School Improvement Planning

Robert Dunn

Factors Impacting School TurnaroundsEducation Week – Sept 2012

Factors:• Data use• Targeted student interventions• Teacher collaboration AND intensive professional

development• Fewer strategies – build coherence of practice

across the school.– Multiple-interlocking which formed a framework for

improvement – NO SILVER BULLET!

Learning Objectives of School Planning

• Identify students who will improve in order to achieve your targets for improvement

• Identify the challenge of practice which will define the focus for the improvement work at the school for the year.

• Identify classroom practices which will need to shift in order to have that improvement occur.

• Develop a continuous monitoring plan for the school which monitors both student achievement and the shifts in classroom practice.

Check of Student Learning? How are our students doing in relation to the outcomes?Which students are achieving below standard or underachieving? (students to watch)

What student learning needs of the students to watch if addressed will support their achievement?

What is your CORE data sets

• What data do you expect schools to use in creating their school improvement plans?

• Work in Board Teams 5 minutes• Be prepared to share

Required Data Sets for Planning ProcessStudent Level Achievement Planning

(some data in ReportNet)

1. Report Card data from June, 20122. PM Benchmark/DRA/Alpha Jeune 3. Identification of at-risk students from June process.4. EQAO data for current grade 4 and 7 students.5. Accumulation of data for each student in the class

(formative assessment data ie. mathematics achievement, Running record data, Observation Survey data for kindergarten students, and other data as available).

6. Students identified as at-risk in Projective Analysis Report

Example of predictions for Grade 6 testingLast report card from Grade 5

Probability of achieving the standard in upcoming

Grade 6 testsLearning skills Marks

Student

Gender

Problem

solving

Independance

Homewor

k completion

Class participatio

n

Reading

Writing Math Reading Writing Math

1 M 3 3 2 3 70 72 71 63 % 66 % 73 %

2 F 2 3 3 2 82 77 68 92 % 85 % 62 %

3 M 4 3 4 3 72 76 84 77 % 79 % 97 %

4 F 3 4 4 4 84 85 83 98 % 99 % 87 %

The scores and letter marks have been transformed into numerical values and scales to facilitate the calculation of probabilities

Identify an Area of Focus(Reading, Written language, Mathematics)

Teachers accumulate and display the data for the area of focus.

Analyze the Data1. What data catches your eye?2. Is there anything in the data that you do not

understand?3. If so, what would you like clarified?4. Is there anything about the data that you find

surprising?5. What patterns of strengths and needs are evident?6. What concerns you most about the data?7. As a result of your examination of the data, at what

level is each student currently functioning? 8. What target will you set for each student between now

and February?9. Enter each student on the following VENN for the class

Identifying “students to watch”

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Area of Focus Grade _____________

Hillary

Justin

Lorne

Kyle

Shilo

Mitchell

Jessica

Shelby

James

Samantha

Justin

Kaitlyn

Colton

Amanda

Gage

Justin W

Dawson

Logan

Ana

Dustin

Jaden

Austin

Liz

Emily

Paul

RobLow 3

Kira

Taylor

Chris

Setting Targets for Improvement

All students must improve. In brackets, identify the level of achievement by February for each student.

The target for the school is generated by accumulating the number of students at standard by February.

(3/4)(3)(3)

(3)

Setting Targets for ImprovementAlternate form

Setting Targets for Improvement

• Using the Predictive Report– The grade 3 target is applied to the kindergarten, grade 1, 2

and 4 students– The grade 6 target is applied to the grades 5 – 8 students.

• Setting targets for the school– Targets are set by accumulating the number of students in

the form which is being used to identify achievement for February (Venn or chart)

– Make them aggressive (remember 10% improvement in a primary class represents an improvement of only 2 students)

Creating the Student learning need

• In relation to our area of focus, students are able to do……..

• What are the students continuing to struggle with….

• What is the school-wide common thread within the student learning need?

Identify the Student Learning Needs

What do the classroom practices tell us about our teacher learning needs? What has been the impact of our current practices? How do we know?

Assessing School Impact

• What does our examination of school level data tell us about the overall impact that the school is having on current student achievement?

Required Data Sets for Assessing the ImpactSchool Impact Data (all in ReportNet except d)

Select the link on the titles below to access the instructions to gather the data or go to: www.noelyork.ca/mod/resource/view.php?id=93

Elementary (EQAO, PM Benchmark, Report Card, DRA)1. Five-year trend data –

i. Literacy Score “Is the school improving, static or declining?” ii. EQAO Trend - grade 3 and 6 – 5 yearsiii. Disaggregate the data by

a. Genderb.For Students working on alternative expectations – how do

we track improvement2. Cohort Data - tracking students who have been in the school over

the period – reading onlyi. Grade 1 Report Card to Grade 3 EQAOii. Grade 3 EQAO to Grade 6 EQAOiii. Grade 6 EQAO to Grade 10 Credit accumulation

3. Attendance Trends

Five Year Trend DataFocusing considerations

For Each of the data sets: 1. Literacy Score

2. EQAO Trend - grade 3 and 6 – 5 years3. Disaggregate the data by

a. Genderb. Special Educationc. ELL

• Over the five years has there been:– A shift in the number/percent of students at level 4?– A shift in the number/percent of students at level 3?– A Shift in the number/percent of students at level 2 and level 1?– A shift in the number/percent of students exempt or not enough information to score?

• Would you describe this shift as:– Increasing, remaining static, or declining over that period?

• Examining the data for the males/females, exceptional students and ELL students, has there been:– A shift in the number/percent of students in each category who are at or above the grade

standard?– A shift in the number/percent of students in each category who are at level 2 or 1?– A shift in the number/percent of students exempt or not enough information to score?

• Would you describe this shift as:– Increasing, remaining static, or declining over that period?

Cohort I Data1. Grade 1 Report Card to Grade 3 EQAO2. Grade 3 EQAO to Grade 6 EQAOFor each cohort:3. For Cohorts 1 and 2, examine the shift in achievement during the

period;4. What has the shift been for student who began below the

standard– Fewer, the same or more by the end of the period?

5. What has the shift been for students who were achieving at the standard:– Are there more, the same, fewer?– Have those students shifted to level 4 or level 2?

6. For each of the cohorts, • Would you describe this shift as:

– Increasing, remaining static, or declining?

Cohort II Data

Grade 6 EQAO to Grade 10 Credit accumulation• Our research indicates that between 15 and 20% of students who

get level 2 in Reading in Grade 6 are at-risk.• One of the best predictors of risk in high school is the percent of

students who have fewer than 16 credits by the end of grade 10.

Compare your grade 6 data to the grade 10 credit accumulation for your school for the same students as were in the school in grade 6

• What is the number/percent of your students who have 16 or more credits by the end of their grade 10 year.

How do your results compare with the number of those students who were below standard in grade 6?

Attendance

Our research indicates that 20 days absence is a significant risk factor.

1. Examining your attendance data from last June:– What percent/number of students were absent more than

20 days over the year?– What number/percent by grade were absent more than 20

days last year?2. Examining your five year trend data:

– Has the percent of students absent more than 20 days increased, remained static or declined over that period?

Summary

For each of the trailing indicators:• Have you improved, remained static or declined?• How would you describe the impact of your school

improvement plan in relation to enhanced student achievement?

Overall, what has been the impact of our improvement focus on students in the school (trends) as welll as on students who have been in the school over a period of time (cohort).

Are our students improving as a result of our improvement focus?

School Impact Tracking

Trailing Indicator Respond to the Question: Has the school improved, remained static or declined?

Five Year Trend

Cohort I Data -

Cohort II Data

Attendance

How would you describe the impact of your school improvement plan in relation to enhanced student achievement?

•

What are the current practices in place in the school?

What are System Non-negotiables?(Board Teams)

• What classroom practices do you expect to see in the classes in your schools?

• What processes are currently in place in your Board to gather information about classroom practice?

• What training is currently provided to principals to support their observation of classroom practice?

• How does the School Effectiveness Framework inform your practice?

• What processes are in place to shift classroom practice in your board?

Identifying Teacher Learning Needs

• Teachers used the best strategies that they have – the students did not learn it.

• Identifying the problem of practice?

TEACHER STUDENT

CONTENT

THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE

•Principle #1: Increases in student learning occur only as a consequence of improvements in the level of content, teachers’ knowledge and skill, and student engagement.

•Principle #2: If you change one element of the instructional core, you have to change the other two.

•Principle #3: If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there.

•Principle #4: Task predicts performance.

•Principle #5: The real accountability system is in the tasks that students are asked to do.

•Principle #6: We learn to do the work by doing the work.

•Principle #7: Description before analysis, analysis before prediction, prediction before evaluation.

TASK

Examples of PoP/Focus inquiry questions

Some students aren’t practicing thinking, working with one another, or engaging in problem-solving. As a result, some students aren’t motivated, focused or on task. How might self and peer assessment support student cognitive

engagement with the task? Not all students apply what they’re learning in math lessons.

Students don’t make connections between teachers’ lessons and the task they are supposed to solve on their own. How might checking for understanding and providing descriptive

feedback during the course of the lesson enable students to work independently?

What has been our professional learning focus for the past year? What impact has it had on student achievement ?

In relation to the professional learning focus, what impact on classroom practice is noted? (School Processes)

ROUNDS – A FOUR-STEP PROCESS

TEAMS OBSERVE PRACTICE BY VISITING

CLASSROOMS

TEAMS PROPOSE NEXT LEVEL OF WORK

TEAMS DEBRIEF THE OBSERVATION OF

PRACTICE

SCHOOL IDENTIFIES THE CHALLENGE OF

PRACTICE

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION• Observers write down what they see and hear, gathering descriptive

evidence related to the Challenge of Practice and anything else deemed significant

• Observations must be: Descriptive, NON-JUDGEMENTAL and specific

– Description with judgement • fast-paced, • too much time on discussion, • excellent classroom management

– Description without judgement • teacher asks, “How did you figure out this problem?”• students followed directions in the text• Student A said to student B, “Check the success criteria – what are we

missing?”

34Adapted from Learning Walkthrough Guide, MA Dept. of Elementary &Secondary Education

Specific and judgemental General and judgemental

Specific and descriptive General and descriptive

Specificity

O

bje

ctiv

ity

Descriptive

Judgemental

Specifi

c

Gen

eral

“There was too much time on discussion, not enough time on individual work.”

“Student 1 asked student 2: ‘What are we supposed to write down?’ Student 2 said, ‘I don’t know.’”

“Teacher introduced a writing prompt to students.”

“The teacher read from the book, Oliver Twist, which was not at the appropriate level for the class.”

Building Teacher AND Administrator Capacity

• Implementing Learning Networks• Focusing on joint work• Focusing on the 4 Cs (co-planning, co-

teaching, co-debriefing, co-reflecting

Networked Learning Communties Theory of Action

Steven Katz and Lisa Dack: “Research Report: What are we learning about YRDSB learning network implementation”, unpublished research report, York Region, Ontario, 2009 p. 4

Building a Monitoring Plan

• Data sources? – Gradebook application• Response to monitoring – case management?

Setting Targets for ImprovementAlternate form

Data Purpose timeline Leadership Role

Report Card To use data to reflect on school focus during the year

June, November, February

Facilitate an opportunity for staff to review and reflect on the data

PM/DRA Data To determine if targets have been metLook for patterns in the data to inform next level of work

Board’s Assessment Schedule

Facilitate staff examination of data. Craft key questions for staff

EQAO Determine if targets metReview strengths and needs of at-risk students

Fall Staff reflect on data and design next steps

Reading Recovery Report

Examine success of programExamine level of entry students both in Sept and second round

June Review with RR teacherAssess impact of classroom practice on at-risk students

EDI Examine areas to address in terms of readiness and inform parent community

Fall Engage with staff and school council

Data to Support the Monitoring Plan

Classroom MonitoringMonitoring Strategy Purpose Sources of Evidence Leadership role

Class Reviews Assess achievement of students to watchIdentify staff learning needs

Class tracking sheetsSample of work from students to watch

Provide context for monitoring achievementTo be present at every meetingBuild a plan to respond to the data

Case ManagementStudent AchievementEvery 6 weeks

Monitoring classroom practice (Demonstrating implementation of 1.4, 1.1, 1.2

Provide support/strategies for students to watchTo use class based formative assessment information to determine instructional next stepsContinue supporting teacher learning in context of school focus for classroom practice

Samples of student work, evidence of achievement (running records, oral/written response)

TLC tracking sheets

Be present at all case management meetingsSet expectations for the meetings, (protocol)Build into timetableBuild understanding among staff of role of case management

Why Case Management?• Shared Belief: All students can learn…• Reaching Students who are struggling in reading• Differentiated Instruction• Building Collaborative Teaching Teams• Implementation Tool for Professional Learning,

TPA, ALP• Job Embedded PD (Assessment & Instruction,

AFL, Critical Thinking, Oral Language) • Strategy in SPCI, to increase student reading

achievement

“Effective Schools are coherent learning environments for adults and students.

Coherence means that adults agree on what they are trying to accomplish with students and that adults are consistent from classroom to classroom in

their expectations for what students are expected to learn. Coherent learning environments cannot exist in incoherent organizations”

THE INTENT OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING IS TO CREATE COHERENCE TO CHANGE CLASSROOM practice AND

SCHOOL STRUCTURES.

Effective School Improvement

• Focuses on students and their needs• Defines the classroom practices which will support

those students.“School Improvement occurs one classroom at a time”

ANDOne student at a time

• Involves using the data to identify students to improve AND classroom practices AND the supports to change these practices.

Building a Model of School Improvement based on Planning

• Identify students to watch from the data• Identify classroom practices which will support their

improvement – and a model for changing practice• Identify leader practices which will need to change and

a model for supporting the development of effective practices

• Develop a model for monitoring both classroom practice and its impact on student achievement which is continuous, data-informed and current

• Develop a response to this monitoring which will shift practice and achievement