ESSA Parent Letter
February 1, 2019
Dear Parent/Guardian:
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a federal law that governs the United States K-12 public education policy. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has established accountability measures to measure school performance in compliance with ESSA. For junior high schools, the indicators include academic achievement, student growth, progress of English language learners, and chronic absenteeism.
Based on 2017-2018 data, North Park Junior High School has been classified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement School (CSI) under the Every Student Succeeds Act accountability system. As a result of this designation, several steps will happen:
- Conduct a needs assessment
- Develop a school improvement plan that includes at least one school-wide improvement strategy
- Seek and ensure that parents and students have opportunities to provide input and feedback through surveys and meetings
We have already begun implementing strategies for improvement, and have identified the following goals:
- Increase student participation on all NYS Assessments to the required 95% level
- Improve student performance on all NYS Assessments
- Decrease instances of chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined as being absent more than 10% of the school days.
The accountability system bases each school’s scores and targets for NYSED assessments, in part, on a 95% participation rate. We believe that the CSI designation for our school is directly related to the number of student test refusals for NYS assessments. As a way to improve North Park Junior High School accountability status, we expect all students to participate in New York State Assessments. We believe our students are well prepared to demonstrate proficiency on the tests.
There will be a presentation and opportunity for questions on Monday March 4, 2019 at 6pm in the North Park Junior High School Auditorium. In addition, information will be posted on the North Park Junior High School website.
Please contact me with any questions.
Dr. Bernadette L. Smith, Principal
North Park Jr High School
Dr. Bernadette L. Smith, Principal
Michael Pickreign, Assistant Principal
Scott Trachte, Assistant Principal
#LionProud
Website: www.lockportschools.org/npjhs
Location: 160 Passaic Avenue, Lockport, NY, USA
Phone: (716 478-4800
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LockportCitySchoolDistrict712
Twitter: @Lockport712