Our Academic Improvement Plan
As promised this week our focus is on our 2012-13 school year academic improvement plan.
For the past three years our improvement plan has been tightly focused on the three main areas of the teaching-learning cycle.
1. Obtaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to revised Colorado academic standards and ensuring it is being taught effectively to each student.
2. Developing effective formative and summative measures of learning of the curriculum.
3. Utilizing formative and summative student achievement data to evaluate student learning and adjust instruction based on their learning results.
This year we are keeping these three areas of focus as our primary improvement plan goals while adding two additional targets. They are:
4. Increasing parental involvement in school decision-making processes.
and
5. Implementing Senate Bill 191 style administrator and teacher evaluations as part of the Colorado Department of Education educator effectiveness pilot process.
Here are the specifics for each of our goal areas:
For the past three years our improvement plan has been tightly focused on the three main areas of the teaching-learning cycle.
1. Obtaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to revised Colorado academic standards and ensuring it is being taught effectively to each student.
2. Developing effective formative and summative measures of learning of the curriculum.
3. Utilizing formative and summative student achievement data to evaluate student learning and adjust instruction based on their learning results.
This year we are keeping these three areas of focus as our primary improvement plan goals while adding two additional targets. They are:
4. Increasing parental involvement in school decision-making processes.
and
5. Implementing Senate Bill 191 style administrator and teacher evaluations as part of the Colorado Department of Education educator effectiveness pilot process.
Here are the specifics for each of our goal areas:
When it comes to obtaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum aligned to Colorado academic standards and ensuring it is effectively taught, Center Schools is in a far better place than it was only two years ago. Through our partnership with Focal Point we have purchased and continued to refine an excellent K-8 curriculum in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies and we have received administrator training aimed at providing support for teachers to effectively instruct it. In addition, our curriculum has become stronger in some core high school subject areas and some elective areas, most specifically PE through the SPARK partnership, have developed strong curriculum development processes.
The work we will focus on during the 2012-13 school year will be to continue to refine our K-8 curriculum by adopting revised Focal Point curriculum maps and creating a library of effective objectives and daily formative assessments. In addition to this, we will spend a lot of time in late July and early August developing a standard 9-12 curriculum that is aligned for student success on the ACT test. Work will also take place throughout the school year to codify what is being taught in non-core subject areas such as music, art, PE, and vocational classes.
The district will continue to ensure the curriculum is being taught effectively by requiring teachers to turn their lesson plans in on a weekly basis and by reviewing each of these plans for quality. Administrators will continue conducting a high number of periodic classroom walkthroughs to verify concepts are being taught as planned, to verify teachers are teaching to objectives aligned to the curriculum, to verify students are being held accountable for learning through daily assessments aligned to the objective, and to support teachers in ways to more effectively engage all students in the learning processes. In August all district administrators and teachers will receive training offered by Kagan specifically aimed at improving the use of multiple student engagement strategies.
A final strategy the district will implement in the area of curriculum and instruction will be to work on increasing teacher reflective practice by having instructors participate in self video analyses of their own teaching performance and also having them conduct instructional observations and offer feedback to their peers.
The work we will focus on during the 2012-13 school year will be to continue to refine our K-8 curriculum by adopting revised Focal Point curriculum maps and creating a library of effective objectives and daily formative assessments. In addition to this, we will spend a lot of time in late July and early August developing a standard 9-12 curriculum that is aligned for student success on the ACT test. Work will also take place throughout the school year to codify what is being taught in non-core subject areas such as music, art, PE, and vocational classes.
The district will continue to ensure the curriculum is being taught effectively by requiring teachers to turn their lesson plans in on a weekly basis and by reviewing each of these plans for quality. Administrators will continue conducting a high number of periodic classroom walkthroughs to verify concepts are being taught as planned, to verify teachers are teaching to objectives aligned to the curriculum, to verify students are being held accountable for learning through daily assessments aligned to the objective, and to support teachers in ways to more effectively engage all students in the learning processes. In August all district administrators and teachers will receive training offered by Kagan specifically aimed at improving the use of multiple student engagement strategies.
A final strategy the district will implement in the area of curriculum and instruction will be to work on increasing teacher reflective practice by having instructors participate in self video analyses of their own teaching performance and also having them conduct instructional observations and offer feedback to their peers.
Having an effective curriculum and ensuring it is being taught is the first major part of the teaching-learning cycle. Measuring whether or not our students have actually learned what was intended to be taught is the next key. Thus the district will continue to work to develop effective formative and summative measures of student learning of the curriculum. Formative assessment takes place every day and is being done in Center by teachers who are becoming expert at creating rigorous daily formative assessments that are aligned to their learning objective and to the district curriculum. Summative assessment takes place at the end of a large chunk of learning. Many of us may have experienced class mid term and final exams in our schooling careers. Similar to this, Center Schools continues to create and administer quarterly summative assessments that are driven by our curriculum and measure student learning of concepts in each subject area at each grade level
Simply administering daily and quarterly assessments is not enough to complete the teaching-learning cycle. In order to significantly improve classroom instruction and student learning outcomes educators must utilize formative and summative student achievement data to evaluate student learning and adjust instruction based on results.
The way we are doing this in Center is by guiding the work of teacher Professional Learning Communities aimed at reviewing formative and summative student achievement results. What is learned by having teachers discuss learning outcomes is always aimed at further improving classroom instruction, bringing us full circle in out teaching-learning cycle.
Simply administering daily and quarterly assessments is not enough to complete the teaching-learning cycle. In order to significantly improve classroom instruction and student learning outcomes educators must utilize formative and summative student achievement data to evaluate student learning and adjust instruction based on results.
The way we are doing this in Center is by guiding the work of teacher Professional Learning Communities aimed at reviewing formative and summative student achievement results. What is learned by having teachers discuss learning outcomes is always aimed at further improving classroom instruction, bringing us full circle in out teaching-learning cycle.
This year we have added two new goals to our academic improvement plan. The first is to increase parental involvement in school improvement decision-making processes. There are many studies circulating that show that having parents more engaged in the improvement processes of their child’s school can drive greater improvement in overall student achievement.
In Center we hope to bring about greater parental involvement in school decision making processes by recruiting parents to participate in the processes of Building and District level leadership teams. In addition, we will continue to provide adult education instruction aimed at encouraging parents to continue their own learning and to become more involved in school and district decision making processes.
In Center we hope to bring about greater parental involvement in school decision making processes by recruiting parents to participate in the processes of Building and District level leadership teams. In addition, we will continue to provide adult education instruction aimed at encouraging parents to continue their own learning and to become more involved in school and district decision making processes.
Our final goal sort of ties all of our other goals together. Center Schools, as part of the Colorado Department of Education educator effectiveness pilot, will work to implement SB 191 style administrator and teacher evaluations.
This goal is really just aimed at helping the district measure the extent to which we are actually achieving all the goals we have listed above. Conducting administrator evaluations as required by SB 191 will simply measure the extent to which our building leaders are implementing the teaching-learning cycle and the extent to which they are involving parents in building improvement processes. Last year the center School District began conducting SB 191 style administrator evaluations. This year our role will also be to share out our experiences with the rest of the San Luis Valley.
Conducting SB 191 teacher evaluations will simply measure the extent to which our teachers are implementing the teaching-learning cycle as outlined in goals above. Last year Center Schools took preliminary steps to conduct SB 191 style teacher evaluations. This year the district will fully implement the process.
This goal is really just aimed at helping the district measure the extent to which we are actually achieving all the goals we have listed above. Conducting administrator evaluations as required by SB 191 will simply measure the extent to which our building leaders are implementing the teaching-learning cycle and the extent to which they are involving parents in building improvement processes. Last year the center School District began conducting SB 191 style administrator evaluations. This year our role will also be to share out our experiences with the rest of the San Luis Valley.
Conducting SB 191 teacher evaluations will simply measure the extent to which our teachers are implementing the teaching-learning cycle as outlined in goals above. Last year Center Schools took preliminary steps to conduct SB 191 style teacher evaluations. This year the district will fully implement the process.
This all seems to be a lot of work for one small school district to accomplish in a single year. Fortunately Center Schools will be participating in a greater San Luis Valley school district improvement process as established by the newly formed Race to the Top of the Valley collaborative. RtttV will provide Center Schools with learning partners from all 13 other San Luis Valley school districts. Through this partnership Center Schools will have the opportunity to hone its work surrounding curriculum, instruction, assessment, and instructional adjustment as outlined in the teaching-learning cycle, and to share out lessons learned through its participation in the CDE SB 191 teacher evaluation pilot.
It is truly exciting to be working in a district that has such a clear vision for what it will do to improve student learning outcomes. This clear direction has been established collaboratively through input offered by staff members through PLC processes, through work conducted by building and district level leadership teams, and by a school board that has allowed these improvement processes to take place. We look forward to working toward these endeavors and to seeing the results of our efforts pay off through greater learning outcomes and success in life for all our students.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George
It is truly exciting to be working in a district that has such a clear vision for what it will do to improve student learning outcomes. This clear direction has been established collaboratively through input offered by staff members through PLC processes, through work conducted by building and district level leadership teams, and by a school board that has allowed these improvement processes to take place. We look forward to working toward these endeavors and to seeing the results of our efforts pay off through greater learning outcomes and success in life for all our students.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George