Cda Schools Get Jump On Exiting Standards Superintendent Says District Will Meet 2005 Deadline

The Coeur d’Alene School District’s superintendent said Friday that preparing students to meet proposed state graduation standards will be tough, but can be done.

“At this point, we should stay the course. I think we can meet them, but I know it’s going to be hard,” David Rawls said. “It’s going to be hard work and we’re working hard at it in Coeur d’Alene.”

The district worked over the summer to adapt its curriculum to proposed guidelines that would require students to pass a test to graduate. The class of 2005, this year’s eighthgraders, will be the first to be affected.

Rawls told the State Board of Education Friday that he didn’t share concern expressed by the Boise and Meridian school districts that the standards will be implemented too quickly for districts to prepare.

Rawls said his district has been working for months to realign the curriculum to prepare for the standards.

Rawls said more than 1,800 people, including staff, parents and community members, were surveyed last year on what skills and knowledge Coeur d’Alene graduates should have. That information was condensed into 41 specific statements.

In February, the district held two days of community forums in each of the five areas the standards address: math, science, social studies, language arts and health. About 65 participants discussed whether the identified concepts were addressed by the state standards.

Following the forums, standards were adopted in March by the Coeur d’Alene School Board as curriculum targets, paving the way for realignment work this past summer.

During the past two summers, Rawls told the board, the district has paid teacher stipends totaling more than $50,000 to work on the curriculum revision. More than 50 teachers participated.

This fall, 150 staff members are piloting the newly aligned curriculum and are meeting regularly to record their progress. After the pilot year is complete, the teacher teams will get together again to further revise and refine the curriculum, Rawls said.

The district’s goal is for the newly aligned curriculum to be adopted by the school board next fall.

“I believe we will be ready,” Rawls told the Education Board.

The Boise and Meridian districts’ biggest concern is the math standards, the Associated Press reported. In the Boise district, for example, eighth-graders may have to take another year of algebra to meet the standards. The district worries it will have to hire at least a dozen new math teachers to meet the requirement, media reports said.

But at the Friday Education Board meeting, state achievement standards coordinator Lydia Guerra said, “We are not changing the math standards at this time.”

Guerra said a recent public opinion survey strongly supports the need for standards.

“Two-thirds of the public agrees with requiring students to pass state tests before graduation from high school.”