Dolores S-CAP

CI – Background Information / Documents

Curriculum & Instruction – Background Information / Documents

SSR FindingsBackground Information / DocumentsEvidence

District Curriculum:

  • Dolores Curriculum
  • DOLORES Curriculum 2025-2026
  • Dolores District curricula are developed by the Dolores staff content teams. The identified content teams meet within a given year. Many staff have been trained in curriculum development through CMSI. These teams start by identifying essential skills or key learnings from the Colorado Academic Standards and structure the curriculum units using the Three C accproch-Context, Content and Cognition. These become the focus for student mastery within our written curriculum. The next step is to provide a scope and sequence written in the form of lessons and units embedded within an agreed upon template. Revisions are made regularly when the Colorado Academic Standards are changed, focuses of essential skills are modified and when new programs are purchased.
  • Dolores District has a shared folder with our current curriculum work. Staff have access to this folders, units, scope and sequence, domain maps, training videos and other resources. However we have yet to share our “live” curriculum documents with families or stakeholders. We have had published domain maps that are hung in the halls for families and visitors, but with the changes in administration lately this has not been consistant. See Dolores Curriculum Link above and additional resources.
  • We partnered with Get Better Faster 2021-2023 for training and intesive instructional support (Paul Bambrick-Santoyo). We use their approach and are continuing with observation feedback cycles with every teacher in the building. Our instructional coaches, teacher leaders and administration provide observation feedback cycles to staff according to the the staff “Will and Skill”. These observation feedback cycles are based on the training that we received . Our new staff attend a Get Better Faster bootcamp at the beginning of each year. If further training is needed the instructional coach meets with the individual teacher.

Instructional Planning and Practice:

  • CurrrProgram adoption and Curriculum work
  • MTSS shared the hexagon tool that is provided by CDE for curriculum adoption. A committee is formed and a 1 year process allows for time for research and adoption of curriculum. During a cycle of 4-6 years, a re-evaluation of materials and efficacy is done to determine if new curriculum/programs are needed.

District MTSS Approach:

  • Our district is part of the CO-MTSS regional partnership, and we are entering our third year of the grant. We have an established district MTSS team (C-DIT) that oversees districtwide implementation and supports the school leadership/MTSS teams. Our district MTSS focus area is attendance and chronic absenteeism, and we are using the 5 components of MTSS to tackle this issue. We have also used the MTSS framework to strengthen our RTI systems and align expectations. This is documented in our district RTI handbook. Our elementary school has strong tier 1 SEL instruction as well as tier 2 academic intervention (Title) groups. At the secondary level, we teach Character First for SEL foundation at this time. Our middle school has increased our tier 2 interventions through a dedicated interventionist for reading and math. At the secondary level, most of our interventions are planned by teacher teams and provided within the classroom.

Resources/Programs available to students before, during and after school for intervention and enrichment

  • We have high school tutoring and elementary tutoring after school. We would like to expand on our tutoring services, however staffing these programs has been a challenge.Occasionally we mandate student participation in tutoring in the high school for credit recovery purposes. The elementary student attendance was approx 4-6. We have a staff member who runs Friday Funday for enrichment for students on Friday’s students aren’t in school. Math Quest and Math Olympiad are offered in our middle schools. Pinhead institute Robotics, Destination Imagination are programs that are conducted by parent volunteers for our students. Tier 1 instruction is always on our radar. We are working to increase the level of rigor and alignment in our Tier 1 instruction, through instructional coaching, reviewing of our programs.
  • At the Elementary level, we have 120 minutes of ELA instruction each day for our K-3 students. 30 minutes of the 120 minutes daily is dedicated to intensive/targeted instruction through Title I interventions. We use the DIBELS 8 benchmarking and progress monitoring to for those intensive groups. Students who receive tier 2 interventions receive the approved intervention SIPPS program. Students who are identified on DIBELS 8 as having a significant reading deficiency are brought to the RTI team. The team helps to gather data and strategies, set next steps, and review progress every 6-8 weeks.
  • K-3 Literacy Programs

ICAP Approach:

  • Currently, the academic advisor meets with students 8-12 at least once each year to create and update their 4-year plans. Many of the elements of ICAP are addressed throughout secondary in various capacities but mostly through a daily Advisory Class (6-8) and Seminar (9-12). A map has been created 6-12, including grade-level overviews based on ICAP rules and quality standards and student portfolio checklists, and will be implemented at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. We expect revisions yearly and an above average amount in this initial year.
  • Students work with Academic Advisor through ICAP meetings to plan, revise, and explore students interests and skills to create a route to graduation that encompasses those components.
  • Academic Advising Site

Data Management:

  • The school uses NWEA (MAPs) as a benchmark assessment tool 3 times a year. Our K-3 students are benchmarked through DIBLES as per the ELAT project through CDE. We also test 3-8th grade through CMAS and 9-11th PSAT/SAT as per state requirement. The staff have been trained in data collection and analysis through NWEA and other purchased service providers. We allocate time monthly for data review on our work day Friday’s. We have a protocol for looking at and recording data. Staff also meet with their grade level or content teams weekly to discuss next steps for students. Although we have foundational processes in place this is always a need for us as far as formalizing our process and continued training.

Behavioral Expectations:

  • The counselor and PBIS team teach the staff the expectations. Beyond that each classroom teacher explicitly teaches the expectations in each area twice a year (Aug. and Jan.). Once expectations are taught the positive behaviors are reinforced with rewards. Behaviors are addressed through the flow chart and handled by teacher and then admin is necessary.
  • PBIS Basics Folder
  • MS PBIS Flowchart
  • HS Discipline Flowchart