Valley Central teachers present classroom research; board approves BOCES budget and consent items

Valley Central School District teachers presented results of classroom “mentor” research projects at the board’s special meeting April 24, showing short-term gains on literacy, music literacy, social-emotional learning and engagement strategies across grade levels. The Board also approved routine district business, including the Orange-Ulster BOCES administrative budget and three BOCES board vacancies.

The presentations — drawn from a teacher-mentoring program in which educators tested classroom interventions and tracked pre-/post- measures — ran through projects in kindergarten, elementary music, first-grade phonics, social-emotional learning, physical education technology, inclusion and project-based learning at the high school. Presenters described short, targeted interventions and shared classroom data and reflections about next steps.

The research matters to district instruction because it documents classroom-scale techniques teachers can replicate or scale. “The end goal is that he will be able to identify the letters in his name and make the primary sound for that letter,” said Emma Feeney, a kindergarten teacher at Walton Elementary, describing a multisensory intervention that paired sand writing and Play-Doh to improve one student’s letter and sound recognition. Feeney said the student showed gains in letter…