The Assistant Superintendent for Region One serves the elementary schools of our six member towns and the Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Services include personnel, professional development, curriculum, testing, Title I, and grant management.
Personnel Services
The office of the Assistant Superintendent is responsible for the recruitment and interviewing of all certified staff in all of the Region One schools. This past summer, ten new teachers were hired to fill positions resulting from retirements, resignations and new positions.
Connecticut has set very high standards for teacher certification. The educational and testing requirements for new teachers are some of the most demanding of all fifty states. Once teachers are certified they must continue to participate in continuing education courses that meet Connecticut State Department of Education guidelines. Our office monitors all aspects of the certification and re-licensing process to ensure that all of our teachers meet the standards for highly qualified teachers set by both the state and federal Departments of Education.
Beginning in 2010, all teachers holding initial or interim initial certification, who have not previously completed B.E.S.T. program requirments, will participate in the TEAM program (previously B.E.S.T.) during their first and second years of teaching. Our office acts as a facilitator for the program, connecting new teachers with the support provided through our Regional Educational Services Center and Region One. An important aspect of the TEAM program is the mentoring provided new teachers by trained veteran colleagues.
Professional Development
All teachers and administrators, regardless of their years of experience, are required to continue to participate in professional development activities. Opportunities to work with educational experts, as well as colleagues from around the region, are organized by the Assistant Superintendent’s office. Training sessions, workshops and other in-service events are scheduled throughout the school year and over the summer vacation. We also help keep principals and teachers aware of new trends in education and guide them to state and national conferences where they can broaden their background knowledge and enhance their professional skills. During the year, three days are set aside for addressing regional and local professional development initiatives.
Additional training is occuring in student assessment practices, data analysis, technology integration, vocabulary development, reading in the content areas and curriculum mapping. Teachers engage in this training after school and through arranged release days.
Curriculum
The region’s six K-8 schools, that prepare students for our 9-12 program at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, all share common curricula. The curriculum frameworks in each content area are reviewed and revised following a scheduled process. When reviewing curriculum we consider Connecticut State Department of Education updates, student performance, educational research, and teacher feedback. At the high school level, curriculum follows a similar process of review and revision, often under the direction of the department chairperson.
All curriculum work is overseen by the Assistant Superintendent. For the past five years we have been engaged in an initiative that incorporates both professional development and curriculum design. The curriculum is organized into instructional units following the Understanding by Design model. This process provides a vehicle for standards-based instruction and assessment of student learning.
Assessment and Testing
Region One has begun to incorporate a system of formative and summative assessment in the areas of language arts and mathematics. By utilizing assessment instruments that can be efficiently administered and scored, we can gather “real time” data that can be used by teachers to drive instruction. This local assessment complements the statewide testing utilized to determine students’ mastery of state prescribed objectives.
Connecticut has been conducting standardized testing at the state level in grades 4, 6, 8, and 10, since well before the No Child Left Behind legislation. The NCLB legislation has added grades 3, 5 and 7 and our testing schedule has been shifted from early fall to early spring.
Our office manages the logistical and organizational facets of the testing. All testing materials are processed in preparation of the testing window and then prepared for shipping to the scoring facility. The Assistant Superintendent attends all training and related presentations offered by the State Department of Education, passing the information along to our local principals.
The information gained from the testing is analyzed and studied to help guide future planning regarding curriculum revision, professional development, textbook and instructional material selection, and changes to instructional practices. The data gathered for individual schools is also studied with a lens more focused on individual students and particular classes.
Title I Programming
The office of the Assistant Superintendent also oversees the Title I programs in the seven Region One schools. Title I is a federally funded program, designed to provide support and intervention for students who are not progressing at an age appropriate level. In Region One the majority of our students receiving Title I assistance are being supported in reading. The Assistant Superintendent applies for all Title I grants and monitors the use of those funds to provide the instructional programs specified in the federal guidelines.
Grants
The state and federal government make funds available to school districts for the purpose of improving the overall instructional programs. Grants are targeted to promote teacher training, technology integration, character building, teaching supplies, and new innovations. Since each of our seven schools is a separate school district, these grants must be applied for and managed on an individual district basis.
During the course of the year, additional grants become available through state initiatives and private foundations. These funding sources are pursued depending upon which schools qualify according to the grant’s criteria of eligibility.
