Curriculum and Assessment

GRADING AND REPORTING

Fridley Public Schools uses a standards-based philosophy for grading and reporting student achievement and progress. This approach reports grades as an indicator of a student's level of mastery of a standard or learning objective, instead of assigning grades based on work completion or individual assignments. Standards-based practices are rooted in a belief that grades are:

• Fair - students with the same performance receive the same grade
• Accurate - grades reflect the actual academic performance of the student
• Specific - students and parents know exactly what learning is required for students to improve

ELEMENTARY 

The purpose of the report card is to provide a summary of student progress to parents and families. All student outcomes were developed directly from current Minnesota Academic Standards. 

MIDDLE SCHOOL 

Fridley Middle School grading and reporting is based on the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) framework. Objectives for each subject area are established by the IB and align with state and national standards.   Teachers work collaboratively to design rigorous assessments that measure mastery of the knowledge, skills and processes for each course.  In addition to scores for each of the objectives, students will receive separate scores for approaches to learning skills.   These are skills that support learning across all subject areas.

Middle School Grading and Reporting Parent Guide

HIGH SCHOOL 

Fridley High School grading and reporting is based on the objectives of the IB Middle Years, Diploma, and Career-related Programmes.  Objectives for each subject area are established by the IB and align with state and national standards.   Teachers work collaboratively to design rigorous assessments that measure mastery of the knowledge, skills and processes for each course.  In addition to scores for each of the objectives, students will receive separate scores for approaches to learning skills.   These are skills that support learning across all subject areas.

High School Grading and Reporting Parent Guide

Grading and Reporting Practices Handout

Further information on homework, incompletes, and course credit

MATHEMATICS

Fridley Public Schools is committed to providing an engaging and developmentally appropriate learning environment for your child to learn and master the skills and concepts of math. Our district is committed to math instruction that allows students to excel in the skills they need to succeed in college and the workplace. We advocate instruction that engages students in understanding mathematics, computing fluently, applying strategies to solve problems, reasoning logically, and connecting and communicating mathematical ideas through the standards for mathematical practice. Our curriculum and instruction is coherent, focused and consistent with research in the field where every student is empowered by the opportunities mathematics affords. The instructional program is built on the IB Framework and embeds the MN Academic Standards in Mathematics.

Mathematics Instruction Continuum

The Primary Years Programme (PYP) for Grades K-4 provides teaching and learning experiences to challenge students to be curious, ask questions, explore and interact with the environment physically, socially and intellectually to construct meaning and refine their understanding. The use of structured inquiry is a precursor to the problem-solving and inquiry-based approach of Middle Years Programme (MYP) in Grades 5-10 mathematics. Students continuing on to the IB Diploma Programme (DP) will have developed not only an inquiring and reflective approach to mathematics learning but also critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which they will be able to apply and extend in further DP mathematics courses. This continuum of instruction is designed to accommodate the range of needs, interests and abilities of students, and to ensure that students are college and career ready.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Mathematics

The Minnesota Academic Standards in Mathematics set the expectations for achievement in mathematics for K-12 students in Minnesota. The standards are grounded in the belief that all students can and should be mathematically proficient. All students should learn important mathematical concepts, skills, and relationships with understanding. The standards and benchmarks describe a connected body of mathematical knowledge that is gained through the processes of problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation.

The Minnesota Academic Standards in Mathematics are organized by grade level into four content strands:

1. Number and Operation
2. Algebra
3. Geometry and Measurement
4. Data Analysis and Probability

Instructional Materials

Teachers utilize multiple resources to provide differentiated learning experiences in their classrooms designed to meet the diverse needs of students. To support a coherent and consistent curriculum, the school district provides the following as primary resources for instruction. 

READING AND LITERACY

In Fridley Public Schools, we define competency in language arts as the ability to independently write, read, and understand textual material that is appropriate to the age and grade level of the student. The goal is proficiency for all students by implementing research-based core reading and writing instruction. Students are assessed using school-wide screening measures and rubrics to identify student proficiency levels (Fridley Read Well by Grade 3 Plan).

The goal of literacy and reading instruction within the IB Programme is as a means to communicate understanding and gather information. To this end, all teachers have a role in teaching and supporting literacy in all disciplines. There is a strong focus on students' abilities to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, as well as comprehend language through listening, reading and viewing. All students need to be able to communicate effectively and be critical readers and writers. The K-12 instructional program builds on experiences in language learning that students have gained in each previous year. Knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills will be developed through reading, writing, listening, speaking and investigations. All instruction is aligned with the MN Academic Standards for English Language Arts.

All student will be able to:

• use language as a vehicle for thought, creativity, reflection, learning, self-expression and social interaction
• develop the skills involved in listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and presenting in a variety of contexts
• develop critical, creative and personal approaches to studying and analyzing literary and non-literary works
• engage in literature from a variety of cultures and representing different historical periods
• explore and analyze aspects of personal, host and other cultures through literary and non-literary works
• engage with information and communication technology in order to explore language
• develop a lifelong interest in reading widely
• apply language skills and knowledge in a variety of real-life contexts

Instructional Program

 K-5 Benchmark Literacy

Benchmark Literacy is a comprehensive instructional program with 30 weeks of explicit comprehension-focused lessons for the whole class, small groups, and intervention. The key components of the primary instructional resources are:

• Assessment-driven instruction that is differentiated and includes responding to text
• Gradual release and built-in choice that support student progress and teacher creativity
• Precisely leveled texts for your full range of students, including ELs and striving readers
• Leveled Reader's Theater and diverse genres that engage students and extend learning

The Benchmark Literacy program is research-based design that addresses the identified “five pillars” of literacy instruction.

• Phonemic Awareness - the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words
• Phonics - the ability to draw relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. This teaches students to use these relationships to read and write words.
• Fluency - the ability to read text accurately and quickly, either silently or orally.
• Vocabulary - A knowledge of word meaning helps with decoding and also improves reading comprehension.
• Comprehension - the ability to understand, to remember, and to communicate meaning from what is read. Students work repeatedly with the following strategies: identify main idea and supporting details; analyze character; identify sequence of events; analyze story elements; make inferences; summarize information; make predictions; compare & contrast; identify cause and effect; draw conclusions.

These five key elements are embedded in the key skills and topics along with the link to writing. Students practice and develop skills and strategies at their own reading level with the goal to have all students working at a literacy level that puts them on track for college and career readiness as defined by the ACT.

science

Science is the active study of the natural and man-made world, including processes, structures, designs, and systems. Science students use their senses and tools to observe, record and analyze data about the world and to make conclusions based on evidence. Scientifically literate young people can understand basic science concepts, use skills for doing scientific investigations, solve technical problems, and design technologies for today’s world.

The Science Continuum

The main approach to teaching and learning sciences in the Primary Years Programme (Grades K-4) is through structured inquiry. PYP students are encouraged to investigate science by formulating their own questions and finding the answers to those questions, including through research and experimentation. In turn, students construct meaning and create models of how the world works through the development of scientific knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills. Scientific inquiry is central to teaching and learning science in the Middle Years Programme (Grades 5-10). It enables students to develop a way of thinking and a set of skills and processes that allows them to acquire knowledge and understanding. Science and its methods of investigation offer a way of learning that contributes to the development of an analytical and critical way of thinking. Inquiry is at the heart of MYP sciences and aims to support students’ understanding of sciences by providing them with opportunities to independently investigate relevant issues through both research and experimentation. The MYP sciences curriculum must be relevant to the interests of students, providing them with opportunities to explore the connections between science and everyday life. It is anticipated that students will become interested in and engaged with the role of science in the world. Through the investigation of real examples of the application of science, the “one world” objective allows students to gain insight into the tensions and dependencies between science and societal, environmental and ethical factors. Fridley High School offers multiple electives in science including various options for the Diploma Programme (Grades 11-12).

Protecting student data

Fridley Public Schools uses a variety of digital tools to support student learning. 

Depending upon the particular educational technology being used, our district may need to collect different types of student data, which is then shared with educational technology vendors through their online sites, services, and/or applications. Under Minnesota’s Student Data Privacy Act, educational technology vendors are prohibited from selling or renting a student's information or from engaging in targeted advertising using a student's information. Such vendors may only disclose student data for K-12 school purposes and other limited purposes permitted under the law. This act also requires districts to provide timely notice of the tool used, data collected, and contact information.

Download a spreadsheet that catalogs the full library of evaluated resources. If you have any questions or concerns about any digital resources used by your child, please contact your child’s teacher.