Curriculum
Curriculum Guide K-4
Curriculum Guide 5-8
Exit Goals
The Gateway faculty has developed exit goals for major instructional areas. These are complete and downloadable below.
Why has Gateway developed exit goals?
Exit goals are intended to clarify expectations, to ensure that grade level goals are part of a continuum, and to allow both parents and teachers to see what is happening. They are used in conjunction with the semester Progress Reports to show each child's standing in relation to grade expectations.
Who has put these exit goals together?
The exit goals have been put together by all the teachers involved in teaching that discipline. For example, all the Gateway homeroom and Core teachers (K-8) cooperated in preparing the Language Arts areas, and the two Spanish teachers are working on the Spanish goals.
How are these exit goals used?
There are several ways in which the goals are used. The goals are intended to be the minimum skill level achieved by 80% of the students in each class. They are used in conjunction with the autumn ERB standardized assessment to aid in planning the specific skills to be taught over the course of the year. They also help to inform our admissions assessment, especially for children entering in the older grades.
How were the goal levels established?
As mentioned above, these goals are intended to be attainable by 80% of the students. These goals reflect the capabilities of our students and their developmental pace. External measures show that our student population is similar to that of other academic independent schools that use the ERB achievement tests and fall within the top 30% of the nation. Exit goals are reviewed to see if they are appropriate to the student population and will be refined as needed.
How do these goals relate to curriculum?
The goals mainly measure skills and are not intended to dictate curriculum content, though they might affect the amount of time focused on a skill area. The goals were developed by the faculty with the current curriculum in mind. Curriculum is consistently reviewed, both in the individual grades and school-wide.
How do teachers measure my child’s ability to meet these goals?
As we developed the exit goals we made sure that each goal was one that we could measure with some objectivity. We do not rely only on standardized tests. We try to make sure that the goals are shown in action rather than demonstrated by a short-term memory exercise. The range of goals means that written work, discussion, oral presentation, and projects can all be used to show a student's level of achievement.
What does it mean if my child already meets the majority of these goals early in the year?
With the expectation that 80% of the students will reach or surpass these goals, it is not surprising to see that many children will have reached the exit level well before they leave a specific grade. Teachers will continue to provide challenge for students, and they have the continuum for all the grades, so they know the direction in which to “stretch” those students who have already met the exit goals.
What does it mean if my child fails to meet any of these exit goals by the end of the year?
The response will depend a great deal on the individual situation of the child. Gateway has always been strong in its ability to respond to the individual. This effort needs to be tempered with the amount of range and of individual help possible within a class. If a child falls below the exit expectations in a few areas, it is unlikely to be serious, though we would examine why the child cannot meet these appropriate goals. Sometimes tutoring might be required, or teachers might set goals for improvement within a scheduled time period. It is possible that a student could be put into a probationary relationship until the lag has been made up. It is possible that an Independent Educational Program (IEP) be put in place with different goals.
