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HHS School Improvement Plan School Improvement Plan for Highland High School 2010-2011 School Improvement Plan for Highland High School 2010-2011 Patrick Arguelles Grand Canyon University EDA 577 July 28, 2010 1
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Page 1: Module 8 Final Action Inquiry - School Improvement Plan Arguelles

HHS School Improvement Plan

School Improvement Plan for Highland High School 2010-2011

School Improvement Plan for Highland High School 2010-2011

Patrick Arguelles

Grand Canyon University

EDA 577

July 28, 2010

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HHS School Improvement Plan

School Improvement Plan for Highland High School 2010-2011

Table of ContentsTable of Contents 2Traditions of Excellence 3School Information 3School Administrative Team 3School History 4School Demographics 4Students by Ethnicity 5Additional Student Information 5District Information 6Curriculum 6Academic Philosophy 7Technology 7Proposed Guiding Principles 8-9NM High School Competency Exam Data 10Improvement Team Problems to Address 11Objectives of the Team 12Possible Goals to be Carried Out by Students and Teachers 13Knowledge & Skills, Enduring Understanding, Essential Questions 14School Improvement Goals and Strategies

Strategic Objective 1: Proficiency in Math and Reading 15Strategic Objective 2: Close the Achievement Gaps 15

School Improvement Goals and StrategiesStrategic Objective 3: Close the Achievement Gaps 16

Goals for Analysis of Data 17Areas of Measurement: Demographics, Perceptions,

Student Learning, School Processes 18Example of Data Flow Chart 19Measuring Program Implementation 20-22PDSA – Six Steps to Improvement 23Summary of Feedback from Administrative Team 24-25References 26

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"TRADITIONS OF EXCELLENCE"

Highland High School strives to be the premier high school in Central New Mexico.  The school

provides a learning environment that prepares young people for college and careers.  We accept

the challenge to make a difference in the lives of our students, to recognize their strengths, to

prepare them for careers and to empower them to make a difference in the world.

School Information

Highland High School

4700 Coal Avenue SE

Albuquerque, NM 87108

(505) 265-3711

www.highlandhornets.com

Administrative Team

Principal: Nikki Dennis

9th Grade Principal, in charge of 9th grade academy: Lupe Martinez

10th Grade Principal, in charge of finance: Larry D’Anza

11th Grade Principal, in charge of buildings and grounds: Frank Maestas

12 Grade Principal, in charge of curriculum and instruction: Harriet Crawford

Assistant Principal in charge of Special Education: Ben Chavez

Coordinator of Small Learning Communities: Mary Anne Polster

Activities Director and Middle School Liaison: Patrick Arguelles

Athletic Director: Ryan Kettler

School Counselors: Christina Vasquez, Analisa Lujan, Teya Nguyen, Derek Maestas

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School History

Highland High School opened its doors in 1949. Today, Highland is the second oldest public

high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently operates out of the oldest standing

school building in the state. The school occupies 33 acres. Currently the Albuquerque Public

Schools District consists of 13 high schools, 27 middle schools, and 89 elementary schools

utilizing a K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade-level configuration. The student body of Highland High School

is culturally diverse with a population that is 8.5% African American, 3.6% Asian, 18.2%

Caucasian, 57.2% Hispanic, and 12.5% Native Americans. Highland High School is a

comprehensive four year public high school enrolling 1797 students in grade 9 through 12.

School Level High School

Grades Offered Grades 9 - 12

County Bernalillo County, NM

Students & Faculty

Total Students 1797 students

% Male / % Female 49%  /  51%

Total Classroom Teachers 127 teachers

Students by Grade

Grade 9 - 588 students

Grade 10 – 508 students

Grade 11 - 379 students

Grade 12 - 322 students

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This School (NM) School Average

Teacher : Student Ratio 1:16 1:14

Students by Ethnicity

% American Indian 13% 14%

% Asian 4% 1%

% Hispanic 56% 51%

% Black 8% 2%

% White 19% 31%

Additional Student Information

This School (NM) School Average

% Eligible for Free Lunch 45% 44%

% Eligible for Reduced Lunch 6% 6%

% Migrant Students Enrolled n/a n/a

School Performance: (NM) Statewide Testing Performance

School Statewide Performance View Education Department Test Scores

School District Name Albuquerque Public s School District

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This School's Agency (APS) (NM) District Average

Number of Schools Managed 172 5

Number of Students Managed 95,083 students 637 students

District Total Revenue $909,023,000 $9,524,000

District Expenditure $902,192,000 $9,834,000

District Revenue / Student $9,560 $14,951

District Expenditure / Student $9,488 $15,438

District Graduation Rates 66% n/a

Curriculum

The academic program is organized on a rotating block schedule. Students can earn seven

credits per year during a regular school day. Students take six 95-minute classes, and one 50-

minute class. Students attend 3 block classes and the 50-minute class daily, rotating Monday &

Wednesday and Tuesday & Thursday. On Friday, the students go to all seven classes lasting 50

minutes each.

AP courses are offered in Art History, Art, Calculus AB and BC, Chemistry, Biology, English

Language, English Literature, U.S History, World History, Government and Economics,

Spanish, French, and German. AP is an open-enrollment program.

Honors classes are offered in English, Algebra, and Geometry. Entry into the courses is

determined by student commitment and teacher recommendation.

Highland High School has dual enrollment with UNM and CNM which enables sophomores,

juniors, and seniors to enroll in college level courses and earn college credits at local institution

of higher education. The students also receive high school elective credit for these courses.

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Academic Philosophy

Highland High School provides a well-rounded college preparatory curriculum with

extensive offerings in English, social sciences, mathematics, foreign languages, sciences, art,

music and drama. Advanced placement classes are offered in biology, chemistry, physics,

psychology, European history, calculus AB and BC, economics, and statistics. Students are able

through their choices to create an individual schedule tailored to their needs and interests. Some

courses are required and some are recommended, but there are many electives, increasing in

number as the student progresses through school. Students make their own choice of study based

on data from several career exploration assessments (ASVAB, PSAT, Accuplacer, etc.). This is

important because it develops responsibility, increases commitment, and encourages exploration

of new areas for learning.

The faculty and administration of Highland High School recognize the individuality of each

student and the right of that student to receive and opportunity in education to develop to his/her

fullest potential. Through dedication, hard work and effective planning, a flexible academic and

extracurricular program can be offered that will allow each student opportunities to experience

success. Through positive discipline, we believe an atmosphere can be created in the school to

enable academic, social and physical development. We further believe that through cooperative

interaction of the administration, faculty, students, parents, and community, each student can

achieve his/her academic goals, develop a love for learning, respect for self and others, and an

enthusiasm for life that will help to ensure his/her success and happiness.

Technology

Highland currently has four computer labs, each with an average of 35 computers. Highland

also has two mobile computer labs, one with 20 laptops, the other with 15 units. Our recent

addition of Figge Hall gives us 2 more computer rooms, promethean boards and projectors.

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Proposed Guiding Principles for Highland High School

Highland has an instructional vision that drives decision making in all facets of the school.

We have worked with all stakeholders involved (students, staff, administration, parents,

community) to develop a plan that will guide Highland toward achieving the goals set out by the

state and the district. The following points are utilized by the stakeholders to achieve these goals.

1. Shared Vision and Plan. 

Highland has engaged stakeholders in the planning process and it has achieved incredible

results. Highland has a shared vision, mission, and educational plan for school and

student success. The school is developing an instructional vision based on shared

assumptions about teaching and learning. Staffing, schedule, budget, and professional

development plans are being developed to support the instructional vision. The Highland

Leadership Team, the High Schools That Work (HSTW) team, department chairs and

teachers in their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have dedicated time and

resources to seeing through the proper implementation of the plan. Implementation

required that teachers have adequate and well-planned and facilitated time to deliberate

on teaching and learning together during the school day.

2. Personalization.

Students are more likely to succeed in an environment where staff knows every student

and no student slips through the cracks. For this reason, Highland has broken 9th and 10th

grade academies into small groups of less than 100 students (all at the same grade level).

These groups are created based on assessments mentioned above so that members of each

group share some or many similar likes.

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3. Flexibility and Accountability. 

Highland has given teachers an opportunity to collaborate with each other, and has

empowered them to make mission driven decisions about staffing, schedule, budget, and

curriculum.

4. Equity. 

The goal of the school is to ensure high quality education to ALL students in Highland’s

neighborhood.

5. Community Engagement. 

Highland has made it a top priority to engage the community and seek their input into

decisions that affect the school and community. For change to occur, Highland’s

students, parents, community members, and teachers must have buy-in. The best way to

achieve buy-in is to involve these stakeholders in creating the plan for redesigning the

school and involve them in the governance of the school as it moves forward. In addition,

Highland has moved to become a central hub for a community by inviting parents and

community members to come to the school for English lessons, GED classes, computer

classes, dance and yoga, and on and on.

6. High Quality Teaching and Learning. 

Increasing rigor in the classroom has been at the top of the agenda and Highland has

made strides in reaching our goals. All students are engaged in a learning process that is

rigorous, relevant, and prepares them for both college and the workforce of the 21st

century. 

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HHS School Improvement Team

Problems to Address:Improving Math Scores on NMSBAReduce Achievement Gaps among Ethnic GroupsImprove Graduation Rates

Members of Strategic Math Improvement Team Reason for selection of member

Grade level administrator in charge of Reclassified students

Most of the 400 reclassified students he oversees are in desperate need of math intervention

Administrator that evaluates the Math Department

He can help oversee math teachers and help guide them

Parent Liaison This person has a direction connection to the district and to many of the parents at the school.

Head counselor This person knows graduation requirements and knows what each student needs to be on course to graduation in no more than 4 ½ years

Activities Director He oversees the calendar, works with facilities and has an interest in improving math scores

Math Department Chair He will receive training and redeliver instruction to highschool mathematics teachers

Science Department Chair She will work with group members to integrate math concepts into science curriculum

3 – Math, Math Intervention and subject area Teachers

These teachers need to work closely with each other to oversee rigor in curriculum and be the voice of the student

Community member This individual has a vested interest in seeing that his potential employees leave high school with an ability to do math. He will serve as a consultant and to let the group know if it all makes sense from his prospective

Interested Parent This person serves as a consultant to the process – he/she will review elements of the program and give opinions from parent perspective

The selection of a team is one of the keys to getting a math improvement plan to succeed. Members of the team see the importance of succeeding in improving student math scores. By focusing on the data-driven decision making process, the school is well on its way to changing the school positively. Data-driven decision making is the cornerstone of educational change in America, carefully anchoring continuous improvement to the foundation that is our academic environment. Using data to drive decisions about policies and programs as well as decisions about students is the most logical first step in the process of developing and implementing an improvement plan.

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Objectives of the TeamGoal 1 Needs Assessment Analysis of school and district data

Classroom walkthroughs In-depth fact-finding discussions with key educators

Goal 2 Develop a Strategic Math Improvement Plan

Align with District Math GoalsAlign with school Strategic/School-wide Improvement Plan Provide solutions to address key gap areas in mathematics program Identify cost-effective strategies, services, and products that address your goals Be SMaRT – Set Specific, Measureable, Realistic and Timely GoalsPlan Project Based Learning

Goal 3 Build Capacity Utilize Professional Development On-site courses and coachingContent training Classroom observation and review of best practices used in instruction Debriefing with school leadership following school-based coaching and other school-based services Assisting with the curriculum selection process as well Developing and facilitating Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) Lesson-planning support Technology integration and implementation Building internal capacity for continued staff development with your own personnel

Goal 4 Report Results Analysis of how the High Schools That Work experiences met the goals outlined Overview of Student data Summary of Student learning Recommendations for continued improvement

Goal 5 NEXT STEPS

Review Results

Start a new PDSA

Assessing your unique school and district needs and resources Developing a collaborative, customized improvement plan Growing teacher, school, and district capacity Providing data-driven analysis for accountability reporting and sustainable results

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Possible Goals to be Carried Out by Students and Teachers

GOAL 1

Enhance student achievement through a comprehensive instructional program that includes high quality mathematics curriculum from grade nine mathematics courses to advanced mathematics courses.

GOAL 2

Enhance workforce quality through comprehensive staff development for all high school mathematics teachers, mathematics coaches, special needs, and English Language Learners (ELL) teachers as they implement an instructional program

GOAL 3Develop an infrastructure for high school mathematics teachers that supportsongoing, collegial professional development in mathematics education

GOAL 4

Use data from the benchmark assessments, District Benchmark Assessment (DBA) and New Mexico Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA) to plan, modify, and implement standards-based, hands-on mathematics lessons for all students

GOAL 5Decrease the percentage of students who do not meet proficiency levels on DBA and NMSBA

NOTE ABOUT STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM: As school districts build their technological capacity for creating reliable data systems, they are also setting clear expectations for the use of data by schools implementing school improvement plans. Currently the Albuquerque Public School (APS) district is working diligently to combine multiple data systems into one uniform student information system (SIS) that will allow school data teams to easily access volumes of data and utilize data analysis tools. APS has a SIS that provides real-time demographic data that the HHS Data team will use as one of its measures of data. In addition, APS has a Research, Development and Accountability (RDA) department that gathers and disseminates all testing data, including the assessments that our School Improvement Team will be using to inform decisions. Those assessments are the District Benchmark Assessment (DBA), which is administered at the start of classes, midway through the semester and when the class has ended, and the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA), which is administered in April to all juniors.

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Knowledge and Skills Enduring Understandings Essential Questions

The Team will determine…Teacher will know and understand…

These will be answered…

 The purposes, goals, or objectives of the Improvement Plan

 Students will improve math & L/A scores on the NMSBA, Graduation Rate will increase yearly over next 4 yrs, Sub groups will improve on NMSBA

How can school leadership help create a learning community?

How do you lead the data analysis discussion?

How do we draw inferences from the data?

How do you assess for learning what makes a good formative assessment?

What do we know about how students learn?

How do we create situations that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned?

What does the data tell us about our student’s performance?

How can we create a school culture that supports more intensive staff development?

How well is our current curriculum aligned with standards?

To what extent do our instructional methods help us meet accountability demands?

What implications do standards have for teachers‛ instructional methods?

To what extent are teachers able to design effective standards-based classroom assessments?

What leadership support is needed to help us implement standards in the classroom?

How can we create a school culture that supports standards?

How will we communicate students‛ progress on standards to stakeholders, in particular, parents?

How can we help stakeholders (e.g. parents) understand the importance of devoting more time to staff development?

How can we use student assessment data from both short cycle and classroom assessments to guide staff development?

 The target population the program is intended to serve

All grades for short cycle assessment, 11th graders for NMSBA

The primary audiences for whom the evaluation will be conducted and other important stakeholders that should be considered

The audience targeted includes the district, the admin team, teachers, students and parents.

Reasons why the program needs to be evaluated

The school has performed poorly on the NMSBA and has the lowest graduation rate in the district

 The primary issues, concerns, or questions on which the evaluation will focus 

Focus is on short cycle assessments and NMSBA. The SWBA will be broken down by subgroups and the plan will focus on math and reading.

The methods, instruments, and procedures to be used to collect and analyze data which will permit you to answer the various questions or address the issues and concerns identified

The team will be using PDSA cycles for execution of plan. They will be using various Baldrige tools including force field analysis, fishbone diagrams, Concept mapping, and cognitive task analysis.

 How and to whom the results will be reported

Results will be reviewed w/admin team then supplied to teachers to inform instruction, drive change and review w/students. It will also be supplied to parents, community and district personnel.

A schedule for conducting the study

The team will be working 1 to 3 days per week during PLCs for data driven decision making on a math and reading improvement plan. They will analyze short cycle testing info 3x over year and national testing once.

A budget showing the estimated costs of conducting the evaluation

To be determined

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School Improvement Goals and Strategies

The goal is to develop a Strategic Math and Reading Improvement Plan. Secondary goals

include closing the achievement gap and increasing the graduation rate. The theory is that by

improving math and reading scores the other two areas will improve as well.

Strategic Objective 1: Proficiency in Math and Reading

In Math, we are to increase the percentage of students who are proficient on the New Mexico

Standards Based Assessment by 12.1% points (from 19.1 to 31.2).

In Reading, we are to increase the percentage of students who are proficient on the New Mexico

Standards Based Assessment by 5.6% points (from 44.2 to 49.8).

Strategic Objective 2: Close the Achievement Gaps

We will reduce the achievement gap in Math between various ethnic group and Caucasian:

For African American students, we will reduce the gap by 2.4% points (from 24.5% to

22.1%)

For Hispanic students, we will reduce the gap by 2.2% points (from 22.2% to 20.0%)

For Native students, we will reduce the gap by 5.2% points (from 35.0% to 29.8%)

For economically disadvantaged students, we will reduce the gap by 2.0% points (from

20.5% to 18.5%)

In math, our Asian students outperformed our Caucasian students.

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We will reduce the achievement gap in Reading between various ethnic group and Caucasian:

For African American students, we will reduce the gap by 1.9% points (from 19.4% to

17.5%)

For Hispanic students, we will reduce the gap by 1.8% points (from 17.7% to 15.9%)

For Native students, we will reduce the gap by 5.5% points (from 36.9% to 31.4%)

For Asian students, we will reduce the gap by 2.2% points (from 22.2% to 20.0%)

For economically disadvantaged student, we will reduce the gap by 0.7% points (from

13.5% to 12.8%)

 Strategic Objective 3: Close the Achievement Gaps

We will also increase graduation rates for the school. Our graduation rate for 2009 was 49.9%,

the lowest in the district out of 13 schools. The goal is to reach 70% by Class of 2013

Graduation. The incremental rate would be 58% in 2011, 66% in 2012, and 70% in 2013. These

dates were chosen because it gives us a full 4 year cycle with the students.

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“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”

- Maya Angelou

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GOALS FOR ANALYSIS OF DATAGOALS (in order of progression)

LEVEL OF ANALYSIS DESCRIPTION, DATA TO BE COLLECTED & EXAMINED SOURCE OF DATA

1. Examine School Demographics

1

Ethnicity of students Gender Grade level #s Attendance Free & Reduced Lunch recipients

APS School MaxScreens ST002, AT460, ST295, SC321

2. Examine Student Learning

1 District Benchmark Assessment (DBA) NM Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA)

APSNM Dept of Pub Ed

3. Examine School Demographics over time

2

Ethnicity of students-changes over time Gender- Grade level #s Attendance Free & Reduced Lunch recipients

APS Schoolmax andAPS Research, Development & Accountability (team must submit written request)

4. Examine Student Learning over time

2

District Benchmark Assessment (DBA) from year to year by pre, mid, post assessments

NM Standards Based Assessment (NMSBA) from year to year for math and L/A only

APS

NM Dept of Pub Ed

5. Examine 2 Similar Variables 3

Compare and contrast Ethnicity of Students with Free & Reduced Lunch recipients

Use these results has base line data

APS Research, Development & Accountability (RDA)

6. Examine 2 Similar Variables 3

Compare and contrast Ethnicity of Students with Attendance figures

Use these results has base line data

APS Research, Development & Accountability (RDA)

7. Examine 2 Different Types of Variables – Free & Reduced Lunch against DBA & NMSBA

5

Compare DBA and NMSBA scores against Free & Reduced Lunch rosters

Look for any details that stand out or anything that looks unusual

APS Schoolmax andAPS RDA (team must submit written request)

8. Examine 2 Different Types of Variables – Attendance against DBA & NMSBA

5

Compare DBA and NMSBA scores against students with 5 - 9 absences. 10 – 19 absences, and 20 or more absences

Look for any details that stand out or anything that looks unusual

APS Schoolmax andAPS RDA (team must submit written request)

9. Examine 2 Different Types of Variables – Free & Reduced Lunch against DBA & NMSBA

6

Compare DBA and NMSBA scores against Free & Reduced Lunch rosters over time

Look for any details that stand out or anything that looks unusual

APS Schoolmax andAPS RDA (team must submit written request)

10. Examine 2 Different Types of Variables – Attendance against DBA & NMSBA

6

Compare DBA and NMSBA scores against students with 5 - 9 absences. 10 – 19 absences, and 20 or more absences over time

Look for any details that stand out or anything that looks unusual

APS Schoolmax andAPS RDA (team must submit written request)

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Levels of Analysis1. Measures of Data: Examine Demographics, Perceptions, Student Learning and School Processes in Isolation2. Measures Over Time: Examine measures listed in #1 but over time3. Two or More Variables: Examine more than one type of measure in each of 4 areas4. Two or More Variables Over Time: Examine more than one type of measure in each of 4 areas over time5. Intersection of Two Measures of Data: Examine data across two measures of data 6. Intersection of Two Measures of Data Over Time: Examine data across two measures of data over time

AREA OF MEASUREMENT QUESTIONS

What data do you have to answer

questions

What other data do you need to obtain

to answer questions?Demographics What is the demographic make-up of the

school? How many students are on Free/Reduced

lunch? How many students have 5-9 absences,

10-19 absences, and 20 or more absences?

We have data for all 3 bullets for the last

5 years

We do not need any additional data to

answer these questions

Perceptions How can we create a school culture that supports standards?

How can we help stakeholders (e.g. parents) understand the importance of devoting more time to staff development?

We will use guidelines provided

by SREB (Southwest Regional

Education Board) for HSTW (High

Schools That Work)

We need to look at teacher lesson plans and compare them to

the NM Dep’t of Public Ed Standards

Student Learning

What are the results of short cycle benchmark assessments for pre, mid and post testing?

What are the results of the NMSBA this year and over the last three years?

What do we know about how students learn?

How do we create situations that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned?

What does the data tell us about our student’s performance?

We have data from the APS School

District and from APS Research,

Development and Accountability for

all assessments over time and we have

HSTW Data Analysis Sheets to

monitor performance

We will need to look at educational

strategies, including works of Bloom,

Marzano and Gardner

We need to look at differentiated

instruction strategies

School Processes

How can school leadership help create a learning community?

How can we create a school culture that supports more intensive staff development?

What leadership support is needed to help us implement standards in the classroom?

We will use guidelines provided by SREB for HSTW

We will use processes developed

by Senge

We need to look at current information provided by APS RDA for use by administrators in

implementing progressive PD

Miscellaneous How do you lead the data analysis discussion? How do we draw inferences from the data? How well is our current curriculum aligned with standards? To what extent do our instructional methods help us meet accountability demands? What implications do standards have for teachers‛ instructional methods? To what extent are teachers able to design effective standards-based classroom assessments?

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How will we communicate students‛ progress on standards to stakeholders, in particular, parents?

How can we use student assessment data from both short cycle and classroom assessments to guide staff development?

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SIX STEPS TO IMPROVEMENT - PDSA

PL

AN

VALIDATE THE NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT. How are we doing? How do we know?

The school has not made adequate yearly progress in over 5 years. Examination of the NM Standards Based Assessment clearly indicates that tremendous growth for most subgroups must be made in order to increase graduation rates and avoid being taken over by the state.

CLARIFY PURPOSE, GOALS, AND MEASURES. Why are we here? What do we need to do well together? How will we know how we are doing?

The team will study both short cycle assessments and national assessments to determine what progress has been made. The team will also do a Needs Assessment to determine the areas of significance to formulate the Math and Reading Improvement Plan around. The Short Cycle Assessment will either be the DBA or Assess2Learn. We are awaiting a determination from the district. The national test will be the NM Standards Based Assessment because students will not be able to receive a diploma without passing the math and language arts portion of that test.

DO

ADOPT AND DEPLOY AN APPROACH TO CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT. How will we work together to get better?

The team will meet during Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to work together to develop, implement and monitor the plan. The team will meet one to three times per week as determined by group consensus and necessity to complete the various steps of the PDSA and Improvement Plans

.

TRANSLATE THE APPROACH INTO ALIGNED ACTION. What will we do differently?

The team will work during PLCs to review NM standards and utilize various tools including but not limited to Marzano’s strategies, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gardner’s Principles and others to compare and contrast and make sure that the team’s actions are aligned with state and district standards.

ST

UD

YANALYZE THE RESULTS. What Happened?

After the first short cycle assessment is taken in September the team will organize the data so that it can be used as base-line data for this part of the plan. The team will also be creating base-line data from last year’s NMSBA results. This data will be divided by subgroups

.

AC

T

MAKE IMPROVEMENTS. What did we do with what we learned?

Once the short cycle assessment data has been reviewed and determinations have been made, the group will begin making recommendations to teachers that should inform instruction and drive changes. These changes are required to be made and will be monitored by administrators during their classroom walk-throughs.

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Summary of Feedback from Administrative Team

After meeting with members of the administrative team about the potential research-based

data-driven school improvement plan, the consensus was that the plan had strategic merit. The

plan already drew on existing elements of the school’s 2010-2011 improvement plan but made

some improvements in the area of sharing results with faculty and staff as well as informing

stakeholders. The key difference was that in this plan the stakeholders would be informed of the

strategic goals from the start and asked to participate by encouraging their children to attend

school. As funny as it sounds that parents need to encourage their student to go to school,

research has shown that many parents in areas with demographic similarities to Highland do not

actually police the attendance of the kids, may not even care if they attend, or actually have no

idea how much school their kids miss or even what the attendance policies of the school are.

Upon examining data from high-performing schools, it is apparent that all stakeholders in the

school community truly hold themselves not only responsible but answerable for student

success. The group discussed state and district requirements for school improvement centered

around NCLB and talked about the steps involved in writing a detailed school improvement

plan. The systematic aspects of the school improvement plan should exemplify a plan that is

wide-ranging, all-inclusive, ordered, detailed, and focused on making data-driven, research-

based decisions about continuous school improvement. By integrating many of the SREB-

recommended instructional strategies through High Schools That Work, most of the specific

issues that put the school in the restructuring designation (R-2) will be addressed. By combining

efforts with the Southwest Region Education Board (SREB), the school should effectively attack

the problems that have been identified and demonstrate to all stakeholders, including the state

and district, that Highland wants to regain its status as a top tier high school in the state.

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The team determined that the plan encompasses the following elements:

Increased rigor in the classroom

Data-driven, research-based decisions

Strategies and goals that are systematic and achievable

Use of the PDSA Cycle as a key to maintaining continuous school improvement

Emphasis on policies and practices centered around reading, math, and language arts

Teacher professional development that is relevant

Teacher choice of instructional materials and use of instructional time

Strategies to improve and increase parental involvement

Use of Title I opportunities to incorporate the extended day

Use of additional tutoring/mentoring opportunities available to students

It was very informative to discuss a School Improvement Plan with knowledgeable leaders in the

school because they can point out areas of need in the plan and suggest improvements as well as

identify and applaud the successes of the plan.

.

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References

Bernhardt, Victoria. (2004). Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement. Larchmont, NY. Eye on Education.

Consortium for School Networking. (2004). Vision to know and do: The power of data as a tool in educational decision making. Washington, D.C.

Datnow, A., V. Park, and P. Wholstetter. (2007). Achieving with data: How high-performing school systems use data to improve instruction for elementary students. Los Angeles, Calif.: University of Southern California, Center on Educational Governance.

Devers, K.J. and Frankel, R.M. (2000). Study design in qualitative research—2: sampling and data collection strategies. Education for Health, 13, 263–271.

Johnson, R. S. (2002). Using data to close the achievement gap: How to measure equity in our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Marzano, R. J. (1998). A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.

Marzano, R. J., & Kendall, J. S. (1996). A comprehensive guide to designing standards-based districts, schools, and classrooms. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.

Ohle, N. and Mokley, C.L. How to solve typical school problems. ASCD Alexandria, Va 1994.

School Improvement Plan. Retrieved July 20, 2010 from the Merrimack School district website: http://www.merrimack.k12.nh.us/Plans/dini_sini/JMUES_SINI.pdf

Topics for High School Improvement. High School Assessment, Accountability, and Data Systems. Retrieved June 26, 2010 from National High School Center website: http://www.betterhighschools.org/topics/Assessment.asp

US Department of Education. Use of educational data at the local level from accountability to instructional improvement, Barbara Means (2010). Retrieved June 27, 2010 from US DOE website: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/use-of-education-data/use-of-education-data.pdf

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Grand Canyon University 2010.

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