School Improvement Process

1. School Improvement Process NCA Style – And everyone else’s style

2. Elements of Effective School Improvement • Data Collection (Profiling and Scanning) • Mission • Goal Setting (Performance Targets) • Interventions (Strategies) • Assessments • Professional Development • Monitoring • Documentation of Results

3. What we have accomplished…

4. School Profile • Developed by the team in 2003 • A “concise stand-alone document developed to summarize information that describes the students” within Olympia • Includes information about school and community • Students’ performance goals emerge from the document

5. Environmental Scan • Environmental scan data is information about society and the world that a faculty may use to determine what skills and knowledge students will need to be successful after leaving school

6. Some Topics to Scan • Demographic trends in population • Employment • Technology • Human Resources (Workforce, Work Environment) • Health Care • Legislation • Socioeconomics (Income projections, public attitudes)

7. Our Environmental Scan • The scan should be revisited regularly • Last done in 2003 • Our scan consisted of trends that teachers noted within their discipline • Plans to follow with societal and economic trend data did not come to fruition.

8. Mission Statement • Clarifies the purpose of the school and identifies its priorities. • It gives direction, inspires, and motivates as people in the school community make decisions about the school. • It is decided upon by a consensus of the faculty, administration, and other representatives of the school community.

9. Mission Statement With the understanding that technology and globalization are creating an increasingly sophisticated and diverse world, Olympia High School, in partnership with family and community, is proactive in promoting a system of education that: • Fosters the pursuit of excellence through a variety of rigorous academic and extracurricular opportunities. • Provides a technology-rich environment for developing independent, adaptable, information-literate learners. • Enhances oral and written communication skills • Instills students with problem solving and critical thinking skills with real-world applications.

10. Student Performance Goals • Goals are supported by an analysis of data from the profile • Goals are supportive of the mission and beliefs of the school. • Goals should be phrased in terms of STUDENT performance. • Goals should address ALL of the school’s learners • Goals should emphasize student growth.

11. Original Goals • All students will demonstrate an improved ability to read and comprehend text in all curricular areas. • All students will improve their information literacy skills with an emphasis on critical thinking. • All students will increase their scientific reasoning processes across the curriculum.

12. Current Olympia School Improvement Goals • All students will demonstrate an improved ability to read and comprehend text in all curricular areas. • Increase critical reasoning and information literacy skills across the curriculum • Increase the OHS graduation rate to 91.5% fro the 2005-2006 school year. Decrease the drop out rate to 2.0% for the 2005-2006 school year.

13. Posnik Rave Reviews First External Chair Visit

14. The next steps…

15. Developing the School Improvement Plan • Establish goal committees • Identify Assessments • Identify Interventions • Create the Staff Development Component • Develop the School Improvement Plan • Host the Pier Review Team

16. Responsibilities of Goals Committees • Plan the logistics for the assessment of each of the student performance goals • Work with faculty to support the interventions that have been identified • Assist with monitoring the implementation of the plan across the curriculum • Identify staff development needed to support each student performance goal. • Help establish expectations and determine how to document improvements in student performance. • Provide frequent progress reports on goal accomplishment to the entire staff. • Create the final documentation report for the assignment goal and provide it to the steering committee

17. Snags • There was no research out there about reading programs at the high school level • Leadership turnover • Goals kept changing • Our external chair left the area • NCA was imploding because of NCLB – no support • OLY Downsizing and its aftermath

20. Assessment

21. Triangulation • Standardized assessment – provide reliability and credibility (autopsy) • Criterion Referenced • Norm Referenced • Local assessment – provide validity and timeliness (physical exam) • Classroom level

22. Dissagregate, dissagregate, dissagregate • Subgroups: quartiles, gender, low-SES • Ensures equity by ensuring that performance is improving for all students • Interventions can be tailor-made

23. Key Question • How many assessments are needed for each goal? • Are we assessing the goal or the intervention? • Must every intervention have an assessment? • Must every assessment be given to every student every year?

24. Interventions address the reasons why students are not being successful. • Cause and effect • Symptom versus cause • Interventions result from a thorough analysis of data • Interventions should be research-based

25. Professional Development • Helps faculty learn about the new interventions and how to implement them. • Needs to be directly linked to the school improvement plan. • Needs to include ways to measure the extent to which the plan is being implemented in the classroom • Plan includes provisions for new faculty

26. Let’s Analyze a Hypothetical and Real School Improvement Plan

27. How ready are we to engage in the school improvement process? Capacity Assessment Instrument