GCSD defends program
A new chapter in the reading saga



GUILDERLAND — School board members asked for answers — and numbers — about the district’s reading program in February after three parents complained about their children’s difficulties.

Last Tuesday, they got them in a lengthy presentation describing and defending the reading program.
Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Nancy Andress, once a reading teacher herself, began by having the teachers who packed the meeting hall stand. Praising their work, she called them "the fabric of our program."
"There has been a great deal of criticism and misinformation about Guilderland’s reading instruction circulating in conversations, in print, and on the Internet," said Andress. She said "a clear picture" would be offered, and concluded, "We are, indeed, meeting student needs."

Four years ago, when parents in a group organized by Melissa Mirabile raised concerns about how the district teaches reading, the school board decided the matter should be handled by teachers and administrators. At the Feb. 6 meeting this year, after hearing the three parents complain, several board members wanted to get involved and demanded answers.

The board last Tuesday, in its questions after the presentation, and later in a discussion at the end of the meeting, made no suggestion for a reading advisory panel as had been proposed by Mirabile’s group four years ago and rejected by the board.

Board members did discuss their response to the three parents and to another parent, Linda Beliveau, who addressed them after Tuesday’s presentation. They had varying views on communication and board civility.
Superintendent Gregory Aidala concluded Tuesday’s presentation by saying there were two issues — "the statistical component" and trust.
"Do we, as a board, have confidence in [the staff] to provide the highest level of services"" he asked, answering himself, "For me, the answer is an unequivocal yes."
The board, said Aidala, governs policy. "We have to leave the details to staff," he said. "They are good at what they are doing." The district, he said, had proven its commitment to support students with special needs.
Towards the end of the meeting school board member Peter Golden asked Aidala, an administrator, why he used the word "we" in referring to the board.
Board President Richard Weisz responded, "Civility is respecting people when you disagree."
Aidala answered, "I consider myself to be a non-voting member of the board."

Board member Barbara Fraterrigo referred to comments made by Beliveau. She had described the frustration of her child’s struggles learning to read and praised the three parents who spoke publicly in February about their children’s struggles and the school district’s failures.
While parents appreciate teachers, Beliveau said, they felt they had no other alternatives. She told the board, "It’s important you reach out to them now."

Fraterrigo suggested the board hold private dialogues with parents.
"We want every kid in this district to be successful to the degree they are able," she said.

In a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, Mirabile states that the reason she went public with her reading concerns was she felt forced to by an administration that wouldn’t listen.
Fraterrigo went on to say, "For some reason...the teachers felt, by [board members] asking questions, it was an attack...I have never, ever heard that." The teachers, she said, have been lauded. "Everybody knows they’re trying their best with what they have," said Fraterrigo. "They really shouldn’t feel under attack...It’s the system."
"Perception is people’s reality," said Aidala.
Board member John Dornbush said the "spreadsheets of services offered to the three children" of the parents who had complained, which the board reviewed in executive session, looked comprehensive.
Board member Cathy Barber said that the board has a lot of power to effect a lot of people, not just those in the meeting room. The board, she said, should not make decisions "based on emotion"; it causes people to lose confidence.

Board member Denise Eisele supported Fraterrigo’s idea for discussion sessions with parents.
She also said, "I feel that, as a board member, I should be able to ask questions."
The staff likes to feel their point of view is respected and listened to, said Weisz. The board has to be judicious, he said, when it gives negative information and it has a duty to investigate. "Sometimes there is a rush to judgment when it’s all televised," he said of the board meetings.

Board member Thomas Nahcod disagreed with Fraterrigo’s suggestion and said the board already has a procedure, where the board votes on matters requested by parents to be heard in executive session.
Fraterrigo responded that it was "a lot healthier" to have people talk directly to the board rather than through writing letters to the editor. The Enterprise, over the last month, has run a dozen letters about the Guilderland reading program and board civility — from parents; residents; Chris Claus, the president of the teachers’ union, and Nachod.
"The point of the letter I wrote to The Altamont Enterprise was about respect," responded Nachod. "I believe teachers and administrators did feel attacked." Nachod said the board has every right to ask questions but overreacted to the complaints from the three parents.
"Yes, we should listen. Yes, we should get involved," said Nachod. "But we also need to follow our policies and we have to treat all our people with respect...I did hear that teachers felt threatened, so I must be talking to different teachers."
Board member Colleen O’Connell referred to bookmarks that outlined the district’s "chain of command" for parents to follow if they have complaints or concerns.
Procedures are set up, she said, "because people care." Without such procedures, the district would be "chaotic," said O’Connell.
"The process itself is important," said O’Connell. "We wouldn’t have set it up if it didn’t matter."

By the numbers

Mary Helen Collen, the district’s new data coordinator, went over a series of graphs and charts that described state-required test results at Guilderland, comparing them to area schools and statewide results.
Tests for middle- and elementary-school students are graded at four performance levels. Students at the top level, 4, exceed standards; students at the next level, 3, meet standards; students at Level 2 need extra help; and students at Level 1 are deemed to have "serious academic deficiencies."

Collen’s charts showed that 79 percent of Guilderland students in third through eighth grades taking the English test last year scored at Level 3 or above. The range went from 88 percent of fifth-graders at Level 3 to 67 percent of eighth-graders.
Lynne Wells, supervisor for English language arts, social studies, and reading at the middle school, described this as "the V factor," a national phenomenon, where students who do well in elementary school and high school show a dip in tests scores in middle school.
Wells said that Guilderland middle-school students "fall down" on the multiple-choice part of the test. "Our kids do great on the writing aspect," she said.
She also said, "I don’t want to narrow our focus so much that we make our instruction all about testing. We have to look at the big world picture."

Board member Golden, responding to Andress’s statement that 92 percent of Guilderland graduates get a Regents diploma, which includes passing an English Regents exam, and 90 percent of Guilderland students go on to college, said that nationwide 55 percent of college students have a degree six years later. Golden said that note-taking and term-paper writing were stumbling blocks.
"A six-year study in Guilderland would end the discussion," said Golden, of whether the "V factor," the dip in middle-school scores, goes away or reappears in a "more virulent form."
"These are the kind of numbers the board should look at," said Golden.
"That’s an esoteric hypothesis," responded Superintendent Aidala "We are overloaded with 5,000 tests, trying to analyze the results, trying to get information to teachers...To go off on this tangent...We have to establish our priorities." He concluded, "We are trying to target the individual student and providing growth."
Collen also presented data showing performance of Guilderland students "far surpasses" statewide averages. She broke out numbers for general education students and for students with disabilities and she compared unofficial scores with neighboring districts.

In last year’s English test, on which 79 percent of Guilderland students had scored in levels 3 and 4, the highest percentage locally was 85 percent at Niskayuna followed by 80 percent at Bethlehem and Saratoga; the lowest was 73 percent at South Colonie.

Collen also presented a chart showing the elementary students at Guilderland receiving academic intervention services (AIS) or remedial help, broken down by school and gender. The lowest percentage of students needing help — 19 percent — is at Guilderland Elementary; the highest percentage — 26 percent — is at Lynnwood Elementary. In all of the elementary schools except Altamont, more boys then girls receive help.

Collen said that 31 percent of all students in New York State receive academic intervention services.

She also described the many ways teachers are looking at test scores to analyze student needs.

Goals

Andress read a 1934 quotation from reading expert Paul McKee about the controversy over instruction in phonics, stating some believe it’s wasteful and harmful and others believe it’s imperative.
"In Guilderland, we’ve never joined a side...We’ve always followed both in our instruction," said Andress. "We’ve looked carefully recently at this push for phonics first and meaning second. But we’ve maintained a model that respects children’s potential and learning in which skills and meaning go hand-in-hand right from the start. This is how teachers teach. We have never called our program Whole Language...."

The research, Andress said, shows that phonics must be taught but doesn’t advocate one method.

Andress went over the different methods of instruction used at Guilderland and outlined the district’s goals.
Students are to become "strategic readers with a full range of strategies for figuring out words and understanding text," she said. They are to read a variety of genres and understand various purposed of reading.
Students are to use writing as a tool to make sense of the text and they are to "develop an appreciation for the power of reading in their lives."
Guilderland’s curriculum, Andress said, "is based on the essential components of reading, as recommended by the National Reading Panel...and as required by the New York State ELA standards. This includes phonemic awareness, word recognition, background knowledge and vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and motivation to read.
"And then don’t forget," concluded Andress, "the state requires students to read 25 books a year."

Levels

Educators then went over reading assessment and instruction at each level — elementary, middle school, and high school.
Dianne Walshhampton, principal of Guilderland Elementary School, began with kindergarten, and its state-required screening, and continued, describing the primary services — which she termed "an extremely individualized program." She concluded by describing a new summer intervention program, offered for the last two years to students leaving kindergarten who have "significant reading needs."
Wells then talked about academic intervention services at the middle school. She went over the various materials and programs used, concluding, "Support for struggling students is not only about the materials but also the approach." Support usually comes in small groups or one-on-one, she said.

Wells said that 225 students, or 16 percent of Farnsworth students, receive AIS instruction.
"For adolescents, literacy is more than reading and writing," said Wells. "It involves purposeful, social, and cognitive processes. It helps individuals discover ideas and make meaning."
The transition to the high school from the middle school is a "big step," said high school reading teacher Chris Claus, who is also the president of the teachers’ union. "Many vestiges of childhood" are left at the middle school, he said and few students think, "Boy, oh boy, I can’t wait to go to reading class," he said to ripples of gentle laughter.
"The best instruction, if not willingly received isn’t going to go very far," said Claus. High school students become serious about learning to read because they want to graduate, he said later.
Claus supervises the tutorial reading instruction of 79 students, with the help of four teaching assistants, he said. He also described a "push-in" program and support that is offered by an assistant in the classroom.
"We have asked for an additional reading teacher," he said of a current budget request for next year.
Claus also went over assessment, beginning with the eighth-grade ELA test, and ending with the 11th-grade English Regents, an exam he described as challenging. In between, an Advanced Degree of Reading Power test, which Claus described as "not too intrusive" — is used. All ninth-graders are tested and a few 10th-graders are given the ADRP he said, because, in between the two state-required tests, "We want to see how kids are doing."
High school reading teacher Lisa Nissenbaum then went over the specifics of reading instruction, concluding, "This isn’t just about passing the test."