Portfolio conference for principals: Ms. Schneider gets reviewed by Giorgina Orofino, assistant news editor
Like a portfolio conference, a Quality Review (QR) is an opportunity for a school to show off its progress and learning. This year’s QR was Ms. Schneider’s chance to demonstrate the progress made since our last review in 2009.
The QR is a two or three school day visit by Queens superintendent, Juan Mendez. During his review, he visited 7-10 classrooms, each for 20 minutes, accompanied by Ms. Schneider. Mr. Mendez then spoke with students and staff members to see students/teacher engagement and assessment for learning.
“I didn’t mind that he was coming to my class. I knew that I was doing good work with my students and I was happy to share,” said, Ms. Cimini, science teacher.
“He asked me questions like how many quizzes/tests have you taken so far? I was nervous because I felt like I was unprepared and I didn’t know what questions he was gonna ask me,” said, Jason Ruiz, 8th grader.
Mr. Mendez observed the way the school is being ran and uses a rubric to evaluate how well the school is organized to educate the students on the correct criteria that is needed for students to excel.
The school’s grade is based on how well the teachers provide the students with a clear understanding of the task that they are to meet and whether or not the students show that they fully comprehend what is being needed from them.
Back in 2008-2009, the school had an overall level of proficient. Which may not sound too good, but since then the school has most definitely proved themselves much better to Mr. Mendez this past review. In 2008-2009, the school lacked a stable way of monitoring students long term goals and a way to ensure that all students succeed their goals.
The process of writing a QR takes at the very least a month long and will be posted on schools.nyc.gov . Although we have tried various times to contact Mr.Mendez himself, we got no information from him that could tell us what level range we are in now. According to Mrs. Schneider, Mr. Mendez felt very positive towards the school and loved and appreciated our school and everyone in it.