Orange - A "Professional Learning Community"

The Orange Elementary Schools is a Professional Learning Community (PLC) school district. PLC is a philosophy that places a premium on communication between and among staff, administrators, parents, and students. All of our efforts are focused on improving student performance. The collection and analysis of student data by staff serves as the vehicle for us to plan and drive day-to-day teaching decisions, thus allowing us to differentiate and individualize instruction to insure the growth of each child.

Curriculum

What an exciting time to be a member of the Orange educational community (parents, students, staff, community members). As a district we are involved in a myriad of educational initiatives all directed towards a common goal: the enhancement of student learning. In the area of curriculum and curriculum development, the State Department of Education's Connecticut State Frameworks K-12 serves as a guide that we follow in articulating the "what we will do" at each grade level in all content areas. As we have revised our curricula in Orange, we have developed these curricula to align with the CT Frameworks. This insures that the "what" we are teaching at each grade level is consistent with the State's expectations at each grade level.

Professional Development

Equally important is that we offer our staff on-going professional development to keep them abreast of the most effective teaching strategies available based on the current research. Professional development is based on the needs of our students. We define our professional development by asking the question, "What teacher skills do we need to enhance in order to enhance student learning?" In order to insure that our staff has the "tools" necessary to present our curriculum in the most appropriate way, our professional development efforts are based on educational BEST research practices.