We Must Start Fresh
By Sharon Beloin Saavedra | School Board President at February 22, 2024 | 8:15 am | Print
As we approach our next Board of Education meeting scheduled for Monday, February 25, 2024 at 6:00pm, I ask members of our education community to think about several issues:
1. Neighborhood Schools – creating attendance zones; students will be assigned a school based on where they live not where there is space or silos of specialized programming; reduce the cost of busing and increase the connection between home and school (proximity); the philosophy is to develop school centered neighborhood communities with accountability where each school has ownership of its neighborhood students and their achievement and to provide equal access to all students to the same curriculum, instruction and best practices gained from our smaller learning communities.
2. English Language Development – the explicit teaching of grammar (reading, writing, speaking, thinking in English) to our ELL population, which will increase academic success across content areas such as math, science and social studies.
3. Reading/literacy – increasing the focus (time on task) and staff deployment directly related to reading; committing resources to reach grade level reading by the third grade.
4. Deployment of our staff/organization of service delivery – rethink and reconfigure how our staff is utilized and assigned to meet the goals and objectives of student success.
5. Meet the needs of every student within our current budget – constructing a budget from the bottom up (zero based budgeting); how to focus limited resources to achieve the greatest gains in student success (from literacy rates to graduation rates).
These are big shifts in practice and structure which will require stakeholders to adjust their thinking, expand their expectations and alter their practices to meet the needs of our student body. This shift in our delivery of education will allow for greater accountability of student achievement, a greater focus on the needs of our students by targeting funds where they are most needed and expanding the capacity of all staff building by building.
This is not an easy task. Some people will feel as though they are losing something in this process. Some will say it is long overdue. In a struggling public school system where student achievement as measured by the State of Connecticut through the CMTs and CAPT has been stagnant for years, action now is necessary. We have all been frustrated by this fact. We have tried a wide variety of programming and interventions in an attempt to harness student achievement. Our smaller learning communities provided proof positive that children attending an urban public school system can and do succeed. But our job now is not to rest on limited success for pockets of students but to act with courage to change the trajectory of the masses.
We have “thrown” everything at this problem from creating smaller learning communities to purchasing a wide range of assessment tools to expanding our Tier II and Tier III interventions for struggling students to carving out multiple specialty programs to deal with behavioral issues. We have changed curriculum and we have introduced many computer based reading programs (Break Through to Literacy; Read 180; Systems 44; Fast Forward and others). What I have painfully learned is that there is no silver bullet that can be purchased!
Our silver bullet will be in the instructional practices of staff. Staff who must be given clearly articulated goals and expectations in a supportive and continuous learning environment for adults and students alike.
We must also engage our parents more directly in the school to home partnership. Parenting a struggling learner is not easy, we must afford coaching for homework help and behavior management/developing good habits.
Trust – how to build it – how to harness it – how to make it work for our students.
We must move forward with a clean slate. Start fresh, establish strong and enduring relationships with ongoing communication that values all stakeholders.
I am because we are….UBUNTU!
