The Little Falls Township School District faced a significant challenge when Tracey Marinelli assumed the role of Superintendent and Principal. Upon her arrival, she discovered a lack of documented curriculum, leading to a lack of consistency in teaching across the district. As Tracey describes it, “no plan, no scope and sequence, no curriculum.”
This inconsistency was evident not only within individual schools but also across grade levels. Teachers were essentially reinventing the wheel daily, leading to exhausted educators and low test scores. The district needed a way to streamline curriculum development, provide consistency, and improve outcomes.
Choosing Atlas for Collaborative Solutions
Tracey Marinelli chose Atlas to address this challenge because of her collaborative leadership style and a sense of urgency. She realized the importance of bringing the entire team on board and was concerned that a one-size-fits-all solution might not work. To overcome this, she implemented a mix-and-match approach to professional development.
She selected a core team in each building to receive training in curriculum mapping and using Atlas, focusing on those who were excited about the initiative. Once this core team had been brought up to proficiency, the teaching staff across the district was invited to begin working on their curriculum in Atlas as an option, in anticipation of a mandate the following year. During the experimental year, core team members were available to support the various professional development needs of teachers in preparation for requiring this work. This approach helped make teachers less intimidated, ensuring widespread engagement in the curriculum mapping and review process.
It truly is a living, breathing document. People are consistently going to Atlas to make revisions.
– Elba Castrovinci
Elba Castrovinci, the Curriculum Coordinator, also highlighted the importance of the mix-and-match approach. It created a platform for camaraderie, and the district utilized webinars and resources provided by Atlas to ensure that different learning preferences were considered. The result was that the chaos and anxiety that existed before Atlas implementation were replaced with a sense of organization and confidence.
Changes and Improvements in Curriculum
Documenting curriculum with Atlas has transformed the way Little Falls Township School District operates. School Improvement Committees (ScIP committees) are data-focused and have a deep understanding of their curriculum. The district has moved from a lack of documented curriculum to having a living, breathing document that informs instruction. Atlas has streamlined the curriculum development process and improved collaboration.
Through our work with Atlas, we wound up making changes to what we taught in fifth and sixth grade Social Studies. Once the curriculum maps were created and the curriculum was all digitized teachers could see each other’s content for the first time. The Language Arts Teachers were saying, ‘Wait, we have such a hard time with this Greek Mythology piece, but then they’re not hitting that until sixth grade in Social Studies. Wouldn’t it make sense to teach it concurrently in fifth grade?’ So it really helped to guide some of those course placement conversations as well. That would have never happened [without Atlas], because an ELA teacher would have never been familiar with the social studies curriculum and scope and sequence.
– Tracey Marinelli
The district’s measurable results include significant improvements in test scores and the successful passing of Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) evaluations. Successfully passing and exceeding their evaluation after implementation of their curriculum work with Atlas.
Having Atlas instead of traditional folders for each DPR, Google folder with all of these different links, I could easily pull down reports that were created to show not only how we are meeting the needs, but how we really are exceeding and doing it across the district – far beyond compliance.
– Elba Castrovinci
Little Falls Township has also experienced no issues regarding New Jersey’s new health curriculum, including LGBTQ issues, which many of their peers across the state have. Tracey has said to her Board members, parents, and teams that she attributes much of this to the transparency afforded through their Atlas public site. Their curriculum and all updated integrations are available on the district and school websites for detailed information about standards and content included in these units.
Outcomes
Little Falls Township School District has concrete data and metrics to showcase the success of documenting their curriculum with Atlas. Notably, Tracey and her team earned two awards: the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence and the New Jersey Lighthouse Award. The National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence is given to only 3 elementary schools in the state annually for high exemplary performance, while the New Jersey Lighthouse Award recognizes the district’s achievements in closing the achievement gap for special education, multilingual learners and economically disadvantaged subgroups. Atlas has become an integral part of the district’s pedagogical vocabulary and a valuable tool in working toward these achievements.
The move to inclusion and having all teachers as curriculum writers significantly increased test scores. Alongside other interventions, this work with assessments and collaborative curriculum review has increased in Math from 28% proficiency to 71% and from 27% proficiency to 85% in ELA over three years. Other coordinated interventions included work with student voice and student data, but a strong component supported by Atlas was creating a more standards-based curriculum, one in which students understand the standards and what is expected of them.
Next Steps with Atlas
Prior to documenting their curriculum in Atlas, the curriculum development process at Little Falls Township School District was unstructured, lacking consistency and coherence. If Atlas were to become unavailable, it would pose a significant challenge to the district, given the central role it now plays in curriculum development, teacher collaboration, and achieving better outcomes.
The conversations are much more rich now.
– Elba Castrovinci
Elba suggests that new teams attend Atlas trainings session or workshops to establish a foundation for cohesive collaboration. Having core team members, including administrators and teachers, can kickstart collaborative conversations. She emphasizes the importance of having a lead teacher to facilitate curriculum development and review processes.
Atlas workshops were by far some of the best curriculum workshops that I’ve been to. The pedagogy is great. They administrators team members who go to those events to take back and turn-key. Yes, the tech side and support is great, but they really do understand the process of being an educator and what we’re doing.
– Elba Castrovinci
Favorite Features
As a Principal and Curriculum Coordinator, Elba loves the flexibility of Atlas, particularly the ability to color-code the scope and sequence. She describes it as a “personalized pedagogy journal.”
As a Superintendent and Director of Curriculum, Tracey appreciates that Atlas is more than just a tool; it helps in numerous ways and fosters excitement among teachers for lesson planning. She values the platform’s support, customization, and the community it creates at Little Falls Township School District.
The Little Falls Township School District’s experience with Atlas demonstrates how a collaborative approach to curriculum development, backed by the right tools, can lead to significant improvements in teacher engagement, student outcomes, and overall educational success.