Valley School Board Approves Textbook Adoption Process
January 18, 2022 at 2:29 a.m.
Valley School Board Approves Textbook Adoption Process
By Jackie Gorski-
Inga Omondi, instructional coach at Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, said each year TVSC dedicates time and energy to “dive deeply into one specific subject content area to review the strengths and weaknesses of our textbook and/or supplemental materials.” This year, the school corporation will be looking at its math resources textbooks and supplemental materials.
She said it’s important to have a strategic plan in place and investigate what’s new.
Omondi said the school corporation has already began starting on some of the process because the textbook caravan is going to be in Plymouth, which is an opportunity to preview the latest textbook materials from publishers.
Omondi said she was able to lean heavily on the Northern Indiana Educational Services Center and tweaked the plan she received from the center and tweaked it to fit TVSC. The plan can be applied to any content area moving forward year to year.
Before presenting to teachers all the available vendors, the instructional coaches uses a tool called EdReports to narrow down the list of which vendors had high listings for such things as aligning with Indiana standards, having focus and cohesion and being user-friendly for teachers.
In November, Omondi said she asked the building principals to send her a list of a few of the teachers and parents who could serve on a committee. On Wednesday, the committee had its first meeting to lay the foundation of the adoption process.
One of the activities the committee did was to come up with some focus areas the corporation can focus on such as math remediation, pathway to graduation and interventions.
As the committee did that, three initiatives came about the teachers said the corporation is working toward, which is interventions and enrichment, power standards curriculum mapping and data.
Superintendent Blaine Conley said TVSC isn’t trying to add anything to teacher’s plates. They’re asking to expand on what they’re doing well.
Next week, the committee will attend the textbook caravan in Plymouth, where they will be using an evaluation tool to listen to different textbook vendors. TVSC was able to already narrow down the vendors they wanted the committee to listen to through EdReports. The committee will be able to gather information from those vendors.
From there, TVSC will be contact the parent and community representatives to evaluate the samples the school corporation has. She doesn’t expect parents to know pre-calculus or calculus. She just wants to know if there’s any red flags that come across that don’t fit with the school corporation’s vision and community.
With more curriculum options, Conley said the school corporation is able to meet the needs of students at the high end by having more curriculum options for them and move them along, as well as have remeditation for those students who need it.
“We’re trying to meet the needs for all students,” he said.
Omondi said there’s two points where teachers can get approval for textbooks during the year, once in the fall and once in January. But there’s also processes where teachers need to vet that resource.
Board member Todd Hoffman said he saw on TV some of the school boards in some of the larger cities are coming under attack for not being transparent in what is being taught. He asked how TVSC is addressing that.
Conley said the textbook adoption was how the school corporation was transparent. He said TVSC always had parents involved in the textbook adoption process.
In other business, the Board:
• Recognized Burket Alternative Educational Center graduate Jacklyne Greer and student Julian Moore.
• Approved a $6,200 donation from Mill Creek Church for Tippecanoe Valley High School Boomerang Backpacks.
• Approved the hiring of Kara Loper as an instructional assistant at Mentone Elementary School.
• Approved the extracurricular assignment of Vern Wilson as a fifth-grade girls and boys basketball coach at Mentone Elementary School.
• Learned TVSC will not be making any changes to its re-entry plan.
Inga Omondi, instructional coach at Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, said each year TVSC dedicates time and energy to “dive deeply into one specific subject content area to review the strengths and weaknesses of our textbook and/or supplemental materials.” This year, the school corporation will be looking at its math resources textbooks and supplemental materials.
She said it’s important to have a strategic plan in place and investigate what’s new.
Omondi said the school corporation has already began starting on some of the process because the textbook caravan is going to be in Plymouth, which is an opportunity to preview the latest textbook materials from publishers.
Omondi said she was able to lean heavily on the Northern Indiana Educational Services Center and tweaked the plan she received from the center and tweaked it to fit TVSC. The plan can be applied to any content area moving forward year to year.
Before presenting to teachers all the available vendors, the instructional coaches uses a tool called EdReports to narrow down the list of which vendors had high listings for such things as aligning with Indiana standards, having focus and cohesion and being user-friendly for teachers.
In November, Omondi said she asked the building principals to send her a list of a few of the teachers and parents who could serve on a committee. On Wednesday, the committee had its first meeting to lay the foundation of the adoption process.
One of the activities the committee did was to come up with some focus areas the corporation can focus on such as math remediation, pathway to graduation and interventions.
As the committee did that, three initiatives came about the teachers said the corporation is working toward, which is interventions and enrichment, power standards curriculum mapping and data.
Superintendent Blaine Conley said TVSC isn’t trying to add anything to teacher’s plates. They’re asking to expand on what they’re doing well.
Next week, the committee will attend the textbook caravan in Plymouth, where they will be using an evaluation tool to listen to different textbook vendors. TVSC was able to already narrow down the vendors they wanted the committee to listen to through EdReports. The committee will be able to gather information from those vendors.
From there, TVSC will be contact the parent and community representatives to evaluate the samples the school corporation has. She doesn’t expect parents to know pre-calculus or calculus. She just wants to know if there’s any red flags that come across that don’t fit with the school corporation’s vision and community.
With more curriculum options, Conley said the school corporation is able to meet the needs of students at the high end by having more curriculum options for them and move them along, as well as have remeditation for those students who need it.
“We’re trying to meet the needs for all students,” he said.
Omondi said there’s two points where teachers can get approval for textbooks during the year, once in the fall and once in January. But there’s also processes where teachers need to vet that resource.
Board member Todd Hoffman said he saw on TV some of the school boards in some of the larger cities are coming under attack for not being transparent in what is being taught. He asked how TVSC is addressing that.
Conley said the textbook adoption was how the school corporation was transparent. He said TVSC always had parents involved in the textbook adoption process.
In other business, the Board:
• Recognized Burket Alternative Educational Center graduate Jacklyne Greer and student Julian Moore.
• Approved a $6,200 donation from Mill Creek Church for Tippecanoe Valley High School Boomerang Backpacks.
• Approved the hiring of Kara Loper as an instructional assistant at Mentone Elementary School.
• Approved the extracurricular assignment of Vern Wilson as a fifth-grade girls and boys basketball coach at Mentone Elementary School.
• Learned TVSC will not be making any changes to its re-entry plan.
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