Vision for Hendrick Hudson

By Marion M. Walsh

In Hendrick Hudson, we are working to effectuate a vision for an excellent school district, through the development of rigorous curriculum, our Strategic Plan that focuses on maximizing potential, building our advanced science courses and valuing reading and literacy. We will continue our quest for educational excellence.

Hendrick Hudson's vision for the future is aligned with Commissioner Steiner's. The District possesses a well-contemplated Strategic Plan with its cornerstone to maximize student potential. Among other things, our Strategic Plan states that "we will redefine learning with a focus toward individual goals" and "ensure that every student's individual needs are met." To do this, we have considered how to implement personal learning plans. Although we do not have the resources and means to fully realize this, our middle and high school students are working with a commercial guidance program, Naviance, on identifying personal learning styles, goals, and the post-secondary process. We are implementing a rigorous curriculum written with the end in mind, to help ensure that students understand the essential questions of each lesson.

The Hendrick Hudson Strategic Plan, in Strategy XI, is also guiding us to "identify exemplary and innovative educational programs and facilities in the Arts, Science and Technology for the Hendrick Hudson School District." For science, we are reallocating staff and resources to implement Project Lead the Way, an engineering sequence out of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and we are planning to add a bio-medical sequence from the same institution in the near future. We continue to offer the Regents level Living Environment in middle school for all students. At a time when students from around the globe are routinely surpassing US students in the math and science fields, Hendrick Hudson has implemented and is continuing to improve its Science Research Program which is an introduction to scientific research, as it is practiced in academic institutions around the world. This year, Allison Gofman, a senior in the program, received the distinction of being one of 300 semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search for her project "Preference for Goal-Directed Action in Infancy and at Four Years Old." For the arts and music, we are continuing to offer accelerated art and to offer band, orchestra beginning in fourth grade, and vocal work for all. This April, the Hendrick Hudson Treble Makers and Concert Choir received the Gold with Distinction rating at the NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) Majors, a prestigious annual distinction. Our middle school choral group was also honored by NYSSMA.

In Hendrick Hudson, we are also working to create a culture of literacy. In elementary school, we have implemented new programs to help students read earlier and to pinpoint and address weaknesses earlier. Teachers have initiated a new curriculum in the Middle School based on the Columbia Teacher's College model to engage students in extensive reading and writing. In our high school, we offer both the AP Literature course and AP Language class, and at all levels, we encourage students to seek meaning in their lives through literature. As Commissioner Steiner noted, reading has become almost a revolutionary act in our society. We must create true readers.

These times often appear to be the worst of times to lead a public school district toward continuous improvement and educational excellence. Districts face tremendous budgetary challenges, a highly regulated system with hundreds of unfunded mandates, a litigious society, and a mass culture that pervasively and systematically devalues education and reading, while it values instant gratification, violence and crudity.

Yet for all of these reasons, the task before public school districts is more essential than ever. School districts, the cornerstone of our democracy, cannot fail in our mission to create educated students who have learned to analyze, to grasp and contemplate the essential questions surrounding our country and our world. In conclusion, education appears to be in crisis today. But I assure our public that we have leaders both at the state and local levels who are doing everything we can to improve our schools and educate our students. Personally, I applaud the vision of Commissioner Steiner to raise standards in our state and our school districts and to increase academic rigor. In Hendrick Hudson, we are working to effectuate this vision, through the development of rigorous curriculum, our Strategic Plan that focuses on maximizing potential, building our advanced science courses and valuing reading and literacy. We will continue our quest for educational excellence. Failure cannot be an option.