Planning for Sustainability

The District’s Central Administration will work with building principals to assist them and their building planning teams to yearly analyze assessment results to identify strengths and desired areas of continued growth. This has been in place since year one of the VESID grant and will continue after the funding expires.

These planning teams include: Professional Development, CDEP, and Building Leadership Teams.

Implementation of Sustainability Efforts

We will continue to provide the staff and students with on-going support in the areas of ELA and/or Mathematics. New teachers will be targeted for necessary professional development in Marie Clay Observational Survey assessments, Running Records, & instructional strategies such as Guided Reading and Writing. Sustainability of efforts is on-going and continuously looking at all sources of funding whether it be local, State, Federal or private. All sources of available funding are used to help realize annual established goals at the subject, grade, school and district levels. Our district assists beginning teachers with planning, classroom management, and district programs and series being used to support a district-wide curriculum. Progress is measured over time through standardized assessment instruments such as the Terra Nova in grades 2 and 5, the TONYSS in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 and finally, the NYS ELA in grades 4 and 8.

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Professional Development

Plan

The District’s Professional Development Team is responsible for reviewing results and developing appropriate professional development avenues to address identified goals at all levels. The team is comprised of the Assistant Superintendent, six administrators, eight teachers, a representative from the teachers & administrators’ unions, a parent, and a representative from our local colleges. This team helps to establish our district staff development days, new teacher training, consultants and their role in the district and task force work in the summer. The goals of the VESID Reading and Math Initiative Plan are already taken into consideration when professional development is planned. These goals will continue to be a focus of all district planning. The Math Leadership Program has provided a large number of teachers with quality training in the Big Ideas in elementary mathematics. These teachers have come back to the classroom with a great deal of confidence in their ability to deliver quality math instruction to their students. Our district is committed to enabling all teachers of mathematics to achieve this level of competency.

Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment, evaluation, and data analysis will be continued at the district level with the help of district and/or BOCES staff. We will continue to administer the Terra Novas at grades 2 and 5, the TONYSS at grades 3, 5, 6 and 7, and (at K-1) the Marie Clay Observational Survey, disaggregating data for at-risk, general and special education students as well as other criteria that will help identify populations that need to be targeted.

Funding Source(s)

As a result of professional development, we now have a large number of teachers trained in ELA and Math. These staff members are located in all of our elementary and middle schools and they have been specifically trained to work in the leadership area. We will rely on district funding and grant funding to provide materials and professional development to continue the initiatives in the district. We hope that we can sustain our Summer Reading and Learning Academies, the Math Leadership Program and our balanced literacy program. We recognize the gains we have made by being able to provide these programs to our staff and students and we are committed to their continuance.