Strategic School Profile 2006 - 2007

Ledyard School District
MICHAEL H. GRANER, Superintendent
Telephone: 860-464-9255

COMMUNITY DATA

DISTRICT NEED

STUDENT ENROLLMENT AND RACE/ETHNICITY

EFFORTS TO REDUCE RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND ECONOMIC ISOLATION

Connecticut law requires that school districts provide educational opportunities for its students to interact with students and teachers from diverse racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

The Ledyard school district continues to be dedicated and diligent in its efforts to reduce racial, ethnic, and economic isolation. As seen in the individual School Profiles, Ledyard Public Schools provided over 20 opportunities to reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation. Many more opportunities are subtle as they are imbedded into the curriculum through district-wide revision, but these changes will make a great difference. For instance, during the 06-07 academic year, the district's Instructional Council asked school department chairs and leaders to revisit the choice literature to meet the needs of our diverse student body. This will be an ongoing curriculum conversation in the next several years. District teachers routinely offer and make improvements to instructional lessons that broaden the cultural horizons of our students. Our award-winning music program is yet another example of a program that routinely celebrates diversity through multicultural music expression. Concerts continue to include work that celebrates diversity in an effort to teach our student body and bring together our community.

During the 2006-07 academic year, Ledyard High School, the Mashantucket Tribal Nation, and New London High School formed a Youth Leadership Coalition. Students are being trained as youth leaders to work with their peers to better understand diversity and to provide positive communication strategies for students. Participation is supported by the Mayor, the Superintendents of Schools in New London and Ledyard, and the Mashantucket tribal leadership. In the last few years, district and building administrators have worked closely with Mashantucket Pequot Tribal leaders to improve the student achievement of all students.

Ledyard Public Schools, through its Agri-Science program, provides a quality education to 230 students who come to our high school from neighboring urban, suburban, and rural towns, and this integration provides a more diverse student community that benefits the entire town. This program continues to make improvements to draw students from our neighboring towns, and this year it will focus on curriculum revision.

DISTRICT RESOURCES

STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Connecticut Mastery Test, Fourth Generation, % Meeting State Goal: The Goal level is more demanding than the state Proficient level, but not as high as the Advanced level, reported in the No Child Left Behind Report Cards.

These results reflect the performance of students with scoreable tests who were enrolled in the district at the time of testing, regardless of the length of time they were enrolled in the district. Results for fewer than 20 students are not presented.

For more detailed CMT results, go to www.ctreports.com.
To see the NCLB Report Card for this district, go to www.sde.ct.gov and click on "No Child Left Behind".

Connecticut Academic Performance Test, Third Generation, % Meeting State Goal: The CAPT test is administered to Grade 10 students. The Goal level is more demanding than the state Proficient level, but not as high as the Advanced level, reported in the No Child Left Behind Report Cards.

These results reflect the performance of students with scoreable tests who were enrolled in the district at the time of testing, regardless of the length of time they were enrolled in the district.

For more detailed CMT results, go to www.ctreports.com.
To see the NCLB Report Card for this district, go to www.sde.ct.gov and click on "No Child Left Behind".

SPECIAL EDUCATION

DISTRICT OVERVIEW

* Includes chronic health problems such as attention deficit disorders and epilepsy.
** Includes hearing, visual, and orthopedic impairments, deaf-blindness, multple disabilities, traumatic brain injury, and developmental delay.

Connecticut Mastery Test, Fourth Generation, Percentage of Students with Disabilities Meeting State Goal. The following results include students attending district schools who participated in the standard assessment with or without accommodations for their disabilities.

For more detailed CMT results, go to www.ctreports.com. Results for fewer than 20 students are not presented.

Connecticut Academic Performance Test, Third Generation, Percentage of Students with Disabilities Meeting State Goal: The CAPT test is administered to Grade 10 students. The following results include students attending district schools who participated in the standard assessment with or without accommodations for their disabilities.

For more detailed CMT results, go to www.ctreports.com. Results for fewer than 20 students are not presented.

Accommodations for a student's disability may be made to allow him or her to participate in testing. Students whose disabilities prevent them from taing the test even with accommodations are assessed by means of a list of skills aligned to the same content and grade level standardsas the CMT and CAPT.

DISTRICT REVENUES/EXPENDITURES 2005-06

Expenditures may be supported by local tax revenues, state grants, federal grants, municipal in-kind services, tuition and other sources. DRG and state figures will not be comparable to the district if the school district does not teach both elementary and secondary students.

Revenue Sources, % from Source. Revenue sources do not include state funded Teachers' Retirement Board contributions, vocational-technical school operations, SDE budgeted costs for salaries and leadership activities and other state-funded school districts (e.g., Dept. of Children and Families and Dept. of Corrections).

Selected Regular Education Expenditures, Amount Per Pupil and Percent Change from Prior Year. Selected regular education expenditures exclude costs of special education and land, building, and debt service.

EQUITABLE ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES AMONG DISTRICT SCHOOLS
Below is the description submitted by this district of how it allocates resources to insure equity and address needs.

It is the policy of Ledyard Public Schools that each school receives comparable resources within the district's financial limitations and needs. Each year, principals and central office administrators meet to review budgetary needs at each building and district-wide. Building administrators and central office administrators work together to develop a budget reflective of each school's needs. Issues such as enrollment, curriculum initiatives, including the purchasing of materials and textbooks and student/teacher ratio, drive budgetary decisions.

During the budget process, which begins in October, principals meet with their staff to determine needs. Those needs are brought to the central office where they are reviewed, prioritized, and brought before the Board of Education Finance Committee. The Board of Education and the Superintendent hold several public forums allowing public input from the community and the parents. The forums ensure that the public understands the needs of the school district and ensure an equitable distribution of resources. As a result of the budget review process in spring 2007, per pupil expenditures at each school were reviewed and adjusted to ensure equitable allocation of resources.

SCHOOL DISTRICT IMPROVEMENT PLANS AND ACTIVITIES
The following narrative was submitted by this district.

The Ledyard school district is committed to continuous improvement in all areas of student achievement. Many students who participate in our music, art, and sports programs and who worked on literary publications continue to win state and national recognition and awards. Additionally, students in our math and science programs are consistently recognized.

During the 06-07 year there was a concentrated effort to improve achievement through the use of School Improvement Plans that are aligned to District and Board of Education Plans. The district worked to improve achievement through the use of K-12 common formative assessments, and this will be a focus again this year. The standards-based IEP and the formative assessment data have provided a concrete way to measure the progress and make program adjustments for all of our students. CRISS training (Creating Independence through Student-Owned Strategies) continues to be mandated for all core grades 4-12 educators to provide differentiated instruction for all of our students. K-6 teachers and building administrators routinely look at student work to make programmatic adjustments. The district and building administrators continue to work toward inclusive classroom environments that promote the achievement of all students. Additionally, the district provided a focus on administrative coaching through classroom walk-throughs and follow-up conversations regarding written curriculum, taught curriculum, and effective pedagogy.

Ledyard provides an extended-day kindergarten intervention program for the students who are most at-risk. This program has been recognized by the Connecticut Reading Association and has been very successful in bringing students to district benchmarks.

K-6 teachers and administrators provide frequent and specific information to parents regarding formative assessments and their child's progress toward those benchmarks. Parent communication will continue to be both a Board of Education and district focus in the next year.

Connecticut Mastery Test scores continue to reflect an upward trend in all academic areas as students progress from grade 3 through grade 8. Reading and Reading Across Content Areas will be a focus for the next academic year at the elementary, middle and high school levels.