Mineola School Board Continues to Revise Goals

The is continuing to fine tune their goals for the 2011-12 school year, with some revisions coming out of a recent board retreat.

The , which were last updated in 2007, will focus on reengaging in a strategic plan, mission and core values for the district. Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler said he had received interest from people who wanted to be on the steering committee, which will be working with the district council and hold its initial meeting during the first week of November.

The superintendent presented a few bullet points during the October 6 meeting at the , the first of which is about individualizing instruction for students and sharing strategies among teachers.

The board removed a goal about having INTEL Science participants, primarily because it had during this past school year.

As a measure for student growth from fall to spring, the district will use the NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) exams. A target growth mark is identified by the NWEA and the measurement would be to see the percentage of students who met that mark.

“That’s a very telling indicator as to whether or not our kids are moving, are number one growing and are they growing at the anticipated rate,”  Dr. Nagler said. Different indicators would be used for pre-k, kindergarten and high school students.

“In order to move different kids at different levels we need to know how to differentiate and share the skills that we all have and how to do that,” the superintendent said. “That’s for every child.”

A strategic plan for the district was first put into place in 2007 and work began on assessments for how to measure if the district was reaching the goals it set for itself. However the work on developing such assessments stopped shortly thereafter.

“Part of the goal here is to validate whether or not those things are still important to us and if they are, how do we measure them?” Dr. Nagler said.

It was also the superintendent’s thought that the district avoided the biggest question of what is most valued in the educational system that demonstrates academic excellence.

“Is it only state assessments? Is it service?” he asked. “Service is a great example, we do a fantastic job with student service, we don’t really record that in any way. I know we value it but how do we value it?”