The staff has been very busy preparing our school sites for opening! Those buildings are never empty as our ‘elves’ are always working to catch up, clean up and get ahead! These efforts include the move from Juniper Park to Russell Elementary. Kudos go out to Rick Jablonski and his entire team from Maintenance and all of our custodians.
Team cleanup and beautification efforts at both Highland and the High School have transformed the grounds led by Dennis Duquette who was recently transferred from South to the High School. The courtyard at South had benefitted from Dennis and his team of student and staff volunteers working together and now the magic is spreading. Special thanks to Intervention Coordinator Dr. Jennifer Alexander and summer school students, youth works staff and volunteers including staff from many sites and students at the high school, Highland and South Middle.
At the Central Office we have been focused on looking at preliminary data from last spring’s assessments. During a recent training with district administrators, we heard from the national data expert for Read 180 and Math 180. These are 2 intervention programs that have been introduced over the past 4 years to help our students catch up to grade level. Reported by national data analyst Dr. Sam Howe, our students have scored in the top 2-3 percent nationally in their growth results. Specifically 88 percent of students in the program met the expected annual growth. He was most excited about the number of students who met twice the annual growth goal from just one year of the intervention. The credit goes to the students and staff who have worked hard to implement and use this intervention with great focus.
In addition to this intervention data, we have also been looking at comparison reports from the past several years of early literacy testing. Once again, our students are showing steady progress and we are confident in the comprehensive program that is in place. Our model is solid in that we are using research-based materials and balancing that with aligned professional development and ongoing coaching and training. One lesson from the past that must never happen again is that we must have a plan in place to introduce new staff into the Westfield Way in classroom management, literacy, math and more. We cannot continue to reinvent the wheel and call it something new and different.
Good teaching is about knowing what to teach, knowing how to teach it to every learner and to hold students to realistic and challenging expectations. The overarching need is for teachers to engage students in ways that promote interest, enthusiasm and motivation. Good teaching has not changed although the list of things to teach will always be under revision. A good teacher can teach anything once they know what it is! The content may change but not good teaching. After several years of difficult work in bringing our curriculum up to date, our veteran’s are being encouraged to find the balance and bring creativity and inspiration into the blend.
We look forward to greeting some new staff, we will miss many others who we lost to budget cuts and we are determined to keep moving forward in spite of the fiscal challenges. We have prepared to the best of our abilities.
The best day of the year is just around the corner when we will greet our nearly six thousand students and launch another year of success. Drive with care, as the kids will be back out on the roads on September 1st. Enjoy the rest of your summer.
