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Date: 10/12/2022
AGAWAM – Superintendent of Schools Sheila Hoffman recently presented her proposed goals for Agawam schools for the 2022-23 school year. She also shared a self-assessment of where the district is in terms of student achievement and instructional practices.
Her goals, along with progress updates throughout the year, will be used for Hoffman’s annual evaluation by the School Committee in the spring. She made her presentation during the committee’s Sept. 27 meeting.
Hoffman outlined several self-assessment indicators she identified that align with her goals. The indicators are used as an assessment of where the superintendent believes the district is in the areas of growth in student learning and achievement as well as for instructional practices measured against teaching performance standards,
In analyzing student achievement, Hoffman looked at last year’s data from the STAR reading, math, and early literacy assessment programs used by the district. STAR assessments are computer-adaptive tests designed to give educators accurate, reliable, and valid data quickly so they can make decisions about instruction and intervention.
Data showed that 35 percent of students in kindergarten through grade 9 are proficient in reading and math, with 54 percent of students in kindergarten through grade 2 proficient in early literacy.
In assessing instructional practices and performance standards in the district, Hoffman focused on four areas of growth: instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement, and professional culture.
For instructional leadership, her growth goal is a process to monitor and implement effective and rigorous standards-based instruction units with measurable and improved engagement strategies.
Under management and operations, her growth goal is to elicit more stakeholder feedback, including communicating more with staff about the budget and developing more recruiting strategies to strengthen and diversify the district’s workforce.
The area of growth for family and community engagement is to improve engagement strategies and address family concerns, especially for students with poor attendance.
The self-identified growth area for professional culture is to increase access to support and resources so all students can reach their full potential through a true sense of belonging to the school community.
Hoffman identified three goals areas that will used in her evaluation: professional practice, student learning, and district improvement. Within the goal areas, she outlined how she plans to implement those goals, including key practices, and what evidence she will use to meet each goal.
Professional practice goal
The single professional practice goal is meeting leadership. Hoffman plans to meet that goal by implementing a review of monthly data during meetings with her administrative leadership team. Meetings will have an academic focus and engage team members in a discussion or activity that results in an improved understanding of data-driven decision making.
Key practices for this goal: a monthly data review and providing data for key decisions. For evidence, Hoffman plans to provide team agendas, minutes and data reports.
Student learning goal
This goal area focuses on student achievement in math and reading. The first goal is to increase by 10 percent the number of students in grades 3-9 who meet the proficient standard as measured by the STAR reading assessment.
Similarly, Hoffman wants to increase by 10 percent the number of K-2 students who meet the proficient standard as measured by the STAR early literacy assessment.
For the second goal area of student achievement, in math, Hoffman wants to increase by 10 percent the number of students in kindergarten through grade 9 who meet the proficient standard, as measured by the STAR reading assessment.
To meet these goals, Hoffman will encourage staff to share best practices during meetings, analyze data, and reach students with individualized or small-group instruction.
District improvement goal
Attendance is the first district improvement goal. Hoffman’s goal is to increase rates of attendance for students who are identified as chronically absent by 10 percent.
She hopes to develop attendance improvement plans at each school, to include notifications to families, awards for good attendance, family outreach, wellness checks, school data meetings, and intervention with Effective School Solutions, a New Jersey-based company that partners with school districts to support students with emotional and behavioral issues.
The second district improvement goal area is to implement a comprehensive district safety plan that includes support for emotional and physical safety.
Work in this area will include ongoing assessment and revisions to the district’s emergency response plans, the addition of safety coordinators, continued ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training and drills for active shooter preparedness, an inventory of safety needs, staff professional development, expansion of the Signs of Suicide curriculum, continued use of screening tools for mental health, contracting with experts to support the development of a hospital-to-school transition protocol, training additional staff in youth mental health first-aid, providing additional group cognitive-based therapy coaching sessions, community partnerships, and increasing the use of social-emotional screening.
She will measure the district’s success in meeting this goal with attendance data, a school climate survey, partnership data, and DESSA data — a standardized, strength-based measure of social-emotional competencies of children in kindergarten through grade 8.
This past spring, Hoffman held an information workshop on the evaluation process to help new members on the committee – particularly those who joined the committee in January following the 2021 election – better understand the evaluation process.
Following Hoffman’s presentation on Sept. 27, the committee voted unanimously to adopt the proposed goals.