Syracusetc.org

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Syracuse Teacher Center

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The Syracuse Teacher Center (STC) continues to provide a coordinated professional development program to the more than 4,000 persons employed by the Syracuse City School District (SCSD). As our mission states, this is accomplished by collaborating with our school district, area colleges, and a variety of community educational and cultural institutions. Our program is designed and developed to meet the NYS Teacher Center Statutory Purposes and the NYS Teacher Center Standards and will strive to meet those goals in the 2004-2005 school year. The STC Policy Board continues to review the results of the 2003 survey completed by 1200 teachers. Brain research, literacy, curriculum and technology were identified as general priorities. There is also interest in the more specific areas of study skills, reading in the content areas and math instruction. This information was also used to update the SCSD Professional Development Plans, and it will be shared with principals to assist school staff in revising site plans. In addition, school improvement plans from each of the buildings were reviewed and are considered when determining specific program activities.

The STC professional development program is also informed by the organizational goals of the Syracuse City School District as identified in its strategic plan. The seven focus areas of this plan are improving literacy, increasing graduation rates, increasing parental and family involvement, promoting diversity, enhancing school environments, promoting leadership, and improving fiscal management. Other plans that are connected to the Strategic Plan and further inform services and programs we provide are the Professional Development Plan (PDP), which includes the target areas for professional development of literacy, curriculum, assessment, diversity and technology; the Model for Teacher Evaluation; the Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD); and School Improvement Plans (SIP). The STC will support all initiatives identified in these plans, including the development of school and individual Professional Growth Plans. Programs and activities will be designed in collaboration with schools and individuals to meet professional growth needs as outlined in these plans. Individual and organizational goals are supported through district and site-based inservice courses, online courses, Educational Horizon Grants, professional portfolios, action research, peer coaching, school study groups, and National Board Certification support.

A critical area identified by the Strategic Plan, PDP, and SIP is literacy. We will continue to support initiatives in this area. One way we will accomplish this is through regular and in-depth collaboration with the SCSD Curriculum and Instruction Department to support elementary school reading specialists by nurturing their leadership skills and expanding their knowledge base to help all teachers improve reading and writing instruction Another way weÕll support literacy development is by continuing our support for the initiatives defined by the Reading For Results (RFR) grant. This year we will add schools under the Reading First Grant. This support includes a demonstration classroom, onsite job embedded consultations, workshops and technical assistance. WeÕve also collaborated with the Regional School Support Centers (RSSC) by sharing Tier I responsibilities under RFR and we will continue this collaboration under Reading First. We will also maintain our partnership with the RSSC working with identified SURR and SINI schools. The STC will continue to design programs that address curriculum development and implementation. Our staff and services support the work of the curriculum development teams as they assist teachers with the new curriculum, and demonstrate strategies needed for implementing the curriculum. The STC, as a Regional Scoring Center, provides teachers with additional training in all State Assessment areas.