4000- Instructional Goals

The Board of Education is committed to working with the Superintendent of Schools, district staff, parents, and students to develop a quality educational program designed to prepare all students to be college and/or career ready, so graduates can successfully meet the challenges of an economically competitive, technologically advanced, and culturally diverse twenty-first
century. Therefore, the Board adopts the following learning standards for all students in the district:

Standard 1

College and career readiness in reading marked by a steadily growing ability to
discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts, considering a wider range of textual evidence, and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in text.

 
Standard 2

College and career readiness in writing, including the ability to plan, revise, edit and publish in a range of types of writing, such as argument, explanation, and narrative.

 
Standard 3

College and career readiness in speaking and listening including skills necessary to make formal presentations. Students will learn to work together, express, and listen carefully to ideas, integrate information from oral, visual, quantitative, and media sources, to evaluate what they hear, use media and visual displays strategically to help achieve communication, adapting
speech to context and task.

 
Standard 4

College and career readiness in the effective use of language, vocabulary, and the essential rules of standard written and spoken English.

Standard 5

College and career readiness in mathematics, science, technology: Students will, among other requirements outlined in state regulations, understand and apply the concepts and skills of mathematics, science, and technology.  Students will use mathematical analysis,scientific inquiry, and engineering design to pose questions, seek answers, develop solutions, address real-life problems and make informed decisions.

Standard 6

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in New York, United States, and world history; as well as understanding the United States constitution, the basic civil values of American democracy and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues
for participation.

Standard 7

Students will be able to use a World Language other than English for
communication, and will demonstrate cross-cultural skills and understanding.

 
Standard 8

Students will actively engage in processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (visual arts, music, dance and theater) and participate in various roles in the arts, as well as respond critically to a variety of works in the arts. Students will develop an understanding of the personal and cultural forces that shape art and how art shapes diverse cultures and past and present society.

 
Standard 9

Students will acquire the knowledge, skills, and ability to establish and maintain physical fitness, participate in physical activity, maintain personal health; as well as create and maintain a safe and healthy environment using personal and community resources.
 

Standard 10

Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to career decisions. Students will demonstrate mastery of the foundation skills and competencies essential for success in the workplace.


To facilitate achievement of the Board’s articulated learning standards for all students, the district’s administration and staff will be guided by the following:
1. All students will be subject to high academic standards and high academic performance expectations
2. The district will implement measurable effective instructional strategies for closing the achievement gap among all students, and will review progress toward this on an annual basis.
3. The district will align its core academic subject curricula with the state learning standards, and offer appropriate and equitable support services to enable all students to succeed.
4. The same core academic subject curricula will be used in all schools district-wide.
5. The district will use multiple general education approaches, including response to intervention strategies in accordance with Commissioner’s regulations, to improve the academic performance of all students.
6. Instructional and professional development activities will be coordinated to reduce student failure rates in core academic subjects at all grade levels.
7. Steps will be taken to identify and address the cause(s) of student drop-out, and to reduce the student drop out rate.
8. The district will recruit, hire and retain highly qualified staff.
9. Staff professional development will be designed to enable the achievement of the Board’s articulated learning objectives and instructional goals.
10. The district will implement a process of ongoing review to identify and address any obstacles to the achievement of the Board’s articulated learning standards, for the student body as a whole and for disaggregated subgroups.
11. The district will utilize culturally responsive instructional practices, curriculum, and assessments.
12. The district will offer multiple pathways to success toward college and career readiness.

Cross-Ref:
0000, Educational Philosophy
Ref:
8 NYCRR §§100.1(t); 100.2(ii)

Adoption date: May 27, 1997
Reviewed: May 22, 2017
Revised: September 13, 2021