May 9, 2025 Update
Good afternoon,
Today at Rockford High School, in cooperation with our security and local safety partners, we brought in their trained dogs to do a protective sweep of our high school parking lot. This is a routine and preventive practice that helps keep our students and staff safe while at school.
Unfortunately, a member of our Rockford High School NITRO team, which is our high school skeet shooting team, had a long gun in the trunk of the car. The dogs reacted to the car and, upon investigation and with consent of the student, a search discovered a long gun in the trunk.
Administrators and our school resource officer investigated, including interviews with the student and the parents. The parents of the student were called, and the gun was removed from our campus. We are also taking the appropriate disciplinary action.
At no time was school safety compromised. It is clear from the investigation that there was no ill intent. It was an unfortunate mistake.
We offer a wide variety of activities for our students to be involved in at Rockford High School – including skeet shooting. Each sport has rules that students must follow as part of the team. The skeet shooting team knows they must keep long guns used in competition off of school property.
This unfortunate circumstance was handled without incident at the high school. I wanted to make sure you heard about this incident from me. Thus, this email.
Steve
Dr. Steve Matthews
Superintendent
Rockford Public Schools
Parkside Discussion:
Questions about Teacher Collaboration
This document is intended to answer questions that have arisen as we have begun a conversation about repurposing Parkside Elementary to an Early Childhood Center.
The importance of teacher collaboration:
When schools have only one teacher per grade level, students miss out on the advantages of a collaborative teaching team working together daily. This includes teamwork, shared expertise, and differentiated instruction. Having at least two grade level sections in each building where teachers are collaborating together ensures that every child receives a high-quality, well-rounded environment that supports their learning.
1. Stronger Teaching Through Collaboration and Consistency in Learning
- When teachers work together in a building, they easily share ideas, lesson plans, and strategies that help improve instruction for all students.
- Research shows that when teachers collaborate, student achievement improves significantly (Visible Learning, Hattie, 2009).
- With multiple teachers at the same grade level, all students at a grade level in the building receive a similar, high-quality education.
- Schools that follow the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model (DuFour, 2004) see higher student success rates because teachers meet regularly to discuss student progress and adjust instruction based on data.
- Research (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011) shows that when teachers work in teams, they are less stressed, more motivated, and stay in the profession longer.
2. Better Support for Different Learning Needs
- Every child learns differently, and when multiple teachers work together, they can group students flexibly to give them more personalized instruction.
- Struggling students get extra help, and advanced learners receive challenges that keep them engaged.
- Studies on differentiated instruction (Tomlinson, 2001) show that when teaching is tailored to a student’s level, learning improves dramatically.
- When teachers work as a grade level team, they can identify areas where students are struggling and quickly provide support to keep them on track.
- Common assessments across classrooms help ensure that every child is making progress and getting the support they need.
- In multi-section grades, students may have opportunities to interact with different teachers, which helps them adapt to different teaching styles and personalities.
- Flexible grouping across classrooms allows students to work with peers at similar academic levels, keeping them challenged and engaged.
