DOWNEY - Fifty nine SIOP coaches were awarded the Superintendent's Vision Award in the area of instruction Tuesday for their hard work and dedication in providing SIOP support and resources for their staff, all the while performing their duties as full-time classroom teachers.Lead SIOP teacher specialist is Karlin LaPorta. SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, described as a "research-based and validated instructional model that was developed to provide teachers with a well-articulated, practical model of instruction aimed at facilitating high quality instruction for all students in content area teaching." Asst. Superintendent for Educational Services Leslie Jones, who presented the award, said the district has seen to it that nearly every teacher has been trained in the SIOP model over the past seven years. Starting on a small scale, and after much training and adding improvements to the process, with a few original SIOP coaches becoming site administrators, the program has evolved to the point where there are now two coaches at each elementary school site, four coaches at each middle school, one coach for Columbus and ten coaches at both Warren and Downey High. The net result, said Jones, is an "overall improvement of instruction for all our DUSD students."

********** Published: October 18, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 27