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Contact Elena Toscano, Principal Yountville Elementary etoscano@nvusd.k12.ca.us 707.253.3511 Demographics Summary Curriculum Guides Napa Unified School District is implementing Curriculum Guides for grades K-8 that target language arts and mathematics standards to be taught and assessed within trimesters. The guides include objectives derived from the state standards that also embed concepts assessed on high-stakes tests such as SAT-9, California Standards tests (including writing at grades 4 and 7), and the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). Each objective is correlated to instructional resources and to an assessment to monitor student attainment of each objective. Sadlier Forms: Grade 5 Math Curriculum-Embedded Assessments Language arts and mathematics assessments are administered at the end of the first and second trimesters to students in grades 2-6 in all schools. The third trimester is excluded because staff feel that the state tests already take a great deal of time. End-of-course assessments in language arts and math are administered each trimester in middle and high schools. A spring profile measuring progress in language arts and math is administered to K-1 students. All students, K-12, participate in a district writing assessment during the last trimester. Assessment results from the second trimester help to determine student participation in summer interventions. All teachers are expected to follow the instructional planning schedule and administer formative "probe" assessments at the end of a unit of study. The assessments are intended to be curriculum-embedded and give teachers immediate information to plan lessons. Report Card Napa has a standards-based report card for grades K-6, used by all elementary schools. There are five performance levels (Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic). District standards are global standards (the state's substrands such as reading comprehension) and these are graded; district benchmarks (the state's content standards) appear below the global, graded standards. Effort, attitude, citizenship, and character education are graded separate from the academic areas. English learners who have not acquired reasonable fluency in English are graded in language arts according to the state's English language development (ELD) standards and performance levels (Advanced, Early Advanced, Intermediate, Early Intermediate, Beginning). Report Card Full Description Curriculum Guides The Curriculum Guides, implemented by Napa Unified School District, cover all content standards, especially those more heavily assessed on state tests. All teachers in grades K-8 are expected to use the guides and follow the flexible pacing schedule included in the guides. Teachers have the option to skip certain lessons if students need more time to learn high-priority skills. Each grade level is a separate document. Each lesson identifies curriculum materials, content standards, state test coverage, and trimester for instruction and assessment. Instructions state that students should master concepts and skills before moving on to the next lesson. A standards-based lesson planning process (target standards, formative and summative assessments, varied learning activities) is provided. A graphic illustration clearly identifies the stages of lesson planning and actual teaching:
Curriculum-Embedded Assessments The district language arts and mathematics assessments cover grades K-12. There are district trimester assessments in language arts and math for grades 2-6 and end-of-course assessments in English and math for middle and high school. All students, K-12, participate in a district writing assessment each spring. K-1 students are administered a Spring Profile to measure skills in language arts and math. District assessments are administered at the end of the first and second trimesters at all schools for grades 2-12 and cover content standards that students had ample opportunity to learn. Average scores by "global content standard" (similar to state substrands such as reading comprehension) by grade are presented in a summary school report along with the district averages. [Note: The percentage of students at each performance level is preferable to computing averages for qualitative ordered data, such as performance levels.] Another report form shows percentages of students by performance levels. Data are disaggregated by API student groups and English learners. These data also are included in the Accountability Report Cards required by the state. Report Card Napa has a standards-based report card for grades K-6 that is used by all elementary schools. Standards-based report cards for higher grades are expected in the future. There are five performance levels:
Grades are intended to wholly reflect academic achievement of content standards according to the district performance levels. Effort, attitude, citizenship, and character education are graded separately from the academic areas. English learners who have not acquired reasonable fluency in English and are receiving instruction primarily on the state's English language development (ELD) standards are graded according to the ELD performance levels:
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