1

Date:08/25/2015 6:59 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: "Dunbar, Tonda"

Cc: "Paolino, Michael"

Subject: CET Recommendations

Dear Ms. Dunbar,

Please note the following suggested changes to the current CIG grantcontinuationplan that our table believed would help better align the plan toapplicableindicators as stated in the receivership indicatorlist. Our table had a balanced representation of vested parties (Albany City, parent[special and regular ed], community organization, and staff representation). Excuse the email length; we were trying to be comprehensive and specific in our suggestions as we felt the Continuation plan was too vague and may not meet receivership plan requirements as is.

Design Element1: District Accountability and Support: changes should be made to reflect recent changes in HMS staffing.

Design Element 2*: Partnerships: Establish partnerships with local faith and secular organizations to promote participation more reflective of HMS demographics on school committees charged with student/staff engagement and academic support.Outreach in addition to more on site events.

Design Element 3*: Academics: i. Section vague.Add specifics concerning curriculum. Cite Rubicon as applicable. Address Science (omitted core subject). Include accessibility of expanded online textbooks as at-home ​curriculum support.

ii: Edit entry to reflect understanding ofthe six instructional shifts in both ELA and Math as stated by the Element description (currently incomplete)

Six Shifts in ELA/Literacy

Balancing Informational and Literary Text

Building Knowledge in the Disciplines

Staircase of Complexity

Text-Based Answers

Writing From Sources

Academic Vocabulary

Six Shifts in Math

Focus

Coherence

Fluency

Deep Understanding

Applications

Dual Intensity

iii: Edit item to reflect newly proposed schedule. It was also suggested that HMS consider strongly suggesting participation in after-school tutoring to student scoring Level 1 in NYSELA and Math and provide a structured intervention program to assist those students (i.e. Wilson reading) and maintainthe current dynamic responsive format. (i.e. HW help) for students performing close to, at, or above grade level.

​v: Include PBIS Committee in listing of framework to align with sub-element vi.- responsible for rollout and continued expansion of PBIS schoolwide behavior expectations, support, and recognition.

vii: Add and implement new changes and mechanisms for existing strategies designed to increase parent participation including but not limited to:

a.establish a uniform PTCformat to increase the number of parent meetings across teams and lower the intimidation factor [individual teacher meetings allow up to six family guardians to be met at once over a single family per team]

b.establish evening PTC hours for parents unable to attend daytime meeting hours;

c.establish open school weeks allowingstudent guardians to "shadow" their student during part of the day - contain to one grade per week and a parent choice of morning or afternoon visitationto control movement into and throughout the building;

d.hold periodic "family breakfast" on designated school days to establish school as community and in turn service our neediest families thus utilizing Community School strategies.

e.Translate all correspondence including but not limited to written correspondence, ACSD alerts, and websites, into languages most utilized by our growing ENL population. Establish robo-calling style contactwith translated options for household adults which may be illiterate and/or struggling in their native language.

f. Established paid positions for teacher outreach opportunities sending staff to community events(both faith-based and secular)and support personnel with printed (and translated)literature and follow through of efforts.

*Overall our work group recognized that attention should be focused on DE3: Educational Plan as we felt it best addressed goals set forth by the receivership indicator criteriaand​ addressed areas we felt as a whole, currently act as hurdlesto greater success at HMS.

Important:Please also note, we discussed a greatneed to eliminate inconsistencies and barriersto acquiring interventions and special educationservices for our lowest performing students as the current RTI/referral model is slow moving and must often be restarted as students move on in their academic careers.

On behalf of the workgroup, thank youfor the opportunity to share our suggestions. We are hopeful that working together, HMS can successfully transition out of consistently low -performing status.

I attended the receivership meeting at Hackett Middle School on 8/12. At that time I spoke about the need for direct teaching of organizational skills in the middle school and Mindful Moments.

I would like to share some thoughts from myself, friends and community members.

1-bringing the Albany Peace Project and the associated mindfulness program into schools for staff and students. They are already here! ASH, Giffen, Myers, North Albany Academy and other schools are exploring how to proceed in their schools. I bring mindfullness up again as I believe that we are not teaching test scores we are teaching children. The District can not control or change the socioeconomic structure of Albany over night BUT we can change the students themselves so that they can hove control over themselves.

2-Bring back the NUA.. National Urban Association. They worked with our school before and from what i could tell...many teachers embraced the model. (I loved it and continue to use many aspects of the program) BUT as with many other ideas within the CSDA it did not have any longevity.

3-Teacher Training...

-5 Minute phone calls…no parent sends their child to school to fail

- use of the Home school coordinator to bring adults in…grandmoms?

-active listening..sometime the students with the most needs show us that in the most challenging ways

4-These two presenters are for safety and understanding

A-Anne C..She is an expert in Refugees (She presented at Myers last Fall) I believe that Toby could assist you with the correct name.

B-James Shultis He is an expert trainer from The Pride Center of the Capital District (He presented at Myers also)

5- District Attorney's Office or other Mediation/conflict resolution groups that are in the area. I volunteer with the Community Accountability board with the DA's office...I believe there are other agencies and groups that could offer this training for staff and students

6-Build organization skills into each class.

In elementary school many teachers took on this role and it is VERY difficult for many students to make the transition..notes from schools/HW/notes from parents/ this falls apart without guidance and teaching…look in their bookbags by week 3!

7-Middle school academic skills should be explicitly taught...How to organize and write a paragraph, how to write in complete sentences, grammar and punctuation...and so many more skills...(perhaps afterschool)

8-Have PTSA/community meeting at various times throughout the day and in various places in the city so that EVERYONE can come. Have light snacks and child care available. Perhaps offer bus tokens for parents who utilize the public transportation system.

9- Offer classes in ELA and Math to parents who need an assist doing HW with their children if they do not yet have those skills.

10-Small divisions (houses?) within the school to focus attention on transition to middle school and transition skills needed to thrive. Each team should have at least the following…Youth advocates, guidance personnel, tutors and a home school connection.

11-A team to go out to where the families ARE…and reconnect to them.

11-Teachers need to visit some homes and make that personal connection.

Last but certainly not least there is a thought...a VERY rough thought!

What if we were to ask EVERY organization/ business in the City of Albany to invest in the School district...Employees from State Ed and other NYS agencies, Mayor Sheehnan's office and other local government employees ( Fire/police) , Price chopper, Hannaford, Albany Medical Center, Saint Peter's hospital, SEFCU and Key Banks, local organizations like Black Lives Matter and A Village, and ALL local colleges if they would allow their employees/students (((EVERYONE WHO LIVES/PLAYS/ WORKS IN THE CITY OF ALBANY))), I don't know, perhaps 5- 10 hours a month leave to come into our schools and mentor students? Perhaps (with permission) they could take their students back to their place of employment and begin making connections with between the community and the schools. This could also include parents and family members. This needs to be a village effort...

The above is my wish...


Partnerships

i. ? What about Trinity Alliance? They seem to have a deeper reach into the community as a whole than PAL does, which could help with some of the other goals.

Educational Plan

i.

Recommendation – District will ensure that appropriate curriculum is adopted in all core subject areas ASAP (by October 1?) and distributed to teachers, with support and explanation as needed.

ii.

Recommendation - Establish intense small group (2-5) teaching/tutoring in math and ELA for students well below grade level (e.g. scored 1 on state test in previous year), taking care to group students with similar abilities together. (e.g. kids reading on a 2nd grade level could be in same group even if in different grades. Students reading on a 1st grade level should not be in groups with students reading on a 4th grade level.)

Recommendation (page 5) – Add text to “Teachers will continue to use and modify” to meet the specific needs of our population. Parents have complained that the modules are too scripted, one-size-fits-all, too drawn out, etc. The books and general activities chosen in the modules seem appropriate, but ELA teachers should be given direction in how to modify the modules to make them work for our students.

++ - bottom of page 5 – “The HMS RTI Committee will continue to monitor student performance. . . . “ This element of the plan is important and needs to be committed to. Add an element that describes how recommendations will be monitored to see if they are followed.

? – AVID – Is there data from Albany High School that provides information on the outcomes for students after doing AVID? Anecdotally, talking to parents, parents are happy about their children recovering credits, but don’t feel the children learned that much content from AVID. Will Hackett be incorporating AVID into student learning in a way that is different from AHS?

Recommendation – Adopt a program to better train, place and monitor substitute teachers, especially long term substitutes. If teacher has unexpected long absence, assign a teacher or curriculum person to develop appropriate and well-developed lesson plans. Administrative team visit rooms with substitutes for more than 3 consecutive days at least 2 times per week and provide supports as needed. Assign additional TA or other support staff to rooms with substitutes. (Currently, rooms with subs tend to watch movies or TV shows that are only tangentially related to the subject too often.)

iii.

? – Don’t think the school hours are correct in this column. Hours will be 7:55-3:20, Monday –Thursday.

+ and ? – Friday’s professional development. This is an excellent idea as long as PD is relevant, meaningful, and teachers actively participate. How can we make sure this is the case?

iv.

? – Are NWEA and Aimsweb assessments different? Are both administered to the same students? Currently, lots of assessments are going on, which means loss of learning time, closing of the library for extended periods of time, etc. Can the school just do one or the other?

v.

Add staff, especially social workers, to Full Service. That staff provides important services, and ones we need more of. Try to address the needs not just of the students but the entire family.

vii.

Recommendation - Parent-teacher conference days – Have multiple sessions, at least one during the day and one in the evening. Maybe some sessions in alternate locations closer to students’ homes, such as public libraries and community centers. Better organize conference days so there is less wait time (one grade rotates the teachers in and out of the room while the parent remains there. This works well and allows multiple parents to be in conference at once.) and notify all relevant staff (secretaries, guidance, Home-School coordinators) on how the day will work and how to set up appointments so they can correctly answer parent questions.

Recommendation – Advertise other avenues for parents to meet with teachers outside of conference days. These avenues can be utilized at any time, not just when students are in deep trouble. (I have heard other parents say that teachers won’t meet with them, but I have never found this to be the case, but the school does not clearly indicate their preferred procedure for parents to use for setting up meetings with teachers.)

Recommendation – Strengthening Families, Parent University, family engagement nights – hold these in various locations. Invite families from other district middle schools to attend events when the content is not Hackett-specific.

Training, Support and Professional Development

ii. ? How will district deal with teacher absences due to PD? Absent teachers and ill-equipped substitutes have been a problem in general in the District.

Project Plan and Timeline

i.

Recommendation – Don’t just redesign FACS curriculum. Push more reading into all specials. Maybe have reading tutors available in classrooms of specials.

ii.

Recommendation – Change to collective bargaining agreement – Add stipulation of a certain number of hours/days (10 instances?) of attendance at events outside of regular contract hours – e.g. evening parent-teacher conferences, community events, attendance at student-family evening events. This will provide more opportunity for parent-faculty interaction (and student-faculty interaction in a less formal environment).

Leading Indicators

Office Discipline Referrals

? – “Monthly PBIS Town Hall meetings. . . recognize students for demonstrating appropriate daily behaviors.” Is doing this in a big group setting effective? I have read of high schools that do not give these awards in public because those getting the awards are teased. Don’t know if this is true at Hackett.


HACKETT MIDDLE SCHOOL

CONTINUATION PLAN

Recommendations

Educational Plan:

ii. Describe the instructional strategies….

  • Learning-to-Learn sessions: Routinely (monthly or biweekly?), and by grade level, provide focused instructional sessions on strategies for how to learn (e.g. how to study; time management; how to summarize etc.)
  • An “I-pad” for every student: Apply for a grant, or use some of the additional funds to purchase I-pads or similar tablet devices for every student.
  • Massive recruitment and training of tutors and mentors for Hackett students currently at Level 1:

Partner with local colleges and universities to recruit college students as volunteer tutors. Train tutors to use best educational practices. Provide a rich tutor-to-student ratio (i.e. optimum would be one-on-one tutoring)

Conduct a major recruitment effort in the community for both tutors and mentors for current Level 1 students. Train tutors and mentors on best educational and mentoring practices.

  • “Reading” Dogs: Partner with the Capital Region BOCES to bring service dogs to the school to help students in their reading. For more information, see:

vi. … safe and orderly school climate….

  • (add to NCBI recommendation on page 10) Work with NCBI, to develop other school-wide strategies to increase cultural understanding among students from various cultures (e.g. Videos/sharing sessions about students from various cultures; directional/location signs in hallways in various languages).
  • Safe Place to Talk Together: With HMS no longer partnering with IOOV, find other ways for students to gather together to talk about family and/or personal concerns.
  • Mix It Up at Lunch Day: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance curriculum provides resources on how to help students “move out of their comfort zones and connect with someone new over lunch.” See link:
  • In-School Big Brother/Big Sister: Link up older students with younger ones. Train students to be mentors of younger students. Start this year with 8th graders being mentors to the incoming 6th graders.
  • High School Mentors: (starting in 2016-17 school year). Select and train Albany high school students to become mentors of Hackett Middle School students.

vii. … parent/family involvement ….

  • Comprehensive Parent/Family Engagement: Recruit, train and pay Community Outreach workers to go door-to-door to engage with families of HMS students, starting with students who are currently at Level 1. Preference should be given to Community Outreach workers who are themselves family members of HMS students. This Model will require funding.
  • Libraries: Work with local libraries to find additional creative ways of engaging families and students in learning (e.g. identify small satellite “libraries” in storefronts, housing projects, etc., where students and families can gather to hear a story; read to each other; learn something new.)

As I kept thinking about the Continuation Plan for Hackett, I realized that there are two other proposals I would like to recommend. I hope I’m not too late in doing so in this first round of recommendations. Again, I may not have these in the right categories, but they are as follows:

Educational Plan:

v. … student support….

Community School: Transform HMS into a full-service community school. In addition to full wrap-around services and a Family Resources Center, develop robust strategies for parent engagement within the school including the opportunity for paid positions for parents who assist the school with student support and outreach to other parents. (Note: This recommendation aligns with the recommendation with a Comprehensive Family/Parent Engagement recommendation I sent to you earlier.)