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Mission Statement |
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Elko County School District promotes a culture of high academic achievement of its students, encourages high performance standards of its employees, and continually strives to maintain a climate in which all students can learn at high levels in every school. |
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Highlights for Elko County School District during the 2009-2010 school year are based upon results of the goals and objectives implemented at the onset of the year. Professional development of new administrative and teaching staff was of paramount importance and as such, resources were channeled to meet initiatives in this area. Instructional initiatives of the district continue to focus upon improvement of student performance in the content areas of math, reading, and writing. Parental involvement continues to be an emphasis for the district and there are many school highlights indicating a high rate of parent participation at individual school sites.
Elko County School District will utilize the 2010-2011 district improvement plan and the 2nd order change structure to further refine programs currently in place at the district and site level. The ECSD will facilitate this process by involving stakeholders to prioritize and review district initiatives that have been included in prior district improvement plans. The review process will assist all stakeholders indeveloping an understanding of the purpose of each initiative, how the initiative has been funded, impact on student achievement, impact on staff, and how the initiative fits into the overall district improvement plan goals.ECSD Career and Technical Education
Nearly 50% of students in Grades 9-12 were enrolled in one or more CTE courses at all secondary school sites during the 2009-2010 school year. Nineteen distinct Programs of Study (POS) in CTE are offered and lead to Applied Associates, Associates, baccalaureate, and Industry Certification programs (i.e., Agricultural Animal Systems, Business Information Technology, Construction Technology, Culinary Science, and Health Science Occupations). ECSD offers 27 Tech Prep Articulated courses with Great Basin College. An additional 14 courses are in the process of being articulated with Truckee Community College, Western Nevada College, and the College of Southern Nevada. Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO) are present at secondary schools throughout Elko County and include: FFA, FBLA, Skills USA, DECA, FCCLA, and HOSA. All ECSD CTE instructors are highly qualified (degreed and certified in their area of study).
Teacher Induction Program
During the 2009-2010 school the district fully implemented our teacher induction program for newly hired teachers. The district’s induction program, termed the RISE Program, (Retaining, Inducting, Supporting, and Encouraging new teachers) provides one year of training and support for new teachers. Participants are contracted for additional days to attend professional development specifically designed to meet their needs as new teachers. Year one begins with five highly structured days of training in areas such as classroom management, discipline, the first days of school, district and local policies/procedures, planning, and effective teaching. The focus, however, remains on classroom management. On the fourth day, there is an awards ceremony and a luncheon where new teachers meet their principals, school board members, and central office staff. On the fifth day, participants visit their schools and undergo a site-based orientation with their principal and teacher “buddies.” The work of establishing an appropriately organized physical classroom environment occurs in each new teacher’s classroom. New teachers receive 3 additional days of follow-up training in October, January, and April. Additionally, throughout the school year there are monthly support group meetings that may be conducted via interactive video. The Elko County School District induction program is a structured training program that begins before the first day of school and continues for three years. It has these basic purposes:
1. To provide instruction in classroom management and effective teaching techniques.
2. To reduce the difficulty of the transition into teaching.
3. To maximize the retention rate of highly qualified teachers.
Effective Teaching Practices
The district has also initiated district-wide training pertaining to effective teaching practices which is facilitated by WestEd, the Western Regional Educational Laboratory. With today’s societal changes, increased accountability on schools, and the focus on standards-based education, there is a need for educators to look at teaching in an in-depth, objective way. The T4S Classroom Observation Protocol was developed to provide administrators and teachers with a tool to discuss what is taught and how it is taught, because the “art” of teaching is rapidly becoming the “science” of teaching (Marzano, 2001). Sports, businesses, industries, and learning organizations have unique common languages to objectively discuss their procedures and activities in order to reach their goals. In schools, teaching is also a procedure with the goal of student learning. However, sometimes, in schools there is no common language to objectively discuss the methods teachers use to accomplish that goal. The T4S Classroom Observation Protocol is a research-based framework that provides administrators and teachers with definitions and criteria to impartially discuss the process of teaching. “The difference between teaching and keeping school or supervising students while they learn lies primarily in the use of funded knowledge to make learning or achievement of an educational goal, easier, more rapid, and more predictably successful for a student (Hunter, 1967). The T4S Classroom Management Protocol is composed of seven sections. Each section has specific elements with descriptions, attributes, and classroom examples that clearly defines some of the most important aspects of teaching. The first section of the protocol is Instructional Practices to Engage and Support All Students in Learning that determines if the teacher is acting as a facilitator, directly teaching, and/or monitoring students while they complete an assignment. This is followed by the section, Student Engagement. Throughout the Learning, and the section, Selected Concepts that Maximize Student Engagement. These two sections look at what the teacher does to engage all of the students as the same time throughout academic learning. The design of the fourth section, Level of Cognition, assists in determining the cognitive levels of the questions and activities provided by the teacher. The Instructional Practices Related to Standards, Curriculum, and Students section focuses on selected strategies teachers utilize to provide students with clear direction, guidance through instruction, and substantive practice with content so all students will master state standards. Assessing Student Learning, the sixth section, focuses on what a classroom teacher does day-to-day to assess student learning and achievement to promote better teaching, and to determine the effectiveness of instruction. The final section, Creating and Maintaining an Effective Learning Environment for Student Learning, includes actions the teacher does to create a safe, orderly, literacy rich environment conducive to learning. The T4S Classroom Observation Protocol also includes classroom observation instruments that can be used to determine the professional development needs of teachers, schools, and/or districts. These instruments provide a common language to objectively discuss teaching and/or provide specific feedback to teachers.
Professional Learning Communities
Elko County School District continued to make Professional Learning Communities a priority during the 2007-2008 school year. Schools are working on establishing protocols and structures to address barriers to learning collaboratively, thoughtfully, collectively, and continuously. Many of the barriers are not unique, but may require solutions specific to the individual community, school, department, or grade level. Barriers like:
The teacher’s association and their contract will not allow it. We cannot honor or identify good teaching. That will only lead to unhealthy competition and bad feelings among teachers.It is impossible, or too time-consuming, to provide grades every 6 weeks or progress reports every 3 weeks.There is not enough time for frequent teacher collaboration.Kids will not attend summer school or after school tutoring, they’re apathetic, or afraid of being “stigmatized.”There is not enough money or personnel to provide systemic tutoring for kids who need it. Schools, departments, and grade levels will begin to earnestly answer four questions crucial to their ability to improve student achievement: What essential knowledge and skills must be mastered at each grade level and in each content area? What effective practices will be used to teach students the essential knowledge and skills? How will we determine whether students have mastered essential knowledge and skills? What will we do when students do not acquire the essential knowledge and skills? |
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Goals and Objectives |
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Student Achievement - The Elko County School District will utilize student performance data to continually improve student achievement in the content areas of math, reading, writing, and science through the improvement of instruction, assessment, remediation and enrichment programs and the development of quality District and school improvement initiatives. Human Resources - The Elko County School District will collaborate with staff to provide opportunities to refine existing skills and to develop new competencies required to be effective employees who support the District's goals in student achievement through improvement in the areas of recruitment, hiring, and staffing, professional development, performance review and recognition programs. Support Services & Governance Functions - The Elko County School District will improve its support services and governance functions through the identification and development of strategies to improve parent involvement, student services and activities, information technology systems, policies and procedures, and governing board leadership. Fiscal & Facility Management - The Elko County School District will meet the long-term needs of students through prudent financial management and the effective allocation and use of resources in support of a master facility and maintenance plan. |
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