Thornapple Kellogg Schools
Ensuring Student Success!

We are committed to developing the best possible curricular opportunities for the students of Thornapple Kellogg Schools.  As a result, we continually work to meet and exceed state and national standards by aligning to local, state, and national content expectations.  Our school improvement process has evolved to include a systemic process for annually evaluating the need for change and improvement.

In order to ensure continued growth relative to student achievement, teachers and administrators work together to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  At Thornapple Kellogg, we use a variety of common assessments, including the following:  MEAP, Michigan Merit Exam (MME), Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), Dibels, Michigan Literacy Progress Profile (MLPP), and Response to Intervention (RTI).  In addition, the Board of Education has adopted the use of the Kent County Collaborative Core Curriculum (KC4) to guide instruction in our classrooms.  The data derived from these assessments serves to drive our instruction through a collaborative process.  Our teachers and administrators regularly assemble to discuss best practices, as well as intervention strategies, based on the assessment results.

Thanks to the dedication of our teachers, support staff, administration, and our students, we continue to rank high in MEAP scores as compared to surrounding districts, as well as those districts in the Kent ISD, of which we are a part.  Please feel free to call our office with any questions regarding curriculum and instruction.

Michigan Merit Curriculum
and Personal Curriculum

On April 20, 2006, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed into law the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), which is one of the most comprehensive sets of high school graduation requirements in the nation beginning with our current freshman class of 2011.  These graduation requirements were put into effect to better prepare students for greater post secondary success and help secure the economic future in Michigan.

For many of our TK students, the new requirements for high school graduation will be rigorous, relevant, and attainable.  However, there will be a small percentage of students whose academic success may be at risk, or who qualify for special education services that will find the increased demands difficult to attain.  To help local school districts work with these students, section 1278b (5) of the MMC law includes a Personal Curriculum which was adopted to provide a process that provides minor modifications of the MMC.  The personal curriculum must incorporate as much of the MMC subject area content as possible and needs to establish measurable goals that the student must achieve while enrolled in high school.  Continue for full article...

JUST MAP IT
Tom Enslen, Assistant Superintendent

Never before in the field of education has there been the level of accountability we now know.  While this may not be entirely unique to other organizations, businesses, or institutions, the stakes are simply higher when it involves the future of our current generation.  We are responsible for providing the best available opportunities for our students to develop the skills necessary for the ever-changing world of the 21st century.  We are accountable to state and national standards, to our communities, and ultimately to our students, and we must deliver with an unprecedented awareness of their needs.

As a result, Thornapple Kellogg Schools is working in collaboration with every school in the Kent Intermediate School District on a project called Power Standards.  For our district, our charge is to create a map of the entire curriculum that demonstrates, among other things, both the flow from one grade level to the next, as well as cross-curricular support (e.g., social studies and English working together on commonalities in the curriculum).  The title for this project is appropriately entitled, JUST MAP IT.  Continue for full article...