Safford Unified District

We are planning a complete overhaul of the instructional program in Safford. Most of our students are low income so they are at-risk all the time and were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, some of them are still experiencing the financial impact from business closures and will for some time, We are going to be very closely evaluating our instructional materials and programs, doing vertical alignment to ensure a better grasp on what was lost during the shut down so we can fill those holes. We are also wanting to find curriculum to better meet the needs of our low income students, which will benefit all of our students in this district. While some of this was a pre-COVID issue the closures and learning loss suffered because of the closures, and still due to quarantining and missed school, it became apparent that the curriculum and learning program we currently have is not meeting the needs of those students, this has been exacerbated by COVID, we are looking to update everything to be more evidence based and more suited for OUR students. New curriculum will also help with expanding opportunities into the home because many of the new curriculums are now also online. Going one to one allows all students to take their devices and utilize opportunities available to them online while at home, when they may not have a computer. The shut down also illustrated how many individuals share devices or don't have any at all, we are working to mitigate that as well.
-The vulnerable student populations are homeless, Free/Reduced lunch, Hispanic, EL, and Special Education. We will be working to extend the school year opportunities for students with summer school, extended time for these populations has been proven to be effective with them. We are also doing some extended day programs with Voyager Sopris Passports which has a high rating with ESSA What Works Clearinghouse. We are also implementing Capturing Kids Hearts to work on the social emotional health/learning for our students and to help teachers to make connections to our at-risk students. We are also looking to adopt Houghton Mifflin Into Reading that has a high ESSA Rating for What Works Clearinghouse as well as updating and enriching our iReady Math Curricula that we already have to help reinforce math skills with our students.