The Poughkeepsie City School District has identified five student outcome-centered goal categories and one financial management goal category that will serve as its priority focus for the 2024-25 school year.

Aligned with New York State Education Department accountability measures, the district goals are a shift from the previously used performance objective framework that supported the district's improvement over the past four years. The performance objectives methodology used by the district served to establish professional practices and expectations essential to creating a foundation that strengthened the district's student achievement, resource stewardship, internal process systems and structures, and organizational effectiveness responsibilities.

"Entering into the last year of the district's Five-year Strategic Plan, it is important that we provide greater focus and transparency to the district's efforts with moving the needle on student outcomes," said Dr. Eric Jay Rosser, superintendent of schools.

"In the years leading up to this year, there was a greater focus on developing a solid foundation for the district so that it could be more responsive to student growth and need. When our financial status was not solid and our buildings were deteriorating, resulting in environments not conducive to learning and instruction, among other challenges Poughkeepsie faced, it was very challenging to solely focus on addressing the academic, social and emotional needs of our children in the manner that will sharply improve outcomes,” Rosser said. “These issues and other professional practices have been addressed, thus providing us with more opportunity to concentrate our efforts on student outcomes."

The focus on student outcomes supports what the Board of Education, district and school leadership, parents and vested community members want PCSD students to know and be able to do. The goals give the administration specific targets for achievement in the areas of literacy and numeracy proficiency, post-graduation preparedness, and college and career Readiness, and maintain a focus on financial stewardship.

The Board of Education, superintendent, and district leaders spent considerable time this summer identifying and finalizing goals that would elevate student success. District goals are captured in six categories:

1. Student Outcomes NYS Benchmarks.
2. Student Outcomes District Benchmarks (grades PreK-5).
3. Student Outcomes District Benchmarks (grades 6-8).
4. Student Outcomes (college, career, and military readiness).
5. Student Social Emotional Learning Outcomes (grades K-12).
6. Financial Management.

Each of the student outcome categories highlight student achievement goals ranging from improved state assessment scores to increasing graduation rates and student post-secondary outcomes. Student social-emotional learning outcome goals focus on decreasing chronic absenteeism at all grade levels and also decreasing out-of-school suspensions. Financial management goals highlight the district's responsibility to be good stewards with state, federal and taxpayer dollars and ensure that findings from internal audits are minimized.

"Another step in the process of developing district goals is developing building-level goals based on the district goals for each building to work toward," Rosser said. "There will be alignment on student success from the New York State Department of Education down to each school."

This summer, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Gregory Mott, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Dr. Charles Gallo, and Rosser met with building leaders to discuss and establish building goals. Those goals will be made public within the coming week.

The district goals can be accessed through the district website.