Information for Teachers

1. Will we only have students from our sites?

The plan is to have summer school at each comprehensive site that will serve only their own students. We have discussed the potential to offer a "distance" option, but only if needed. For example, let's say there are only 6 students from Foresthill needing IM1 but no teacher to formally teach it. We've talked about the possibility of having an Instructional Aid coordinate with another site teacher to live stream the class. Much like FHS has done with thier distance learning options (i.e. Pietromonaco at Placer for Calc).

2. Can we use material we already have prepared from a previous term, or are we going to be using an online course (I.e. Edmentum) or expected to create our own curriculum?

Our hope and goal is that material that has already been developed will be used (and/or improved for use) to cover the ELO's. We don't plan to use Edmentum.

3. How many students will be in each class or do we have a cap?

Yes, the cap is 25.

4. Are we going to have in-person and remote students at the same time?

All in-person with the exception of the aforementioned need to do a distance option where the students are physically at a school but live-streamed into the class for instruction with support from an Instructional Assistant and peer tutors. Again, this is not our first choice but would be a fallback if we are unable to get enough teachers at each site. But the plan is NOT to have students working remotely from home.

5. Do kids get to leave/be dismissed from coming to summer school after they earn a C?

Yes, as soon as the teacher deems the student has met all ELO's and have earned a grade of C or better they will be done.

6. Are kids allowed to change their grade from an F to an A or is there a max letter grade that can be earned?

The summer school teacher will be the teacher of record for the repeated course so whatever grade that student earns for the summer will be their grade on the transcript.

8. What is the expected format for the Blocks?

The format and rationale behind the blocks is that each student will have an individualized plan. If a student has multiple courses that they failed they could take say Math in the morning and Bio in the afternoon. If they only have one course they could take both blocks in that class to really focus. Our goal is to allow students to have "credit" for ELO's already completed/passed from earlier terms (ELO doc). We also hope/plan to have some form of assessment in place that students will take at the start of the course to determine if they might have mastered any other ELO's, but maybe didn't test well, etc. After that, they will only need to work on the ELO's not passed either through the earlier course or assessment.

9. When the schedule has an hour of supervision/prep what does that mean?

Each site will develop a rotating schedule where one teacher (or possibly two for larger schools) will serve as supervisors for half-hour before school, during nutrition and half-hour after school. The other teachers will have that time as prep. All teachers will be paid daily for 4.5 hours.

10. Because of the individualized nature of Competency Based, will teachers have support?

Yes, we have budgeted to hire Instructional Aids and student tutors to support teachers.

11. How many teachers will be hired?

The number of teachers hired and subjects taught will be based on student numbers at each site.

12. Can an assignment be split between two teachers?

Yes, for consistency purposes, we prefer to have one teacher teach the entire course but.... if two teachers want to plan and work closely to ensure a smooth transition, an assignment can be split where each teacher covers 2 weeks. The pay will be adjusted accordingly.

13. What happens if a student doesn't complete/pass the entire course (falls short on ELO's mastered)?

The expecation is the summer school teacher will work with the school site to determine the best way to support students who don't pass. Because of the indivdiualized nature of Competency Based, each case will be handled on an individualized basis. For example, if a student basically does nothing or makes very minimal progress, the best option may be to have them repeat the course. If they just fell short, issuing an Incomplete may be the best course of action.

14. Please explain more about the spring training/planning time.

Teachers will be compensated for time spent in April/May for planning. We will likely have 1-2 required online meetings to discuss logistics. Spring hours will also include collaboration time with site-based departments to complete the ELO document, develop/revise a pre-assessment, develop/revise curriculum. Teachers will complete timecards for spring hours. The expectation is there will be approximately 10 paid hours in the spring.

15. What if all my students complete before the end of 4 weeks?

Teachers will be compensated for hours worked. If all students complete and the teacher wants to be done they will be paid for the time worked. If a teacher wants to get the full 4 weeks' pay, they can work individually with administration to develop an alternate plan (i.e. assist another teacher, continue to develop/revise competency based curriculum, etc.).