October meeting highlights

The October meeting of the Shoshone School Board will take place on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 7:00 in the High School art room.  In addition to school board training, the two main agenda items for consideration deal with teachers and students.  As part of the "Students Come First" legislative package passed this past spring, a requirement is that at least 50% of teacher evaluation be based on student achievement.  Upon the law being passed, the Shoshone district formed a committee to put a plan in place that will hopefully meet the new requirements.  The work of this committee is on the agenda for approval.  Upon approval of both the local board and the state of Idaho, teachers will be evaluated using both the Danielson model and student achievement. 

The other main agenda item, is approval of the so called "alternative route" to graduation.  This plan has been in place for several years, however, recent technology updates have prompted the state to request plan updates.  This plan is a plan for students that do not pass all the relevant ISAT tests to still graduate by using this so called "alternative route."  The major change will be students that do not meet the required ISAT score will have to retest using the PLATO system.  The PLATO system then assigns lessons based on the areas students did not do well on.  Students will then have to complete the lessons to graduate.