School Improvement Plan 2013-14 Silas Deane Middle School Steven J. Cook, Principal Cynthia Fries, Assistant Principal October 22, 2013 Wethersfield Board of Education
Feb 25, 2016
School Improvement Plan
2013-14Silas Deane Middle School
Steven J. Cook, PrincipalCynthia Fries, Assistant Principal
October 22, 2013Wethersfield Board of
Education
Student Learning Outcomes Goals
2 Goals - Performance and progress on the academic learning measures in the state’s accountability system for schools◦ School wide SPI Progress ◦ School wide SPI subgroup Progress
3 Goals - Performance and growth on locally
determined measures◦ Non-tested subject or grades (high school must include
graduation goal)◦ Two more Student Learning Goals – indicators may focus on
student results from a subset of teachers, grade levels, or subjects
At this time the CSDE has not released School Performance Index data.
This data will be shared once available.
2 SPI Goals
Goal 1 The number of RTC (Responsible Thinking
Classroom) referrals will decrease by 5 percent from spring 2013 to spring 2014.
3 Locally Determined Goals
RTC is a positive behavioral support for students.
It allows students to reflect on their negative behaviors and not repeat them.
By intervening with students with high numbers of RTC visits, there will be more minutes spent in the classroom working towards the mastery of learning concepts.
Rationale
Administration will provide all staff with a bi-weekly update of all students who chose to attend the Responsible Thinking Classroom
Administration will meet with academic teams to discuss strategies designed to keep students in the classroom
At weekly data team/support staff meetings, administration and support staff will determine best strategies to support student making better decisions
Strategies
Support staff will meet with high frequency students bi-weekly to provide feedback and to design intervention strategies. They will also involve parents in the process
Teachers will develop alternative management strategies to re-engage students
Through the implementation of the Advisor/Advisee Program, students will establish positive relationships with staff which will support positive classroom environments
Strategies Continued
Goal 2 Silas Deane Middle School students will
show an average of 12% growth in writing during the 2013- 2014 school year as determined by the fall Writing to Sources Assessment compared to the spring.
3 Locally Determined Goals
Based on student performance on the 2012-2013 CMT, writing is a focus area.
If district-wide curriculum, Writer’s Workshop, and data team initiatives are implemented with fidelity across both grade levels students will show improvement in the Writing to Sources Assessment
Rationale
Utilize Columbia Teachers’ College writing rubric to monitor progress and assess student writing
Teacher evaluation goals for all staff centered on improving writing for all students, some with an emphasis on males
Implement Writing To Sources assessment to be administered and scored by ELA and Social Studies teachers
Strategies
Implement Common Core Standards through the use of the Writing Workshop model and provide ongoing support
Develop collaborative processes to analyze student work, monitor student progress and adjust curriculum and instruction to meet the diverse needs of all students (content teams and data teams)
Strategies Continued
Goal 3 Silas Deane Middle School students will
show an average of a 10 point increase in math during the 2013- 2014 school year as determined by the MCAP district assessment while addressing the Smarter Balanced Assessment Claims for Concepts and Procedures, Problem Solving, Communicating Reasoning and Modeling and Data Analysis.
3 Locally Determined Goals
As evidenced by the 2013-2014 CMT’s, math is a focus area.
If district and school-wide curriculum implementation and data team initiatives are implemented with fidelity across grades 7 and 8, students will show growth on the MCAP over the course of the 2013-2014 school year
Rationale
Implementation of the new common core based curriculums in both Pre-Algebra and Algebra
Utilizing the Math Workshop model
Creating Student Learning Objectives (SLO’s) focused around the Smarter Balanced Claims
Increasing the amount of writing in math with a focus on problem solving
Strategies
Implementation of data teams and the continued PLC content meetings to identify struggling learners and teaching strategies
Development of an extended day SRBI
initiative to support identified students in need of remediation
Strategies Continued
Organizational Capacity-building Goals
1 Goal - Teacher Practice ◦ What will be the building level focus to improve
classroom instruction? Consider the bottom lines, Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument (Danielson, 2013) and district focus areas.
1 Goal - Team Improvement Goal◦ Based on The Seven Stages of Professional
Learning. What is the goal related to data teams? 1 Goal - School Climate and Culture
◦ Consider stakeholder feedback survey data (parent and staff)
90% of teachers will effectively implement student feedback strategies as determined by the Danielson Rubric
Teacher Practice Goal
Domain #3 in the Danielson Rubric focuses directly on questioning techniques with relation to student feedback. In order to achieve this goal, consistent collaboration, professional discussion and reflection must take place across all content areas and grade levels with the focus of providing student feedback.
Rationale
Utilize content collaborative time to share best practices on providing student feedback
Implement standards based grading for the purpose of
discussion of concept mastery with students
SDMS staff will allow “Re-dos” for assessment and part of the process is to receive feedback from staff on how to improve their work and achieve content mastery
All staff will utilize Advisor/Advisee program to assist students in goal setting and providing feedback for success
Strategies
PowerSchool Parent Portal to be opened for both parents and students
Support staff will conduct student interviews to give students feedback on numerous categories such as academic growth, behavioral growth and social growth
SDMS staff will keep running logs of conferences with students and feedback given
Strategies Continued
By the end of the 2013-2014 school year, 100% of our grade level data teams will be working at or above stage 5 (Analyzing Student Learning) as described in the 7 Stages of Professional Learning Teams Rubric.
Team Improvement Goal
This goal directly relates to the Wethersfield School Improvement Plan of improving instruction across all content areas. This goal will emphasize using data to drive instruction, will require continuous reflection and collaboration, and will improve teaching and learning. This goal can help to improve learning for our subgroups, who historically perform poorly on the CMT
Rationale
Teachers will meet as professional learning teams to plan collaboratively and analyze data and identify students in need of support
Staff will view video clips of schools who have successful data teams and elicit ideas
Staff will participate in a minimum of two professional development opportunities focused on implementation of data teams
Teachers will differentiate their individual instruction to meet specific student needs
Strategies
The percentage of parents who know how their child is doing in school before they get their childs’ report card will increase from 76% to 81% from spring 2013 to spring 2014
School Climate and Culture
Based on parent feedback in the spring of 2013, SDMS staff determined to increase communication in order for parents to be more involved in the collaborative aspect of learning for students.
Rationale
Open the parent portal in PowerSchool, sending a letter home to parents with directions so they have access to their children's academic progress
Provide professional development for staff on how to use the parent portal
The use of WikiSpaces & Team Blogs – Development of a school blog: “The Lion’s Roar”
Email/call parents for positive reasons and for intervention purposes with logs to be kept by staff
“Positive Post Cards” to be sent home to update parents of students performing well
Strategies