By Kate Hill

Staff Writer

During the March 18 Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education meeting, community members voiced concerns surrounding the perceived shortcomings of the district’s writing program.

Darren Kupinski, Stefanie Lints and Meghan Kelly each addressed the board on behalf of a group of parents who are dissatisfied with the outcomes of the current writing curriculum.

Three years ago, Burton Street Elementary began the process of training its teachers in the Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study program—an approach to helping teachers provide their students with instruction, opportunities for practice and concrete goals to help them meet and exceed the Common Core Standards for English language arts, which were established in 2011.

That same year, the district also hired a professional consultant—Kate Franz of KFF Literacy—to facilitate the training and to help align the school’s curriculum with the NYS standards.

The middle school initiated Units of Study training about a year ago.

Despite the district’s efforts to enhance its writing program, many parents are not seeing the progress they expected, particularly in the middle school.

According to Kupinski, a major flaw of the current writing curriculum is its lack of vertical alignment or coherence.

“Teaching should be purposefully and logically sequenced so students are being equipped to take on more challenging work the next year,” he said. “The [district, however,] seems to be operating at a 20th century pace trying to keep up with 21st century academic demands.”

Instead of preparing students for assessments and the next grade level, Kupinski said, the existing writing curriculum creates academic gaps and disadvantages students.

Kupinski also claimed that the sixth-grade writing curriculum is not aligned with the current NYS standards, which focus on three types of writing: argumentation, informational/explanatory and narrative.

As evidence, Kupinski noted that students receive a grade for descriptive writing, which is not a standard, yet they do not receive a grade for narrative writing.

Lints followed up Kupinski’s comments by voicing her concern that teachers are simply unable to dedicate enough time to the mastery of the writing standards.

“It seems as though writing goes by the wayside and [students] are not mastering it [as they move] from grade level to grade level,” she said.

Kelly, the parent of a second, fourth and sixth grader, expressed similar concerns regarding the rigor and cohesion of the writing curriculum.

She stated that although she noticed a considerable improvement in the Burton Street writing program over the past few years, she has not seen a comparable improvement in the middle school. Instead, she has observed a steep drop off in the quantity and quality of writing done by students as they enter the middle school.

“My current sixth grader had so much momentum coming out of Burton Street, and I haven’t seen that continue,” she said. “I’m concerned about what that [means] in terms of college readiness.”

In an effort to address the community concerns, Superintendent Matthew Reilly presented the findings of a recent assessment of the district’s writing program.

According to Reilly, the assessment—which focused on the curriculum’s coherence, direction and ability to meet NYS standards—included the examination of curriculum maps and student writing samples; conversations with teachers and the professional consultant; and “writing walks.”

“On our writing walks, we went into a classroom holding an instructional rubric and observed the teaching intensely, looking for consistency of practice and instruction, rigor and all the things associated with the training we have been providing for teachers,” Reilly said.

Reilly stated that the findings suggest that the NYS standards are currently being met in both the elementary and middle schools.

He specifically cited the sixth grade curriculum map, which lays out when and how the standards are covered throughout the school year.

Additionally, Reilly said he is confident that if the district’s Units of Study training continues, students will be ready to meet the NYS Next Generation ELA Learning Standards. The new “more refined” standards, which will fully replace the Common Core Standards by 2021, will feature increased specificity and rigor.

“We believe [the Units of Study] is an effective way to structurally help teachers to meet the standards,” Reilly said. “That’s why we’re using it and that’s why we have taken on a consultant to help deliver professional development to our teachers.”

Reilly also made clear his view that because the Units of Study training is intensive, it requires pacing in order to be effective.

Board member Jennifer Parmalee voiced her concerns about the pacing of the professional development in the middle school, explaining that while she noticed almost immediate improvements in Burton Street’s writing program following the introduction of Units of Study training, the middle school seems to be lagging behind.

Parmalee added she worries that if the pace does not increase, the current sixth graders will be long gone by the time their teachers complete their training.

Although he is confident that the district is “doing a lot right,” Reilly recognizes that there is room for improvement in the writing program.

“The training is not done. I think we can do better . . . we will do better and we must do better,” he said.

Reilly also stated that in addition to continuing high level professional development, the district needs to do a better job communicating with parents and circulating curriculum information, rubrics, anchor papers, and the criteria for meeting the standards.

He said he recognized the need for internal communication, stating that the teachers need to work together more often and intensely to ensure consistency between classrooms.

Additionally, the board:

• Received a report from math department leader Kim Schug, who highlighted the department’s outstanding efforts to provide students with extra help. Two students discussed the positive impact of such efforts on their math grades this year.
• Announced that two seats—currently held by Jennifer Parmalee and Lisa Lounsbury—are up for re-election in May.
• Heard a budget presentation by Assistant Superintendent Thomas Finnerty. The 2019-2020 budget vote is scheduled for May 21.
• Voted to adopt the District Policy Manual. The Policy Committee has been reviewing the draft manual since October 2019.
• Announced that the retirements scheduled for the end of the school year represent the loss of two championship coaches, teachers of the year and a combined 189 years of experience.

School board meetings are held on the third Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room located in the District Office in the Middle School. For more information, visit cazenoviacsd.com or call Superintendent Matthew Reilly at 315-655-1317.