School Improvement Plan

School Name: Winston Elementary

School Year:  2012-2013

Principal Name: Wiley H. Dailey

Title I Program:

Yes

X

No

Current Status:

Priority

Focus

Alert

Implementing (Select all that apply):

X

School Improvement Plan (School Improvement Plans are due to Area Director by August 31, 2012).

Flexible Learning Plan (FLP)

Principal’s Signature: Wiley H. Dailey

Date: August 29, 2012

Area Director’s Signature:

Date:

Associate Superintendent’s Signature:

Date:

School Improvement Plan

1.  Provide a narrative description of the school, the community and educational programs/practices used every day. Describe your school including instruction, communication, parent and community involvement, etc. What do you do every day and what is the understood expectation in instruction, communication, organization, inclusiveness, etc.? What are the expectations of teachers regarding planning and implementing? How do teachers and administrators monitor for consistency? What specific instructional strategies are used and expected by all – vocabulary, reading, writing across the curriculum, student-focused instruction (what does it look like), integration of technology, hands-on, applied student instruction in all subject areas, etc. What are the common strategies that will be used by all? How is this monitored? How is that evaluated and shared?

Winston Elementary School is a K-5 school located in Winston, Georgia. Winston Elementary’s 392 students are composed of 29.2% African American, 21.2% Hispanic, 4% Multi-ethnic and 44.6% White. 64% of our population receives free or reduced lunch. Learning Focused Schools (LFS) is the common framework for instruction throughout the building. Parent/teacher communication occurs frequently and exists in the form of e-mails, weekly newsletters, NofityMe, ParentLink, Winston Elementary School and Community Organization (WESCO) meetings, our marquee and teacher/parent conferences as well as phone calls.

Teachers collaboratively plan a minimum of once weekly and adhere to the guidelines of the Professional Learning Communities as established in the Georgia Assessment of Performance on School Standards (GAPSS) and the CLASS Keys. Team minutes are submitted weekly for monitoring purposes. Administrators frequent team meetings as well as monitor lesson plans for conisistency from teacher to teacher. Parents are invited to team meetings.  As part of Leader Keys, administrators at Winston Elementary aspire to conduct five informal observations per week and provide feedback to evaluate the use of our common framework (LFS), use of assessment data to fuel instruction and differentiation. This data is immediately shared with the teacher and shared quarterly with the staff.

School Improvement Plan

2. Data information. Data should describe strengths and challenges. Examples include data pertaining to overall school/student performance, attendance, instructional practices from walk throughs/observations, student learning, GAPSS data and parent involvement programs. Describe what you find clearly so that stakeholders understand.

• What does the data tell you about your school’s strengths?

• What does the data tell you about your school’s opportunities for improvement?

Based on formative as well as summative data, our strengths include reading comprehension and math for all students. However, we struggle with mathematics for our African American boys and our Students with Disabilities (SWD). Our GAPSS analysis found that we needed to expand differentiation, student use of technology and develop a system for reviewing student work. With our recent renovation, our use of technology has greatly improved. Our school focus continues to be differentiation, and reviewing student work. An analysis of our CLASS Keys data from 2011-2012 found that our staff has a need to address differentiation and a continued need to use diagnostic and formative assessments to determine student understanding and needs.

School Improvement Plan

3. Based on the data, what 3-5 goals for improvement emerge for your school? (Use the Template Provided ) Cite relevant evidence from your data (in all areas) to support the goals. What strategies will the school use to address these goals (no more than 3 strategies)? The strategies you select will address your specific goals and be in addition to what you do every day. All staff will know those strategies and implement them consistently and pervasively across your school. Strategies will be detailed on the school improvement plan template.

Strategies should:

• Be researched based.

• Provide opportunities for ALL children in the school, including targeted populations, to meet or exceed standards.

• Use effective instructional methods that increase the quality and amount of learning time.

Students will increase in math proficiency on both formative and summative assessments through implementation of LFS professional learning. Winston teachers will use best practices including summarizing, note taking, graphic organizers, extending and refining skills. Co-Teaching in the Standards-Based Grades 3-5 Mathematics Class will continue to be used throughout the 2012-2013 school year.

Based on our data from our GAPSS, there is a need to expand use of current technology. Our media specialists received training in August 2012 on expanded use of the Promethean Board. Winston staff will participate in training sessions that will allow our teachers to better use our new technology and engage students.

Writing: Student percentages in the meets and exceeds category for our 3^rd grade students will increase. Students in 5^th grade will maintain or increase (92%) in the meets category and increase in the exceeds categor from 15% to 18%. This will be accomplished by examining diagnostic writing, flexible grouping, differentiation, examining student work and continuing a school wide emphasis on writing. Quarterly writing celebrations will be implemented for the 2012-2013 school year.

School Improvement Plan

4. Describe the school staff, including the Hi-Q status of all professional staff. What strategies are used to recruit, build capacity and retain effective, highly qualified teachers (leadership-administrative/teacher, mentoring, professional learning, etc.)?   (Describe specific strategies you are using to promote the CLASS Keys Self-Assessment/Reflection and Professional Growth Plan. What do you do to hire a highly qualified staff based on district procedures, initiatives and programs in your building? This will require that you look at your school’s strengths and weaknesses in your decisions. Your staff decisions should be based on the needs of your students. What do you provide to increase retention: developing teacher leadership capacity, professional development, processes and procedures in place that provide a strong foundation for a healthy culture and work environment, student results, etc.)

The staff at Winston Elementary School is 100% highly qualified. Teachers who are not highly qualified will not be considered for employment. Continuous professional learning, high expectations and monitoring ensures retention of Hi-Q teachers. Winston teachers receive frequent observations with feedback pertaining to the CLASS keys. Feedback and teacher reflection result in a Professional Growth Plan that addresses the needs of the School Improvement Plan as well as the System Improvement Plan. In addition, Winston’s Leadership Team meetings are open to all faculty members. To help build capacity, most school decisions are made after discussion from the team. Student data is also frequently analyzed by vertical teams where strengths and weaknesses are openly discussed and strategies for improvement are shared.

School Improvement Plan

5. Describe professional development activities that are offered at the school which enable all children in the school to meet performance standards. (Use the DCSS Three Year Professional Learning Plan Template attached) Include when and how the learning takes place through “Initiative Training”? What does it look like through “Monitoring for Implementation” (differentiated, job-embedded, collaborative, shared, etc.)? Describe how the Professional Learning impacted teacher knowledge and student learning through “Evaluation” (multiple measures). Also, use the DCSS: Standards Based Classroom Instructional Framework (LFS).

According to our GAPSS three year plan, Winston’s teachers’ professional development activities include:

I 2.3 – Expand Differentiation. The initial training began during the 2009-2010 school year with shared strategies for improvement in faculty meetings and team meetings. During January of 2010, Jill Drake and Meredity McTyre trained our faculty on differrentiation during an in-house professional learning endeavor. During 2012- 2013, continued use of differentiation with expanded emphasis will occur. Teachers and staff will share student work during faculty meetings, vertical teams and team meetings. As part of our CLASS Keys Professional Growth Plans, there is a school wide emphasis on SBI 1.3: The teacher makes appropriate use of differentiation.

12.7 – Expand Teacher and Student use of Available Technology. Even though we have addressed use of available technology following our GAPSS Findings, Winston was recently renovated to include many aspects of 21^st Century Classrooms. We will continue to receive training on how to better utilize our Promethean Boards from our media specialist. Administrators will monitor implementation through lesson plan checks, observations and through teachers sharing their activities in team meetings, vertical tema meetings and faculty meetings.

A1.2 – Adjust Instruction using Data & C3.2 Develop a Monitoring System to Review student work and Adjust Instruction. During 2012-2013, we will continue to have a school wide data team. The data team will disaggregate data and lead discussions over our formative and summative data. Continued observation of student work to evaluate our formative and summative data with a data representative from each grade level and guidance from the Data Committee. This data and discussion of student work will be shared at the last faculty meeting of every month.

LFS – Expand the use of extended thinking strategies. In-depth training in Learning Focused Schools and Best Practices began during the 2010-2011 school year. The Learning Focused Schools lesson planning format has been established school wide. During the 2012-2013, continued use of LFS planning with expanded emphasis on Extended Thinking Strategies will be an emphasis. Teachers and staff will have extended thinking focus strategies each month and share student work samples during faculty meetings, vertical teams, and team meetings.

School Improvement Plan

6. Describe ongoing professional development activities that will be offered to instructional staff at the school to address the integration of technology within the curriculum. (Attach a copy of your school’s technology plan) Include when and how the learning will take place. What will the professional development look like? How will you account for differences in levels of proficiency? How will you monitor and evaluate the use of technology in the classroom?

School Wide continued Promethean Board training will occur monthly at faculty meetings for 3 months until training is redelivered. Use of Prometheanplanet.com and related activities will be shared at faculty meetings.

A.R. Enterprise – Should WES procure AR Enterprise, a grade level specififc training would be necessary . Details to follow.

Survey (Using Activ Expressions) each grade level to determine what professional development is needed regarding technolgy. Media Specialist will then meet with grade level teams to provide grade level and individualized instruction.

Monitoring will occur with our school wide continued implementation of Automaticity for grades 3 – 5 using ActivExpressions with progression charts displayed from the implementation. Lesson plans will denote use of YouTube videos, ActivExpressions and flipcharts. Documentation will also exists through sign-up sheets for the mobile computer carts and the computer lab. CLASS Keys observations in SBI 1.5 will be monitored and shared with the staff to monitor the use of technology.

School Improvement Plan

7. Describe strategies to increase parental involvement in the classroom, school, and instruction of their child (leading other parents), capacity-building, communication, etc.).

During the 2012-2013 school year, Winston Elementary staff and personnel are striving to increase parental involvement in the classroom, school and instruction of the students. The first parent meeting is on September 6^th. Prior to the parent meeting, SOAR (Summer Opportunities for Advanced Reading ) participants will be acknowledged as well as students who made perfect scores on the CRCT. At the parent meeting, parents will be solicited to get involved with the classroom, the school and the instruction of their child.   At all WESCO meetings, an emphasis will be placed on student acknowledgement in order to increase parental involvement.

In addition to the above, several other parental involvement activities are already scheduled or are being considered to increase parental involvement. Those activities are:

·         Parent Technology Night- TBD

·         Family Hispanic Connection- TBD

·         Family Fun Run – September 16, 2012

·         CRCT, Automaticity & Internet Safety Night – March 7, 2013

·         Science Night with Steve Rich - TBD

School Improvement Plan (continued)

School Name: Winston Elementary

Principal Name: Wiley H. Dailey

School Year:  2012-2013    

Measurable Goals:

GOAL #1 – All students at Winston Elementary School will increase performance in math on our 2013 report which includes the CRCT and the CRCT-M. Students in grades 3 – 5 will increase from 90% meeting and exceeding expectations on the CRCT to 92% meeting and exceeding expectations. Students in grade 1 will increase from 86.53% to 89% meeting and exceeding expectations on the ThinkGate end of year assessment. Students in grade 2 will increase from 86.95% to 89% meeting and exceeding expectations on the Think Gate end of year assessment.

School Keys Strands

Actions, Strategies, and Interventions

Timeline

Estimated Costs, Funding Sources, and Resources

Person(s) Responsible

Evaluation of Implementation
of Strategies and
Impact on Student Learning

Artifacts

Evidence

Instruction

Co-Teaching training for Co-Teaching teams and Effective Co-Teaching in the Standards Based Grades 3 – 5 Mathematics Class. Small Groups with Counselor and PC teachers.

September 2012

SPED Funds

Co-Teaching Teachers, Counselor & PC Teachers.

Lesson Plans, Agendas and Minutes from Team Meetings, Observations and Walk-Throughs.

Performance on formative assessments and state mandated assessments in math.

Assessment

Continued use of School-Wide Data Team.

September 2012

Local Funds

All WES Staff

Faculty Meeting Agendas, Data Meeting Artifacts, math journals

Performance on formative assessments and state mandated assessments in math.

Professional Learning

Day Long Leadership Retreat to evaluate data and determine strengths/challenges and set goals.

May 2013

$1500 from Professional Learning for subs.

Winston Staff

Data Charts, Sign-In Sheets, Agenda and Minutes

Performance on state mandated assessments.

DCSS: Three Year Professional Learning Development Plan

Professional Learning FY12

*Indicates emphasis for year

Professional Learning FY13

*Indicates emphasis for year

Professional Learning FY14

*Indicates emphasis for year

1. Initiative Training: * Technology

1. Initiative Training:

*CCGPS Reading

1. Initiative Training:

-Monitoring for implementation:

Sign-In Sheets, Agendas and Attendance at each 3^rd Thursday Training Session

-Monitoring for implementation:

PLC meeting minutes, lesson plans, state level webinars, Common Core Training

-Monitoring for implementation:

-Evaluation:

Lesson Plans, Walk-Throughs, Observations and Student products.

-Evaluation:

Lesson plans, walk-throughs, observations, student products

-Evaluation:

2. Initiative Training:* Math: ISucceed & Effective Co-Teaching in Standards Based Grades 3 – 5 Mathematics Classrooms.

2. Initiative Training:

*CCGPS Math

2. Initiative Training:

-Monitoring for implementation:

Attendance at trainings, lesson plans and Professional Learning Community minutes.

-Monitoring for implementation:

PLC meeting minutes, lesson plans, state level webinars, Common Core Training, Thinkgate, AIMSWEB,

-Monitoring for implementation:

-Evaluation:

Student Work, observations, increased performance on common assessments and state mandated assessments.

-Evaluation:

Lesson plans, walk throughs, observations, student products

-Evaluation:

3. Initiative Training: *Writing: We Write Workshop and Jeff Anderson book study.

3. Initiative Training: *Extended Thinking/Depth of Knowledge

3. Initiative Training:

-Monitoring for implementation: Sign-In Sheets, Agendas, Attendance at book study and workshop.

-Monitoring for implementation:

Attendance at trainings, sign-in sheets, reflection meetings, LFS walkthroughs

-Monitoring for implementation:

-Evaluation: Student Work, Observations, walk-throughs, 9 week writing celebrations and increased performance on the 5^th Grade Writing Assessment

-Evaluation:

Lesson Plans, walk-throughs, observations, student products, unit plans

-Evaluation: