Faculty presentation at the Meeting April 17
Sally
Gave an overview/ structure of our conversation
Elizabeth
Talked about the history of the progressive nature of Horizons K-8 and emphasized the
longstanding commitment to being on the forefront of education reform.
What is progressive education?
What is progressive about Horizons?
Liz
Liz gathered several resources for us throughout our decision making process and had these
available for the Council meeting. See the end of this missive for the links.
Jim
Jim gave a brief history of Horizons K-8- focus on class size, teaching kids about making a
difference in the world, choice based curriculum, student involvement. He noted that there have
been many iterations of grade configurations over the years with a consistent focus on what is
best for kids.
Jim talked about, why this decision now?
Stable staff, inspired community; staff open to change and improvement; wanting more multi-
age; awesome students; family support; faculty desire to work in new teams as a measure of
school improvement.
Jim then explained a bit about why did this decision come after open enrollment? With the
compelling features of what this change will bring to Horizons K-8, it was decided upon that it
would not be in the best interest of our students to delay this reform effort toward improving our
school.
Lauren spoke about how we came to this decision? What has been the process?
She filled us in on the visioning process, faculty meetings every Friday, listing of possible grade
level groupings, critical mass wanted change, no one asked for grade level groupings to stay
the same. Faculty concordance was reached.
Lauren spoke about parent involvement in this process. We trust that you trust us and our
process for gathering your ideas (survey, visioning, council conversations). Curriculum, grade
configuration, and class placement are under the purview of the faculty. Teachers hold
professional education as their expertise. Didn’t feel genuine to ask parents for more than their
general feelings about grade configurations and teachers, when they are not fully informed and
it is not the role of parents to make programmatic decisions. Strategic visioning, strategic
planning informed the decision. We are a healthy, informed community of educators who are
looking forward in response to the national conversation about what is best practice in schools.
Aubrey, Adam, Peter, and Sarah
Each spoke about placement decisions/process made by team members.
Please see below for an explanation of how this is being done at each new team level and
again, please share your concerns or specific needs with John and Liz.
Placements
Grades K-2
Wendy and Beth
Jeanne, Aubrey, Nichole and Elizabeth
Kids will be split based on student balance
Grades 3-4
Adam, Julie, Nel, Sally
Kids that were going to stay will stay, kids that were going to change will change and be mixed
up
Kids going from 2nd to 3-4 will remain with 2nd grade cohort.
3 and 5 get mixed up as they would have anyway.
Grades 5-6
Jim, Lynn, Lauren, Peter
Kids going from 4th to 5-6 will remain with 4th grade cohort. Kids going from 4 to 5 will stay
intact, kids going from 5 to 6 will scatter.
Grades 7-8
Stacey, Sarah, Katie, Lance, Pat
7-8 Communities will stay intact as much as possible.
We then opened the Q and A to the group. The questions that arose were in alignment with the
following themes that emerged from our survey.
● What are your plans for daily schedule, OE, Winter Sports, etc?
○ 8:30 to 3:30, Friday early release will stay the same. More details to
● How will teams make time to be well prepared for next year?
○ -Friday faculty meetings between now and the end of the year
○ -Two PD days at the end of 13-14
○ -Summer team meetings
○ -All day team release day between now and end of 13-14
● What are the benefits of multi-age learning?
○ Multiage impacts on social emotional, bullying, school culture and
come regarding team level decisions on OE and Winter Sports.
academic achievement. More on this in an upcoming Council meeting.
● How does this impact the idea of middle school? How will this reconfiguration
impact the traditional 5-6 transition both inside and outside Horizons?
○ This will be a living question for us as we work toward both addressing
the key transitional and developmental needs of our students while at the
same time taking full advantage of what it will mean to be the full
expression of a K-8 School.
● Can you describe the curriculum and daily flow for 5-6 and 7-8? Will my child be
challenged?
○ Daily schedules are to be determined asap. We are confident that this
new configuration will allow us to continue to differentiate our instruction
in a high quality way while giving us the possibility of meeting the needs
of individual learners.
● How will you ensure and evaluate success?
○ Track data such as school discipline referrals, teacher satisfaction,
student achievement. Conferences and anecdotal data will be as
important as ever.
Resources by Topic
K-8 Schools
Holas, I. and Huston A. (2012) Are middle schools harmful? The role of transition timing,
classroom quality and school characteristics. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 41:333-345.
Yecke, C.P. Mayhem in the middle: Why we should shift to K-8. Educational Leadership, April
2006, Volume 63 (7).
Grade Configuration
Cushman, K. (1992). Essential Schools universal goals: How can heterogeneous grouping
help?
Gordon, M., Peterson, K, Gdula, J, and Kleingbeil, D. (2011) Review of Literature on Grade
Configuration and School Transitions.
Gregg, K. Elementary school grade span configuration: New evidence on student acheivement,
achievement equity, and cost efficiency.
Kemmis, M. (2011). Challenges in implementing curriculum and assessing student learning in
multiage classrooms. Concordia University Masters Thesis.
Klump, J. What the research says (or doesn’t say) about K-8 versus middle school grade
configurations: Assessing the benefits of K-8 schools. NWREL Publication.
Progressive Education
Gibson, R. and Peterson, M. (2001). Whole schooling: Implementing progressive school
reform. In, Ross, W. (Ed). The Social Studies Curriculum.
Kohn, A. (2008). Progressive Education: Why its hard to beat. Independent School.