The Academic achievement Council functions in a similar manner to the ILC, except the focus is different. This group was established in the fall of 1990 when it became clear through discussions at ILC meetings that, in order to facilitate our capacity to understand and apply curriculum school-wide, we needed to develop concrete grade level goals for student learning. When the goals were complete, the group turned its attention to assessment. For the past two years, and continuing this year, the group has developed, revised and trained staff to use various authentic assessments strategies. All of this work was conducted by representatives who, like their ILC counterparts, reported progress and received feedback from the staff at grade level meetings.
Teachers serve on the AAC on a two year, rotating basis.
Over the last four years, a majority of Felton teachers have served on at least one of these leadership groups. Assisting New Teachers During their first year at Felton, new teachers participate in the New Teacher work group, led by our resource specialist. These Felton-specific means of assistance are coordinated with the district sponsored New Teacher Support program which provides 10 release days for new teachers to receive instruction on such topics as classroom management, assertive discipline, and cooperative learning. The emphasis at Felton is not staff-wide collaboration per se, but collaboration that explicitly improves the effectiveness of our school program. To this end a number of structures have been developed that focus and support the staff's efforts to achieve our agreed upon goals for student learning.