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International High School
Long Island City, NY
School Type: Public
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School Setting: Urban
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Level: High
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School Design: Alternative
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Content Presented By:
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National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
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Summary
The practice: Professional development should be based on analyses of the differences between (a) actual student performance and (b) goals and standards for student learning.
- Graduation rate raised from 54% in 1993 to 72% in 1996.
- LEP students scored 70.5% on English proficiency test, 5% higher than other NYC LEP students
- Teachers are absent due to self-treated illness 2.7 days per year compared to the New York City average of 6.2 days.
- In the 13 years of existence, no staff member has ever left for a comparable position in another NYC public school.
- Most students in U.S. four years or less
The school's long term goal is to enable students to graduate with a portfolio of best work that meets or exceeds the work produced in Regents-level classes. Professional development efforts, therefore, aim to ensure that every faculty member is fully equipped to support students in meeting increasingly rigorous graduation requirements. Teachers are actively and collaboratively engaged in ongoing efforts to understand and internalize standards, and to align curriculum and classroom assessment to graduation standards.
The monthly faculty staff development meetings are now devoted to working back from exit criteria to evaluate and improve instruction. Faculty are systematically comparing school curricula and student work to state content standards and to the performance standards contained in the New Standards Project. This process helps teams identify and address gaps in their curricular offerings, as well as share best practices in a collaborative setting. Finally, in addition to ongoing analyses at the group level, teachers often use their weekly team meetings to devise and assess intervention strategies for specific students having difficulty meeting standards.
This site also exemplifies the following practice(s):
- Professional development should be primarily school-based and built into the day-to-day work of teaching.
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