State targets Dundee for improvement

DUNDEE--The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has established a new set of indicators to measure school performance for the state's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
With this program, Dundee Central School District's middle school has been identified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school from the student's 2017-18 state assessment data.
To be identified as a CSI target school, Dundee ranked as one of the schools in the bottom five percent out of 4,725 state schools in student performance with ESSA measurements. This year, the five percent includes 245 schools statewide out of a total of 4,725 schools.
Dundee Superintendent Kelly Houck said in the February edition of the school newsletter, Dundee Scots, "The new identification system places much greater emphasis on student growth not just achievement, contradictory to the previous system. Under the ESSA system, a district or school can be identified if they did not make adequate progress in both achievement and growth and this is done by comparing one year to the next, not the same cohort of students but one year's New York state testing data to the next year's testing data at the same grade level or content area, specifically the 3-8 math or ELA assessments."
Houck said there are five accountability indicators for elementary and middle schools (there are others for high school) and any of these can result in a school being identified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school. The five indicators for middle schools include:
1. Composite performance (i.e. academic achievement in English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics and science.
2. Student growth in ELA and mathematics.
3. Progress towards English Language Proficiency.
4. Academic progress in ELA and mathematics.
5. Chronic absenteeism.
The state has set up a specific improvement plan for CSI schools. The Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools are required to:
• Conduct an onsite needs assessment using the Diagnostic Tool for School and District Effectiveness;
• Identify needs to be addressed in the school's annual improvement plan;
• Conduct annual surveys of parents, staff, and students;
• Develop an annual School Comprehensive Education Plan in consultation with parents, school staff, and for secondary schools, students, and submit to NYSED for approval;
• Identify a school-wide, evidence-based interventions to be included within the annual improvement plan;
• Establish a participatory budgeting process or an approved alternate means of increasing parent and student participation in decision-making, beginning in the 2019-20 school year.
Houck said if there is a silver lining in all of this, Dundee will be eligible to receive additional resources and financial support as a result of this identification.
Houck added, "I know this is a lot of information, it can be daunting and discouraging in light of all the good work and progress we have been completing for several years at DCS around curriculum, curriculum development, personalized learning, meeting the needs of the whole child and the list goes on and on. We must not lose sight of this and most importantly, we must remember that the accountability system has changed, the standards have changed and the assessments have changed and we have been caught in the middle of what many would classify as a 'perfect storm.' I am not trying to dismiss the fact that we need to constantly work on all aspects of instruction and always strive for improvement, but that is what we do at Dundee and will continue to do because it is what is best for our students not because of a 'list'."
Houck said that once a school is identified as CSI school, "you are more than likely to be on the list for three years."