At the last meeting of the Glen Cove Board of Education meeting, the board of education announced the following district goals developed between the board and the superintendent of schools for the current school year.

To continue to improve student achievement by continuing to change the school culture into a stimulating culture of learning where academics come first.

Student achievement is usually measured by grades, assessment results and Regents results. It is understood that student achievement is linked to excellent instruction and a challenging curriculum. The foundation for a culture of learning rests upon four pillars:

An inquiry-based approach to teaching that stimulates student thinking;

A systematic approach of teaching for student understanding;

A classroom curriculum design based upon a philosophy of Understanding by Design;

An instructional program designed so that all students can learn and achieve based upon differentiation of instruction.

Evidence of Success

Sustain an expectation that assessment scores, Regents scores, and high school Regents diploma rates will continue to increase each year and will be more than competitive with similar Long Island school districts. Over the next three years, it is expected that the grade 3-8 assessment scores will be sustained and that 85 to 90 percent of Glen Cove students will pass the math and ELA assessments.

Continue to provide a staff development program which will enhance every teacher's knowledge to Teach for Understanding and further develop a classroom curriculum based upon the philosophy of Understanding by Design.

Continue to provide ongoing staff development for supervisors and administrators to stimulate their professional growth and development so that they may stimulate the teachers' professional growth and development. This will be evidenced by changes in classroom teaching emphasizing Teaching for Understanding. Teachers' lesson plans will more and more resemble the backwards design of Understanding by Design, and classroom teaching emphasizing big ideas.

Provide staff development opportunities to teachers of English Language Arts ELA), including special education teachers, with an emphasis in balanced literacy, and at the K-8 level utilizing the Columbia Literacy Model.

Continue to redesign the curriculum for grades six through nine. As a result, more students will score at the fourth performance level of the various state assessments based upon their abilities to think and perform using higher order thinking skills.

Explore innovative instructional models at the eighth-grade level in order to stimulate student interest in succeeding in school. By the end of the year, a proposal will be presented to this end to the board of education.

To continue to enhance the educational program and the school climate of all of our schools.

The public image of Glen Cove schools must inspire public trust. It needs to be perceived by the school community that the district is providing the highest quality educational program for all of its students. Schools also need to continue to make progress in being a safe, secure, attractive and controlled environment.

Evidence of Success

Continue to implement practices that will bring about further increases in student attendance, further decreases in class cutting, and fewer disciplinary student suspensions.

Develop actions plans at the high school and middle school through the participation of the site-based teams; by analyzing the data collected from the Tripod Project surveys. This will improve student perceptions of the relevance of their curriculum, provide multiple ways of explaining concepts and provide various approaches to giving students extra help. Students will be surveyed with a similar questionnaire during the 2008-2009 school year in order to measure gains.

Continue to hold every member of the staff accountable for monitoring and taking corrective action, which will lead to a more safe, secure and controlled environment.

Build upon the teaming system at the ninth grade in order to provide a smooth transition into high school.

Study and create new and innovative educational programs which may include the following: the continued grade-by-grade expansion of our instrumental strings program, a dance and movement program beginning at the high school, a Chinese Mandarin program beginning at the seventh grade, a cultural exchange program in the arts with China, strengthening of the drama program, a weight training program for all high school students, a high school English program designed around elective courses and the implication of an evening GED program for older students.

Continue to offer and improve upon the Alternative High School as measured by an increase in the number of student participants, an increase in the number of credits earned by each participant, and an increase in the number of students passing Regents exams.

To continue to build a sense of trust, confidence and pride in the schools in order to pass the school budget.

In order to pass a school budget, voters must be confident that their children are receiving an excellent education. There are many indicators that the schools are continuing to improve and that the public is getting its money's worth. Those indicators include such things as the condition of the buildings and grounds, the fiscal health of the district, the transparency of information and decision-making on the part of the board of education and administration, the quality of two-way conversation between the community and the school, evidence that school personnel are listening and are responsive to the wants and needs of the public, the respect and civility that all members of the school community pay to one another and the knowledge that all staff members provide a full day's work for a full day's pay.

Evidence of Success

Pass the school budget.

Receive outstanding reports from the external, internal and claims auditors.

Provide quality information to the school community regarding the fiscal operations of the school district, and link the development of the budget to existing reports and studies (e.g. District Technology Plan; Comprehensive Building Safety Program; School Facility Report Card).

Provide quality information to the school community regarding the programs and operation of the schools through regular newsletters, website, newspaper columns, presentations at board of education meetings, and various meetings with PTA and other community groups.

To renew and sustain the conditions of the buildings and grounds by exploring the need for a school bond issues.

The buildings and grounds throughout the school district have been neglected and fallen into disrepair as a result of years of underfunding. The high school roof must be replaced, science laboratories need to be updated, -parking lots need to be repaved, the high school football field and bleachers need to be improved and auditoriums and school libraries and the Mini Center should be studied for air conditioning. In order to address facility needs in a comprehensive manner, a community facilities study team should be organized to explore the need and the practicality of a bond issue.

Evidence of Success

A community facilities study team will be organized and will present a comprehensive report to the board of education regarding the scope and feasibility of a bond issue.

To provide a more rational instructional program which will give equal access to all students and ensure that each sub-group (special education, ESL, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific) will attain at least average yearly progress as defined by New York State.

Given the diversity of Glen Cove's student population, ethnic/racial and economic, the school district faces an even greater challenge in providing an instructional program which meets the needs of all itsstudents and brings about academic progress for each child.

Evidence of Success

Over the next three years, develop academic proficiencies for every subject at every grade level which are driven by New York State standards and represent the core knowledge and skills that very student should attain.

Develop student assessments for each curriculum that measure the degree to which students are fulfilling each proficiency.

Create a system of value-added assessment that will measure the academic growth of each student on a year-to-year basis, based upon standardized testing results. A team of school leaders will receive in-depth training in value-added assessment during this school year as a first step in implementing such a system.

Continue to work toward the implementation of an International Baccalaureate program at the high school that will be initiated in the 2008-2009 school year.

Redesign a middle school and high school honors program in which honor students are challenged to go beyond the prescribed academic proficiencies of our regular education program based on advanced proficiencies, and are assessed on student performance derived from those advanced proficiencies.

Review the status of special education and ESL programs in order to determine the extent to which these students are being well served by the existing instructional models. Study exemplary programs being offered in other schools and districts in order to determine the feasibility of adapting other instructional models to better meet the needs of Glen Cove students.