by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Oct 12, 2018 | Updates
Last June, the South Orangetown Central School District’s Extended Leadership Team (XLT) started to unpack the details of what teachers would be teaching and students would be learning when school started in September. We begin each school year with an understanding that we have a responsibility to strive for constant improvement – that there is a valid purpose for all of our actions with an outcome that prepares our students for “an ever-changing world.” So naturally, before we develop an understanding of “what we are going to do” we have to start with a discussion that is centered on the question of “why are we going to do it?” At the South Orangetown Central School District, when we develop a lesson, unit of instruction, or a programmed course of learning for students we always start with the fundamental question as to whether what we are doing is “cute or does it count?” For an instructional practice “to count” or to be relevant it must meet some general criteria. The criteria that many schools have considered are centered on the “four shifts” described by Dr. Scott McLeod and Dean Shareski in their book, Different Schools for a Different World, School Improvement for 21st Century Skills, Global Citizenship, and Deeper Learning (McLeod, S. and Shareski, 2017). Here, the authors present us with those fundamental shifts that must occur if instruction is going to make learning more relevant and personalized. I recently had the chance to speak with Scott McLeod at the National Center for Educational Research and Technology (NCERT) Conference. Here, he emphasized that the shifts that make learning “count” are:
- The shift from factual recall to higher-level thinking (deeper learning): Shifting from instructional practices that require students to practice simple fact acquisition and procedural routines to one in which students work on tasks of greater complexity including creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication and collaboration.
- The shift from teacher control to student agency: Abandoning the comfort and ease of the historical teacher-controlled model and moving towards learning environments with greater student agency. When students have “ownership and control of what, how, when, where, who with, and why they learn.” This is also what our opening day keynote speaker referred to as “building executive function (Sulla 2018).”
- The shift from traditional activities to authentic work: Moving from isolated academic work environments to providing students opportunities to engage with and contribute to relevant local, national, and international interdisciplinary communities. We also add an element of character education and civic mindedness into these practices.
- The shift from traditional resources to a technology-rich environment: Infusing classrooms with more resources beyond the traditional paper and pencil propel the previous three shifts into high gear. All of our schools have received upgrades to our classrooms and makerspaces to ensure that our students have access to current technological advancements.
As we are currently in “full-swing” mode here in the South Orangetown Central School District, it gives me great pride to state that I see evidence of these shifts occurring in all of our classrooms every day. In order to make learning count our instructional practices must continue to be modernized, contextualized, and personalized. In the weeks ahead, I will be pleased to report to the community those examples of the progress that our students are making in our schools and will look forward to any feedback that our community will provide.
References
McLeod, S. and Shareski, D. (2017). Different Schools for a Different World, School Improvement for 21st Century Skills, Global Citizenship, and Deeper Learning.
Sulla, N. (2018). Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement, 1st Edition.
by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Oct 5, 2018 | Updates
Every year, we are faced with situations that require students and staff to evacuate the facilities. Sometimes this is the result of a crisis (for example, a threat to student safety) or a non-crisis (for example, bad weather or a water main break). In either category, timeliness and accuracy of communications are imperative in managing an event requiring the evacuation of students. On Monday, October 1, 2018, our SOMS students, staff, families, and our local first responders were faced with an incident that required an evacuation of the school.
It’s important to start with a little background information. The scenario on October 1 concerned a threatening message found in the building. While I can’t give the specific details of what the message stated, it qualified as a threat to the safety, good order and discipline of the school. The principal and I agreed to evacuate the building temporarily while the Orangetown Police and Rockland County Sheriff’s Departments investigated the nature of the threat. After law enforcement conducted a thorough investigation and deemed the building safe to return, we issued an “all clear” message to the staff, students, and families. It was our intent to resume classes after the building was determined to be safe by the law enforcement experts – and that was what happened, for the most part. The bottom line is that the safety of students and staff continues to be our first priority and everyone acted accordingly. Secondary to this was the communications effort and the response of the folks involved.
Every instance of a threat to our schools is treated with the utmost seriousness out of an abundance of caution. We can never be too careful when it comes to protecting our students and staff. We had the benefit of knowing the plan of action from the very beginning. From a communications standpoint, we understand that receiving a notification that your child’s school is evacuating can be distressing. That is why it is important that families and the school district work together to develop a common understanding of what to do when we need to respond to a crisis.
In some instances, the students and staff may only need to be evacuated from the building briefly for a situation to be assessed and a determination to be made that they may return safely to the building. However, just because we have students evacuate the building does not necessarily mean that we will be dismissing students from the campus. In the event that an evacuation results in a decision to dismiss students or parents need to pick up their children, the school district will contact families (and emergency contacts) immediately. Further, in the event that an evacuation results in the dismissal of students, we will include voice/phone messaging (in addition to email) to ensure that parents are able to exercise their family’s early dismissal plan. In all cases, regardless of whether an action is required by families, we will keep you continuously informed via email and, as necessary, sending voice/phone messages. Lastly, in the event of a dismissal, we will also inform the local media.
In summary, and to reiterate:
- The school district uses email to notify that it is managing an incident that has occurred (please add “notifications@socsd.org” to your email contacts list and designate this email address as a trusted or “safe” sender to ensure that you receive SchoolMessenger emails)
- In the event that parent action is needed or students are being moved to an alternative location, robocalls (to wireless and landline phones) and emails will be sent to all primary and emergency contact phone numbers on file
This most recent evacuation is also an important reminder to parents to have a family emergency plan and to make sure that the schools where children attend have up-to-date primary and emergency contact info. We will be having a Districtwide Early Evacuation Drill on November 21, 2018, and this will be a good time for all families in our school district to practice their emergency plans. Every child should have an understanding as to what to do in the event that we dismiss schools earlier than regularly anticipated.
Lastly, our Districtwide Safety Committee and first responders will be developing additional information resources and workshops in the very near future to further refine our crisis communication effort to better ensure the safety and security of students and staff, and to educate families about the various drills we perform so that they have a greater understanding of our practices. Topics will include:
- Shelter in place, Hold in place, Evacuation, Lockout, and Lockdown (SHELL Procedures). Click on the link to learn more from this very informative SCHOOL SAFETY REFERENCE GUIDE. We will be sending a quick reference guide to all of our families that you can keep handy.
- Educat
- Clarifying the role and purpose of the School Resource Officer (SRO) and local law enforcement
- The important role(s) of our staff members in ensuring student safety in emergency situations
- How parents can help support the school in emergency situations
We will be scheduling these informational events soon and will notify families to encourage participation. Have a restful Columbus Day Weekend and stay safe.
by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Sep 28, 2018 | Updates
This week, the New York State Department of Education released the results of last year’s NYS Grades 3-8 Assessment Data. At first glance, it would appear that our student test results improved in every category in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics assessments. However, due to the State’s new two-session test design and performance standards, the 2018 Grades 3-8 ELA and math results cannot be compared with prior-year results. The new baseline established this year will enable comparisons with student scores in 2019 and 2020.
I have often cautioned against an over-reliance on student assessment data. Just last week, I published a blog post that suggested that educational systems that rely solely on student achievement data on high-stakes tests to determine educational outcomes place students at risk. Beyond this, data can and should be used to understand how the organization is performing. Testing, from the perspective of organizational accountability (without being punitive), can provide useful information on how we can improve. For example, it is helpful to know that our school district consistently outperforms the NYS state averages in all testing categories in grades three through eight. That is a good starting point for our analysis and permits us to do a more in-depth analysis of our efforts for continuous improvement. These tests measure the higher learning standards that were adopted by the State Board of Regents in 2010, which more accurately reflect students’ progress toward college and career readiness.
If you would like to gain additional insight into our school district and other school districts across New York, please visit the New York State Education Department website. Here, data are available statewide and at the county, district, and school level. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is committed to making data available and easy to use.
by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Sep 21, 2018 | Updates
During the summer months, many of our staff take the opportunity to engage in professional development – the school superintendent is no exception. I was invited by the South Korean Consulate in New York City to travel to South Korea to better understand the importance of Korean as a world language. The trip was generously paid for by the South Korean Ministry of Education. The purpose of the visit was to encourage U.S. superintendents to initiate Korean language instruction as part of their world language program offerings. Certainly, I was excited to explore and investigate this possibility but was also curious to better understand the South Korean system of public education. My curiosity stemmed from the fact that South Korea has consistently ranked in the “top ten” PISA listing of scholastic performance for many years. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by OECD in 70 nations of 15-year-old students’ scholastic performance on mathematics, science and reading.
While I was in South Korea, I had the opportunity to learn more about the Korean system of K-12 education. South Korea has one of the highest literacy rates and high school graduation rates (99.9 and 99.7 respectively) and college graduation rates (68%). These metrics are very impressive and I have always been curious to know what these schools do differently than our schools in the United States. I hypothesize that literacy rates are a function of all students in South Korea having equal access to educational resources regardless of variables such as wealth. In the United States, for example, there is a strong relationship between wealth/income and literacy rates.
However, I also learned something that was shockingly sad. Alarmingly, South Korea also has one of the highest suicide rates for students aged 10-19 and this has been correlated to the system that is known as “Hagwon” or “cram schools” to prepare students for entry into one of the S-K-Y universities (Seoul National, University of Korea, and Yonsei). Suicide is the leading cause of death of school-aged children in Korea. While I did not observe anything particularly extraordinary about the process of instruction in the public schools that I visited compared to those with which I am familiar in the U.S., I learned that most of this educational fervor is the result of preparing to take the national college entrance examinations. The private Hagwon tutoring sessions run from 7:00 to 11:30 p.m. after school – which is when the students seem to be educated more in earnest than during the normal school day.
While I don’t like to make generalizations, my observations did serve to reinforce my concerns against over-reliance on high-stakes testing and the injurious impact that such tests have on students. Many South Korean educators and families with whom I spoke are hopeful that their system of public education will start to move away from the grim “examination nightmare” presented by their emphasis on stressful college entrance examinations.
The South Orangetown Central School District has always sought opportunities to strengthen our relationships with “sister schools” overseas with our existing programs to foster global awareness. For example, we currently have partnerships through IVECA (see website at http://website.iveca.org/ ). I am hopeful that educators from both of our countries will continue to learn and grow from each other and that all of our students will be better prepared to thrive in a global economy.
by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Sep 14, 2018 | Updates
Beginning a new school year is such an awesome experience – It’s great to see students returning to school while learning fresh perspectives from a re-energized staff. One of the things that I enjoy most is beginning the planning process for the next school year…in this case, the 2019 – 2020 school year. Because of the complexity of aligning all systems, processes, and resources, it takes a full year to plan for the September 2019 school-opening. There are many planning variables that we have to consider to ensure that the needs of our students are met, but it all starts with a public dialogue with our Board of Education concerning the goals and objectives of our community. On September 13, the Board of Education met to consider its goals for the 2019 – 2020 school year. Here are the goals that our governance team is considering:
A. Student Achievement Goals:
- CULTURAL and INFORMATION LITERACY for students who are able to conduct reliable research and apply their learning to real-world problems, discuss and debate human, cultural, and societal global issues, and appreciate different cultures and points of view;
- CONTEMPORARY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS that are aligned with student-centered learning and address the structures of TIME (schedules); SPACE (facilities, classroom spaces, digital spaces 24/7, field experiences); STUDENT GROUPINGS (personalized interest-based learning in integrated settings) and ADULT GROUPINGS (how staff are grouped to support students);
- CIVIC LITERACY and SOCIAL AWARENESS through integration and promotion of the study of history, literature, current events, and human behavior so that students can understand complex social, civic, and political issues and make ethical choices that will have a positive effect on society.
B. Staff Development Goals:
- ACCOUNTABILITY will be promoted through a culture of transparency, all pedagogical and leadership job descriptions will be updated and procedures to evaluate extra-curricular clubs and leadership positions will be implemented;
- PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES will be improved by working collaboratively with the building and department leadership teams, Human Resources (HR) staff will establish training structures for instructional support staff, thus improving student experiences and other organizational outcomes, including the increased job satisfaction of staff;
- PROCESSES AND INTERNAL CONTROLS will be strengthened for the HR functions of the district and, to ensure the “continuity of effort” of the HR department, an updated procedures manual will be published.
C. Communication and Community Engagement Goals:
- SYNCHRONIZE the COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT by establishing a Communications Committee. This committee will be comprised of stakeholders from our staff and the community;
- FAMILY ENGAGEMENT CENTER COLLABORATION will be established to enhance the school-home partnership in support of student success. The goal is to increase parent participation in school-sponsored activities and initiatives;
- ENHANCE ACCESSIBILITY to enrichment services by collaborating closely with district administrators and special education and pupil personnel services. Facilitate the exchange of information with students and families (particularly for those who have limited or no access to technology at home);
- PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR) enhancement through increased outreach to community organizations by participating in more community-sponsored meetings and events. We will increase the number of meetings with key community groups and leaders to support collaboration between the school district and the community.
D. Health and Safety Goals:
- Embed SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL learning benchmarks into an enhanced, districtwide, comprehensive Guidance/Counselor Program;
- Improved FAMILY SUPPORT through the Family Engagement Center (FEC) to promote parental engagement and provide support to all our families Pre-K through College;
- ALLOCATION of RESOURCES for students and families will be strengthened by improved support networks. Establish lines of communication to strengthen our student and family support structures internally and by establishing a community partnership to enhance programs focused on mental health, substance abuse and access to related supports.
E. Continuous Improvement and Resource Management Goals:
- STRATEGICALLY ALIGN the five focus areas into a comprehensive, cohesive plan (Operation and Budget Development Process – detailed plan available in January 2019) that effectively supports the District’s academic vision and opportunities for growth;
- ALLOCATION of RESOURCES will be done in an efficient and cost-effective manner in order to continuously invest in district programs and new initiatives, maintain and improve district facilities and equipment, retain highly-qualified staff committed to the success of the school district while maintaining fiscal stability and sensitivity of tax increases imposed on our community;
- COMMUNICATE and COLLABORATE with all key stakeholders in the operational planning and budgetary process to inform higher quality decision making, develop a common understanding of the District’s vision, nurture a positive working culture, and ensure relevant and timely information is presented to the Board of Education and school community.
by Robert Pritchard, Ed.D. | Sep 7, 2018 | Updates
This was an amazing week! I am especially happy to see all of our students back at school and eager to learn. While the weather was unusually warm this week, it didn’t stop any of us from giving our best effort. The highlight of my week was attending the character education assembly at Cottage Lane Elementary School about COURAGE. One of the first things that anyone sees when they enter Cottage Lane Elementary School is a sign that says, “COURAGE.” Courage is an important character trait that helps us to be strong in the face of uncertainty or adversity. In our assembly today, we discussed those times in our lives when we needed to be courageous – when we had to choose the harder right over the easier wrong. For a student who is returning to school in a new learning environment, courage is often found in making new friends, exploring new ideas, and avoiding bad choices. For the parent of a student who is returning to school, courage is found in knowing that our children will have new opportunities to grow and flourish in a challenging (yet supportive) environment.
Here’s wishing each of you the courage to explore, learn, and grow and I am looking forward to being your partner on this journey! Have a great year and welcome back!!
