As requested... Just want to give summary of my INTERPRETATION (lol) of the meeting on Wed night regarding the common core and the winter common core poll results. The poll result presentation is on the SCSD website. First, I was very interested in if and how the ELA and Math coaches helped support the teachers adopt ( math), adapt (ELA), to see if their cost in the budget seemed worth it. If you look at the poll what I noticed was a lot of division, most slides I found important like if the coaches were helpful, were divided by 3rds, 1/3 agreeing they were helpful, 1/3 indifferent, and 1/3 not helpful. However, what was pointed out was that the coaches at that time were not really doing the job they were intended to do. Because of all of the problems “rolling out” the Math “coaches” ended up creating a lot of parent, teacher, student resources including lesson plans, parent materials, parent education, that they didn’t get to coordinate as much with teachers to “model” in the classroom. What was also discussed at great length was the ELA coaches also at that time were re -writing the curriculum to include modules from the State but also include curriculum appropriate for Smithtown Students. (hence the “hybrid” curriculum) I was very impressed with the ELA administrator and her positivity, enthusiasm and passion regarding Smithtown and the quality of educators, the amount of work that went into this new curriculum writing from her the coaches and other teachers in the district. I heard an interesting statistic on the Today show the other day, that the US is only 26 of 30+ countries in Math, I find that outrageous. Also that our kids are not necessarily competing with our neighbors for spots in universities but other countries. Anyone who has been on campus at SB knows thats true. One other food for thought, those with college age children, in conversations with parents with kids applying to top universities who have GPA’s that are off the charts, their kids aren’t getting in unless they play a sport or have other outstanding features....when did our academics become not good enough? What I also found interesting, I have been to several BOE meetings and have not been impressed with the acting superintendent, however, in this smaller meeting she had several important comments. She quoted a study regarding student performance, and how staff development was found to be more advantageous than class size. She also stated in her opinion Smithtown was far exceeding other districts in its “ all in” approach, adopting the common core and supporting its teachers, students, parents to understand and implement appropriately. She said regardless of media hype “common core is not going anywhere”. I think at the end of the night (and it was a rather lengthy evening 2 hours+), I felt if I had to vote I would vote to continue with the coaches for 1 more year. I also walked away feeling pretty good about Smithtown, our administrators, teachers. I also sensed their frustration with John King and the state and how changes were made to curriculum, testing and so on inappropriately. I would have liked to see more parents attend and ask questions, especially some of the more passionate for or against. The meeting was clearly a productive discussion of how Smithtown should move forward, to further assist the special ed children and also the children having difficulty adjusting to the common core, to continue to assist the teachers in staff development. Another tidbit of information was regarding the state test scores and regents scores. No one was happy about this as the state has once again changed the scoring, state tests will be 1-4 with a 2 being satisfactory, stating the student would be graduating but not “ college ready” , 3-4 kids college ready. Regents will now be 1-5 and also as a percentage, however, again 2 represents will graduate but not “ college” ready, I believe they said that correlates to a 64, 4 is no longer exceeds but is now representing an excellent understanding of grade level material and 5 is exceeds grade level expectation. Just my interpretation….dont shoot the messenger.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:54:32 +0000
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