Red Bank Borough Public Schools faced challenges in documenting their curriculum and preparing for the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) evaluation. The district sought to solve these issues and meet their curriculum documentation needs by implementing Atlas, an online curriculum management platform. Their Atlas Team, led by their Account Manager, Kari Reynolds, provided support and training to assist the school in mass updating their curriculum site to align with new standards.
Curriculum mapping tool & support
In 2019, Cheryl Cuddihy, Math Instructional Coach, assisted Luigi Laugelli, Assistant Superintendent of C&I, with the QSAC 2020 preparation process. When reviewing the curricular documents, she noticed that teachers were not effectively leveraging the components available in the Atlas curriculum management system. Immediately following the QSAC review process, the district, along with many other schools across the country, closed for several weeks and then shifted to remote learning due to the pandemic. Naturally the priorities shifted from curriculum to survival.
In 2022, Cheryl Cuddihy became the Supervisor of Instruction and oversaw the curriculum writing process to more fully align with the mandated 2020 NJSLS and to prepare for the 2023 QSAC review process.
During this initiative, teachers struggled to update their curriculum with the appropriate standards, resulting in timing hitches and incorrect selections of grade bands. Manual review processes proved inefficient and ineffective in ensuring quality and completion. The district needed a solution to effectively prepare for QSAC, update their curriculum with new standards, and streamline the process of mass updating.
Mass Updating Process
One specific challenge faced by Red Bank Borough School District involved incorrectly selected grade levels of standards targeted in units. This mistake affected multiple classes from grades 4 to 8, as well as K-3. To address this issue and ensure all standards were accurate and up to date, the district needed to mass update their curriculum. The Atlas Team implemented a systematic approach to facilitate mass updates, starting with a project involving a copy-unit in Atlas. This allowed the team to test the process of updating units and courses using the correct standards. With this iterative approach, the team audited the site, marked obsolete standards, and maintained simple formatting to keep the curriculum contemporary.
Impact and Benefits
By working closely with their Account Manager on the Atlas Team, Red Bank Borough School District experienced several benefits and successes. Teachers received support through Virtual Professional Development sessions with Atlas, ensuring they had the necessary background knowledge and skills to utilize the tool effectively. The use of Atlas provided measurable results during QSAC evaluations. Luigi Laugelli, who oversees the QSAC process, reported that the district faced numerous challenges due to the pandemic and overwhelming content changes, especially in Science and Social Studies. However, the ability to document and reorganize the curriculum in Atlas aided in meeting the QSAC requirements. Moreover, Atlas served as a valuable repository for future reference, allowing teachers to easily upload and share resources. The accountability and uniformity offered by Atlas improved the quality and consistency of curriculum documentation.
Advice and Future Outlook
To other districts considering implementing Atlas or utilizing Atlas PD, Red Bank Borough School District advises facilitating two essential Professional Development courses, an overview and an Atlas training session, before engaging in curriculum writing. This approach ensured that teachers had the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed with the platform.
The investment in Atlas and Atlas PD proved worthwhile for Red Bank Borough School District, providing a unified language, accountability measures, and the ability to strategically plan and make resources public-facing. Looking ahead, the district plans to continue linking and adding resources to Atlas, training new hires early on, and encouraging the use of the lesson planner. Currently they are piloting the lesson planner elements in the specials area and continue to garner more buy-in from teachers in the 23-24 school year. They emphasize the importance of staying updated on changing standards and suggest improvements such as the ability to copy individual fields within a unit.