Are Our Schools in Crisis?: Literacy

CAPA REVIEW  (Collaborative Assessment of Planning and Achievement)

This review was conducted by the New Jersey Department of Education: 2008 - 2009  This post includes the state's recommendations for improving the achievement of Dwight Morrow High School students in the area of Literacy. The next post will help you to become familiar with words that are used by teachers and school administration that you may not know.

DMHS East Wing

Governor Christie has introduced plans to augment the current New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards with  a new set of rules. The current standards are expected to become the Common Core State Standards. This change is slated to take place within the next 5 years. Each district is charged with selecting an assessment system. It is called the Transition to Next Generation Assessment Systems.  This new system will require 4 assessments (tests) during the course of the year. That is a test at the end of each marking period. I have written the person indicated in the letter requesting more specific information.  Are we ready for this? Do we even have Mid term and Final Exams?

LANGUAGE ARTS LITERACY  (English & English Literature)

State Recommendations:   This is what the School should do.

1.  Implement an authentic portfolio process for reading/writing for ALL students in core English classes.

2.  Develop a curriculum committee to create a standards based curriculum with benchmarks and assessments as well as effective teaching strategies.

3.  Revisit the school schedule so that time is provided to teachers to work on continuous vertical and horizontal articulation within the English curriculum.

4.  Continue professional development in the process needed to differentiate instruction for all students.

State Recommendations:  This is what the District should do.
1.  Provide a designated high school literacy supervisor/coach to support instruction.
2.  Staff the media specialist position in order to implement a formal library program which integrates with the literacy program.
3.  Share up-to-date and, preferably, disaggregated data with teaching staff on a regular basis, and analyze results for impact on classroom teaching practices.
4.  Create a structure to support ongoing curriculum development, revision, and implementation.

(#2 under what Schools should do. You will notice that I do not define vertical and horizontal articulation in English Curriculum. That is a very vague recommendation and it does need clarification. Those terms are generally associated with businesses. I also found a lot of references to the field of medicine and dentistry. It needs clarification.)

The clickable links in the text above lead to books at Amazon.com. The books provide more information that will aid in understanding the recommendations. These books may be available in the Library. Look below the book images. You are allowed to preview contents on some of them. Other books on these subjects are available in the library.

"How are the children?"