Glossary of Terms
In the education world, we use a lot of terms and abbreviations. Our Strategic Plan defines some of these terms used for easier understanding.
Academic Pathways: Academic Pathways are a sequential list of courses in the order that you should take them. Academic pathways serve as a way to support specialized programs such as the courses that support Career and Technical Education (CTE).
Agency: In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential.
Career and Technical Education (CTE): Career and Technical Education (CTE) is the practice of teaching specific tech-based and career-oriented skills to students.
Circle Assessment: The new PK assessment is the CIRCLE assessment (previously known as C-PALLS+) system developed by researchers at the Children’s Learning Institute (CLI). This Pre-K assessment tool is designed to measure young children’s literacy and language skills (vocabulary, letter identification, and phonological awareness).
Community Building Morning Meetings/ Circles: The power of classroom circles or morning meetings to foster emotional intelligence, improve wellbeing and create a culture of kindness is well documented. Circles are important tools for nurturing relationships and feelings of community.
Content Specific Standards: Specifications of what all learners are expected to know and be able to do within a particular field of study, discipline or subject at different grade levels, ages, or other criteria.
Culturally & Linguistically Responsive: Leveraging students’ cultural and linguistic experiences, utilizing their background knowledge, and providing multiple ways for students to learn and demonstrate new learning.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three closely linked values held by many organizations that are working to be supportive of different groups of individuals, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations.
Experiential Learning: The process of learning through experience, and is more narrowly defined as "learning through reflection on doing". Hands-on learning can be a form of experiential learning, but does not necessarily involve students reflecting on their product.
International Baccalaureate (IB): IB is a program focused on developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. The program empowers school-aged students to take ownership in their own learning and help them develop future-ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a world that changes fast. Learn more at this link.
Life-Long Learning: Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated " pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. It is important for an individual's competitiveness and employability, but also enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development.
Life Skills: A skill that helps a person to function well in adult life, especially in social or emotional situations.
Literacy Skills: Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world.
Literacies: Literacies refers to more than just simply reading, and writing, as it further extends to preparing our students with knowledge and skills to be well-rounded citizens who are able to participate in our society.
Measurable Results Assessment (MRA): A survey and reporting system that provides schools uncommon insight on the attitudes and behaviors of staff and students. The data informed insights were designed to align with expected outcomes common to schools implementing the paradigms and practices of Leader in Me, and seen in the Framework below.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports through intervention (MTSSi): A framework many schools use to give targeted support to struggling students. It focuses on the “whole child.” That means it supports academic growth, but many other areas, too. These include behavior, social and emotional needs, and absenteeism (not attending school).
National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI): NOCTI is the leading provider of industry credentials and resources for career and technical education (CTE) programs across the nation.
Numeracy: Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and to apply simple numerical concepts.
Panorama Assessment: Research proven survey for social-emotional learning survey, intervention tracking, and versatile check-in tools.
Project Lead the Way (PLTW): PLTW is a research-supported program that empowers PreK-12 students to discover and explore interests, imagine and design solutions to real-world challenges, and become independent, confident problem solvers. learn more at this link.
Restorative Practices: A field within the social sciences that studies how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities. Regular classroom practices like check-in circles develop relationships and help community members get to know and care for each other. Restorative justice practices repair harm, rebuild relationships, and re-establish trust when conflicts and issues arise within a community.
Stakeholders: A stakeholder is a person, group or organization with a vested interest, or stake, in the decision-making and activities of a business, organization or project. In Sweet Home our stakeholders are students, parents, families, educators, and community members.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): An umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of education policy or curriculum choices in schools.
Strategic Plan: An organization's process of defining its strategy or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals.
Student Voice: Refers to the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students in a school, and to instructional approaches and techniques that are based on student choices, interests, passions, and ambitions.
Vertical Alignment: A strategy for improving how a school system’s standards, curriculum, assessments, and instruction connect to one another to produce a balanced and comprehensive education where concepts and skills build off of one another.
Wildly Important Goals (WIGs): A Leader in Me (LiM) component which is a goal that can make all the difference. LiM community members commit to apply a disproportionate amount of energy to WIGs. Community members are asked "If every other area of our operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact?"
21st Century Skills: A broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed—by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others—to be critically important to success in today’s world and beyond.
21st Century Literacy Skills: a broad vision of literacy, which includes the need to be “creative, independent thinkers.