District Goals

District Goals for the 2016-2017 School Year


1. Professional Learning Community Development

Foster increased articulation, collaboration and data driven instructional practices among the staff via the integration of professional learning communities inclusive of Kindergarten to 8th grade and administrative team members.

 The implementation of PLCs will provide teachers and administrators with a regularly scheduled opportunity to participate in embedded professional learning that is driven by student achievement results on local and standardized benchmarks.

 The increased collaboration and articulation will aid the development and implementation of the revised New Jersey Student Learning Standards.

 The instructional design and implementation of the curriculum as it relates to increased student growth on benchmark assessments will be monitored and reported upon to support the continued revision and implementation of the curriculum.

 The district has created a schedule which will provide a minimum of 20 hours within the school year to meet within the PLC to support this initiative.

 Dialogue is an essential component of growth followed by an actionable plan to increase knowledge or strategy to best support student learning.

 The administrative team will provide focus for PLC as a guide to ensure that rigor and relevance to instructional growth and student achievement result from PLC sessions.

 The increased collaboration and planning among teachers will provide sustained, job embedded training and support.

2. AchieveNJ Implementation and Capacity Building

Analyze current level of awareness of the AchieveNJ regulations among all certificated teaching and administrative staff and continue to develop the rigor of implementation with specific attention to the use of student growth objectives as a method of charting instructional progress for the students, teachers and administrators.

 The development of student growth objectives provides the staff with a method of monitoring student growth and adjusting instructional practices to best meet the continued needs of the learners in the classroom.

 The proposed AchieveNJ revisions will strengthen the flexibility of implementation of the regulations in a meaningful way for all staff.

 The district implemented an online platform to streamline the development, monitoring, and reporting of the student growth objectives.

 The district allocated funds to the implementation and training of the new online SGO management system.

 The September faculty meetings were designed to review the student growth objective training materials from the NJDOE and draft high quality student growth objectives with the direct support and collaboration from the administrative team and ScIP.

 

 The district has scheduled 7.0 hours of professional learning related to the AchieveNJ implementation including 2.5 hours of training on the implementation of the online SGO management system (scheduled for 9/1/16), 1.5 hours of training and development of the SGO (9/12/16 and 9/26/16), 1.5 hours to review the status of the SGO implementation (December faculty meeting and January faculty meeting) and 1.5 hours to discuss the design, implementation, and end results of the student growth objective individually with the teachers and administrators (Individual sessions between staff and administrative teacher in October and May).

 Additionally the district has created an opportunity for a minimum of 30 professional learning community sessions totaling a minimum of 20 hours for certificated staff to utilize in supporting the monitoring of SGO and student growth via additional data analysis.

 Raising the level of rigor in the classroom via significant conversations regarding SGO, teacher practice, evaluations, and grading will support the achievement of all learners.

 Rigor is a mindset and the culture of the building is aligning to that mantra via constant focus, conversation, modeling, PD, and PLC/faculty growth/training opportunities

3. Content Knowledge Development and Articulation between K-8 teachers

Develop the knowledge of the staff in individual areas of focus as related to the role and function of the educator with an intense focus on the implementation of Science at the PreK-8 levels specifically inclusive of the New Jersey Learning Standards for Students in Science as well as STEAM instruction.

 The expectation for our students to think critically across a variety of contexts requires us to facilitate learning experiences which utilize technology, student-directed learning experiences, and innovation in our instructional design.

 The Lafayette Township School District 6-8 Science curriculum and resources are newly revised and will be implemented in the 2016-2017 school year.

 The Lafayette Township School District K-5 Science curriculum and resources will be reviewed and revised during the 2016-2017 school year.

 The STEAM TRAX program by Cube Pro 3D has been purchased and is being implemented for all students in grades 6-8 during the 2016-2017 school year.

 Staff that will have direct contact with the program were provided with a training opportunity on the STEAM TRAX program during August 2016.

 A Maker Space classroom will be developed throughout the school year to support the STEAM concepts for students in K-5.

 Faculty meeting time will be allocated to support the vertical and horizontal articulation of instruction.