District Goals

T

he Board of Education of the Stamford Public Schools has established the following five goals. They provide direction to the Superintendent and staff to ensure that all students have access to a well-rounded education that promotes their academic development, citizenship and social-emotional well-being. The Board of Education recognizes that in order to achieve these goals, all staff must also have appropriate resources and support.

Through a community-wide strategic planning process that will be completed in the fall of 2006, comprehensive measures of progress towards these goals will be developed. Progress will be publicly reported on a quarterly basis. These goals underpin the Board of Education’s efforts to establish accountability for student results.

• Goal 1 ~ The Stamford Public Schools will increase academic achievement of all students by:
  • Providing all students with access to high quality, standards-based instruction that includes a broad array of programs that enrich students’ lives
  • Developing and implementing strategies to meet the individual needs of all students,including those who exceed standards and those who are below standards
  • Fostering a learning environment that provides for the physical safety of all students while nurturing independent thinking and the safe expression of ideas
  
  
• Goal 2 ~ The Stamford Public Schools will address the Achievement Gap by:
  • Establishing a culture of high expectations for all students, staff and families
  • Targeting interventions at all schools that have students and/or sub-groups who are not making progress towards State standards, as measured by NCLB
  • Working with students and families to increase student engagement in school, as well as student motivation for success
  
  
• Goal 3 ~ The Stamford Public Schools will increase the meaningful engagement of all families and the community by:
  • Developing a culture of collective responsibility and ownership for student results and wellbeing
  • Developing a shared understanding, based on factual information, of important academic and social issues facing our students
  • Establishing multiple opportunities and mediums for families, community members and schools to communicate
  
  
• Goal 4 ~ The Stamford Public Schools will provide all students with a world-class professional staff by:
  • Recruiting, inducting, mentoring and supporting a diverse professional staff at all levels
  • Maintaining high expectations for the delivery of differentiated and standards-based instruction, and supporting efforts to build the capacity of all staff to do so
  • Developing multiple opportunities for staff to engage in collaborative decision making and to grow as instructional leaders in their schools and district-wide
  
  
• Goal 5 ~ The Stamford Public Schools will maintain efficient and effective operations by:
  • Managing fiscal, capital, instructional and personnel resources in a prudent and transparent fashion, which includes increasing alternative sources of funding through state, federal and private grants
  • Evaluating the return on investment for all district initiatives while reporting progress towards benchmarks to the entire Stamford community
  • Continuing to improve the budget process so that it is outcome related and transparent