District Administration - January 2009 - (Page 76)

D District Administration Finalists Living and Learning Arcade Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School ACHIEVEMENT GRANT ideas and talk about how the program is going,” she says. “We notice that in the Academy of READING and MATH how easy it is to monitor progress [of students] and track their advancement and lack thereof and adjust the instruction. We can collaborate and give ideas on how to focus on the needs of the students.” One-Half Cup of Success, One Cup of Preparation Principal Travis Lichty of the pre-K6 school, who is married to Erin Lichty, says that historically the district has been successful with meeting adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. Two years ago, the district didn’t make AYP, but last year it did. “But this is not just about our district looking good on paper,” Principal Lichty says. “ is will enable our kids to do better on those tests and be more prepared and make it a little more fair.” Erin Lichty adds that she is excited about winning. “It’s been a little rough ﬁnancially in this district, like the rest of Ohio,” she says. “And the kids love to cook. Cookies seem easy and fun, and everybody likes cookies.” As enjoyable as the experience promises to be, Lichty is looking for more than a fun and scrumptious time for the students. “I’m really hoping to see a lot of improvement in their achievement scores,” she says. “But more importantly to me, I just want to see improvement in their reading skills, math skills, life skills, and the way they are going to be working together and interacting.” Superintendent Mark Hartman adds that grant monies provide many of the district’s extra resources. “So we’re very fortunate for these kind of grants to provide us with the things we otherwise wouldn’t have,” he says. And he adds that with the greater push for proﬁciency under No Child Left Behind, autistic children and ADHD children have a greater challenge than at any other time. —Angela Pascopella 76 January 2009 A Living Arcade IDEO GAMES ARE EXCIT ing and challenging to children, something curriculum director Donna Payne is counting on to motivate the students at her Pittsburgh school. Payne’s program idea, the Living and Learning Arcade, at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School captured a ﬁnalist position in the Second Annual D A X-Factor Student Achievement Grant program. e Pittsburgh school won a year’s worth of AutoSkill’s Academy of READING and Academy of MATH software and training to help improve its academic achievement. “My big thing for this is motivation,” says Payne. “And students today are motivated by video games.” A video-game type of environment will draw more students to become proﬁcient in reading and math. V e school, which has 227 students in grades K5, made adequate yearly progress the past three years, but the goal is to increase the percentage of students scoring proﬁcient to at least 80 percent, Payne says. In 2007, 41 percent of ﬁfth-graders were proﬁcient or advanced in reading, and 90 percent of ﬁfth-graders were proﬁcient or advanced in math. “Reading is more of a challenge [compared to math],” she says. “I think this will help us reach high standards and raise reading scores. Everything is about testing, and we try to get our kids into magnet and private schools. ose scores mean so much.” Payne explains that the charter school needs to spend more time just on literacybased activities. e school already oﬀers Mobile Computer Lab Sulphur Bluff (Texas) Independent School District Bringing Mobility N THE SMALL TOWN OF Sulphur Bluﬀ, Texas, most residents head to nearby Sulphur Springs for work, as their own small town’s dairy farming industry has dried up over the past few decades. e Sulphur Bluﬀ Independent School District, which includes a single school building with one section for pre-K6 and another for grades 7-12, struggles ﬁnancially and needs more technology, including a mobile computer lab, to especially help its at-risk and special education students and English Language Learners. Kayla Ross, the district’s account secretary and grant coordinator, became A mobile computer lab for practicing reading and math skills will help raise achievement for at-risk students. I one of two ﬁnalists in the Second Annual D A X-Factor Student Achievement Grant program. Sulphur Bluﬀ ISD, which has 242 students, won a year’s worth of AutoSkill Academy of READING and Academy of MATH software and professional development training to help improve its academic achievement. e district was rated “academically acceptable” for the 2007-2008 school year, with students scoring 75 percent or above in math and reading tests in grades 3-12. is year’s goal is to reach “recognized” status, which means a 75 percent pass rate on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2009

District Administration - January 2009
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Security
Facilities & Construction
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Leadership Books
Research Center
District Web Site Essentials
The Second Annual X-Factor Student Achievement Grant
Social Studies for the 21st Century
Tech Disruptions
Professional Opinion
New Products
Product Focus
Understanding the Times

District Administration - January 2009