Odle Middle School: Three-Year School Improvement Plan

2015-16 to 2017-18 September 2017 (Year 3)

Bellevue School District Mission To provide all students with an exemplary college preparatory education so they can succeed in college, career, and life Preparing students for academic success in core content areas through achieving proficiency in literacy, math, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) as measured by state assessments

Preparing students for college and career success by meeting college academic distribution requirements (CADR) and earning at least 20 (quarter) college credits and/or professional certification

Preparing students for a positive and productive life through the development of interpersonal skills and a commitment to the community

District Goals All students will reach or exceed academic proficiency ♦ Eliminate the achievement gap ♦ All students,

including those who already meet or exceed academic proficiency, will show measurable progress

Characteristics of Successful Schools The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction identifies the following nine characteristics of successful schools: clear and shared focus ♦ high standards and expectations for all students ♦ effective school leadership ♦ high levels of collaboration and communication ♦ curriculum, instruction and assessments aligned with state standards ♦ frequent monitoring of learning and teaching ♦ focused professional development ♦ supportive learning environment ♦ high levels of family and community involvement Odle Middle School uses the nine characteristics to guide our school improvement planning. The specific strategies we are implementing this year that embody the nine characteristics of successful schools are incorporated in our plans detailed throughout this document.

Contents School Profile………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. School Background ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Progress Towards Goals………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. School Improvement Plan Highlights…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2-3 4 5-6 7-10

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SCHOOL BACKGROUND

Curricular Program

Odle Middle School provides a college-preparatory instructional program in Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies with an emphasis on critical thinking, academic behaviors, subject-matter understanding, and social-emotional learning. In addition, Odle provides a wide range of course offerings in the Visual Arts, Technology and Engineering, Music, Physical Education, Health, and World Languages. The complete Bellevue School District Middle School course catalog is available here.

Special Programs

The Resource Program is designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities who are eligible for special education services. The program provides a continuum of services, including specially-designed instruction, accommodations, and related-services in general education classrooms as determined by each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).

The Gifted Middle School Program (GMSP) provides self-contained services for identified students needing academic services at an advanced level and accelerated pace due to their ability to comprehend and process information. Gifted services provide differentiated academic instruction in Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math in classrooms of like-ability peers. Students’ social-emotional needs are addressed through this “cohort” experience which provides an opportunity for supportive social interactions within a rigorous academic environment.

The English Language Learner (ELL) Program provides students with a continuum of services based on their level of English language proficiency. Services are provided for students at the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and transitional levels, including an ELL teacher-facilitator who collaborates with students’ content-area teachers so that Odle’s English Language Learners are supported in participating fully in the Bellevue School District’s curriculum through language and academic support from a highly-qualified ELL teacher.

Extra-Curricular Program

Odle Middle School provides extra-curricular programs across content-areas, including Yearbook, French Club, Rocketry, Jazz, Future Problem Solvers, Fiber Club, Rainbow Club, and Robotics. Intramural athletic programs include: Cross Country, Golf, Ultimate Frisbee, Basketball, Soccer, Flag Football, Volleyball, and Badminton.

Key Successes This Past Year

• On the Writing component of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA), 90% of Odle students met the proficiency standard. • On the English Language Arts SBA, Odle 6th grade Hispanic students’ proficiency rate improved from 32% in 2016 to 53% in

2017. • The average growth on the STAR Reading exam from fall-to-spring for Odle English Language Learners was 120 lexile

points—100% more than the average fall-to-spring lexile growth for Odle students overall. • Odle implemented 93% of the key components of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework

based on the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET). • Odle students reported in spring 2017 improved “Sense of Belonging,” “Classroom Environment,” “Student Engagement,”

and “Supportive Relationships” on the Student Panorama Survey over a three-year period. (Odle students with IEPs reported the highest level of “Supportive Relationships” compared to any other group of Odle students.)

Highest-Priority Opportunities of Growth

• Develop an effective Equity and Inclusion Team to provide strong organizational and leadership processes for school improvement.

• Effectively implement a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) focused on equitable and inclusive academic and behavior instruction.

• Eliminate achievement gaps among sub-groups of students (see table below) in reading, writing, math, and science. • Improve students’ experience of “Sense of Belonging,” “Classroom Environment,” “Student Engagement,” and “Supportive

Relationships” as reported on the Panorama Student Survey.

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PROGRESS TOWARDS GOALS

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Our goal is to prepare all students (100%) for academic success, ensuring each student meets or exceeds proficiency standards on Bellevue School District assessments and Washington State assessments, eliminating achievement gaps among sub-groups of students, and ensuring all students show measurable academic progress. The table below is a summary of the proficiency rates by various sub-groups for the annual Washington State assessments from the last three school years:

Subgroup Reading Math

2015 2016 2017 2015 2016 2017

All 82 85 84 77 80 79 All (excluding Gifted) 64 63 62 53 52 51 Asian 93 96 95 95 95 94 Black/African American 48 44 37 26 30 37 Hispanic 40 35 43 28 24 20 Two or More Races 90 94 85 78 90 82 White 81 88 83 76 80 79 English Language Learners 17 21 14 20 14 9 Special Education 47 36 37 21 31 23 Gifted 99 100 100 99 100 100 Low Income 50 50 49 37 37 33 Non-Low Income 93 96 93 91 94 92 Female 85 90 86 77 81 80 Male 80 81 82 77 79 79

Subgroup Writing Science

2015 2016 2017 2015 2016 2017 All 89 91 90 78 86 84 All (excluding Gifted) 79 78 77 63 66 64 Asian 98 97 97 95 97 96 Black/African American 61 57 59 NA** NA** NA** Hispanic 54 61 59 38 56 34 Two or More Races 94 96 96 73 81 79 White 88 94 93 76 90 89 English Language Learners 30 46 32 NA** NA** NA** Special Education 53 31 35 53 42 44 Gifted 100 99 100 99 100 100 Low Income 68 70 66 42 54 49 Non-Low Income 97 97 97 93 96 94 Female 91 94 94 78 86 84 Male 88 88 87 79 86 84

Writing*: The Smarter Balanced English Language Arts assessment has four reporting categories known as “claims.” The writing scores above are based on students’ performance on the “writing claim” category which includes an emphasis on three writing categories: 1) Organization/Purpose; 2) Evidence/Elaboration; 3) Conventions. NA**: per Washington State policy, sub-groups with fewer than 20 students are not publicly reported.

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POSITIVE & PRODUCTIVE LIFE

Our goal is for all students (100%) to 1) develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success, 2) use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships, and 3) demonstrate responsible decision-making in personal, school, and community contexts. The graph below shows the percentage of points given on each component of the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET) which evaluates a school’s level of implementation of the key components of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework. These evaluations were completed in January 2016 and 2017 by Northwest PBIS (NWPBIS), an independent evaluator. We exceeded the 80% threshold in all seven components and . We achieved a total SET score of 93%.

The table below shows Odle students’ responses to survey items from the “Panorama Survey” from the last three years on selected items in the following categories: “Sense of Belonging,” “Classroom Environment,” “Student Engagement,” and “Supportive Relationships.”

Survey Items Survey Item Category

Spring 2015 % of students responding favorably to the question

Spring 2016 % of students responding favorably to the question

Spring 2017 % of students responding favorably to the question

1. How safe do you usually feel at school? Sense of Belonging 70 72 72 2. Do students treat each other well in the cafeteria? Sense of Belonging 40 49 64 3. Do students treat each other well in the hallways? Sense of Belonging 40 54 57 4. Is your school a warm and welcoming place? Sense of Belonging NA 51 55 5. Does this school emphasize respect for the cultural

beliefs and practices of all students? Sense of Belonging NA 65 70

6. How well do the students of all different race/ethnicities get along with each other at your school? Sense of Belonging NA 58 67

7. How fair or unfair are the rules for students in this class? Classroom Environment 78 79 78 8. Does this teacher invite students’ culture and experiences

into the classroom? Student Engagement NA 50 56

9. How comfortable are you asking this teacher questions about what you are learning in this class? Supportive Relationships NA 72 69

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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT HIGHLIGHTS: Key Strategies and Initiatives

1. Equity and Inclusion School Leadership Team We will develop an Equity and Inclusion School Leadership Team. The Equity and Inclusion School Leadership Team will focus on creating an equitable and inclusive school to eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps. The team will include the principal, counselors, instructional coaches, and educators representing general education, gifted education, special education, and English language learning.

The team will 1) practice and lead “Courageous Conversations about Race” (using the Pacific Educational Group framework), examining the intersection of race and pedagogy; 2) develop student leadership capacity for racial equity transformation while engaging students in healthy racial identity development and formation; 3) examine Odle’s policies, practices, programs, structures, and culture to identify barriers to racial equity and excellence; 4) review school-wide student and/or performance data focused on causes of racial predictability and disproportionality in school; and 5) use data to inform school-wide decision-making, to monitor school progress, and to guide instructional practices.

2. School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) PBIS is an implementation framework designed to enhance academic and social behavior outcomes for all students by emphasizing the use of data for informing decisions about the selection, implementation, and progress monitoring of evidence-based behavioral practices, and by aligning resources and systems to six key components:

• Common purpose and approach to student discipline • Clear set of positive expectations and behaviors • Procedures for teaching expected behavior • Continuum of procedures for reinforcing expected behavior • Continuum of procedures for responding to problem behavior • Procedures for on-going monitoring and evaluation

We will strengthen and sustain our implementation of the “Tier 1” framework across all school settings in accordance with these six key components using the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET) and Tiered-Fidelity Inventory (TFI) to measure the scope of our implementation. 3. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) A multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) is a continuum of research-based, system-wide practices of data-based decision making used to meet the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of all students. Tier 2 Systems and Supports: strengthen our “Tier 2” systems of support with a focus on the following

critical features:

• Screening: use decision rules and multiple sources of data (e.g., disciplines referrals, academic progress, screening tools, attendance, teacher/family/student nominations) to identify students who require additional supports and interventions

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• Request for Assistance: use a formal request for assistance form and process that are timely and available to all staff, families, and students

• Options for Tier II Interventions (Intervention and Support Matrix): provide multiple ongoing

supports and interventions with documented evidence of effectiveness matched to student need

• Practices Matched to Student Need: use a formal process to select Tier II interventions that are

(a) matched to student need (e.g., behavioral function), and (b) adapted to improve contextual fit (e.g., culture, developmental level)

• Professional Development: communicate to staff the process for how to refer students and

provide support for implementing Tier II interventions

• Student Performance Data: track proportion of students experiencing success (% of participating students being successful) and use Tier II intervention outcome data and decision rules for progress monitoring and modification

Inclusive Academic Interventions and Supports: identify and prioritize interventions and supports

based on analysis of multiple sources of data.

• Math (Integrated Math Topics 1—sixth grade): i. Conduct universal screenings three times a year (using the STAR assessment).

ii. Collect progress-monitoring data to check students’ improvement. iii. Develop a plan to use data to guide math interventions and supports. iv. Regularly collect data to 1) identify students who need more or less intensive

supports, 2) provide appropriate interventions within the multi-level support system, and 3) check if interventions and supports are implemented as planned.

v. Review academic outcome data (e.g., SBA) in aggregate and sub-group formats to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and supports.

• Reading:

i. Conduct universal screenings three times a year (using the STAR assessment). ii. Collect progress-monitoring data to check students’ improvement.

iii. Develop a plan to use data to guide reading interventions and supports. iv. Regularly collect data to 1) identify students who need more or less intensive

supports, 2) provide appropriate interventions within the multi-level support system, and 3) check if interventions and supports are implemented as planned.

v. Review academic outcome data (e.g., SBA) in aggregate and sub-group formats to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and supports.

Inclusive Behavioral and Social-Emotional Interventions and Supports: identify and prioritize

interventions and supports based on analysis of multiple sources of data.

• Behavioral/Social-Emotional: i. Develop Check & Connect program. Check & Connect is an intervention used with

students who show signs of disengagement from school and who are at risk of dropping out (e.g., poor attendance, behavioral issues, and/or low grades). In Check & Connect, the “Check” component refers to the process where mentors systematically

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monitor student performance variables (e.g., absences, tardies, behavioral referrals, grades), while the “Connect” component refers to mentors providing personalized, timely interventions to help students solve problems, build skills, and enhance competence. Mentors work with caseloads of students and families, functioning as liaisons between home and school and striving to build constructive family-school relationships.

4. Culturally-Responsive Teaching (CRT) Culturally-Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. Some of the characteristics of culturally-responsive teaching are: positive perspectives on parents and families; communication of high expectations; learning within the context of culture; student-centered instruction; culturally-mediated instruction; reshaping the curriculum; teacher as facilitator. 8th Grade Honors Social Studies: All students enrolled in 8th Grade Honors Social Studies at Odle will

participate in this newly-designed Social Studies course based on CRT principles. The course includes an emphasis on the social construction of history and understanding the interplay of dominant narratives and marginalized perspectives.

Complex Instruction (Math): Odle math teachers are collaborating with coaches from the University of Washington to deepen their practice of the three major components of Complex Instruction (CI):

i. Open-Ended Tasks: The CI framework centers on academic tasks designed to foster critical thinking through group-work activities organized around a central concept or big idea. The use of open-ended tasks requires students to work interdependently to solve problems that require a wide array of intellectual abilities so that students from diverse backgrounds and different levels of academic proficiency can make meaningful contributions to the group task.

ii. Collaboration: The CI framework also focuses on developing students’ capacity to use

cooperative norms and specific roles to manage their own groups (so that the teacher can observe groups carefully and provide specific feedback that presses for understanding and advances students' thinking).

iii. Equity: The CI approach supports teachers' ability to address dilemmas of differentiation in

heterogeneous learning groups, emphasizing equitable access to learning by recognizing and addressing status problems in the group. Students who are seen as lacking academic skills often fail to participate. In CI, teachers use “status treatments” to broaden students' perceptions of what it means to be smart in order to show students that they each have important intellectual contributions to make.

Cultures of Thinking Project: Drawing on research from Harvard University’s Project Zero, the “Cultures of Thinking” project focuses teachers’ attention on the eight cultural forces that act as shapers of the classroom culture, including language, time, environment, opportunities, routines, modeling, interactions, and expectations. Groups of teachers this year are focusing their own professional learning specifically on the use of “Thinking Routines” to serve as 1) tools used repeatedly in the classroom to support specific “thinking moves”, 2) structures through which students collectively and

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individually initiate, explore, discuss, document, and manage their thinking, and 3) patterns of intellectual behavior adopted to help students form thoughts, reason, and reflect.

5. Inclusive Practices: Co-Teaching

We are expanding our approach to co-teaching (e.g., team teaching, parallel teaching, small group and independent work, one teach/one support, one teach/one observe) by adding three additional co-taught classes to provide greater access to general education settings and curricula for students receiving special education services and for English Language Learners. We are also providing flexible scheduling for special education and ELL teachers to provide more “push-in” support for students to receive services in general education settings. 6. New Science Curriculum

Odle Science Teachers will be implementing a new science curriculum this year—Amplify Science 6-8. The curriculum is aligned to the new Washington State Science Learning Standards. In spring 2018, a new Washington state assessment aligned to these new standards will be administered to all 8th grade students. The new standards focus on the interconnected nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in authentic scientific settings, focus on deeper conceptual understanding and the application of conceptual learning, integrate science and engineering practices, and align with the Common Core State Standards (in English Language Arts and Mathematics).

7. New Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum

Odle Teachers will be examining ways of integrating school-wide the MindUp curriculum—our new Social- Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. This research-based curriculum features 15 lessons that use cognitive science to improve behavior and learning. Each lesson provides strategies for helping students focus their attention, improve their self-regulation skills, build resilience to stress, and develop a positive mind-set in both school and life. Odle teachers will be evaluating school-wide approaches to implementing this new curriculum and developing a professional learning plan with the goal of school-wide implementation in fall 2018.