"Oskaloosa Syllabus"
Special Parent Edition - November, 2014
Education Acronyms
There are MANY acronyms in education. In the future, it will be easier to understand the articles you read in "The Syllabus" if you know the language. On the web site, there is an ABC of Oskaloosa that might also be helpful. I will try to provide additional help with the jargon of our profession as the year progresses. When you have questions, do not hesitate to ask me!!! Thank you so much for your continued support of Oskaloosa schools!!!
Many Acronyms Used in Oskaloosa
PLC
Professional Learning Community - Oskaloosa is a PLC made up of teacher teams, administrative team - anyone who works with students is part of our PLC. A PLC is a group of people who share common goals and works to reach those goals. Our goal is student learning and achievement.
PLC's meet each Wednesday during early release collaborating on anything to do with content, instruction, assessment, grading practices or professional learning to increase teaching skills.
DLT
District Leadership Team - a team consisting of teachers and administrators who make the ground level decisions related to school improvement issues.
DAC
District Advisory Committee - a team consisting of parents, students, teachers, staff members and administrators. This team formulates district goals - from our long-range goals, annual performance goals, student learning goals, and student belief statement. They also analyze the data to determine if we have met our goals by looking at the Iowa Assessment results, MAP Test results, and any other data we collect. This team makes recommendations to the Board of Education regarding the Annual Needs Assessment Survey given out. They also monitor our student learning supports across the district.
MTSS
MTSS - Multi-Tiered System of Supports. We used to call the Learning Supports students who struggle get RtI (Response to Intervention). Iowa Department of Education now calls our use of a Universal Screener and Progress Monitoring tool to serve struggling students MTSS.
SPED
SPED - Special Education. Students who have an Individual Education Program (IEP) is called the Special Education Program or SPED.
PBIS
PBIS - Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports. The Elementary and Middle School are using PBIS as a character and behavior education program. Students are rewarded for positive and expected behavior through the use of positive reinforcements, etc.
SWAT
SWAT - School-Wide Assessment Team. Each building has a team of teachers looking at student performance information. They make decisions regarding programming and instructional needs of students. Interventions are designed to assist struggling students. They also monitor the success and growth of students. We like to call them our "data ninjas"
TLC
TLC is Teacher Leadership Compensation. TLC is a grant the district is applying for to be able to add additional Instructional Coaches at each building. The TLC grant is the Governors program to increase teacher leadership and improve student performance.
SBG
SBG - Standards-Based Grading. K-5 is reporting out student progress on report cards through a code 1-4 and all work habits with a code of 1-4. Grades 5-12 are Standards-Referenced - meaning they not only give a letter grade, but also report out a each Grade Level Benchmark (GLB) with a 1-4 code.
GLB
GLB - Grade Level Benchmark. Grade Level Benchmarks are what each student will know and be able to demonstrate at the end of that grade or course. ALL GLB's are listed on all report cards. Students and parents will be able to tell which content/skills students have strength with and what content/skills students need improvement on. All GLB's are on the Curriculum and Instruction page of the district website.
Then go to <Curriculum and Instruction> under departments. Go to the top link - Grade Level Benchmarks and Components.
Then go to <Curriculum and Instruction> under departments. Go to the top link - Grade Level Benchmarks and Components.