Lynch Literacy Academy meets Adequate Yearly Progress

Greater Amsterdam School District officials are proud to announce that Lynch Literacy Academy will likely be designated as a School in Good Standing by the New York State Education Department later this year.

Greta Smith, the district's literacy coordinator, Frances Boyer, Lynch's literacy coach and Principal Tom Perillo helped implement a program to improve students' scores on the state's English assessment tests.

Lynch is currently designated as a School in Need of Improvement (SINI) because of several years of low scores on the state English Language Arts assessment test. However, the state Education Department recently released results of the current year’s assessment test, and Lynch students met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the second year in a row.

Under Education Department guidelines, a school that meets AYP two years in a row are classified as a School in Good Standing.

The change in Lynch's designation is not yet official because the Education Department has not yet updated its list of schools and their accountability status. The list will not be updated until later this year, after all of the data for all of the schools and school districts throughout the state is collected.

Principal Thomas Perillo described the positive test results and expected change in designation as a “huge accomplishment” for Lynch Academy.

“This is the culmination of a tremendous effort on the part of so many people in the school district, including administrators, teachers, staff members and especially students,” he said. “We are very excited with the test scores and are eager to share the good news with the community.”

Lynch was designated as a SINI because of several years of low scores on both the Math and English assessment tests. However, in 2007, the school met Adequate Yearly Progress on the Math test for the second year in a row and on the English test for the first time.

When a school is determined to be in need of improvement, the Education Department requires it to develop a Comprehensive Education Plan. At Lynch, a team of administrators, Lynch teachers, and parents formulated a plan for staff development and improved programs for students. Components of the plan included revamping the master schedule to address our students' needs, concentrating on curriculum revisions and alignment, and involving the entire Lynch staff in preparing students for assessments.

One of most important developments to come out of the CEP was the literacy coach position at Lynch.

Fran Boyer is the literacy coach at Lynch Academy, and she helped integrate literacy into the school’s core curriculum. The idea is not to make Science, Math or Social Studies teachers teach Reading, Boyer said, but to help them structure the curriculum so that Reading is an essential part.

“It’s not that our science teachers are now teaching Reading, it’s that they’re teaching students how to read and write like scientists,” she said.

Although Lynch students have brought their test scores up, Perillo says faculty and staff have no plans to rest on their laurels.

“We expect to see improvement every year and we will take the steps necessary to do so,” he said.

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