As Granby School District families return to the routine of another school year, the board of education will begin executing some new strategies and opportunities for 2025–26.
Board members participated in a retreat at the end of August where we brainstormed and discussed the beginning of a new strategic vision for our board and our schools. As should be expected, the primary focus of such a strategic vision is the achievements of our students.
As we work on developing future strategies, we first must examine the outcomes of last year’s strategies. An early look at student learning outcomes indicates strong improvement, with the district achieving its highest levels of math performance since the pandemic. The available data we have indicates Granby Memorial Middle School Smarter Balanced math scores in grades 6, 7 and 8 are at pre-pandemic highs, while PSAT scores in grades 8 and 9 increased by 20 points over the previous year. These gains reflect the district’s commitment to instructional rigor and targeted support.
In addition, the board of education will implement a rigorous curriculum review that has not been implemented in prior years. Over the past year the district leadership team, including district and building administrators, department chairs and content area specialists, led by Assistant Superintendent Jen Parsons, has been developing a five-year curriculum review cycle. This cycle lays out action steps for PK–12 vertical teams (meaning educators for the same / related subject matter) to complete in each year culminating in a thorough review of the current curriculum and a proposed action plan for the content area. This process will allow teams to review the state approved standards for the specific content area as well as current data and instructional practices within the department. Essentially, every primary subject matter should undergo a full curriculum review every five years.
The action plan will be presented to the district leadership team and the BOE curriculum subcommittee for review and feedback and will include proposed changes to curriculum, courses and instructional resources. This process will continue this year with social studies after a soft launch with English language arts last year.
The goal of this work is to ensure Granby School District curriculum and lesson plans not only meet standards set by the Connecticut Board of Education, but add adaptive expertise and skill refinement quickly and consistently, and with a higher level of accountability for the outcome of higher student achievement.
Families can learn more and engage by attending or viewing Granby Board of Education meetings the first and third Wednesday, September through June. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions at loganm@granbyschools.org