On Feb. 6, an email was sent out to Park families from superintendent Dr. Carlondrea Hines, stating that changes would be coming to the district’s internal structure after she reviewed the district’s student achievement data. Specifically saying that changes would be coming within the operations of Instruction and Learning (formerly Teaching and Learning). The Instruction and Learning department plays a role in the district by shaping academic programs, supporting teachers and implementing instructional strategies. Specifically, the Instruction and Learning department brings together the curriculum, assessment and research, and student services teams under one umbrella with the stated goal of uniting teaching practices. All so the team can provide teachers and staff with necessary tools to succeed.
Hines said one of the upcoming changes in the next few years is “implementation teams.” She said that this team will be formed in each school in the district to ensure that curriculum is reaching students in the classes.
“Next year, we are going to have site implementation teams, and those teams will be the ones that will carry out the professional development (and) the reevaluation to ensure that the work is actually hitting every student right,” Hines said. “The implementation teams will consist of principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches and department or grade level leads, focused on ensuring that curriculum design recommendations actually reach classrooms and impact student learning.”
Senior Libi Ackerman said the process of teachers observation has flaws, as newer teachers often get more supervision, whilst older teachers who may not be as connected with the modern education system, often go unchecked.
“(I want) more workshops for teachers who are more tenured. The way that we do stuff right now is we have the less tenured teachers getting observations more often,” Ackerman said. “Once you start approaching the 20 to 30 year mark in your teaching career, I think it’s important to go back and learn more. School has changed and students have changed a lot and if you’re teaching the same way you were teaching in the 90s, it’s not going to work for a class of students in 2025.”
Freshman Teraysa Rombalski said she hopes educational changes throughout Park have an emphasis on relationships being built in the classroom.
“Building relationships is one of the biggest problems that people have, a lot of students don’t feel like the classroom is a space where they can share, be themselves or rely on (their) teachers,” Rombalski said. “A big way to fix that is to coach teachers on how to create relationships with their students.”
Ackerman said one hope she has for the strategic plan changes is improved communication between the administration and students.
“There needs to be a lot more communication from the people who are making the decisions that impact students on an everyday basis. The Instruction and Learning change, it’s not that different,” Ackerman said. “I feel like every time I’ve talked to people about what they feel is good about Park, they always say it’s teacher-student relationships, no one ever says administration. Everyone always talks about the personal connections they’ve made with other peers and teachers, but I think there needs to be more communication between students and people who work on the district level.”
Hines said she hopes the changes with the Instruction and Learning department will be more responsive when student achievement is not progressing in the desired way.
“When we’re noticing our achievement data isn’t growing the way we’re anticipating, that means that there needs to be some evaluation of what’s going well, what’s not going well and how we capitalize with what is going well and shift when things are not going well,” Hines said. “It is my hope that students feel a sense of responsiveness about their learning and that they feel a sense of belonging in their classroom spaces.”
Rombalski said her greatest worry about the future of education at Park is the lack of student support and the overemphasis on test scores rather than personal development.
“My biggest concern is that students aren’t getting the support that they need, and that teachers won’t be getting enough time to support their students,” Rombalski said. “We need to have teaching be more based on personal achievements instead of tests, and I would have it more centered around curiosity, not just what’s on a test.”
