Our Mission

    The mission of our school is to provide a high quality, comprehensive and meaningful education for all students, including English Language Learners and Special Education students.
    Our school will provide each student with the opportunity to achieve high academic excellence and meet the challenges of a diverse community through partnership with families, businesses and other institutions.
    We have another school website: www.catonschool.org

P.S.249 School Instructional Priorities/Goals 2011-2012
1. To implement Common Core Learning Standards.
2. To implement Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching in order to improve Professional Development.
3. To redesign all Extended Day, Afterschool, Saturday School programs so that we can increase the number of level 4 students on the ELA and Mathematics standardized tests.
4. To add more rigor (Depth of Knowledge) to our curriculum so that we increase the number of students exceeding New York State Standards and Common Core Learning Standards in Mathematics and in English Language Arts.
5. To improve student attendance to an average rate of 96%.
6. To increase higher order thinking skills in all classrooms.
7. To provide differentiated instruction (tiering, cubing, Multiple Intelligences/VAK, Bloom's Taxonomy, learning centers/stations, interest/choice) based on data analysis, including all sub-groups (Special Education, English Language Learners, Gender-based, holdovers, new admits, etc.)
8. To use more formative assessments to drive instruction across all grade levels and all subjects (Science, Mathematics, ELA, SS).
9. To meet at least twice per month in collaborative inquiry teams across all grades/subjects so that there is increased student achievement.
10. To increase writing and reading comprehension skills by improving student extended and short answer written responses across all subject areas.
11. To increase academic vocabulary in all classrooms.
12. To increase the use of technology by both staff and students school-wide as evidenced by more technology projects displayed.