Mission and Vision
District Mission Statement
The Troy City School District will provide a strong educational and social foundation to graduate all students college and career ready.
District Vision Statement
The Troy City School District will graduate in excess of 90% of students college and career ready and will achieve annual improvements in overall student achievement by narrowing the achievement gap for all sub-groups each year, for the next five years.
Program Development
The Troy City School District believes in creating a nurturing environment at an early age to build a foundation where students, in partnership with families, are excited to learn, discover, play, and create. Educators focus on teaching the whole child to create lifelong learners.
Students who are enrolled in prekindergarten develop readiness skills at an earlier age. Readiness skills including cognitive abilities in all academic areas, physical development in both fine and gross motor control and social emotional growth through a variety of structured activities. Social emotional growth promotes positive self-concept and a good sense of the social order.
The continued study of the long term effects of early childhood programs are beneficial to the ongoing implementation of good quality programs. Program design is crucial in ensuring that children are guaranteed opportunities throughout the day to participate in small group learning, creative play, early literacy, music and movement. Evaluation must also be multifaceted and include cognitive, physical and social emotional outcomes. Program design and evaluation must be interrelated in order to ensure program quality. Continuity is another important factor. Pre-kindergarten programs, serving three and four-year olds, benefit from alignment to best prepare students for school readiness in kindergarten and beyond.
The Troy CSD will continue to promote enrollment in the pre-kindergarten programs on social media, mail flyers to residents, and will partner with community-based organizations. Pre-kindergarten programming and scheduling will be aligned to the Troy City School District schedule.
Community Engagement and Partnerships
The Pre-kindergarten program is grant funded through New York State. Part of the grant requires collaboration with community-based organizations. Currently, the Troy City School District collaborates with the Commission on Economic Opportunity (CEO) and Sacred Heart School. The students within these agencies are a part of the Troy City School District Universal Pre-kindergarten in collaboration with their programs.
The district promotes parent engagement. The District Parent Engagement Coordinator and Liaisons in each school building plan and schedule family events throughout the year in an effort to develop strong partnerships with families. Planned events provide families with resources, academic support, engaging literacy and mathematical activities as well as fun social opportunities.
Classroom Composition
The Troy City School Pre-kindergarten program is overseen by the Director of Grants, Academic Programs and Accountability. The pre-kindergarten program services children, ages three and four. A random selection method is used to fill Universal Pre-kindergarten classrooms. If there are more children registered than seats available a lottery will take place. As of 2023, the district programming includes seventeen classrooms operating within the district’s elementary buildings and in facilities of collaborating agencies. All classrooms operate as a full day program, running for five hours or more. Each classroom is staffed with one certified teacher and a teaching assistant. One of the seventeen classrooms is integrated which provides more intensive student support in the form of one teacher and an additional teaching assistant.
Staff Development and Qualifications
Each Universal Pre-kindergarten teacher has a valid New York State teaching certification and experience with Early Childhood. The maximum class size is eighteen students with the composition of one head teacher and a teaching assistant. The teachers are provided professional development opportunities through the district, paid consultants, and a full time instructional coach. The teachers also participate in all district mandated professional development days, monthly meetings and are encouraged to seek other opportunities for added growth.
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
Pre-kindergarten programs utilize the New York State PreK Learning Standards to design instruction to meet the needs of all students. The district utilizes the English Language Arts and Math modules from EngageNY. Phonological awareness instruction is provided through the research-based Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum. The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum provides explicit instruction on phonological awareness and phonics to develop foundational reading skills. In addition, correct letter formation is taught, promoting handwriting automaticity using the program Handwriting Without Tears. Social Emotional learning continues to be an essential part of teaching the whole child. Second Step Curriculum, used through grade eight, is a program that helps students gain listening skills, focus attention, and learn to play well with others. All curriculum is developed and housed on our curriculum management system called Curricuplan.
Multiple data points create the pre-kindergarten assessment profile. A yearly assessment calendar will be created by the Director and Assistant Director of Grants and Academic Programs, outlining all district-wide common assessments. Prior to entering Pre-kindergarten, students are screened using the Early Screening Inventory (ESI) to determine any added support or interventions needed. Throughout the year, students are assessed in the areas of alphabet identification, numbers, colors, shapes, name identification, writing, and cutting skills. The E-Deca is used to identify student’s social emotional strengths. Teachers utilize the learning progressions from “Objectives for Development and Learning” through Teaching Strategies Gold, to determine student learning and areas of growth for instructional planning.
Daily Schedule
Troy City School District pre-kindergarten classrooms’ daily start and end times vary. However, all classrooms have a minimum of a five hour day. Below is an example of a daily schedule. Activities include, but are not limited to, the following: center time (choice time), small group, fine and gross motor skills, read aloud and academic focus areas.
7:40 – 8:00: Arrival Activity (choice time/table activities)
Students do the morning routine as they arrive (question of the day & sign in). Students make a plan for play, deciding where they want to go, who they want to play with, and what they want to play.
8:00 – 8:25: Breakfast
Students & teachers eat breakfast together like a family in the classroom. Focus on conversation and language development.
8:30 – 8:50: Handwriting (fine motor focus)
Typically completed during small groups
9:00 – 8:15: Morning Meeting Music & Movement
Students learn math skills during the calendar. Music time is filled with songs, rhymes, instruments, and use of gross motor equipment. Through music we learn language, phonemic awareness, math, music, social skills, and gross motor skills.
9:15 – 9:30: Mindfulness/Second Step
Mini-lesson on teaching students how to be mindful or a mini-lesson from Second Step
9:30 – 9:45: Read Aloud/Snack
Snack/Read Aloud-The teacher reads a book/text. Students share, join in, make meaning, and make connections to build reading comprehension, book knowledge, and/or phonemic awareness.
9:15 – 10:15: Recess (outside, gross motor focus)
Various gross motor activities are set up around the playground to practice and develop various gross motor skills.. Students can also play on the equipment
10:15 – 10:45: Small Group
The class is split up into two to three groups based on ability, interest, or random selection. New games and skills are introduced and practiced at this time.
10:45 – 11:05: Gym/Gross Motor
Various gross motor activities are set up around the playground to practice and develop various gross motor skills.
11:05 – 11:35: Handwashing and Lunch
Students and teachers eat lunch together like a family in the classroom
11:35 – 11:35: Haggerty
Whole group lesson
11:45 – 12:45: Choice Time
Themed activities are added to each center every week. Students change centers as they wish using a center management system. Centers include but are not limited to art, blocks, discovery, library, dramatic play, math and manipulatives, sand and water, writing, sensory and music and movement. Students will learn skills including literacy, math, science, art, fine motor and social skills.
12:45 – 1:00: Closing circle/pack-up/wrap-up/dismissal
Students get their belongings and get dressed for dismissal then go to the rug for a final gathering and share.