State Ed Department commends Bath schools

Pictured at right, Haverling student Kayla Montgomery works with Vernon E Wightman teacher Debra Wood on an English/Language Arts assignment. PHOTO PROVIDED

BATH - The New York State Department of Education recently recognized Vernon E. Wightman Primary School, Dana L. Lyon Elementary School and Haverling High School as High Achieving/Gap Closing schools, based on student achievement on state tests in English/Language Arts (ELA).

According to a letter from Commissioner of Education Richard Mills, a total of 1,083 schools across the state were recognized for this achievement because they met all applicable state standards for ELA in 2005-06 and also made adequate yearly progress for both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.

"Your entire school community has earned this recognition," Mills wrote. "We encourage you to celebrate your achievement and to continue implementing strategies to support high performance and to close the gap."

Principal Tracy Marchionda commended the staff at VEW for their role in raising student achievement. "The VEW faculty is phenomenal," said Marchionda. "They work hard all day, every day."

According to Marchionda, the improved ELA scores can be attributed to a variety of initiatives and instructional strategies, including focusing on literacy and phonics. "We've worked to align the ELA curriculum throughout the building. Each class dedicates an hour to an hour and a half for literacy instruction and activities every day," said Marchionda. "The focus is on a balanced literacy approach between reading fiction and nonfiction and between student-selected and teacherselected pieces."

Marchionda also points to the district's strong pre-kindergarten program, integrating ELA across all curriculum areas, the character education program and student support systems from remediation to enrichment as aiding in student achievement.

At Dana Lyon, Principal Susan Graham said staff focused on consistency and stressed examples of high quality work.

"We are consistent in instruction in all classes and across all content areas," said Graham.

According to Graham, staff have modeled for students what a Level 4 assessment looks like. Scores on state exams range from Level 1 to Level 4, as the highest.

"Classes have conversations about what the best work is. I'm hearing 'Is that a 4?' and 'I want a 4!' from teachers and students," said Graham.

In addition, fifth-grade teachers have analyzed tests to determine the students' strengths or areas that need improvement and shared their findings with fourth-grade teachers.

Teachers also are focusing on skills such as note taking, using complete sentences when giving oral responses and using text books for clues that include gathering information from captions or bold type.

At the High School, Principal Randy Brzezinski credits the achievement to staff collaboration.

"Our teachers work well together," said Brzezinski. "All teachers in the same department know what the others are doing. They all have the same policies and curriculum."

According to Brzezinski, staff also reviewed the exams to determine gaps. "This helped us in looking at how we teach and what we should stress," said Brzezinski.

This is the third year in a row the High School has been recognized by the state as a High Performing/Gap Closing school.