Daniel T. Connor
Superintendent

227 Main Street
Goshen, NY 10924
(845) 615-6720

District news

Goshen Central Schools wins grant from Walmart Foundation

September 16, 2011 – The Goshen Central School District was recently awarded a $2,500 grant from the Walmart Foundation.

This past spring, district officials worked with the Capital Region BOCES Grants Service to develop the grant proposal “Improving Instruction through iPads.” This project will transform and improve the process for teacher evaluations, and thus teacher quality, in our district.

The grant money will allow building principals to use an iPad for formal classroom observations and during informal classroom walk-throughs to record and track instructional activities and student engagement in real time. The portability of the iPads will allow administrators to visit multiple classrooms, up to 10 each day, on a more regular basis. The iPad technology will offer a much more efficient way to track all teacher observations and provide better management of formal teacher evaluation reports.

This is in coordination with the introduction of New York State’s entirely new evaluation system and performance standards for teachers and administrators.

The data collected on the iPads will be used to initiate conversations with teachers and provide feedback about instructional methods and activities as observed in the classroom. The information collected will also be used to determine professional development priorities for teachers, helping to ensure the most critical training opportunities are offered, therefore increasing teacher quality.

Overall, the iPads will streamline the evaluation process, enable administrators to more effectively and efficiently complete teacher evaluations, improve instructional practices and ultimately increase student achievement.