Parent Test letter

Mr. Perry Dewey – Superintendent

Hello from the Superintendent's office,

Many of you may know that the regents reform agenda has presented NYS educators with many new challenges. Some of the major initiatives are Annual Professional Performance Review plans, Data Driven Instruction, and the Common Core Learning Standards. These three initiatives have been correctly described as the three legs of the reform agenda stool. As you should expect Madison Central has been in the throes of implementing all three initiatives. Over the summer and into the fall the administration and the Madison Teachers Association have been working on creating an Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plan. Currently, our plan has been submitted and is under review for adoption by the State Education Department.

The plan consists of three part point scale that culminates in 100 points annually for teachers and Principals. This scale coverts into a HEDI scale score that is comparable to other teachers across the state. HEDI is a 4 point scale that breaks out as Highly Effective (H = 4pts), Effective (E = 3pts), Developing (D = 2pts), Ineffective (I =1pts). Under this system, 60 points are awarded for classroom teaching through observations and evaluations. After in-depth review of several state approved rubrics, Madison has chosen the Kim Marshall rubric for evaluating both the teachers and principals. The teacher rubric has six domains: Planning and Preparation for Learning, Classroom Management, Delivery of Instruction, Monitoring, Assessment and Follow-Up, Family and Community Outreach and Professional Responsibilities. The Principals Rubric also has six domains: Diagnosis and Planning, Priority Management and Communication, Curriculum and Data, Supervision Evaluation and Professional Development, Discipline and Family Involvement and Management and External Relations. Both Teachers and Principals will receive another 40 points from student academic achievement on state assessments. Most of the assessments are benchmarked at the beginning of the year and then retested at the end of the year to measure student growth. This rating is completed on a summative basis annually.

In Madison we have worked very hard to make sure that our new APPR process has a focus on teacher’s professional growth with will lead directly to better instructional strategies in the classroom. This should in turn lead to higher student achievement scores.

The education reform agenda will no doubt change the way we educate our students. Our instructional staff is working very hard to meet the new challenges of the Regents Reform Agenda. To help us in this process the Madison learning community has developed a detailed strategic plan. Within this plan we have identified many of the items that need to be addressed for our school to move forward in meeting the regents reform agenda. Much of this I can’t address here in this short article; however, I would direct you to our website www.madisoncentralny.org to view the strategic plan and our APPR document that has been submitted to the State Education Department. You will also find a listing of materials used for our professional development efforts with our teachers under the “Professional Development Tab”. I would like to thank the Madison Learning community, School Board and all of our school employees for supporting the education efforts at Madison Central School. I am very excited about the opportunities that the Regents Reform Agenda offers our district. It will be a lot of work over the next two years and poses new challenges for district resources, but I believe our students will receive a better education in the end.

Sincerely,

Perry Dewey