Committee considers curriculum

PONDERAY — A new social studies curriculum is in the works for Sandpoint Middle School, according to a curriculum update given at the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s board meeting Tuesday.

Casey McLaughlin, LPOSD director of secondary education, said during his presentation that, with the help of a curriculum advisory committee, the district is narrowing down options regarding materials that will cover subjects like history, government, and economics. Seventh grade students at SMS learn about world history, while eighth grade students learn about U.S. history, McLaughlin said.  

The committee, comprised of teachers, patrons, and parents, identified which curriculums to pilot this school year, he said. After examining Idaho state standards in the subjects, as well as a list of curriculums approved by the state, three vendors were identified — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Cengage, and Savvas. 

“The group chose out of those three to pilot [HMH] the first quarter and then to pilot Cengage the second quarter,” McLaughlin said. “And then we are also currently looking at supplemental from Hillsdale 1776 curriculum.”

McLaughlin said that making an objective decision has been very important to the committee, motivating the team to remain focused on a detailed rubric.

“[The rubric] goes through these six different aspects, one is alignment and accuracy,” McLaughlin said. “Then we have program organization — and this is really a piece that the teachers care quite a bit about, to make sure that it’s user friendly. Assessment is a big part of it — are the tests and the quizzes linked to everything the students are learning?"

Also included in the assessment were universal access, scaffolding and support, and sustainability. 

The HMH curriculum was already scored through surveys distributed to parents, students and teachers. 

“Unfortunately — I hate to say it — it did not get great marks,” he said. “… they were frustrated by several different things, especially the assessment piece and program organization. They just felt like the curriculum wasn’t simple for students.”

The Cengage curriculum is expected to be scored in the upcoming week. If it scores well it will be implemented. 

“If parents and teachers and patrons say ‘you know what we really don’t think Cengage is it either’ we’re going to be back to the drawing board a little bit and probably be entertaining more vendors,” McLaughlin said.