Okay, I didn’t go to the BOE meeting last night to hear in person what the District Improvement Plan was all about. Eagerly I read the Hour report, and like Clara Pelter, I surmised that all I was getting was a big bun.
Here’s what we can glean from the Hour report.
Corda was there.
He used a powerpoint.
Oh, let’s just go the article shall we:
The “cohesive, coherent” plan, said Corda, has three parts: student achievement goals that the education community intends to achieve; strategies and processes that will be used to achieve these goals, and; an accountability strategy that will be used to monitor the plan’s implementation.
The plan, Corda said, was developed by about 50 administrators and teachers along with consultants and members of the state Department of Education.
The plan intends to develop high levels of competency in nine areas, including using research-based teaching strategies demonstrated to impact student achievement, collaborative teacher work as a routine part of professional practice, developing district benchmarks in all content areas, and engaging parents in the life of the district and schools to ensure a strong collaboration that supports student achievement.
“This will be the work of all schools by grade level and departments, and all of (the) Central Office,” Corda said.
This challenge, said continued, can only be met by the focused collaboration by teachers and administrators on instructional issues of urgency.
“It’s important to understand that this is a multi-year effort and we have to make sure that we stick to what we say we will do,” Corda said. He added that the objective of the plan will change from year to year based on students’ performances.
It’s like watching the educational version of Spinal Tap, hey we need focused collaboration so let’s just turn that volume dial to 11.
Here’s an exclusive, no powerpoint, no high levels of competency in nine areas, just one singular sensation focus:
Increase hours spent by each student reading books. Every student, every grade, every day. Teachers would be left to individually figure out how to achieve that goal with no collaborative professional practice content area benchmark in site.
Asked by Board Chairwoman Susan Hamilton what a new teacher should take away from this, Corda said, “The most important people will be the building principals, because they will be expected to understand the material, and convey it to the teacher and convey the expectations.”
Et tu, Corda, et tu.
source: The Hour, Corda presents improvement plan, By JOAN GAYLORD and HAROLD F. COBIN, August 20, 2008
It is always nice to see friends from around the city and hear what is going on at their schools. So Anne, my take on today was as follows;
