As we head into the home stretch of the 2025-26 school year, the finish line is in sight! Currently, we are knee-deep in data review cycles, from our internal analysis to the creation of the data workbooks we shared with you in late March.

Many of you have already jumped into the initial stages of your school’s Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA), the essential foundation for building your Continuous Improvement Plans (CIPs). In short: it’s time for data dives, goal setting, and action planning!

We recognize that everyone approaches data through a different lens. Some of us might find this process genuinely exciting (perhaps that’s why we’re in these roles—we love a good data-driven story!), while others may find it a bit overwhelming.

When we look at the big picture, we see a range of results:

Each of these data points is an invitation to create opportunities for change. Whether that change happens rapidly or incrementally, the goal remains the same: keeping students at the center of every decision.

To ground our work, it’s helpful to lean on the experts. In Street Data, Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan challenge us to think:

"Street Data: How Do We Know What We Know? To understand street data and its potential for transformation, we must first understand the ways in which our current beliefs about learning and equity have been formed. We must explore questions of epistemology, or theories of knowledge: how do we know what we know? Why do we value what we value? What constitutes knowledge, and where does the implicit hierarchy of knowledge come from? Let's demystify the ingrained ideas about data that have become normalized in education and orient ourselves to a different conception of knowledge." (p15)

The work you are embarking on with your teams requires vulnerability, critical thinking, and a willingness to look closely at uncomfortable truths. It is undeniably hard work!

Over the coming weeks, we encourage you to keep dipping back into your data. Our collective goal is to emerge with meaningful, "needle-moving" action steps that ensure high-quality learning experiences for every student.

The Vermont Framework for K-8 Social Studies is available on the Vermont Agency of Education’s Social Studies page and has been developed as a means to assist and support Curriculum Leaders as they write or revise curriculum for their districts. The framework relies heavily on what has been developed nationally, is based on the Vermont State Board of Education-adopted College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for State Standards, and encompasses a lens aligned to the work of the Ethnic Studies and Social Equity Standards Working Group.

The Vermont Framework for K-8 Social Studies was developed by the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) as a means to assist and support curriculum leaders as they write or revise curriculum for their districts. The framework relies heavily on what has been developed nationally, is based on the Vermont State Board of Education-adopted College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for State Standards and encompasses a lens aligned to the work of the Ethnic Studies and Social Equity Standards Working Group.  

We've been alerted that there are some positive and exciting shifts with the k-5 Mystery Science Curriculum happening this fall. Below is the overview of the updates and new material lists.

This has been shared with your building Principals.

For more detailed information about your specific grade level (including what units are will be affected, please click here!

 "What's New for Back to School 2026" webinar on April 15th at 2 PM EST for Imagine IM. This will be a great opportunity for teachers to learn about how we are continuing to improve your experience with us at Imagine Learning.

STAR platform has updated some of their teacher resources that we believe would be extremely helpful when planning (including small groups, intervention and more).

In essence, with a few clicks of buttons, you will be able to see groups of students who are meeting the core standards/skills, those who are missing pre-requisite skills, and those who may need extension---AND they will give you ideas for activities and lessons to improve skills (through Freckle and Nearpod lessons)! The supports and students in group will change with input from STAR assessments (both in the testing window and outside of the testing window) and Freckle skill building activities.

We have access to a video walk through explaining how to access this amazing resources. You can learn how to access the information by clicking here: 

If you have questions or trouble accessing this great new tool, please reach out to the curriculum ​team!

The SU has a wide variety of mentor texts, picture books and chapter books that explore what life is really like for multilingual and multicultural learners.

Check out this amazing resource created by Emma Pasculano, CCSU's Multilginaul Coordinator. These books are availble for inter-district loan.

The resource highlights the different books we have and suggested lessons that can accompany the books. More books are being added as well!

If you find a book that you are interested in exploring, please reach out directly to Emma Pasculano at emma.pasculano@ccsuvt.net

AI has been on our brains lately. We are working on some ways to better support you and outline some ideal processes that support and engage learning in an AI Age.

This article from Vermont teacher, Stan Williams, raises some excellent thought points and provocations. It is well worth the read!!

As educators, we do utilize AI in various aspects of our day--supporting lesson planning, coming up with learning progression scales, editing emails, analyzing data. We also struggle with the impact of using AI (not just in our workday).

CCSU has a foundation AI Principals and Beliefs document that was crafted using many different resources. While we admit we have a ways to go to ensure that we are all on the same page, here are some recent articles, statements and resources that are helping shape our thinking:

For more information, click the link above or reach out to Mel Gans at mgans@nkhs.net