New middle school history curriculum up for approval at May 16 school board meeting

Trustees will vote on whether to adopt the TCI History Alive! for Winters Middle School curriculum at the upcoming May 16 Winters Joint Unified School District School Board meeting. WMS students and teachers participated in a pilot of three history curriculums for consideration as the current curriculum was released in 2006 and is considered outdated when compared to an updated History Social Science framework released by the California Department of Education in July 2016 and to content outlined in the FAIR Education Act, SB4B (Fair, Accurate, lnclusive, and Respectful Education Act). Phoebe Girimonte, WMS Vice Principal, presented the curriculum as the preferred curriculum to the board at the April 18 school board meeting. She said students participated in a unit in each of the considered curriculum and staff took their feedback and appreciation of the different programs into account when deciding on which adoption to propose to Trustees. “It’s the best suited program because it has engaging lessons, Spanish support materials and online resources,” Girimonte said. “Another shift that we really like is it moves students toward more rigorous critical thinking. It is aligned with history as we now recognize is not currently represented in our current adoption.” The amount of the proposed history adoption’s fiscal impact will come back higher at the May 16 meeting because the prior quote did not include an additional two years or hard copy print materials. The original quote was about $36,000 but the actual quote will be in a price range of about $64,000. It also was for a six year pilot when the actual pilot program options offered were a four year or an eight year pilot. The TCI History Alive! Curriculum were available for public review at the Winters JUSD office and Winters Community Library from April 2 to May 2.]]>