“It takes a whole village to raise a child”

 Date:  06/18/07

To:      Dear Parent/Guardian

From:  Abdi H. Gass, Chief School Administrator

As we come to the end of the 2006-07 and get ready for the 2007-08 school year, let us update you about the academic progress of our students and some efforts that are being undertaken to further improve the student performance. As you know, we can realistically strive to make Shirley B. Foster Elementary a “blue ribbon school”.

The results of New Jersey Ask test came last Friday and it is as follows:

As you can see the student performance in math is much better than language arts. We are having a great difficulty in improving language arts. For instance, only 17 students out of 37 students in grades 3, 4, and 5 performed at 46%; in other words 54% did not perform well. As a result of our performance, the NCLB may impose severe penalties for falling short of benchmarks established for student performance. Of course, a more positive view is that almost half of our students are proficient, and we can build on our strengths.  To tackle this great challenge, we have engaged the services of Dr. Nancy Morgan and she has initiated some measures designed to improve our student achievement.

Foremost, to capitalize on the progress that has been made; we are having some of the teaching staff “move” to the next grade with the students.  Each teacher has had an opportunity to get to know the students better and better as the year has progressed.  Further, as Dr. Morgan explains, “Equally, or in some cases, even more important is the fact that the students have had an opportunity to get to know the teacher, including expectations, tolerance, style, ‘looks’, and special ways of doing things.  Most importantly, in terms of the core curriculum standards, as well as skills, work habits, cognitive processing and aptitude for learning, the teachers are aware of just where the students’ strengths and weaknesses lie at this point.  Just a little “brushing up” in September, in case things were a bit ‘lost’ over the summer, and we should, by the third week in September, be “off and running!”  This will be a departure from past years, when it took until mid-October, or even later, for students and teachers to begin to know one another.  It took even longer for us to adequately assess what had been learned the previous year, and what still needed to be understood more clearly. We have been fortunate to have a small population, talented and experienced teachers, and relatively well-behaved students.”

We are maintaining the same teaching staff in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Grade one.  These very ‘stabilizing’ grades are to be seen as the ‘springboards’, so to speak.  Grade two will, at this point, have a vacancy.  The Grade Two teacher, Mrs. Tomlin, will follow her class to Grade Three.  They should be writing like Steinbeck by November!  The Grade Three teacher, Mrs. Covington, will follow her class to Grade Four.  Among other things, we may have some ‘Albert Einstein’s’’ emergent from this group of young scientists, writers, and orators.  The Grade Four teacher, Mrs. Miles, will be ushering her young students into the realm of mature study, in Grade five, with the excellent underpinnings of content area, and process teaching/learning that has been evidenced in her class.  Mrs. Green is being asked to ‘take on’ the sixth graders, for, as an experienced, and strong teacher, she will be able to give them the necessary ‘orientation’ and daily instruction and guidance that will prepare them for Junior High School.  Ms. Thomas will be joining the pre-school, and will be asked to provide several levels of alternative approaches to students in small groups, and individually, in a co-teaching role.

In the areas of Special Education, Mrs. Fritsche and Mrs. Niblic will teach Special Education 1 and 2 respectively, while Mrs. Bucciero will support them to be compliant in Special Education regulations. Mrs. Bucciro will also provide 504 services as well as Intervention and Referral services. She will also work closely with the CSA to help to facilitate a smooth transition as she is planning to retire. 

As a parent or a guardian we are counting on you to help us help your child by involving in the education of your children.  “It takes a whole village to raise a child”.