Designing Programs
Because we believe students and teachers have special areas of interest, unique motivations, strengths and weaknesses and different learning or teaching styles, we are strongly committed to designing our programs to match the individuals.

Learning Styles
As babies, we learn to walk at different ages and at different speeds than our playmates. In school, some students learn best in a small group, others in a large group, from each other, or one-to-one with adults. Some learn best by reading, some by watching, some by doing. Frequent testing in each subject tells us who can move on, who needs more time.

Teaching Styles
Just as students don't all learn in the same way, teachers don't teach alike.  Some teach fractions by cutting up pies, others by dividing recipes.  Some like one textbook, some another.  And just as students have favorite subjects and hobbies, so do teachers.

By placing students in grade level teams in elementary school, we offer them the chance to pursue subjects at their own pace, in their own style.  Teachers are placed in teams of 3 or 4 with the assistance from one or more instructional aides, with team planning time built into each day.  This system gives teachers the opportunity to utilize time to the best of their abilities.

Teaching areas are built around a central media center with trained personnel to give students and teachers a wide range of teaching and learning material.  Support staff provides students and teachers with above-average amounts of adult-student contact time.

Sharing Responsibilities
The District Cabinet, chaired by the superintendent, includes the assistant superintendent, special education coordinator and building principals.  The District Cabinet implements policy set by our seven elected board members.

District-wide committees are made up of teachers from each building.  Staff in-service training for the district is also committee planned.

We believe the student's education is a shared responsibility between school and home and encourage parents to take part in their child's education.

In 1995, the district formed two programs to reinforce community support for the district and its three schools.  The Citizens Advisory Council (CAC), made up of interested community members, meets monthly to discuss various issues affecting the education of District 13 students.  The Assist Children's Education (ACE), a community-supported program, matches community members with faculty assistance requests and includes volunteers who help in the classrooms, senior citizen pen pals and citizens with exciting hobbies or professions to share with students.  District 13 also joined several Bloomingdale governmental organizations to form the Bloomingdale Inter-governmental Group (BIG).  Members meet bi-monthly to discuss activities and issues occurring at each organization and work to develop cooperative programs.

To foster increased parental involvement, the district sponsors programs to provide information on current educational strategies and ways parents can enhance their children's educational experience.