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Abram Lansing principal outlines plan to boost growth; cites more than half of students below grade level
Summary
Principal Burd presented Abram Lansing Elementary's comprehensive education plan, highlighting I Ready results, 'stretch goals' to accelerate learning, increased kindergarten supports and plans for peer mediation and behavioral reset‑room improvements.
Principal Burd, presenting Abram Lansing Elementary’s comprehensive education plan, told the Cohoes City School District board that while some students showed strong gains, “over 50% of our kids are below grade level,” and the school will use I Ready stretch goals and more targeted small‑group instruction to close gaps.
Burd said the school has seen pockets of above‑average growth in recent I Ready assessments but emphasized the challenge of students who enter multiple years behind. To accelerate recovery, staff will set stretch goals — targets that ask some students to make more than a year’s growth in a single year — and focus win groups on one or two measurable objectives in each six‑week cycle.
The plan includes adding three staff members to kindergarten during the winter to strengthen foundational decoding and vocabulary instruction and using special‑education teachers to deliver academic intervention services (AIS) in math at the grade level where they work. Burd described coaching and new exit‑ticket assessments that will provide monthly and six‑week data cycles so teachers can monitor progress and adjust instruction earlier than the January benchmark.
Burd also addressed behavior supports: the school recorded roughly 800 reset‑room incidents last year and is refining a coordinated follow‑up so multiple staff members work from the same plan when a child leaves the classroom. Separately, Burd said Abram Lansing applied “through the justice system of New York” to become a peer‑mediation school and aims to have about 20 students trained by mid‑year to help de‑escalate conflicts.
Superintendent O’Shea thanked Burd and noted the work is supported in part by the school improvement grant and an office of mental‑health grant that funds staff positions tied to behavioral supports and counseling. The board asked for additional data baselines and expressed interest in a deeper review of why some student subgroups lag behind and how the plan’s metrics will be reported publicly.
The board will consider the comprehensive plan as part of the Sept. 11 consent agenda, with questions to be directed to the superintendent’s office ahead of that meeting.
