BOISE, Idaho — Wednesday was a day off for West Ada School District students, but teachers were in a classroom, collaborating during the district's Professional Learning Day.
"I enjoy these days. I think it's nice to have the opportunity to work with other teachers and learn more about the resources we have,” said Lori Bowerman, a first-grade teacher at McMillan Elementary.
Wednesday's professional learning day was one of four for the school year in West Ada, Idaho's largest school district.
"We brought them together to say hey this is what best practices look like, promising practices in math education and let's talk about how we can support our kids better," West Ada School District’s math curriculum coordinator Patricia Vandenberg said.
Teachers collaborated with administrators to talk about long- and short-term goals. It was also a time to celebrate teacher and student accomplishments.
Teachers learned about and discussed Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores. The scores show students surpassed state average scores. English and literacy scores in West Ada averaged 69.3%, math 56.6% and science 53.2%.
"We have amazing resources and tools and amazing teachers that really have targeted students that need that additional support. We have those structures in place,” Vandenberg said.
Although teachers and administrators were happy to see the scores go up, they also discussed ways to keep the trend going in the right direction.
"Until all our students at West Ada student are proficient, we are going to keep working hard," Vandenberg said. "We are going to keep trying to find ways to help them learn more and achieve more.”
Teachers at the conference say these type of collaborations are helpful to continue to help children meet academic goals.
"It helps us learn new things so that we become even better at teaching, at our jobs,” Bowerman said.
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