May 20, 2025 Update
Good afternoon,
Tom Hosford, our Rockford High School principal, was approved last night by the Forest Hills Public Schools Board of Education to serve as their Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.
Mr. Hosford is a valuable member of our administrative team. He has been the principal at Rockford High School for the past four years and has served in our district as an administrator and a teacher for 22 years. He is also a graduate of Rockford High School, proud class of 1998.
Mr. Hosford has spent his career preparing for leadership. He has served at multiple administrative levels in our district.
And our district has done a good job of preparing Mr. Hosford, as we do all our administrators, for increased responsibility. That preparation brings opportunity.
The opportunity will lead Mr. Hosford away from Rockford. He is ready for this opportunity. I wish him well as he transitions out of Rockford over the next several weeks. His official start date will be July 1.
In our district, we have posted the job of Rockford High School principal. We have a process in place to move forward to identify and hire the next great principal. Our hope is to have the process complete by the end of June.
On a personal note, I wish Mr. Hosford well. He is a passionate, kind, caring colleague. More importantly, he is a good friend. I will miss him.
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.
