Why Does
Denver CSD dismiss at 2:00 on Wednesday?
At Denver Community School District, we have raised student
achievement through our Professional Learning Communities. We have been recognized nationally for
our efforts and have been named, a National Model Professional Learning
Community by Solution Tree in 2012.
We focus on learning, focus on results, focus on collaboration all
through a systematic process of intervention. Many schools throughout Iowa visit our district to
learn more about our outstanding practice each year!
“PLC’s are so important! They allow us to share and collaborate
ideas for our students in order to obtain and provide the help and support necessary for each child to be
successful!”
-Denver Elementary Teacher
Each week our teachers meet to discuss each and every
student to be sure that we are meeting every child’s academic needs. Whether a child has full understanding
of what they are learning, or if they are struggling to make connections we work
rigorously to plan meaningful, engaging and precise instruction to meet each
student at their “zone of proximal development”. On Wednesday’s every teacher meets within a collaborative
team for a approximately 90 minutes.
We have made it a priority to ensure that we are implanting a
“guaranteed and viable” curriculum aligned to the Iowa Core, therefore, on
Wednesday’s teachers are also looking very closely at their standards and their
units to ensure full alignment.
While also becoming crystal clear on what proficiency looks like for
each standard, we are also designing assessments, looking at prerequisite
skills, which are essential to learning, and also designing enrichment and extension
opportunities for students. The academic
demands on our student population have increased, therefore in order to best
prepare our students to be college and/or career ready, collaborative planning
time, and our 2:00 dismissal on Wednesday, is essential to the success of each
child!
To learn more about Denver’s work with PLC’s, visit:
