Following is the Schenectady City School District strategy for addressing achievement issues and needs under the Contract for Excellence.

New York State's commitment to offer additional resources is a great opportunity for the Schenectady City School District to address the many challenges of students in Pre-Kindergarten through grade twelve.  The district's goal is to address immediate student achievement concerns while planning for the future as well.

The Contract for Excellence includes the following six major initiatives:

1. Reopening an old elementary school as a new Early Childhood Education Center.  The new center will include 300 pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and readiness first grade students.

   Fulton Early Childhood Education Center is set to open September 2007

   The center will be literacy focused and will engage a variety of school personnel, community agencies, and parents of four, five and six year old child -  with a focus on early intervention.
   
   One of the goals of the program is to help the students attain appropriate grade level literacy skills before they enter first grade.  The program will also help diagnose any potential learning problems and the district can then develop an Individual Learning Plan (IEP) for each child based on individual needs.
    

2. Add staff to all three middle schools to reduce class sizes in sixth grade to a 20:1 student to teacher ratio.  At the seventh and eighth grade levels, the district goal is to improve teacher to student ratios below 24:1.  These classes currently run between 26:1 and 32:1.
    
3. Add remedial and math teachers to all three middle schools.  The new remedial staff will allow the district to assign one intervention specialist in reading and one in mathematics at each of the three middle grade levels. 
   
   This will help Schenectady students to meet or exceed the New York State Learning Standards while rapidly improving the ELA and math scores over the next few years.
    
4. Assign a veteran master elementary teacher to each elementary school to act as instructional coaches and mentors.
   
   The goal is to improve the learning environment in each building and to provide necessary support and training to the Schenectady teaching staff.  This will be accomplished by improving both instructional skills and student management skills as well as by promoting consistent use of the district's differentiated instruction model and Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) principles in every classroom.
    
5. Extend school day programs in all schools. 
   
   This initiative will allow the district to offer a lengthened school day to all children.  The program will target specific high needs children in problematic subgroups.  However, it will be available to all children based on their desire to remain in a structured learning environment for at least one hour before/after school.
   
   The program will specifically focus on providing assistance to students in the areas of English Language Arts and mathematics as well as assisting students with homework.  Additional special education staff will accommodate the growing numbers of students with disabilities and to help create programs appropriate to the specific needs of these children.
    
6. Offer technology-based alternative learning program targeting failing eighth and ninth grad students in Schenectady middle and high schools.
   
   This program will provide students with an opportunity to recover credit lost due to previous course failures.  These students will be permitted to accelerate their learning using an alternative instructional delivery system.  It will utilize a web-based PLATO Learning Software program aligned with New York State Standards.
   
   The staff will serve as facilitators of learning rather than as direct instructors and will intervene and remediate as necessary to ensure successful recovery of lost credit and to accelerate learning.
   
   The goal is to provide students who have difficulty learning in a traditional education setting ad to provide them with the tools and strategies that they need so they can meet or exceed grade level expectations of their cohort and graduate successfully.
    

Contract for Excellence

Contract for Excellence Index

Achievement
 Issues

Contract Plan

Budget Summary

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