21 st Century Accreditation Continuous Improvement: School Improvement Plans

1. 21st Century Accreditation Continuous Improvement: School Improvement Plans St. Joseph High School Faculty Update - In-service January 21, 2008

2. UPDATE • Profile Committee - Done! • Profile - About 95% Done! • Steering Committee Created • Goals selected & Committees Formed • More work to do...

3. Purpose of this morning... • Update you on the new NCA process • Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR) • Standards Assessment Report (SAR) • Intro as to where we’re headed this school year…Create a School Improvement Plan : )

4. Improvement Process Elements What future are you pursuing? What have you accomplished? Monitor and Adjust I What is your current reality? What actions will you take to improve? PLAN

5. Planning Activity A Blueprint To Plan and Guide Improvement • Focus: What are we trying to improve? What will it look like? (Student demonstrates excellent public speaking skills) Goals, objectives, standards, targets • Assess: How will progress be measured, monitored and evaluated? How will we know if there is improvement? (How would you identify an excellent public speaker?) Measurements, assessments, evaluations, accountability • Act: What will we do to cause and guide improvement? What types of support, resources and assistance are needed? (What would you do to develop a student’s public speaking skills?) Interventions, strategies, activities

6. School Improvement ProtocolQuality Assurance Review once every 5 years • Making/Renewing Commitment • Getting Started • Analyzing Data (Profile) • Clarifying Vision/Mission/Beliefs and Selecting Appropriate Goals and Measures • Developing the School Improvement Plan • Finalize Assessment Selection • Identify Strategies/Interventions/Professional Development • Determine Documentation • Collect Baseline Data • Implementing the Plan • Monitoring and Refining • Documenting and Analyzing Results • Acting on the Findings and Continue the Process

7. School Improvement Planning Activities • Establish goal committees • Define your goals; Establish the “essence”! • Identify assessments to measure student performance • Identify strategies/interventions to improve student performance • Create staff development component • Develop the school improvement plan 7. Review plan 8. Refine your school improvement plan

8. Decisions , Decisions, Decisions What do you want students to learn, be able to do, improve or change as a result of your school improvement efforts? What are the specific skills in which they will need to improve within each goal area? 1

9. Essence of a Goal • The conceptual center or intent of the goal • When schools select a goal related to "citizenship" there is potential for confusion: • Does citizenship mean compliance with rules? • Does it mean service to others? • Does it mean participation in representative governance? • The concept may embody several facets, each of which would require a set of interventions and assessments different from the other facets. • It is important that staff members discuss what they intend when they use the term and they need to come consensus on what the focus of the goal will be. Only then can the staff determine appropriate assessments and interventions. • Where might a staff go to look for this “conceptual center”? DATA!!!!

10. Goals A Boiler Plate for Writing Goals • All students will improve _______ across the school. • All students will improve _______ across all grades. • All students will increase their ability to ____________ in a variety of contexts. • All students will increase _____across the curriculum. 10

11. Writing Goals: Group Practice • 1. By the end of this school year, students will increase their achievement in reading by 10% on the MEAP test. • 2. Student attendance will increase. • 3. Students will improve the quality of written expression across the curriculum. • 4. Staff involvement in extra-curricular activities will increase. • 5. Students will improve problem solving skills in science and math. 11

12. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions What multiple assessment package can you design that will “capture the essence” of your goal and truly demonstrate the student learning or change that occurred? 2

13. Multiple Assessmentsfor each goal Balanced package - Including Standardized, And Local Assessments

14. Assessments • Capture essence of target goal • Have universal meaning that extends beyond the classroom • Administered in a pre (baseline) & post (summative) format • Provide evidence to communicate & document current learning • Given at regular intervals to inform & show progress

15. Standardized Assessment Examples • Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) • Michigan Merit Exam (MME)  California Achievement Test (CAT)  Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT)  CTB Terra Nova  Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)  Stanford Achievement Test (SAT)  ACT • Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test • MLPP

16. Local Assessments • Writing tasks • Oral presentations • Project-based • Role-plays • Hands-on science experiments • Textbook End of Unit assessments • Where to find: • School district • ISDs • Internet • Books • Universities

17. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions What powerful strategies/ interventions can you design or initiate that will cause the desired student learning, improvement or change? 3

18. Interventions/Strategies… • Modifications to existing practice that are introduced in order to produce change…in performance, in effectiveness • Must change the current state in a school or district by: • Introducing something new OR • Expanding, reducing, or eliminating a current practice

19. Powerful Strategies/Interventions • Based upon research or other reliable source(s) of information that can indicate effectiveness of strategy • Involves all or nearly all of the faculty and other staff members in the building (the level of involvement may not be equal for each person) • Employ an implementation frequency with the students • Utilize a variety of types of activities • Teaching • Modeling • Practicing • Expecting • Supporting • Involve frequent monitoring of the effectiveness of the strategies to produce desired improvement in students

20. Strategy Resources Regional Educational Laboratories • Tested Ideas for Teaching and Learning www.ed.gov/pubs/triedandtrue/index.html NCA Website: www.ncacasi.org • Need to register first: • email address and password (one you make up for yourself) • Library section (from the homepage) • Target Goal Database • 54 different goal areas • research based interventions and assessments Published Assessments: www.ericae.net • Contains listing of all published assessments - can be retrieved by category or type Northwest Regional Lab: Portland, Oregon www.nwrel.org or 1-800-788-1887 • Free Lending Library, assessment information ( particularly performance assessments) • Designed the 6-trait writing model Professional Organizations: NCTM/NCTE, etc. NSSE:www.nsse.org

21. Interventions are student focused. Interventions are written using terms that indicate how students will be involved.

22. Tips for How to Write Interventions/Strategies • Student-based, describing what will happen differently in the classroom. • Do not have to last the entire cycle, but most do. • Can be targeted to student subgroups. • May be added and deleted as needed. Make sure to give them enough time to take effect before giving up.

23. The “Other Half” of Improvement The logistics of the school improvement plan are the components that make the implementation or deployment possible. Deployment Logistics

24. The action plan should provide details of each of the following categories: Activities Persons Responsible Timeline Resources Staff development The Improvement Plan

25. Decisions , Decisions, Decisions What do you want teachers to learn, be able to do, improve or change as a result of your school improvement efforts? 4

26. Staff Development • What staff development activities will move the faculty from awareness to actual integration in the classroom? • Can they transfer their knowledge to their colleagues?

27. Professional Development Support Strategies • Regularly scheduled meetings • Modeling a strategy with peers • Mini-lessons (microteaching) in follow-up sessions • Peer coaching and guided practice • On-site/off-site coordinators, depending on needs/situation • Visiting functional sites (in and out of building) • Teacher portfolios (engaging teachers in the process) • University-school collaboration • Can you think of others?

28. School Improvement Action PlanName of School http://www.ncamichigan.org/performance_accreditation.shtml

29. Planning Implement the Plan and Assess Impact • Monitor and evaluate progress throughout implementation • engage in formative evaluation • determine effect of interventions and how they are used • assess growth and document improvement/change • school effectiveness • student performance • Respond • make adjustments in actions, as indicated

30. Quality Assurance Review (QAR) • Once every (5) years • We host a QAR in 2009-10 • Steering Committee to complete a SAR about (6) months prior • Redefining Accreditation for the 21st Century Work-Shop • Co-Chairs to visit another school next year…to see how it is done!

31. Standards Assessment Report (SAR) • Broad Array of people to help complete • Self-Assessment to prepare for QAR • Rubric based on: Vision & Purpose, Governance & Leadership, Teaching & Learning, Documenting & Using Results, Resource & Support Systems, Stakeholder Communications & Relationships, and Commitment to Continuous Improvement

32. Thank You!