Elmira City School District
2008-09 Contract for Excellence Overview

Public Hearing:

The district hosted a hearing on June 9 to provide members of the public an opportunity to provide feedback, ask questions and make comments on the proposed 2008-09 Contract for Excellence, which is outlined below.

Below are presentations from the hearing as well as a summary of public comment received there and via e-mail.

Another public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. August 5 at the EFA community room to discussion performance targets:

2008-09 Contracts for Excellence Performance Target Guidelines

The Department of Education expects C4E districts to include a gap reduction target for every subgroup within a schools receiving C4E allocation. For schools in accountability status, the percent gap should be a minimum of 10 percent. Districts should focus their performance targets on accountability criteria. Districts and schools that are making AYP should select the lowest performing subgroups in schools with C4E allocations and identify their expected percent gap reduction effort (may be less than 10 percent). If graduation rate is chosen, an increase of a minimum of 1 percent should be designated.

Click here for Elmira performance targets.

Click here for a presentation from the public hearing.

Click here to provide input on the performance targets.

Class Size Reduction:

The Elmira City School District is committed to maintaining small class sizes in its elementary schools. The district will continue to support staffing during 2008-09 using C4E dollars. Providing favorable class sizes allows instructional staff to facilitate teaching and learning in a meaningful and engaging way, fosters positive relationships in the classroom and provides opportunities for individualized instruction to support all students.

Small class sizes are designed to improve student achievement through support for the following research-based best practices:

Direct, implicit instruction across all core curriculum areas;
Support for implementation of 90-minute literacy blocks in all kindergarten classes;
Teacher time for implementing research-based, prescriptive intervention for struggling students;
Additional teacher time for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students;
Additional time for implementing needs-based flexible grouping.

In order to achieve these goals, the district reviewed projected class sizes in kindergarten through grade 5 as well as student achievement data for each of the district's eight elementary schools. As a result of the analysis, the district developed a plan that will use C4E funds to reduce class sizes across the eight elementary schools.
The early grade class size reduction plan will not reduce the teaching staff at the upper grades to increase the staffing in kindergarten through grade 5.
In addition, the district will support a full-time health teacher to reduce existing class size at the high schools and provide an opportunity for acceleration. The district has partnered with Corning Community College to offer college-level health courses for upperclassmen.

Teacher and Principal Quality Initiatives:

The district is committed to supporting new teachers and re-tooling its veteran staff with research-based instructional strategies to meet the needs of all students. Additionally, given the number of new administrators in the district, there exists a clear need to focus on supporting leadership at the school level. To that end, the district will use C4E funds to support its instructional program by focusing on the following areas:

Principal coaching;
Recruitment and retention of highly qualified staff; and
Professional mentoring for teachers.

Coaching/support

The district will continue to support new administrators with two administrators in the office of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. They will provide coaching support and partner leadership in each of the schools by:

Conducting classroom walkthroughs with the principal;
Co-observing instruction;
Supporting professional development;
Coordinating the writing and submission of School In Need of Improvement plans for Diven, Broadway Middle and Ernie Davis.
Supporting the implementation of the Special Education Audit recommendations.
Chairing committees in math, English, science and social studies;
Restructuring sixth grade;
Providing research on best practices in grades 5-6 and 8-9 transitions;
Supporting programs to reduce high school drop-outs;
Identifying interventions to reduce special education referrals;
Supporting the Co-Teaching Special Education Instructional Model;
Coordinating summer school programs;
Identifying opportunities for summer enrichment;
Supporting administrators in gathering and reporting appropriate data.

Recruitment and retention of highly qualified staff

The district is invested in recruiting highly talented and skillful teachers and administrators. To support this initiative the district has assigned an Assistant Principal to support the recruitment efforts in high need certification areas including languages other than English, technology, special education and administration.

Professional mentoring for teachers

The district will provide one Instructional Support Teacher/Instructional Coach for each of its 13 schools as well as a districtwide support teacher for reading instruction. An Instructional Support Teacher is a certified teacher who serves as a support to classroom teachers and supports staff in meeting the needs of students. The IST has no assigned classes or case load of students. Working with staff, the IST assists teachers and support staff in implementing effective research-based practices in curriculum, instruction and assessment, through the following:

Supporting teachers' efforts in identifying students who are failing, are at risk of failing or are in need of enrichment/acceleration;
Supporting teachers in conducting curriculum-based assessments to discover the individual student's instructional level and learning needs;
Helping teachers to identify instructional strategies and practices that meet the student's needs;
Teaching strategies to staff and students;
Modeling instructional strategies and practices through staff development and within the classroom;
Supporting teachers in the implementation of effective instruction in classrooms;
Encouraging and facilitating networking among teachers within each building;
Assisting grade-level and building Classroom Intervention Model teams (CIM) in developing effective team practices;
Supporting teachers in gathering and reporting appropriate data;
Delivering staff development within the school and the district;
Applying learning technology across the curriculum;
Facilitating district-wide continuity in standards-based curriculum, instruction, assessment and reporting;
Working collaboratively with principals as a member of the school's leadership team.

District Initiatives:

The district is committed to serving its hardest-to-reach students. To this end, it has developed three focus areas in the elementary and middle level to providing student support and enrichment programming.

Counselors at the elementary schools

Elementary school years set the tone for developing the knowledge, attitudes and skill necessary for children to become healthy, competent and confident learners. Through a comprehensive developmental elementary school counseling program, counselors will work as a team with the school staff, parents and the community to create a caring climate and atmosphere. By providing education, prevention, early identification and intervention, school counselors can help all children achieve academic success.

Elementary school counselors will follow the American School Counselor Association guidelines by providing:

School guidance curriculum

Academic support, including organizational, study and test-taking skills;
Goal-setting and decision-making;
Career awareness, exploration and planning;
Education on understanding self and others;
Peer relationships, coping strategies and effective social skills;
Communication, problem-solving and conflict resolution;
Substance abuse education;
Multicultural/diversity awareness.

Individual student planning

Academic planning;
Goal-setting/decision-making;
Education on understanding of self, including strengths and weaknesses;
Transition plans;

Responsive services

Individual and small-group counseling;
Individual/family/school crisis intervention;
Conflict resolution;
Consultation/collaboration;
Referrals.

System support

Professional development;
Consultation, collaboration and teaming;
Program management and operation.

Behavioral Specialist at Diven Elementary

Diven Elementary is the only elementary School In Need of Improvement in the district. Diven has the highest number of behavioral referrals and the highest mobility rate in the elementary schools in the past two years. Providing a safe, consistent and student-centered learning environment at Diven is a top priority for the district. To this end, the district will continue to support the position of Behavior Intervention Specialist.

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders present a great challenge. These students often lack the basic academic, behavioral and social skills needed to be successful within and outside of school. District data indicates that the numbers of children displaying these challenging behaviors in the classroom are increasing at Diven. The purpose of the Behavioral Intervention Specialist Program is to address this need by training educational personnel to directly address the behavioral needs of students.

The Behavior Intervention Specialist will:

Use clinical insights, educational and motivational techniques and commitment to excellence to promote individual student growth in the classroom and community;
Develop plans to reduce the number of disruptive behaviors of each client in the classroom and the community;
Provide solution-focused counseling, crisis intervention and management to students throughout the school day as needed;
Develop and implement effective behavioral management techniques consistent with goals and behavior plans;
Provide on-going family contact and quality support services linking child and family with well-researched, relevant and affordable community resources and services;
Participate actively in all team meetings, staff meetings, case conferences, treatment reviews, individual and group supervision meetings and school meetings as requested and collaborate proactively with treatment team to deliver quality services;
Develop relationships and ongoing communication with teachers and other staff; provide concrete strategies for positive and feasible individual and class intervention strategies that are in line with client treatment and goals;
Train staff to implement individual and school-wide behavior plans;
Monitor and modify the behavior management system, as needed;
Be able to set appropriate limits;
Participate in on-going training on intervention techniques;
Maintain all appropriate records including incident reports, and behavioral tracking forms and other documents consistent with goals and objectives.

Reading teachers

Reading teachers provide the additional support needed to fully implement a school-wide model of literacy that ensures all students are reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. Using this model permits schools to fully meet the needs of all students.

Reading teachers are a critical component of a school-wide system for identifying students who need intensive reading interventions, providing intervention services and monitoring student progress.

Elementary reading teachers provide reading intervention services to at-risk students and those students with intensive reading needs on a daily basis. In many of our classrooms the number of students in need of intensive interventions may exceed 40-50 percent. Classroom teachers do not have the time or resources to provide the needed amount of instruction for all at-risk students. Reading teachers provide the additional instruction these students require.

Reading teachers provide reading interventions in the following ways:

Skill-based instruction during the 90-minute reading block to small groups of students;
Additional instruction to small groups of students outside of the reading block;
Use of reading assessment data for instructional decisions;
Use of an accelerated model of intervention;
Providing differentiated and targeted instruction.

High School Restructuring:

The district strongly believes that struggling high school students are in need of alternative options and avenues to complete high school graduation requirements, outside of the traditional school setting. To do so, the district is funding both evening high school program and credit recovery programs.

Night school

For students in grades 9-12

Students take course(s) after school, during academic year, opposed to during the traditional school day and/or summer school.
Flexible scheduling for students to gain credit required for graduation.
Certified teacher in each classroom.
Exceeds State Education Department regulations for awarding credit-based on seat and instructional time.

Credit recovery