Strategic Leadership Plan
Globally Effective Students
12.28.2016 Schoology: Shelby County's Learning Management System
When Shelby County Public Schools decided to become a 1:1 (device to student) district, they knew success would depend on providing a digital platform that would make device usage authentic. According to the Superintendent, Dr. James Neihof, “There is nothing magical about putting computers into the hands of kids. That alone will not change the teaching and learning in our district. We knew we needed a learning management system to foster the process.”
Enter Schoology. Schoology (skoo-luh-jee) is a learning management system that provides teachers with the digital tools they need to create content, design lessons, and assess student understanding. It also digitally connects students with their teacher and class materials. Director of Innovation and CCR, John Leeper, said “Today’s culture requires an understanding of how to navigate a digital world. Providing our teachers and students with a tool like Schoology makes sense in a 21st-century school district.”
Simply providing an impressive sounding tool, however, doesn’t guarantee success. The important question is how well is it being used. According to Superintendent Neihof, the proof is overwhelming. “In September alone, we had 163,209 total visits and 1,446,623 pageviews. When you consider we have around 7,000 students and 500 teachers, these are pretty impressive numbers.” October numbers reflect a similar pattern of impressive usage.
Chief Academic Officer, Susan Dugle discussed the importance of the usage increase. “Clear data like this tells us we are on the right track. As we continue to pursue meaningful and personalized experiences for our students, tools like this will become more and more important for everyone.”
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12.16.16 | Standards Based Grading in Shelby County
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Shelby County Public Schools began its journey with standards based grading with the leadership of the principal and staff at Shelby County High School during the 2012-2013 school year. Since that time, standards based grading has grown into district wide implementation at all elementary, middle and high schools through our Strategic Leadership Plan.
So, why standards based grading? Shelby County Schools believe that standards based grading is the most accurate method for reporting academic progress of the individual child. In the classrooms, teachers plan instruction based on learning goals derived from standards. Teachers then assess student learning around these goals to determine if students are mastering the standards. Standards based grading is then the tool for reporting the progress to the student and guide the teachers next steps for instruction.
In standards based grading, each standard is identified and targets the learning for the student. This is a bit different than the traditional method of grading where a holistic letter grade, such as a “B” is assigned to a specific content course. This holistic grade provides little information about the actual progress such as which concepts a student knows well and which they need more time to master. The implementation of standards based grading positively impacts the student’s ability to know where they need to focus. It helps the teacher know where each student is in mastery so they may personalize the learning. And, it helps parents more clearly know what their child is learning and how well they are learning it. This process of reporting learning progress on standards provides more accountability for both the student and teacher through providing more specific and actionable feedback.
12.2.2016 Education Galaxy and Moby Max
Shelby County Public School elementary students have access to two adaptive learning systems - Education Galaxy and Moby Max. An adaptive learning system is an educational method which uses computers as interactive teaching devices to meet the unique needs of each learner.
Students have access to this learning software at school and home. As students work in the math or reading modules, the systems adapt to the instructional needs of each individual student.
For more information on log in information for your elementary child, contact your child's teacher.
Schoology
Standards Based Grading
Adaptive Learning
Systems
What are Globally Effective Students?
2017 SLP Goals for Globally Effective Students
We want Shelby County students to democratically engaged citizens, effectively interacting with others worldwide in both professional and personal ways. Achieving this takes content knowledge, cognitive skill development, a growth mindset, and a willingness to respect cultures and beliefs different than their own. Even when applying these skills and knowledge at our community colleges or local workplaces, students will realize the competitive and collaborative needs for interacting in a globally connected world.
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Students grade K-12 use LMS
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Increased adaptive learning system usage
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Growth of business partner & career pathway connections
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Provide ongoing PBL opportunities
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Support SBG implementation​
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Promote revised steps to CCR
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Improve district proficiency
3.17.17 Students Demonstrate Competencies through Exhibitions
As the school year has advanced, so has the ways in students demonstrate their learning and mastery of standards. Since the winter break, students in Shelby County Schools have began showing mastery of content and competencies through end of unit tasks called exhibitions.
According to the Glossary of Education Reform, "the term exhibition refers to projects, presentations, or products through which students “exhibit” what they have learned, usually as a way of demonstrating whether and to what degree they have achieved expected learning standards or learning objectives." In Shelby County we are doing just that. Heritage Elementary 5th grade students had an exhibition night in which they had the opportunity to showcase their understanding of Colonial Heritage. The students received feedback on 2 overall competencies during this event; the ability to showcase historical thinking and effectively communicate their understanding. Students received feedback from teacher, parents, and other community stakeholders throughout their exhibitions. Second and third grade students in the QUAD at Southside had similar opportunities in their exhibition around "Shearing our Stories" . Students incorporated storytelling, narrative writing, mathematical understandings and art standards to create a barn quilt to showcase learning. Students all across the district are doing the same. If you are interested in providing feedback to student exhibition, are interested in seeing these, or learning more, please don't hesitate to contact schools or central office.