In 2011, Trevista was designated as a turnaround school which means that it was in need of drastic improvement. In June 2012, we applied for innovation status as a strategy to turn Trevista around through flexibilities. We were granted innovation status between 2012-2015, we have renewed our innovation in 2015, 2018, 2020 and most recently were approved in 2023. Our most recent Innovation Plan is linked here.
Some of the flexibilities that we have been able to have because of our innovation plan are:
Our innovation plan allows us flexibility in the folks we hire so to ensure we have the best educators for our kiddos. We are very proud to say that we have two adults in every classroom; in ECE-1st grade we have a teacher and a paraprofessional and in 2nd-5th grade we have a teacher and a para educator intern or a preservice year teacher.
We know that our students benefit from more, meaningful, instruction so our students have an extended day compared to other schools. Our day begins at 8:05 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. We also operate under a modified calendar to ensure that our teachers have more time for professional development and planning/preparation.
At Trevista, we value biliteracy and bilingualism. Our students benefit from an ELD class and we differentiate between: beginner, intermediate, and advanced/native speakers. Our ELD classes are taught by experts who are passionate about this important content area.
As an innovation school, we were allowed flexibility in curriculum selection before the board of education passed this as an option to all schools. As a result, we were able to pilot common core aligned curriculum that is now the opt-in option throughout DPS. We have opted in to the district curriculum for mathematics and literacy.
Another flexibility that we have through innovation before the the district made it a district wide option was in assessment. We partnered with The Achievement Network (ANet) and this partnership has assisted us in making big shifts for common core state standards. ANet created a series of common core aligned assessments which we used to inform instruction throughout the year and we learned a lot. We continue to partner with ANET to ensure that our teachers are supported to engage all students in grade level instruction.
We have an extended day that guarantees our emerging bilingual students receive a 45 minute ELD block which focuses on reading, writing, speaking, and listening as well as 150-165 minutes in our literacy block. Our students are able to participate in a very balanced literacy block which is aligned to the Science or Reading, developing foundational reading skills with phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency in addition to vocabulary and comprehension.
Our students also have an extended math block at Trevista due to our extended day between 80-105 minutes. We are very excited to opt into the DPS curriculum, Eureka (Engage NY) for ECE – 5th.
At Trevista we offer all of our students physical education and visual arts programming. In addition to these opportunities, we also host a variety of after school options such as Enrichments like our School Musical, Sticky Fingers Cooking Class, Art Club, Mad Science, Book Club and much more. We also have Discovery Link and Leading Edge!
We have a very strong community at Trevista and our partnerships enable us to support students outside of the school. We offer additional resources for families and organize regular family and community events including parenting classes, volunteer opportunities, monthly informational meetings, and many more.