Academic Program Committee Meeting

Today the Academic Program Committee met for their weekly meeting from 12:30-1:45pm). On the agenda were updates on the Middle Years IB Program (Kate Dominique), Saturday U (Gary Enrico), and NCLB (Jennifer Lopez).

IB/MYP- Class of 2009 enrollment for the IB Diploma program is currently 6 for Full Diploma (all IB courses) and 36 for Certificate (1 or more IB courses). Class of 2010 is currently 16 for Full Diploma and 60 for Certificate. Attrition is an issue historically with the Diploma program and efforts are underway (study hall, informal discussions with IB teachers, increased communication concerning expectations and preparation) to retain an increasing percentage of students in both the Diploma and the Certificate programs. For MYP, the personal projects are advancing and a list of all projects is currently being compiled. There is a fundraiser underway for a Personal Project Retreat (sale on a cookbook which was featured on Cablevision News on 11/19) headed by IB teachers in Hoboken High School. Finally, a discussion was begun on efforts to bring more emphasis on inquiry based pedagogy into practice and ways to clearly articulate Essential Questions.

Saturday U- Course descriptions were discussed for both the Academic track and Enrichment track. Also, discussion of a start date in early January and running approximately 16 weeks is being considered. Discussion was also made on expanding the grade levels for participation in the program although no final decision was research and will be a topic for the next meeting of the group.

NCLB- Preliminary discussions were undertaken on what might happen to NCLB under the incoming administration and the role/funding levels for Reading First. Some discussion on Read 180 was made as well as the the progress made by LitLife in early grade professional development in writing.