The focus of the Instruction Office is on supporting student achievement. This is accomplished through supporting teachers and administrators as they directly meet the needs of all students. The Instruction Office is proud of the accomplishments of our students and the recognition that is provided our staff.

Many examples of both exist, but the most easily recognized are the Michigan Department of Education District / School Report Cards and the most recent rating by the Grand Rapids Magazine, which found Forest Hills to be the number one school district in the Metropolitan Grand Rapids area.

Our commitment is to continuously improve the curriculums, instructional practices and assessments that support student learning. Evidence of this is evident throughout our schools, and most importantly, in our classrooms.

1)    Provide Curriculums that outline a basic framework for what students must learn, how they can learn it through multiple means,  and in what scope and sequence demonstrates thoughtful integration.

2)      Employ Instructional practices that are consistent with what is know about child development, incorporates activities that meet the needs of students with varying abilities and needs, and is easy to use for teachers because of the available materials, samples, examples and suggested resources.

3)   Provide Assessments that show clear performance expectations for students and teachers alike.  Assessments should help to clarify exactly what the grade or course objectives mean and provide a common standard for evaluating how successfully they are achieved.

FHPS Staff Support All Learners
Forest Hills administrators, teachers, and specialists are developing an instructional framework to ensure our youngest students are supported for success in literacy. Although similar to a widely known framework known as Response to Intervention (RtI), our work is in keeping with the FHPS vision of “All learners achieving individual potential.” We prefer to think of this framework as Response to Instruction because it is our goal for every student to respond to what is being taught in our classrooms.

Research tells us teacher expertise is the key to student learning. Expert teachers who are dedicated to professional learning are a hallmark at each of our FHPS schools. This August, our kindergarten through third grade teachers participated in district-wide professional development sessions on using best instructional practices to teach reading and writing. In addition, beginning this fall, progress- monitoring tools are being implemented with consistency in all kindergarten and first grade classrooms to monitor student learning progress. Through these progress checks, our expert early childhood teachers will be able to notice and respond to individual student learning using best instructional practices.

Resulting from the implementation of progress checks, teachers will provide a variety of instructional strategies as well as increased time and intensity of instruction to help advance student learning. For example, a new literacy support program named Strategic Teaching to Accelerate Reading Success (S.T.A.R.S.) has been developed to support beginning readers who present with a need for additional instruction. Highly trained learning support aides will work in collaboration with first grade teachers (and later in the year kindergarten teachers) to support these developing readers by providing them with extra literacy instruction using strategies for success that are based on research. The S.T.A.R.S. program replaces the previous Getting Ahead Through Outstanding Reading Strategies (G.A.T.O.R.S.), but incorporates many of its most successful components.

The development and full implementation of our Response to Instruction framework will be on-going throughout this school year and beyond.

 

Elementary Standards-Based Report Cards
Please click here for information regarding Understanding Elementary Standards-Based Report Cards.

 

Annual Education Reports (AER):
•  To view our full list of AER, please click here.

 

2012-2013 High School Course Description Guide