SEPTEMBER PLANNING
At this point, we are 16.5 school days from finishing the school year which leaves us with a limited number of days to plan and finalize our vision for next school year. Within this process, we will need to establish our targets for next year (aka the CEP) and our plan on how we will achieve those targets. With the two half days and one full day of time to work together along with the grade team meetings, I am confident we will put the best plans together this school has ever seen. The benefits of previous planning, we have laid down a frame that we can now build upon. We no longer have to plan periods or other logistics as far as lunch times, safety in the stairwells, morning meetings, and more. We do need to maintain a sense of urgency through the whole process to make sure we meet our deadlines and set up measurements to ensure our vision is being met and determining whether adjustments need to be made accordingly. The more in depth we are now, the better prepared we will be for next year. It may seem like a generous amount of time to plan these ideas now but we cannot leave any planning for the summer time. It only means arriving back in August and September to surprises. You want to be ready to go when the next year begins. You want to be a source of information, not the person asking questions. Hence, we need to have the road paved by the time June 26th arrives. Our deadlines should be planned for the week ahead. Hence our plan should be finished by June 20th. If additional time is needed, we will have it.
ELA TEST RESULTS
As promised several weeks ago, I wanted to share the results of the ELA test. I am going to talk about the great accomplishments we have made and I am also going to mention how we can build on these achievements for next year. Just like any process we go through in our school, we must reflect and then create steps on how we can improve topped off with a system of measuring our progress to ensure we reach the higher level. Our statistics can be viewed on this website under the link “Data.”
Bragging Rights
Last year, we had the following statistics: 10.5% of our school was performing at a level 1, 72.7% at a level 2, and 16.8% at a level 3 or 4. This year we have reduced our students performing at a level 1 by over 6 percent. Our students at level 2 have decreased by 6%. Our students who reached a level 3 or a level 4 have increased by over 12%. The final statistics look like the following: 4% of our school scored a level 1 (only 12 students who are special education, English language learners, or both…we will need to raise our services for this population), 66.7% reached a level 2, and 29.3% of our student body performed at a level 3 or 4. Our goal of increasing the number of students achieving a level 3 or 4 was met which was 10%. We predicted we would reduce our students performing at a level 1 by 10% (remember, the percentage represents a portion of the 10.5%). We accomplished that as well. The CEP was a written document that captured our goals. We were able to meet those goals.
As for the overall results of the school, we had 177 students increase in the total number of points from last year to this one. 11 students stayed the same. This comes out to about 55% of the student body who either maintained or increased in total points. Only 92 students decreased. When we reviewed the progress report, we aimed to reach 65% of all students to either maintain or increase from the previous year. We were only 10 percent away from achieving this goal.
1-6-3 Club
Let us take a look at our targeted group. The total number of students who were identified to be 16 points or less from a level 3 was 98. We are still waiting on scores for nine of these students. 48 of the total increased in their score while 35 students dropped in the number of points they obtained. Six students kept the same score as last year. As far as percentage, 39% dropped in total points from the previous year. 54% of the “1-6-3 students” increased in their test scores. 20% of this group met or exceeded the 16 points we aimed for them to achieve. Almost 31% of the students who increased (about 16 students) were ten or less points from meeting their targets of the 16 or less points.
Reflection
I have shared so much of the information that can be gathered by the test results we were given. There are some improvements we have made. We need to identify what was a contributing factor to these increases. Was it the new discipline code, the higher level of experience with Teacher’s College, the push-in support from administrators and staff members, or the read-aloud spread throughout the other discipline areas? Was it all of the above? When we get the desegregated data, many of these questions can be answered. Right now, the Acuity is most accurate telltale of what happened on the exam.
Some planning needs to be done. For starters, we only had one student who scored a level 4. After speaking to several teachers, we anticipated that these numbers were going to be higher. Several thoughts cross my mind. We need to increase the number of students scoring a level 4. We need to research what contributes to making this happen and replicate that with the students we identify as being able to reach those scores. We need to make sure what we think is going to happen is more accurate than what we had anticipated what was going to happen. In other words, it does not have to be a guessing game. If we maintain a clear idea of what our students need work with, we can provide accurate support to allow them to reach an aiming point. We can do this by developing interim goals to make sure these students are on pace to reaching the higher level score. This way, extra efforts can be done to ensure that the targets are met.
Our targeted population equaled 25% of the total student body (the 1-6-3 club). If we took a look at the average class which was about 25 students, we would notice that the average amount of 1-6-3 students per class was 6 students (6.25 to be exact). We were only able to get 20% of these students to reach the target we had put before them. This comes out to about 1 to 2 students per class (1.25 to be exact). The goal was to get all 6 students to move up 16 or less points. We averaged only 1 to 2 students per class. This tells me that isolating a group as a target population takes more work than we had anticipated. It requires an exact plan as to how we will provide instruction so that we reach our targets. Talking about the students is one thing, but we need to make sure these students are heading toward the target we set for them. Again, as mentioned previously, if we had interim goals with a measurement system to check to see if the students were on their way to reaching the targets, we could have determined if more support was needed and in what areas it had to be directed. By merely providing day to day instruction, we may or may not be filling in a void or supporting in the needed areas such as inference, comprehension, or identifying the main idea to name a few. For instance, how many times did we work on grammar and spelling with an entire class when only a group of students needed it? In the long run, it was not a major factor in preparing for their state test and, in the real world, they have access to spell check (ask my brother, he is the worst at spelling but has a pretty good record of errorless letters on Microsoft Word).
We need to reduce the amount of time we use comparing our own education to what we are providing to our students. We need to begin gathering best practices from schools that have been measured to be excellent ones. We need to adapt these ideas into our school so our students receive the best education possible. This requires us to open our minds to change. I received a pretty good education. I provided a better education to the students I taught. Now, we are developing a method to raise student achievement by looking beyond my schooling and the schooling I provided in the past.
The age of education is asking us to take a closer look at our students by measuring and supporting and repeating the process. I am stuck thinking about the first time a clock was introduced. I’m sure people were saying to the inventor, “Why do I need this when I can just look at my trusty sun dial and know what time it is then?” It’s true when we think about it. We could still be using sun dials to this day (except on rainy days or at night). It’s cheaper to buy and who really needs to know which minute we are at and what second is coming next. Most people sleep at night anyway. Maybe society has adapted so much to the accuracy of time that we use the knowledge of the exact time to know how many specific minutes and seconds we can spare before departing, arriving, waiting, and more. The sun dial would give me a gage but is a gage good enough? It’s undeniable the need for the accuracy. Does accuracy help us with supporting our students’ progress? Does estimating what they know allow them to get the best education possible? Our challenge is to develop methods to maintain a measurement and comparison for our students. Our biggest difficulty is establishing a system to apply the information during our instructional time. How will we adapt to this change? Will we stick to what we know or will we step up to the new age of education which asks us to be even more accurate than ever before?
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
The discipline committee meets every Thursday from 3:15 to 4:15 to address issues surrounding the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of the school-wide discipline code. In our last meeting, we began revising the code’s interventions.
- Planning for Next Year: The discipline committee has begun planning for next year. Our current focus is on the discipline code’s interventions. We will be working on this area of the code for the next several weeks. If you would like your voice to be heard, please attend the meeting next Friday in Mr. Allen’s room.
- Topics for Next Week: Next weeks meeting will be Wednesday at 3:15. We will continue working on interventions for students who move up the discipline ladder quickly.
CHILD STUDY TEAM
As our school’s new and developing Child Study Team, we know that as we translate ideas into action, it is imperative that we communicate with each other, that we update each other, and that we keep our work as transparent as possible so that all parties specifically invested in the outcomes of a particular child’s Child Study Team Meeting know exactly “where we stand”.
Our Child Study Team is working to improve this aspect of our work. We are asking for the feedback and recommendations of our entire educational community as to the best ways to provide this ongoing follow- up and updating.
Think for a moment?—What would be the best way for the Child Study Team and the Case Manager to keep you informed of the goings-on with this student?—
--Emails?
--Hard copy notes in your mailbox?
--Notes to Grade Team Leaders to be shared within their teams?
--Verbal updates between colleagues?
--Inviting you to attend another Child Study Team meeting? (or perhaps another member of the 3 person team that recommended the student can attend this time?...)
--A letter in a bottle?
You get the idea—as a Team we have reached a point where we need to make some decisions as to the best ways to keep everyone on the same page about what- is-happening -with -a –student in regards to the collaborative work of the Child Study Team and the teachers who referred the student to us.
As multiple interventions may all be taking place simultaneously, we need a way ( or perhaps, a number of ways) to come back to the table, unpack our knapsacks and share:
“Hey, I found this out!” “Oh, yeah , I never knew Mom had ___x____ issue, she mentioned it to me during our meeting on Monday”… “Oh, listen, everyone, Suzie Q just told me she was born with a ___x____, and that this affects her by causing_____x, y and z_______.”
“I looked at the cumulative file in the main office. Billy was in 7 different schools by 3rd grade!”… “ Timmy’s mom came to meet with us on Tuesday. She says she is actually Timmy’s grandmother”; “I didn’t realize, Chuck’s family has lived in 4 temporary housing settings since September. It is now November. Oh my!”…..
Once the knapsacks are unpacked, we collectively say “now what?” and take the next round of action to bring about the desired changes we discussed for this student.
--What does the information we have discovered mean for us and for the student?
--What do we do now?
-- What next steps seem wise?
-- How do we use the new information to better inform our planning for this child’s academic and social/emotional needs?
--What additional supports can we provide for this family now that we know the significant piece of information they have shared with us?
Ahhh…and here is the essential point of this work—not just to sit together once, come up with a couple ideas, then back to business as usual. Indeed, that first meeting is simply the beginning of what must be an ongoing and deepening process of discovery.
The more we discover, the more we can work with clarity and with compassion.
COMMUNITY CORNER
There is a Father’s Day Brunch planned for June 11th. We invite all fathers in our community to stop in and be appreciated, this includes staff as well. Graduation has been finalized at Riverbank State Park for Monday June 16th, 2008 at 2:00pm. The prom is scheduled for the same day so we will need chaperones. If you are interested, please see Ms. Negron. We will be sending out letters within the week to communicate to families what the status of their children is for next year. Thank you and have a great week.At this point, we are 16.5 school days from finishing the school year which leaves us with a limited number of days to plan and finalize our vision for next school year. Within this process, we will need to establish our targets for next year (aka the CEP) and our plan on how we will achieve those targets. With the two half days and one full day of time to work together along with the grade team meetings, I am confident we will put the best plans together this school has ever seen. The benefits of previous planning, we have laid down a frame that we can now build upon. We no longer have to plan periods or other logistics as far as lunch times, safety in the stairwells, morning meetings, and more. We do need to maintain a sense of urgency through the whole process to make sure we meet our deadlines and set up measurements to ensure our vision is being met and determining whether adjustments need to be made accordingly. The more in depth we are now, the better prepared we will be for next year. It may seem like a generous amount of time to plan these ideas now but we cannot leave any planning for the summer time. It only means arriving back in August and September to surprises. You want to be ready to go when the next year begins. You want to be a source of information, not the person asking questions. Hence, we need to have the road paved by the time June 26th arrives. Our deadlines should be planned for the week ahead. Hence our plan should be finished by June 20th. If additional time is needed, we will have it.
ELA TEST RESULTS
As promised several weeks ago, I wanted to share the results of the ELA test. I am going to talk about the great accomplishments we have made and I am also going to mention how we can build on these achievements for next year. Just like any process we go through in our school, we must reflect and then create steps on how we can improve topped off with a system of measuring our progress to ensure we reach the higher level. Our statistics can be viewed on this website under the link “Data.”
Bragging Rights
Last year, we had the following statistics: 10.5% of our school was performing at a level 1, 72.7% at a level 2, and 16.8% at a level 3 or 4. This year we have reduced our students performing at a level 1 by over 6 percent. Our students at level 2 have decreased by 6%. Our students who reached a level 3 or a level 4 have increased by over 12%. The final statistics look like the following: 4% of our school scored a level 1 (only 12 students who are special education, English language learners, or both…we will need to raise our services for this population), 66.7% reached a level 2, and 29.3% of our student body performed at a level 3 or 4. Our goal of increasing the number of students achieving a level 3 or 4 was met which was 10%. We predicted we would reduce our students performing at a level 1 by 10% (remember, the percentage represents a portion of the 10.5%). We accomplished that as well. The CEP was a written document that captured our goals. We were able to meet those goals.
As for the overall results of the school, we had 177 students increase in the total number of points from last year to this one. 11 students stayed the same. This comes out to about 55% of the student body who either maintained or increased in total points. Only 92 students decreased. When we reviewed the progress report, we aimed to reach 65% of all students to either maintain or increase from the previous year. We were only 10 percent away from achieving this goal.
1-6-3 Club
Let us take a look at our targeted group. The total number of students who were identified to be 16 points or less from a level 3 was 98. We are still waiting on scores for nine of these students. 48 of the total increased in their score while 35 students dropped in the number of points they obtained. Six students kept the same score as last year. As far as percentage, 39% dropped in total points from the previous year. 54% of the “1-6-3 students” increased in their test scores. 20% of this group met or exceeded the 16 points we aimed for them to achieve. Almost 31% of the students who increased (about 16 students) were ten or less points from meeting their targets of the 16 or less points.
Reflection
I have shared so much of the information that can be gathered by the test results we were given. There are some improvements we have made. We need to identify what was a contributing factor to these increases. Was it the new discipline code, the higher level of experience with Teacher’s College, the push-in support from administrators and staff members, or the read-aloud spread throughout the other discipline areas? Was it all of the above? When we get the desegregated data, many of these questions can be answered. Right now, the Acuity is most accurate telltale of what happened on the exam.
Some planning needs to be done. For starters, we only had one student who scored a level 4. After speaking to several teachers, we anticipated that these numbers were going to be higher. Several thoughts cross my mind. We need to increase the number of students scoring a level 4. We need to research what contributes to making this happen and replicate that with the students we identify as being able to reach those scores. We need to make sure what we think is going to happen is more accurate than what we had anticipated what was going to happen. In other words, it does not have to be a guessing game. If we maintain a clear idea of what our students need work with, we can provide accurate support to allow them to reach an aiming point. We can do this by developing interim goals to make sure these students are on pace to reaching the higher level score. This way, extra efforts can be done to ensure that the targets are met.
Our targeted population equaled 25% of the total student body (the 1-6-3 club). If we took a look at the average class which was about 25 students, we would notice that the average amount of 1-6-3 students per class was 6 students (6.25 to be exact). We were only able to get 20% of these students to reach the target we had put before them. This comes out to about 1 to 2 students per class (1.25 to be exact). The goal was to get all 6 students to move up 16 or less points. We averaged only 1 to 2 students per class. This tells me that isolating a group as a target population takes more work than we had anticipated. It requires an exact plan as to how we will provide instruction so that we reach our targets. Talking about the students is one thing, but we need to make sure these students are heading toward the target we set for them. Again, as mentioned previously, if we had interim goals with a measurement system to check to see if the students were on their way to reaching the targets, we could have determined if more support was needed and in what areas it had to be directed. By merely providing day to day instruction, we may or may not be filling in a void or supporting in the needed areas such as inference, comprehension, or identifying the main idea to name a few. For instance, how many times did we work on grammar and spelling with an entire class when only a group of students needed it? In the long run, it was not a major factor in preparing for their state test and, in the real world, they have access to spell check (ask my brother, he is the worst at spelling but has a pretty good record of errorless letters on Microsoft Word).
We need to reduce the amount of time we use comparing our own education to what we are providing to our students. We need to begin gathering best practices from schools that have been measured to be excellent ones. We need to adapt these ideas into our school so our students receive the best education possible. This requires us to open our minds to change. I received a pretty good education. I provided a better education to the students I taught. Now, we are developing a method to raise student achievement by looking beyond my schooling and the schooling I provided in the past.
The age of education is asking us to take a closer look at our students by measuring and supporting and repeating the process. I am stuck thinking about the first time a clock was introduced. I’m sure people were saying to the inventor, “Why do I need this when I can just look at my trusty sun dial and know what time it is then?” It’s true when we think about it. We could still be using sun dials to this day (except on rainy days or at night). It’s cheaper to buy and who really needs to know which minute we are at and what second is coming next. Most people sleep at night anyway. Maybe society has adapted so much to the accuracy of time that we use the knowledge of the exact time to know how many specific minutes and seconds we can spare before departing, arriving, waiting, and more. The sun dial would give me a gage but is a gage good enough? It’s undeniable the need for the accuracy. Does accuracy help us with supporting our students’ progress? Does estimating what they know allow them to get the best education possible? Our challenge is to develop methods to maintain a measurement and comparison for our students. Our biggest difficulty is establishing a system to apply the information during our instructional time. How will we adapt to this change? Will we stick to what we know or will we step up to the new age of education which asks us to be even more accurate than ever before?
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
The discipline committee meets every Thursday from 3:15 to 4:15 to address issues surrounding the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of the school-wide discipline code. In our last meeting, we began revising the code’s interventions.
- Planning for Next Year: The discipline committee has begun planning for next year. Our current focus is on the discipline code’s interventions. We will be working on this area of the code for the next several weeks. If you would like your voice to be heard, please attend the meeting next Friday in Mr. Allen’s room.
- Topics for Next Week: Next weeks meeting will be Wednesday at 3:15. We will continue working on interventions for students who move up the discipline ladder quickly.
CHILD STUDY TEAM
As our school’s new and developing Child Study Team, we know that as we translate ideas into action, it is imperative that we communicate with each other, that we update each other, and that we keep our work as transparent as possible so that all parties specifically invested in the outcomes of a particular child’s Child Study Team Meeting know exactly “where we stand”.
Our Child Study Team is working to improve this aspect of our work. We are asking for the feedback and recommendations of our entire educational community as to the best ways to provide this ongoing follow- up and updating.
Think for a moment?—What would be the best way for the Child Study Team and the Case Manager to keep you informed of the goings-on with this student?—
--Emails?
--Hard copy notes in your mailbox?
--Notes to Grade Team Leaders to be shared within their teams?
--Verbal updates between colleagues?
--Inviting you to attend another Child Study Team meeting? (or perhaps another member of the 3 person team that recommended the student can attend this time?...)
--A letter in a bottle?
You get the idea—as a Team we have reached a point where we need to make some decisions as to the best ways to keep everyone on the same page about what- is-happening -with -a –student in regards to the collaborative work of the Child Study Team and the teachers who referred the student to us.
As multiple interventions may all be taking place simultaneously, we need a way ( or perhaps, a number of ways) to come back to the table, unpack our knapsacks and share:
“Hey, I found this out!” “Oh, yeah , I never knew Mom had ___x____ issue, she mentioned it to me during our meeting on Monday”… “Oh, listen, everyone, Suzie Q just told me she was born with a ___x____, and that this affects her by causing_____x, y and z_______.”
“I looked at the cumulative file in the main office. Billy was in 7 different schools by 3rd grade!”… “ Timmy’s mom came to meet with us on Tuesday. She says she is actually Timmy’s grandmother”; “I didn’t realize, Chuck’s family has lived in 4 temporary housing settings since September. It is now November. Oh my!”…..
Once the knapsacks are unpacked, we collectively say “now what?” and take the next round of action to bring about the desired changes we discussed for this student.
--What does the information we have discovered mean for us and for the student?
--What do we do now?
-- What next steps seem wise?
-- How do we use the new information to better inform our planning for this child’s academic and social/emotional needs?
--What additional supports can we provide for this family now that we know the significant piece of information they have shared with us?
Ahhh…and here is the essential point of this work—not just to sit together once, come up with a couple ideas, then back to business as usual. Indeed, that first meeting is simply the beginning of what must be an ongoing and deepening process of discovery.
The more we discover, the more we can work with clarity and with compassion.
COMMUNITY CORNER
ATTENDANCE
This Attendance Interval report lists the number and percent of students whose Year-to-Date (YTD) attendance falls within each attendance interval. That is, the report calculates the number and percent of students whose YTD attendance rate is 100% (Perfect attendance), the number and percent of students whose YTD attendance is 90% through 99%, and so on. The report includes students on register as of the effective date; the YTD attendance is calculated as of the effective date.
100% (Perfect) 15 4.4
90TO 99% 198 58.4
80% TO 89% 70 20.6
70% TO 79% 31 9.1
60% TO 69% 13 3.8
50% TO 59% 9 2.6
40% TO 49% 0 0.0
30% TO 39% 1 0.2
20% TO 29% 1 0.2
10% TO 19% 0 0.0
1% TO 9% 1 0.2
0% (No Show) 0 0.0
Total Students 339
It looks like the rain had an impact on our attendance this week. Be sure to speak to any students who were not in school last week and urge them to make it into the building. If we all send the same message to these students, we can make a difference.
May your preparations meet your vision, your colleagues provide information, and no risk blinds you from your mission. Have a great week….
Birthdays:
Rachel Levene May 1st
Danita Scott May 2nd
David Deatherage May 2nd
Leslie Tatum May 12th
Rosa Calvet May 15th
John Ciano May 19th
Cassandra Williams May 21st
Zoe Markoupulus May 28th
Quote of the Week
“If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them. --Mohandas K. Gandhi
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