The City School District of Albany's 2011-12 Contract for Excellence
strives to improve student achievement in four district schools and
build the capacity to serve students in high-needs schools across
the district.
New and expanded program opportunities focus on services to students
at Albany High School, William S. Hackett Middle School, North
Albany Academy and Giffen Memorial Elementary School, all of which
have been cited by New York state as needing improvement. The district
has targeted 79 percent of the contract funds for these schools.
District-wide, the 2011-12 Contract for Excellence commitment is
$137,086. That will support:
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The salary for the instructional supervisor for English language
arts; and
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A half-time (.5 FTE) position of literacy coach. The position
will help ensure implementation of Common Core Learning
Standards and emphasize instructional delivery, classroom
management and assessment.
All Contract for Excellence programs support the
Regents Reform Agenda from cradle to career. The district is
committed to retaining its 600-seat full-day prekindergarten
program. Two prekindergarten teachers will be funded through the
Contract for Excellence as part of this program -- one at Giffen and
one at Delaware Community School. Also,
reducing the size of kindergarten and first-grade classes at Giffen
and North Albany Academy will provide more personalized attention
and increased intervention opportunities.
English-as-a-second-language (ESL), math and
literacy programs are led by instructional supervisors that evaluate teachers, provide on-the-job professional development,
implement new performance standards for students with limited
English proficiency and align and implement Common Core Learning
Standards throughout the district. They also oversee
comprehensive education plans in schools the state has designated as
in need of improvement, in corrective action or as persistently
lowest-achieving.
ESL teachers have been added to those schools with
high refugee and immigrant populations to help implement the new
performance standards for students with limited English proficiency.
The district is committed to the instructional coaching model to
ensure rigor and implementation of the Common Core Learning
Standards, with an emphasis on instructional delivery, classroom
management and assessment. Three of the district’s instructional
coaches will be funded by the Contract for Education.
Among the challenges that exist within the district are the
performance needs of students at Albany High and Hackett. To help these
schools raise achievement for all students, the Contract for Excellence will support
several positions at the two schools.
At Albany High, the 2011-12 contract commitment is $538,452.
It will support:
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Increased time on task through staffing in math, reading,
social studies and special education. It also will provide
funding for a social worker and allow the school to continue to
contract for services from Parsons Child and Family Center.
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English language learners, with a portion of the salary for the
ESL instructional supervisor.
At Hackett, the 2011-12 contract commitment is $393,180. It will
support:
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Increased time on task through funding for a home-school
coordinator. It also will allow the school to continue to
contract for services from Parsons and Catholic Charities.
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High-school and middle-school restructuring through partial
support of the school improvement manager position.
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English language learners, with a portion of the salary for the
ESL instructional supervisor and one full-time ESL teacher.
The contract plan targets students with the greatest educational
need as identified on the Educational Need Matrix provided by the
state Education Department.
Contract for Excellence regulations indicate that the contract plan
should result in at least a 10 percent gain in the number of “target-group students” that meet state standards for academic progress. The
target-group students are those at the four identified schools that
did not meet their benchmark for annual progress, denoted by the
state Education Department as Adequate Yearly Progress.
You are invited to share your questions, concerns or comments
regarding the 2011-12 Contract for Excellence. You may submit your
comments, in writing, to the superintendent of schools. Please send
your feedback by Oct. 18 via mail, to:
Raymond Colucciello, Ed.D.
City School District of Albany
1 Academy Park
Albany, NY 12207
The district will hold a public hearing on the Contract for
Excellence on Thursday, Oct. 6 from 6-6:30p.m. at Albany High
School, 700 Washington Avenue.
