Orange-Ulster BOCES

Orange-Ulster BOCES is offering extensive training and support to its districts on the Regents Reform Agenda, the new direction of the New York State Education Department, in conjunction with the Race to the Top federal funding awarded to New York State last year. The major goal is: All students must graduate from high school college- and career-ready. For our twenty-first century world high school graduation is not enough for student success. Key components of this agenda are the new Common Core Learning Standards for students from preschool through grade 12, aligned with the new goals. Performance on these standards will be assessed with new interim and end-of-year assessments as well as new data collection and reporting systems, all developed by the state. Districts will also use their own data collection systems to determine student growth and to change instruction to make improvements. These components of new standards, new assessments and new goals are also part of the new Teachers and Leaders Evaluation System which includes the use of student growth measures, rubrics and other evidence to determine levels of performance by teachers and principals. Despite the economic challenges faced by all school districts, these initiatives require new thinking, new systems and new best practices. Orange-Ulster BOCES is providing leadership through its Orange-Ulster BOCES Network Team Consortium to which ten school districts belong. Furthermore, Orange-Ulster BOCES is providing specific sessions such as the Lead Evaluator Training for Teacher Evaluators pictured above. This training is offered to the consortium members as well as all Orange-Ulster component districts and has been developed with colleagues in the Joint Management Team (Dutchess, Sullivan and Ulster BOCES') so that districts may attend these trainings at locations across the region. Through the School Improvement shared service, the Orange-Ulster BOCES Network Team Consortium, as well as local and regional collaboration through the BOCES Instructional Council, principals' meetings and listservs, the Division for Instruction provides leadership, training and support to the districts as we move forward to continuously improve equity and excellence in education. This page is maintained by Betsy Xanthis and Terry Diamond, according to the Web publishing guidelines of the Orange-Ulster BOCES.