State Education Department visits North Merrick

Fayette, Old Mill Road earn Reward School status

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Children, teachers and staff members at Harold D. Fayette and Old Mill Road elementary schools welcomed special guests from the New York State Education Department on Sept. 29 after they achieved Reward School status.

Fayette Principal Howard Merims acted as a tour guide for Crystal Cumberbatch-Greene, supervisor of school improvement planning, and Kathryn Ahern and Kalimah Geter, regional associates for school improvement services, who visited several classrooms, observing discussions between teachers and students. The Herald Life joined them on the Fayette tour.

According to the NYSED website, “Reward Schools are either schools that have high achievement or schools that have made the most progress in the state and do not have significant gaps in student achievement between subgroups.”

To receive the honor, a school must:

  • Be among the top 20 percent of schools in its performance on state English Language Arts and math exams.
  • Have made Adequate Yearly Progress for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years for all groups of students on all measures for which the school is accountable — including a requirement that 95 percent of students take state ELA and math exams.
  • Have minimal gaps in test performance between low-income and higher-income students.

The NYSED representatives had a packed day, touring Fayette in the morning and Old Mill Road in the afternoon. With a notepad in hand, Merims guided the group into Lisa Drewes’s sixth-grade class at Fayette. Students huddled around several large poster boards pinned to the wall and chalkboard, brainstorming ideas for their current topic: technology. Seeming unfazed by the extra company in the room, the children began to conjure ideas, one by one.

“It is difficult to be creative if we don’t step away from our devices and let ourselves be bored,” one poster board read.

Children brainstormed the central idea, as Geter looked on. Each child in the group offered his or her idea and noted it on the poster board. Geter jotted down notes and moved to another group.

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