information on NWEA's MAP test can be found on the Teaching & Learning Blog.

District 102 has made a conscious choice to formulate goals that will help achieve the vision versus goals explicitly written to "raise ISAT scores". Our Board of Education and Administration believe that our highly qualified staff is making the most authentic commitment possible to "leaving NO child behind" by learning how to respond instructionally to more formative classroom data, one child a a time, and working side by side with all members of staff and parents to do whatever it takes for every child everyday in every subject. The District vision is much more ambitious!