A new year is typically a time for
reflection in our personal lives - the familiar process of examining the past
and setting new goals for the future. For a school district responsible for educating almost
3000 students, however, purposeful change takes coordination, careful planning,
and engagement of the staff in the process. Each and every decision must be carefully weighed and based
on research and experience that identifies effective practice.
I understand that parents sometimes feel that change doesn’t come quickly or that the system
is not moving along fast enough. As we begin 2010, I want to reassure you that
our teachers and administrators are working diligently to improve learning and
achievement opportunities for all students. Change does take time, but the Pelham Schools is in a
continuous process of improvement.
Standards-Based Report Card
Consider our
Standards-based report card at the elementary level. This is a complex multi-year initiative that is improving our
reporting process and ultimately the achievement level of all students. This
effort entails the development of benchmark assessments to evaluate what all students should know and be
able as well as the development of trimester rubrics or scoring guides to
ensure a consistent, coherent curriculum that is fully aligned with our
district expectations and the NYS standards.
Our
Standards-based report card process expanded last summer to include work by our
teachers to integrate the teaching of science, social studies and English
language arts whenever possible. This integration both enriches student learning and facilitates our use
of trimester, rather than end-of-the-year, benchmarks for the report cards.
With insights from parent and
teacher focus groups held last spring and this fall, we are planning new
improvements for the remainder of this year and next year. Parents and teachers alike agree
that our K-5 parent conferences are effective and informative in helping
parents to understand what their child must do to move to the next level of
achievement. Suggestions were made
that students, particularly in grades 4 and 5, could benefit from participation
in these conversations with their parents and teachers.
We also know parents want the
report card to convey more information about their child as a learner and the
effort that he or she brings to school work. We will work with our teachers to look at how we can further
address these issues and how individual comments on the report card can
“personalize” the information. Another concern expressed is the lack of parent/teacher conferences at
the end of the year. We are considering the possibility of providing parents,
particularly those of students not meeting the standards, with time to hear
from teachers about the work their child could do during the summer months in
preparation for the next school year.
Tri State Evaluation of Math
Program
Our membership in the Tri State
Consortium is another example of our commitment to continuous improvement. The Consortium’s main objective is to
assist member school districts in using student performance data to develop a
rigorous framework for systemic improvement. Similar to the process used by school districts, the
Tri State Consortium’s model has evolved and been perfected over the past
decade.
Last year, we asked the Consortium
to review our K-12 math program, a process that required many months of
preparation and analysis by our teachers. A team of 18 Tri States trained professionals conducted the
extensive evaluation that included 50 interviews with students, parents,
teachers, administrators and Board of Education members; a review of 500 pieces
of student work, curriculum and lesson plans; a review of survey responses from
parents, students in grades 3 to 12, and teachers; as well as the shadowing of
students in class over a three day period.
The report from the Tri State
Consortium team evaluating our math program includes commendations of what we
are doing effectively and recommendations for improvement.
The Tri State report was the subject of
a Board of Education meeting and Focus, our community newsletter. The report is
posted on our web site
(CLICK) and I encourage you to look at this document.
It reflects the level of thought and care that high
performing school districts engage in today.