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Our school is truly a community of lifelong learners. The professional development opportunities for staff members are extensive and numerous. Internally we have four weekly common grade-wide preparation periods for teachers to meet and plan together. Teachers also receive an additional preparation period (exclusive of their contractual preps) where they meet weekly by grade with the assistant principal and coaches. This time is utilized to plan instruction, look at student work, refine curriculum and receive professional development.

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.

The school has a number of parent involvement programs in place. In the lower grades we have Parents as Reading Partners and Parents as Math Partners. In both of these programs parents are encouraged to come into school on a weekly basis and participate in a math or reading lesson with their child. Parents in all grades are invited in monthly to writing celebrations. There are school performances throughout the year involving children on all grades that parents are encouraged to attend. Parents attend the winter and spring concerts. There are professional development opportunities for parents, utilizing both in house staff and outside vendors, throughout the year that are designed to help assist them in supporting their child’s academic and social development in school. There are parent workshops on learning the English language. There are parent Citizenship classes offered at the school as well. The citizenship classes provided by our parent coordinator have been very successful as many of our parents have obtained U.S. citizenship through this program.

Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.

It is our belief that school change and improvement requires two components. The first component is buy-in. The staff must believe that the change and improvements will positively affect the education in the classrooms. It is preferable to have teacher input in order to ensure a greater buy in. Teachers should have input in not only the rollout but the ongoing implementation of the change and the tweaking of the program to make it work right in every classroom. Without staff buy in no real or lasting change can occur. The second component is accountability. The staff must be held accountable throughout the process for input, deadlines, outcomes and instruction. Holding teachers accountable sends a clear message that this is important and needs to be done. Furthermore consistently holding teachers accountable reinforces their buy in to the process. The ultimate goal is the following:
• That the teachers believe that the change or improvement is important and that it will result in student progress.
• The teachers know that they had input in incorporating revisions into the curriculum.
• Administrators will monitor implementation and support teachers when necessary. It is important that teachers know they are being supported.
• Finally teachers know that the changes implemented can always be tweaked to work better in their classrooms.

What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?

The focus on conferencing with students around literacy has been one of the most important factors in our success. This initiative has many components and has taken years to fully implement and to refine across the school. The school began this initiative by developing and designating a daily conferring period school-wide. The school supplies every child with two small spiral bound conference books, one for reading and one for writing. The school has provided ongoing professional development on refining the art of conferring with students. This professional development started 6 years ago and continues today. The Instructional Team (comprised of teachers, coaches and administrators) set a non-negotiable minimum requirement that every student be conferred with at least twice a month in both reading and writing. The notebooks are transferred forward to the next year’s teacher. The school also requires support staff, administrators and out of classroom teachers to utilize the conference books when working with children in literacy. Teachers utilize conference books to create goals, meet individual student needs (in a point of service setting) and offer next steps for students. The conference notebooks are utilized for grouping in small group instruction and planning for shared classroom lessons. The conference notebook serves as a toolkit for the student. Learning the art of conferring, and it is an art, has truly empowered our teaching staff.

Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement.

The school-wide initiative to reduce the number of students in any instructional setting is the initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement. It is our belief that students learn best in a one to one setting. Our goal has been to reduce the number of students receiving direct instruction at every available opportunity. In the out of classroom intervention settings the school has Reading Recovery (1:1 student to teacher ratio), Leveled Literacy Intervention (1:3 teacher to student ratio), AIS math groups (1:6 teacher to student ratio) and AIS reading groups (1:6 teacher to student ratio). In mandated pullout services such as ELL or SETSS we encourage a workshop model setting so students are met with in small groups for guided reading or strategy lessons. In the classroom again we utilize the workshop model and children are constantly being met with individually to confer or in small groups for strategy or guided reading lessons. AIS services push in or pull out to support small group work. Para-professionals in the classroom receive professional development on instruction and are responsible for supporting instruction for small groups of children within the classroom. We believe that this commitment to lowering the student to teacher ratio at every opportunity best supports the needs of the individual student. This is the greatest contributing factor to our success.

Explain how Title I funds have supported your improvement efforts.

Title 1 funds have been the key driver in our improvement efforts. It has afforded us the opportunity to support students’ individual needs by the following:
• Increasing remedial support for struggling students including our AIS support staff, our Reading Recovery program, our Leveled Literacy Intervention program, and our Orton Gillingham programs.
• Providing funding for reducing class size.
• Providing funding for extensive professional development for our staff including an in house professional development plan and our work with outside vendors such as Teacher’s College and Literacy Support Services.
• Providing funding for parent involvement activities including professional development for parents.

Identify the professional development activities you use to improve the teaching portion of the teaching and learning process.

Our school is truly a community of lifelong learners. The professional development opportunities for staff members are extensive and numerous. Internally we have four weekly common grade-wide preparation periods for teachers to meet and plan together. Teachers also receive an additional preparation period (exclusive of their contractual preps) where they meet weekly by grade with the assistant principal and coaches. This time is utilized to plan instruction, look at student work, refine curriculum and receive professional development. Additionally there is a weekly Block professional development period where up to 7 teachers are freed up on an as needed basis to receive professional development, view model lessons, participate in inter-visitation and meet on school committees. These activities are scheduled weekly as needed .The teachers also receive 3 curriculum mapping days each school year (January, March and June) these mapping days are full day sessions by grade with the coach and assistant principal. The school also works with outside with vendors (i.e. Teacher’s College and Literacy Support Services). Each teacher receives a minimum of 3 full day professional development days during the year with these vendors. Out of classroom teachers are encouraged to attend professional development activities around their specialty areas. Paraprofessionals are also receiving professional development around guided reading, writing and math to support instructional grouping in the classrooms.

Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.

The school culture is one of professional growth and shared decision making. As an administrative team we have focused on three key areas of community building. First, we wanted to build a fear free environment where teachers and administrators work together to create a superior learning environment, in which student needs are identified and curriculum and instruction are refined to meet each student’s individual needs. Second, we wanted to foster communication between teachers at all levels to maximize the expertise and input of all staff members to support student growth. Classroom teachers meet by grade weekly and have four common preparation periods to plan together. Teachers in the classroom meet with out of classroom supports and service providers to plan and create a cohesive instructional plan for each student. What goes on in the classroom is transferred throughout the school building and supported by those teachers who pull students out and who push into classrooms to work with students. Monthly Instructional Team meetings are held and teachers create vertical plans to support student learning and develop curriculum. It has been our goal to cultivate a culture of continuous learning based on schoolwide and individual teacher goals. Teachers plan in teams and groups along with administrators and coaches. The third key component was to create an environment of shared decision making. Our goal was to move from top down to collaborative decision making with real teacher input. We accomplished this by creating weekly administrative periods on all grades where teachers, school administrators and coaches meet to create, refine and plan curriculum together. We also implemented an Instructional team with grade leader representatives who follow a specific process to ensure collaboration. The process is as follows:
• School-wide initiatives are presented to the Grade Leaders at an Instructional team meeting.
• Grade Leaders in turn share the initiative with their colleagues on the grade during common preparation periods.
• Grade Leaders run their own grade conferences with their own agendas monthly.
• Grade Leaders solicit feedback from the group and present this feedback to the Instructional Team.
• Policy decisions are made by the Instructional Team collaboratively through consensus.

• Category 1

  Selected in 2012

• Grades: pre k - 5
  School Setting: urban
  Town Population: 0
  Student Enrollment: 755
  Student Demographics:
  

  Black/African American: 1%
  White/Caucasian: 39%
  Hispanic: 14%
  Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
  Asian: 46%
  Native American: 0%
  Other: 0%
  

  Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:25.1
  % Reduced Lunch: 68.7%
  % ELL Learners: 23.4%
  Founded: 1937
• PRINCIPAL:
  Christopher Ogno
• CONTACT:
  7000 21st Avenue
  Brooklyn, NY 11204
  1-718-236-4205
  cogno@schools.nyc.gov