MORLEY — With over a decade of experience in academics and education, Morley Stanwood Community School’s James Nelson is taking on a new role for the district as the new director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Prior to the new position, Nelson served the Morley Stanwood High School as principal and recently celebrated 10 years with the district. His education background includes two degrees from Central Michigan University, and several years working at Shepherd High School and Newaygo High School.
Nelson said his years in education prepared him well for work in schools.
“I’ve been in a number of positions within schools around the state,” Nelson said. “I taught social studies and physical education, and have had several coaching positions, mainly football and baseball. At Newaygo High School, I was the assistant principal and athletic director for just over four years, and kind of got my feet wet as an administrator. After that, I was lucky enough to receive my principalship at Morley Stanwood.”
As the new director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, Nelson will work kindergarten through 12th grade to support building administrators and staff to ensure appropriate curriculum resources, instructional practice support, and achievement rates are at or above at satisfactory levels.
Nelson will also oversee Morley Stanwood’s progress in The Michigan Integrated Continuous Improvement Process (MICIP), which is a pathway for districts to improve student outcomes by assessing child needs to develop plans and coordinate funding.
Nelson said the new position will allow him more opportunities to improve education quality in the district.
“The focus is going to be wherever the need is shown,” Nelson said. “It's a very open position, which I like. It's going to be multifaceted with the curriculum, instruction, and assessment facets.
"Due to the fact that school improvement has gotten so large, just recently with retooling with a new platform with MICIP, continuous improvement planning will be possible. I'm taking on a huge workload in taking that over for the district, so priority No. 1 is making sure that school improvement is aligned with what the state's new platform is.”
He explained that the pandemic has impacted the progress districts have been able to make.
“I think the most important thing is to determine what our new baseline is,” Nelson said. “As far as where our kids are at right now, I think it'd be a mistake to look at past assessment data and expect our kids to be growing from the point before the pandemic, because there has been a significant amount of learning loss, or if it's not lost, it's just kind of stagnation where we haven't grown as much as we would have if we've been in a typical learning environment.
“One benefit of some of the COVID-19 relief money that's been put out there is an ability to improve our curriculum resources,” he added. “So that's one thing that Morley Stanwood as a district has really jumped on, which is improving those resources for teachers to use. I think it's important to look at our data, establish where our new baseline is, and set our goals accordingly to make sure our kids have the best chance of growing from where they're at.”
Nelson said taking on the work of the new role will allow him to learn more about how the district functions and where changes or additions could be made.
“This is a position that will give the district a partner in improving students learning at Morley Stanwood,” Nelson said. “It's an extra resource for them to reach out to me, take some of the burdens off their shoulders as far as looking for resources, analyzing data, or trying to figure out their own instructional practice. They have a partner that can come in a neutral state and say, 'here's what I'm seeing, let's try this.' Having that be a partnership to build and not a gotcha-type position where it's about what we're doing wrong. That's not what we're shooting for with this new position; it's how can we improve what we're already doing.
“We're really in a point where we're vetting that curriculum, taking the main part of those resources and organizing them to help the instructional and assessment process,” he added. “I think that's something that Morley Stanwood is doing a really good job with, along with adding instructional technology. I'm really excited to continue helping teachers progress with that. I think where my job will be headed is making sure that the instructional practice matches the curriculum resources, and that we're getting the assessment, the achievement, and growth goals assessments that we want.”
Moving forward, Nelson said he looks forward to continuing to maintain positive relationships within the district that will help him find areas that need aid, as well as creating new connections to continue making improvements as he continues his eleventh year at Morley Stanwood.
Former principal takes on new role at Morley Stanwood - The Pioneer
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