Provide students with a rigorous curriculum; recruit and retain effective teachers; develop a solid, supportive infrastructure; build a district culture centered around high expectations and success.

These are the core elements to Syracuse City School District Superintendent Sharon Contreras’ strategic plan to improve the quality of the school district, which currently only graduates 53 percent of its 21,000 students in four years.

The school district’s Board of Education unanimously passed Contreras’ strategic plan at a special meeting held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Clary Middle School. The plan lays out the steps the district will take to improve students’ academic performance and graduation rates during the next five years.

Since stepping into the position of superintendent on July 1, 2011, Contreras has been developing the plan with copious amounts of help from students, parents, teachers and community members, including Syracuse University officials.

At the meeting, Contreras said the goal of the new plan is to make the district the most improved urban school district in the United States. She said she hopes to see the district graduate most of its students in four years and set them up for success in college and future careers.

“I often say I want this to be a great place to learn, but I want this to be a great place to teach, and a great place to lead,” Contreras said.

To measure success, Contreras said the district will compare itself to the “Big Five” New York urban districts, which comprises Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Yonkers and New York City schools. Currently, SCSD students’ state test scores and graduation rates are significantly lower than the average of the other Big Five districts.

The target for 2016-17 is for SCSD students to surpass the average scores of the Big Five districts. The plan is an ambitious one. Only 15 percent of the school district’s eighth-graders are scoring “proficient” on the state math exams, while the average of the Big Five is 50 percent.

But every plan must start somewhere.

For the SCSD, it starts with rolling out new math and English language arts curricula, presenting a new teaching and learning framework within the district, conducting infrastructure readiness audits and cutting programs or initiatives that do not support the district’s new goals, all during the 2012-13 academic school year.

In the next five years, the district will also develop new assessments for subjects such as social studies, science, fine arts, health, world languages and physical education.

The district will also develop a teacher and school leadership recruitment and hiring program, as well as provide training and support for those in leadership positions. Contreras said it is important to understand that success in schools starts from the very top.

“The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers,” she said. “The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction.”

To do this, Contreras said the district will develop a data-driven system for hiring teachers, making sure officials consider factors such as a candidate’s master’s degree and SAT scores.

A teacher evaluation system will be put in place as well. The SCSD was among 10 districts in the state to have its teacher evaluation system approved by the New York State Department of Education, deputy commissioner of education Ken Slentz announced at the meeting.

“We feel that Syracuse can lead the way, particularly for our urban districts, in showing how … we can, in fact, move in a greater direction, a continuous direction for improvement,” he said. “Today is a tremendous day for Syracuse.”

Contreras’ plan was met with a sea of approval and a standing ovation from parents, students, district faculty members, city officials and SU’s Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

Cantor, who has been a critical supporter of the district and who had a hand in developing the district’s strategic plan, said it is wonderful to see the university’s partnership with the district and with the Syracuse Say Yes to Education program part of a larger plan.

Creating educational opportunity within the SCSD and developing a pipeline of students who are graduating from the district is crucial, she said.

Said Cantor: “These will be students who go out from this city to colleges and universities all over and that will make such a difference.”

Published on August 22, 2012 at 11:08 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia