Whole Child Success
Whole child success in Oak Lawn-Hometown School District 123 starts with a curricular design that helps build foundational mastery of what children should know and be able to do during each step of the elementary school experience, preparing them to achieve high school, postsecondary and career dreams. A whole child approach ensures that each student is appropriately challenged and academically ready, setting a high standard for long-term success. Success in life relies not only on scholarly achievement, but also on developmental skills and mindsets that prepare and support how students can learn best. Whole child success depends on the maturation of social and emotional skills which help children understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. It is through the development of these skills, coupled with academic scholarship within a flexible, supportive and challenging learning environment that works to help each student reach their highest potential.
Implement rigorous, coherent, and content-rich written curriculum
A1. Each student will master the foundational skills of mathematics, writing, and the advanced communication skills of reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and active listening through meeting or exceeding readiness standards and personalized growth targets by the end of each grade.
A2. Each student will enter kindergarten ready to learn with the social-emotional and developmental skills necessary to access the curriculum and reach readiness standards by the end of 3rd grade.
A3. Each school has access to a useful local assessment data warehouse to track student outcomes of curricular skills and standards.
A4. Each teacher will have access to a coherent and user-friendly curriculum with topics and standards develop from teams of educators in the district.
A5. Each student, family, and teacher is given a list of precisely what they will learn in that grade level or course at the beginning of a grade level or course.
Support social-emotional well-being
B1. Each student will undergo social-emotional screenings from kindergarten through 8th grade.
B2. The District will implement a comprehensive framework to support student social-emotional development.
B3. Each school will develop a plan to implement the teaching of social-emotional developmental skills, restorative practices, and cultural awareness within the school day for each student.
B4. Each student will develop adequate social and emotional evidence-based skills and mindsets that facilitate and foster success in school and life.
B5. Each student will develop lifelong healthy living habits, including physical, mental and social-emotional self care.
Create challenging classrooms
C1. Each student is given challenging work in a personalized fashion no matter where they are on the academic continuum.
C2. The district establishes common criteria for determining placement and flexible programming for all students, as well as methods of engaging families in the process and branding the program.
C3. Each student is challenged by using adaptive practices, grouping, acceleration, advanced curriculum, and other programs within and outside the school day.
C4. Each teacher is committed to and has the knowledge to create challenging lesson plans and enrichment experiences, and is able to gauge regular productive struggle in each learner by increasing the frequency, type, and quality of student performance feedback.
