SILVER CREEK - True to his promise from the last Silver Creek Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Daniel Ljiljanich gave a data-filled presentation to the board of education recently.
He showed the board Silver Creek's state assessment data compared to the top 10 schools in Chautauqua County from the New York State School Report Card.
He described this two-year-old data as "rear-view mirror data" saying that it is only good for getting a picture of where the school is.
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OBSERVER Photo by Nicole Gugino
Silver Creek Superintendent Daniel Ljiljanich (left) showed the board of education assessment data at a recent board meeting and expressed his hopes for future improvement. Also pictured are board members Scott Pulver (center) and Marjorie Foxton.
"This is what we refer to as rear-view mirror data. This is two years ago now, but what it tells us is what we need to spend a little bit more time looking at," he said. "After we figure out where we are then we have to determine where we want to be and how we are going to get there."
He said the second part of this will be determined by teachers, part of which is being required by the state with APPR standards.
He said one way teachers are being asked to use data are Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), but it is not necessarily a bad thing.
"The last thing we want is for our students to be afraid of data. We should be using data for student's success and that should be our number one goal," he said.
He explained a new part of this is figuring out what students know at the beginning of the school year, not waiting until the end to find out what they do not know. He used a sports analogy to make this clear.
"There is not a coach out there that has the best free throwers in the league and spends every practice shooting free throws. ... If they can shoot really good free throws but can't shoot a three pointer, guess what you're working on. How do you find that out? You don't wait until the end of the season to give them a test, you find out at the beginning of the season," he said.
He explained SLOs are part of a teacher's effectiveness rating along with other things like observations and students' assessment grades.
"I think this is right on target with what we need to do, but I can see two more things we need to add to it and that is, we need to build values in our kids ... we want to be a school of leaders ... and we need to get the parents involved," board member Marjorie Foxton said.
Ljiljanich agreed saying the teachers cannot do this alone and will need help from parents, especially if the goal is to have dramatic results.
In other business:
The board also heard a presentation from Elementary School Principal Scott Rudnicki on the education technology plan. He explained the plan is flexible and open-ended to accommodate changing state requirements and advancements in technology. The board voted to accept the plan.
Ljiljanich said he received the written agreement with the village of Silver Creek for the salt barn. He explained the school at the time paid $7,500 in exchange for 10 years of free salt, which is clearly stated in the agreement. He said he will be speaking with the mayor of Silver Creek on the matter.
Ljiljanich announced the search for a new middle school principal is going well with three, very qualified finalists for the position recently interviewed. He said he was very please with the candidates and will have a recommendation for the position by the next board meeting Aug. 8.
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