Kristen Bawks, Assistant Superintendent
St. Joseph Public Schools Administrative Offices
2580 S. Cleveland Avenue
St. Joseph, MI 49085
Phone: (269) 926-3105
E-mail: [email protected]
Mandy Mortimore, Administrative Assistant
Phone: (269) 926-3122
E-mail: [email protected]
Welcome!
Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment is committed to ensuring learning for all at St. Joseph Public Schools. This focus on learning, combined with the art and science of effective instruction, alignment of curriculum and assessment to our state standards, and fostering and maintaining positive relationships, makes student learning visible at SJPS. We value our families as partners in our journey to inspire lifelong learners and create tomorrow's leaders.
Through a collaborative culture and work centered around four essential learning questions, we are reaching our commitment of learning for all. These four questions center on student learning and support systems.
1. What is it we want students to learn? (Essential Standards)
2. How will we know that they have learned? (Formative Assessment)
3. What will we do when they don't learn? (Intervention)
4. What will we do when they do learn? (Extension)
Elementary Curriculum
Standards Based Report Cards
St. Joseph Public Schools' elementary students are being assessed using a standards-based report card. Standards-based report cards help to provide greater consistency in academic expectations from year to year and strengthen collaboration between you and your child's teacher to support student success.
The standards-based report card is correlated to rubrics that specify expectations for each grade level in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The rubrics are aligned with Michigan's Common Core Standards. Please note: Standards for Science and Social Studies will be added to the report cards when Michigan completes the standards adoption process in these content areas. In an effort to more clearly identify specific areas of strengths and/or challenges for each child, the report card also separates academic progress and behaviors that lead to successful learning. Traditional grading blended these two areas together and many times did not report a clear picture of your child as a learner.
You will find samples of the report cards and rubrics available below. The rubrics are very informative for you as a parent. You are encouraged to review these and become familiar with the grade level standards for your child. The informational video regarding standards based reporting, which was shown on Back to School Night in September, is available for viewing below.
On the SJPS 4-1 scale, a level 3 is our target and represents a high level of achievement. There will be very few 4's, as a level 4 indicates performance well beyond grade level expectations and some cases, a level 4 is not possible. (i.e. the kindergarten reading standard: Recognizes capital and lower case letters in random order)The rubrics are very informative for you as a parent. You are encouraged to review these and become familiar with the grade level standards for your child.
Standards-based report cards help to provide greater consistency in academic expectations from year to year and strengthen collaboration between you and your child’s teacher to support student success. The report card also separates academic progress and behaviors that lead to successful learning. Students are now assessed both in academics and their learner behaviors, traditional grading blended these two areas together and many times did not report a clear picture of your child as a learner. You will find samples of the report cards and rubrics available below.
Reading at Home
Reading is critical for student's academic success and reading at home is an essential piece of reading achievement. Reading 20 minutes a night with your child makes a huge impact on their academic success! Reading is comprised of several skills: letter identification, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. We are happy to share a great resource developed in Southwest Michigan that targets these specific reading skills. Simply choose the specific skill and you will see several activities to help your child grow as a reader!
Read at Home Resource
Developmental Reading Profiles