DINI AUDIT for ELA

1. DINI AUDITfor ELA Findings and Action Plan

2. Why the audit? This state-mandated audit was conducted because our district was not making adequate yearly progress in the area of English/Language Arts.

3. Reading Skills The following skills should be explicitly taught by all teachers: • Background Knowledge and Vocabulary Development • Fluency • Comprehension and Response • Motivation to Read

4. Background Knowledge and Vocabulary Development: Findings • The State says: “No evidence was found for this performance indicator in the written curriculum; performance indicator 10-2.1 is not addressed.”

5. Fluency: Findings • The State says: “No evidence was found for this performance indicator in the written curriculum; performance indicator 10-3.1 is not addressed.”

6. Comprehension and Response: Findings • The State says: “No evidence was found for these performance indicators in the written curriculum; performance indicators 10-4.1, 10-4.2, 10-4.3, 10-4.4, 10-4.5, 10-4.6, and 10-4.7 are not addressed.”

7. Motivation to Read: Findings • The State says: • “No evidence was found for this performance indicator in the written curriculum; performance indicator 10-5.1 is not addressed.”

8. Writing Skills The following skills should be explicitly taught by all teachers: • Understand the purpose for writing • Identify the intended audience • Use tone and language appropriate to the audience and purpose.

9. Writing Skills Continued 4. Use the writing process 5. Observe the rules of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling 6. Use an organizational format that provides direction, coherence, and/or unity

10. Writing Skills: Findings Evidence is missing for the all of the writing skills performance indicators previously listed.

11. Listening and Speaking: Findings There are five literacy competencies for listening and nine for speaking. • Listening: missing 5 out of 5 • Speaking: missing 9 out of 9

12. Findings from teacher interviews One issue is that the district coordinator is responsible for all grade levels, K–12. As a respondent said, “We need an elementary, middle, and high school level person. The curriculum is too different.”

13. Findings from teacher interviews The key problem cited by respondents was that within any one classroom, student reading levels vary. As a high school teacher said, “It’s hard because I have one student who is reading at a 12th-grade level and another who doesn’t know the alphabet….

14. What does this mean for you? Though this has been labeled an English audit, it is the responsibility of ALL teachers to help our students develop the literacy skills necessary to be successful in all content areas.

15. Action Plan Goals • Goal 1 – Curriculum: By 2009-2010, the district will implement a consistent K-12 ELA Core Curriculum across all grade levels • Goal 2 – Special Education: Beginning in 2009-2010, Schenectady City School District will increase the percentage of students with disabilities achieving proficiency on state ELA assessments by 5% annually.

16. Action Plan Goals • Goal 3 – Instruction: The district will identify, implement, monitor, and evaluate the use of a core set of research-based instructional strategies for literacy across content areas by the end of 2009-2010. • Goal 4 – Professional Development: By 2010, all staff will have actively participated in ongoing literacy-focused professional development and will have put into practice research –based instructional strategies that are monitored and evaluated for effectiveness.

17. Literacy Across the Content Areas To help us achieve Goal 3, all teachers in the district will participate in literacy across the content areas professional development. Additionally, all teachers will explicitly teach their students literacy strategies that are directly connected to their content area.

18. Professional Development • October 31 • November 6 • February 14 • March 3