The Anchorage School District released its 2012 community report on Friday. Superintendent Jim Browder says it's a way to set goals and then track the progress.
Highlights of this year's report include the district moving to Common Core State Standards. Those standards ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and or the workforce.
"We are really moving in a direction where we feel our kids will have a world class experience when they come out," says Browder.
The district is also re-working its kindergarten through eighth-grade math curriculum. The district had been using an Everyday Math program, but some parents complained it was difficult to understand and therefore help their children with homework. Browder says now the district is moving toward a more traditional approach to teaching math. "To be quite frank with you that's what the community expects and that's one of the things we are managing to do so that we get broad-based support in order to educate kids the way we need them to be educated."
ASD also wants to focus on attendance in the coming years. The district would like to see a 90 percent attendance rate. The means a student cannot miss more than 17 days of school the whole year. Currently only about half of ASD high school seniors meet that target. In fact, last year's highest attendance level came from the fifth-grade. But even then, only 82 percent of the students met the 90 percent attendance target.
The report includes much more. To see it for yourself click here.
