Each year, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) has historically released accountability designations for all public school districts as required under the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While these designations have been paused since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, NYSED has resumed evaluating schools for the 2022-23 school year based on proficiency indicators from the 21-22 school year.
Schools are held accountable for several indicators, including academic performance, English language proficiency, and absenteeism. High schools are also held accountable for graduation rates. These measures are evaluated at the school-wide level, and also among sub-groups, such as by racial identity, disability and income level. Based on these indicators, all schools receive one of the following designations:
- Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) refers to schools experiencing low overall performance across all student groups.
- Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) applies to schools that had been identified as TSI in the 2018-19 and/or 2019-20 school years.
- Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) applies to schools or districts with specific subgroups of students experiencing low performance.
- Local Support and Improvement (LSI), formerly Good Standing, indicates that all students are meeting expectations for performance.
NYSED has released accountability designations which show that George L. Cooke Elementary School has been designated as a CSI school, and the Kenneth L. Rutherford Elementary School has been designated as a TSI school. The accountability designations mean that both buildings have data points that indicate they did not meet expectations in the indicators that determine this accountability designation.
With these designations, the two schools will be eligible for a host of support and resources from the state to enhance learning, provide professional development and promote student growth.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to use the additional funding and expertise of NYSED to work with our teachers and administrators to provide our students with the best possible education,” Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Theresa Carlin said.
All other Monticello Central School District schools were designated as LSI (formerly called “Good Standing”) schools, including the Robert J. Kaiser Middle School, which had previously been designated as a TSI school. Although an LSI designation does not require any formal action plan, the district will continue to seek to grow instructional practices in order to provide all students with the best educational experience possible.
“We recognize that COVID and the need to move to remote instruction has had an impact on the learning all students experienced during the pandemic, and at Monticello we are actively working to address that learning loss,” Ms. Carlin said. “Some of these strategies include new curricula that supports how we teach students to read and how we identify gaps in that learning to provide targeted intervention for students who may be struggling.”
As part of the response to these designations, the Cooke and Rutherford schools will survey their respective families to solicit their feedback about student learning. In addition, each school will develop a team comprised of staff and student families to create a plan of action to improve student performance. If you are interested in joining the team, please reach out to the principal of your child’s school for more information.
“After several years without state test data, we now have a better idea of what areas of growth are needed.” Ms. Carlin said. “We consider these designations to be an opportunity to strengthen our schools and fully address the learning loss that occurred during the pandemic. We are always grateful for the opportunity to receive funding to help our instructional practices without having to rely on taxpayer dollars.”