POTTSTOWN PA – While Pottsgrove School District students enjoy the second day of their spring vacation, district teachers and administrators today (Tuesday, March 30, 2010) will participate in training and discussion sessions over plans to improve teaching effectiveness and student scores that came under heavy fire last week from the district Board of School Directors.
Pottsgrove Assistant Superintendent Shellie Feola.
The scheduled staff development day is being used to “roll out” a program that places “a concerted effort and focus on high performance,” Assistant Superintendent Shellie Feola told directors during their meeting March 23 at the administration building, 1301 Kauffman Rd., Pottstown PA. She invited board members to join the talks, which began at 8 this morning; it is unknown how many, if any, will attend.
Feola, who under Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis is charged with curriculum and professional development, is overseeing a “total instructional alignment” plan on which board members say the district has spent significant time and money. Its goal, simply put, is to change what and how Pottsgrove teachers do in their classrooms, encourage collaboration, and create performance standards.
“We’re trying to put in place an accountability system,” Landis acknowledged.
Directors contend it isn’t happening fast enough. Several complained last week about what they claimed were district students’ low scores or inadequate performance on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests, one of the benchmarks by which the state measures how well districts teach their children.
Feola, who presented the board with a 2010-2011 department budget request of $319,959 – a portion of which would support the alignment plan in the coming year – took the brunt of its criticism.
Over a three-year period ending in June 2011, according to Feola, alignment-related costs and all other curriculum and professional development expenses would amount to more than $1.05 million. Directors openly questioned whether district taxpayers were getting value for the money.
“And what happens,” director Robert Lindgren asked, “to teachers who can’t function in this environment of accountability?”
“Then the administration would need to intervene with that,” Feola answered, without offering specifics. But she added that the Pottsgrove Federation of Teachers, the union representing many district employees, “wasn’t balking” at the plan. Instead, she said, it has “been supportive in setting expectations.”
The federation was scheduled Monday to hold a general membership meeting at 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium of Pottsgrove Middle School. Its agenda was unavailable, and it is unknown whether total instructional alignment would be part of the union’s discussions.
Pottsgrove has seen gradually increasing student success, the administration explained last September, thanks to several measures put in place earlier as a result of Feola’s research. Results have risen, it said, due to co-teaching efforts, after-school tutoring, new elementary school reading programs, remediation efforts, and staff development.
Moreover, Landis said, the district is assessing student progress more frequently, taking what he characterized as a “dipstick” measurement of students every three weeks to determine if they understood material being taught or needed more help.
“Part of the problem is that we’ve never had an articulated curriculum plan here,” Landis told board members last week. “We’ve had patchwork solutions and were just plugging holes. I think we’ve lacked a core and foundation we could build on,” which he said total instructional alignment now represents.
“It doesn’t go into place overnight,” Feola admitted. “But we’re expecting over time we’re going to see improvements.”
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ March 23 meeting):
- School Board Criticizes Lack of Students’ Improvement
- Economic Tales, Exec Sessions, And Long Night At Pottsgrove
- Geothermal Now ‘Locked’ Into Ringing Re-Build
- How Estimated Costs For Ringing Shape Up
- School Board ‘Topic A’ Tonight? Bet On The Budget
Related (to Pottsgrove School District PSSA or AYP results):
- School Board Criticizes Lack of Students’ Improvement
- Pottsgrove Tops Many In Science, But …
- 3 Pottsgrove Schools Win Keystone Awards
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Applaud direction and expectations the District is taking. But, remember, students must do their part to prepare and parents must monitor such preparation. Pressure to “improve” cannot be the sole responsibility of teachers or “magic curriculum”. Parents and students MUST accept responsibility for their behaviors (or lack of).