Parkside Discussion

Parkside Discussion:

Questions about Teacher Collaboration

This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.

The importance of teacher collaboration:

When schools have only one teacher per grade level, students miss out on the advantages of a collaborative teaching team working together daily. This includes teamwork, shared expertise, and differentiated instruction. Having at least two grade level sections in each building where teachers are collaborating together ensures that every child receives a high-quality, well-rounded environment that supports their learning. 

1. Stronger Teaching Through Collaboration and Consistency in Learning

• When teachers work together in a building, they easily share ideas, lesson plans, and strategies that help improve instruction for all students.
• Research shows that when teachers collaborate, student achievement improves significantly (Visible Learning, Hattie, 2009).
• With multiple teachers at the same grade level, all students at a grade level in the building receive a similar, high-quality education.
• Schools that follow the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model (DuFour, 2004) see higher student success rates because teachers meet regularly to discuss student progress and adjust instruction based on data.
• Research (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011) shows that when teachers work in teams, they are less stressed, more motivated, and stay in the profession longer.

2. Better Support for Different Learning Needs

• Every child learns differently, and when multiple teachers work together, they can group students flexibly to give them more personalized instruction.
• Struggling students get extra help, and advanced learners receive challenges that keep them engaged.
• Studies on differentiated instruction (Tomlinson, 2001) show that when teaching is tailored to a student’s level, learning improves dramatically.
• When teachers work as a grade level team, they can identify areas where students are struggling and quickly provide support to keep them on track.
• Common assessments across classrooms help ensure that every child is making progress and getting the support they need.
• In multi-section grades, students may have opportunities to interact with different teachers, which helps them adapt to different teaching styles and personalities.
• Flexible grouping across classrooms allows students to work with peers at similar academic levels, keeping them challenged and engaged.

Parkside Discussion:

Why an Early Childhood Center Matters?

This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.

Benefits of an Early Childhood Center:

• According to the National Education Association (NEA), children in early childhood education programs are:
  • Less likely to repeat a grade
  • Less likely to be identified as having special needs
  • More prepared academically for later grades
  • More likely to graduate from high school
  • More likely to be higher earners in the workforce
• High-quality Early Childhood Education can benefit children’s cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Studies show that children in high-quality ECE make greater improvements in these areas when compared to children from similar backgrounds who never enrolled in ECE. (Child Care and Early Education Policy and Research Analysis, 2023)
• Participating in Early Childhood Education helps children to develop skills that will benefit them in school and life. Specifically, research shows that ECE can help children learn the foundational skills for reading, math, self-control, and positive relationships. (Children’s Learning and Development Benefits from High-Quality Early Care and Education: A Summary of the Evidence, 2023)
• Building a sense of community through events for families creates an opportunity for them to connect and socialize. This fosters a sense of community and belonging to our center and Rockford Public Schools. (Survive to Thrive – NAEYC, LeeKeenan and Ponte, 2014)
• Early Childhood Education in a center provides students access to various resources and supports, including screenings for health and behavioral issues benefiting students, staff, and families.  

Parkside Discussion:  Questions about Redistricting

This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.

Should we redistrict to add students to Parkside Elementary?

When the district created new elementary boundaries last year, it was anticipated that Parkside would have more students than it does.

One solution that has been presented is to redistrict to add students to Parkside.

The rationale for not redistricting:

1. Each elementary building is currently appropriately sized.
   1. Moving students to Parkside to create two sections per grade level is not easily done. 
   2. The two closest buildings - Edgerton Trails and Valley View – currently have extra capacity.
      1. Why would we reduce their size when they already have open classrooms?
   3. Roguewood is a two-section per grade level building in both general education and Spanish Immersion.

2. We created the Northland Dr. boundary to divide the district east and west to ensure that elementary school students would attend middle school together.

3. Each elementary building has at least two sections per grade level, leading to teacher collaboration opportunities during common planning and early release times.
   1. Moving students could possibly create the situation we are trying to avoid – one-section grade levels. 

4. It is true that this is a problem that we created at Parkside with the new boundaries. 
   1. But the boundaries work at every other school.
   2. The solution is not to undersize other buildings and make multiple buildings inefficient.

5. Moving a boundary would not guarantee having students in the right grade levels. 

6. We have excess capacity at the elementary level. 
   1. Creating an Early childhood Center meaningfully uses this excess capacity to benefit the district.

         Parkside Discussion:

         What are characteristics of elementary education in Rockford Public Schools?

This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.

RPS Elementary School Landscape: Our elementary school programming offers students and families an experience that understands their student’s individual learning needs and responds to enhance personal learning experiences. We believe that we have a responsibility to every RPS student, regardless of where their home is located, to provide them with an equitable learning experience, both now and in the future. 

Core Instructional Belief:   Teachers collaborate on building grade level teams to ensure high quality instruction, assess student understanding, and respond to student learning.  Increased academic and social/emotional student learning outcomes result from a system that is structured to promote teacher collaboration.  One of the key tenets of productive collaboration includes having multiple sections at each grade level in each building where teachers have teammates to “think and do” with.  

2024/25 School Year Parkside Grade Level Sections:

• Kindergarten: 1
• 1^st Grade: 2
• 2^nd Grade: 2
• 3^rd Grade: 2
• 4^th Grade: 1
• 5^th Grade: 1

2025/26 Projected Parkside Elementary Grade Level Sections:

• Kindergarten:  1
• 1^st Grade: 1
• 2^nd Grade: 1
• 3^rd Grade: 1
• 4^th Grade: 2
• 5^th Grade: 1

Projected Valley View Elementary Grade Level Sections With Adding Current Parkside Students for the 2025/26 School Year:

• Kindergarten: 3
• 1^st Grade: 3/4
• 2^nd Grade: 3
• 3^rd Grade: 3/4
• 4^th Grade: 4
• 5^th Grade: 3

How does collaboration among teachers in the same building increase student experiences?

• A core belief of our buildings is that grade levels are responsible for the learning of all students and not just those that are assigned to a specific teacher.
• Teachers in our elementary buildings have weekly shared planning time with their grade level colleagues. Our early release calendar is intentionally designed to provide time during the school day for building grade level colleagues to discuss and respond to student learning. 
• An outcome of teacher collaboration is tiered instruction (RAMS XII 1.A.2).  Elementary schools with multiple class sections at a grade level routinely share students among teachers to intervene and extend learning.   This is not possible with one teacher per grade level and limits learning opportunities for students.
• In the instance of Parkside Elementary, teacher collaboration is limited because of current and projected single section grade levels.  Teachers are not currently afforded the benefit of collaborating about real time student learning status to improve it in the best agreed upon practice in the moment and in the future. 

What are the limitations of single grade level learning environments for the social and emotional needs of students?

• When a single section of students interacts only with each other over an extended period of time, students do not have the benefit of diverse experiences and social interactions that prepare them for the future.
• Similarly, there are times when students need space from peers.  Consider times when there are conflicts among classmates, families or others.  Always being in the same space can limit student well-being and even learning. 
• Student dynamics influence overall class learning potential.  If students learn with the same class of students for 6 elementary school years, it is likely that they may not be able to fully engage in discourse, debate and varied perspectives which support future learning.  
• Multiple sections afford increased opportunity for students to learn at their highest level as well as develop their minds and hearts because of increased interactions and options for intentional arrangements while kids develop socially and academically.

Parkside Discussion:

Valley View Enrollment and Capacity

This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.

Valley View Elementary and Capacity:

1. If we move the students from Parkside to Valley View, what would the enrollment be at Valley View?

Current Valley View enrollment (February 2025): 340

• This includes 34 developmental kindergarten students
• This includes 45 5^th grade students

Projected total 2025-2026 Valley View enrollment: 321

• Projected 1^st – 5^th 2025-2026 enrollment at Valley View: 261
• Additional kindergarten enrollment: 60

Current Parkside enrollment (February 2025): 179

• Includes 20 ASD students
• Includes 32 out-of-district school of choice students
• Includes 12 in-district school of choice students

Projected total 2025-2026 Parkside enrollment moving to Valley View: 138

• Subtract from 179 the ASD students moving to Meadow Ridge
• Subtract the 27 5^th graders moving to middle school 

Projected enrollment of combined Valley View and Parkside: 459

1.  Would a combined Valley View and Parkside exceed capacity?
   1. No. Based on the current (February ’25) enrollment for each building and rolling those up to next year, here is the current projected enrollment and preliminary enrollment for Valley View for the 2025-2026 school year:

*60 kindergarten to add

With these projections, that would use 18 classrooms. Assuming 3 kindergarten classrooms would put the total to 21.

Valley View has 27 classrooms. 3 classrooms are currently used for specials - music, STEAM, and art. With these projects the specials classrooms would still serve as specials classrooms.

With the K-5 classrooms at 21 and the specials classrooms at 3, that would leave 3 classrooms for growth.

It is important to note that these are projections based on current enrollment data. It is also important to note that Parkside currently has 32 out-of-district school of choice students. The numbers above reflect that all of those students would move to Valley View.