Alva Review-Courier -

Last year, school administrators and teachers, students and members of the Alva community spent several day-long sessions in strategic planning. They examined the purpose of the local schools, discussed strengths and weaknesses and set goals in several areas.

"Do you know how to eat an elephant?" asks Principal Shane Feely. "One bite at a time.

"I received that advice from a fellow coach early in my career, and it is important advice for anyone. How many of us have felt overwhelmed by work- or home-related tasks that seemed too large to even start? It very well may be the truth of our existence. We are all very busy people and much is expected of all of us."

Feely, who is curriculum director for the Alva schools, says after completing the district strategic plan last year, the school is ready to start the hard work of implementation. Within the plan is a timeline of smaller initiatives to accomplish.

"I have to be honest. I was a skeptic when we decided to begin the strategic planning process," says Feely. "I was concerned that the district could get bogged down in the details of implementation of such a large and ambitious plan."

On Monday, Aug. 5, the Curriculum and Instruction Goal Area Co-Chairs Steve Ward and Teresa Rader reported progress to the Alva Board of Education. Further presentations will be made at future board meetings.

"We will present our successes and our failures," said Feely. "We will address why we failed and what we will do in the future to assure that failure's success."

The August goal area is dedicated to how the school will change instruction to better meet the needs of students. Ward and Rader presented the following points of emphasis to date on the goal area of curriculum and instruction:

1. Administrators will explain the goal area plans and timelines for implementation to teachers at staff meetings. Each campus will host parent meetings to explain it to all other stakeholders.

2. All math teachers at all levels will dedicate ten minutes of their instructional time to fluent retrieval of basic math facts.

3. There will be continued staff development on common language and instructional practices that include engagement and literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening) skills.

4. MAP assessments will be implemented at all levels. MAP assessments reveal how much growth has occurred between testing events and, when combined with student norms, shows projected proficiency. Educators can track growth through the school year and over multiple years.

5. The high school will have additional course offerings.

Regarding the goals, Feely said, "None to date have been fully implemented, but we have a great start on this list. We will revisit these items on a regular basis throughout the year to measure our progress."