Brevard County Public Schools

School Improvement Plan

2014-15

Name of School: Area:

Principal: Area Superintendent:

SAC Chairperson:

Superintendent: Dr. Brian Binggeli

Mission Statement:

The goal of Rockledge High School, through input of students, staff, parents, and community is to provide an environment that is safe, conducive to learning, hospitable and open to the free interchange of ideas.

Vision Statement:

Contributing Excellence to our Community

Communication of School Improvement Plan:

Briefly explain how the mission, vision and school improvement plan is communicated to all stakeholders.

The School Improvement Plan is shared with faculty at different intervals throughout the school year through various faculty meetings, training sessions, feedback sessions the evaluation process, the PGP training, etc. Various teachers, team leaders, department head, the administration, reading coach, and academy directors meet regularly to discuss short and long term goals, weaknesses and strengths, needed professional development etc. Our student, parent and community representation on the School advisory committee play an active role in the creation, implementation and outcome analysis and give valuable feedback at meetings. Our school improvement plan is shared via email to all staff, posted on our internal share drive for constant review by faculty, and posted to our school website for the general public.

Brevard County Public Schools

School Improvement Plan

2014-15

Part 1: Planning for Student Achievement

RATIONALE – Continuous Improvement Cycle Process

Data Analysis from multiple data sources: (Needs assessment that supports the need for improvement-Examples may be, but are NOT limited to survey data, walk-through data, minutes from PLC’s or Dept. Mtgs. Move away from talking about every single data source and determine your rationale. Much like the PGP, what is your focus and why?)

Rockledge High School (RHS) has started to use many different indicators to track its progress as data has changed over time. Included in our measures we focus on teacher surveys, classroom walk-throughs, informal conversations, and formal evaluations standards. We also look at student data to stay focused on student performance in key areas.
Rockledge High School continues to focus on testing data as its main way to assess the success of its strategies school wide. For the 2013/14 year RHS saw a slight decline in the number of students passing math by two percent from 73 to 71 percent. RHS also saw a decline in the number of students showing learning gains dropping six percent from 71 to 65 percent and a decline in the number of students in the bottom quartile showing gains each by 10 percent from 66 to 56 percent. Writing also saw a slight two point decline from 75 to 73 percent of students passing.
End of Course (EOC) data is also a very valuable form of assessment for RHS, especially now, as we prepare for District generated End of Course Exams (DEOC’s), other state adopted EOC’s and the new Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). For the 2013/14 school year RHS saw some interesting data that has driven the course of our discussion. Our EOC data across the board was in line with the performance of other schools on their EOC exams. Only one test, U.S. History, fell outside of the high school averages by more than a couple of points below average (64 percent to the district average of 72percent). A careful comparison of data was made which revealed to the leadership team and administration what their anecdotal data has been telling them. Based on evidence from our administration and teacher evaluations, teachers are doing an ok job delivering basic surface level content knowledge to our students but that deep understanding is still only occurring in some classrooms. Teachers indicated in evaluation meetings with faculty that while standards were used to align teaching, the standards were not driving daily instruction in all classes. Further, the use of essential questions in daily instruction was becoming more common but was not being used with fidelity or, in all instances, accurately. This is evidenced by our EOC test scores where 414 tests were failed in the spring administration alone and no more than fifteen percent of any test saw students performing at the highest level. In Algebra 1 specifically, 48 percent of students failed, and 48 percent of students passed with a level three, and only four percent scored at a level 4 or higher. While the passing rate of RHS is in line with the other schools in the district, it does show how important it is for our teachers to teach beyond surface level and dig deeper into the standards. In other subjects like history, geometry, and biology, the number of students at a level four or high was larger, 34 percent, 29 percent and 24 percent respectively, indicating there might be a deeper understanding of the standards so that students can achieve higher levels. There are other factors that could be used to explain the numbers, like level of students taking certain EOC’s, and the leadership team is aware and understands those other factors, however, the data still reveals a weakness that is driving our school based objective.
Our administrations data also reveals that non EOC courses might be lacking as well with an understanding of standards based instruction and need support to begin the process. In our preplanning meetings and trainings it is clear that Rockledge High School makes concerted effort to provide assistance for our staff in these areas. Further, it is clear that technology training is needed as much of the technology is beginning to outgrow current training levels.
Over the course of the last few years the focus for our school improvement plan has been to align our school goals with teacher needs. As a result of our surveys, professional growth plans (PGP’s), classroom walk through (CWT’s) and informal conversations, it was clear that our teachers needed more help understanding assessments and data. Teachers have been focused on making improvements in formative and summative assessments and using that data to drive instruction to the best of their ability. On an end of year survey 100% of teacher responses indicated a need for some help in collecting and using the data more effectively, with many responders adding they know more now of what to do with the data, but are still struggling to collect the data. On a similar survey, teachers indicated that using that data to differentiate instruction was their top concern in professional development.
Rockledge High School has also noticed a specific need to change the way we address writing instruction. While our writing data is strong with the new FSA writing standards, it is clear that our old methods, while very successful must change to accommodate the new focused and evidenced-based writing. Currently, only certain classes make an effort to teach and foster evidenced based, critical thinking writing responses. This is proven by administrations pre-planning focus on writing samples. More needs to be done to give assistance to elective and nonacademic courses to use nonfiction writing in their content areas. RHS will need to look at using SBQ and DBQ writing styles as a training method for those less familiar with evidenced-based writing with a stronger focus on writing across the content areas.
Rockledge will also begin to track at risk students in a more meaningful way. Until now our bottom quartile figures were all that were used to track academic risks. However, with the new Performance Matters software it is easier than ever for teachers to track academically at risk students as well as other early warning system/indicators (EWS or EWI) in their classroom. While these EWS were in place through guidance and the dean’s office, teachers need to have an awareness of this data and use the PLC structure currently in place to create support teams for students who need extra support.

Analysis of Current Practice: (How do we currently conduct business?)

As a result of the improvement process, RHS has really started to create a culture that is focusing on data to make instructional decisions. Much progress has been made in these areas and teachers are now asking for more and more resources to help support this in their classrooms. The awareness that is now evident has allowed the Leadership Teams to develop a more focused direction with its strategies for teachers. Over the course of the last few years, RHS has made significant change implementing a system of constant improvement. The school improvement plan, PGP process and our PLC’s have taken a major place in the conversation and drive the improvement process. More than ever before, the SIP and the outcome measures we are tracking are finding their way into the conversation of the improvement process. More and more, people are getting involved and taking an active role in collecting information and working with the school improvement plan.
Rockledge High School continues to grow and support the professional learning communities. The PLC’s have become an active part of the culture of RHS and provide an effective system for passing out information, supporting professional development, working on strategies, bringing early interventions to the awareness of the faculty and providing a system for shared, open collaboration. The PLC’s are a constant part of the life and culture and faculty and administration have come to rely on the PLC’s as the source for support and improvement. RHS is constantly looking for ways to make the PLC’s more meaningful and this year PLC’s will be more involved than ever in supporting at risk students by tracking students using our Early Warning Systems.
Teachers are regularly using more and more formative assessments to drive regular instruction. Daily activities, goals and objectives and lesson planning reflect the outcomes from those assessments. The students are engaged in the process as well, giving feedback through entrance and exit surveys and informal dialog. In our PLC’s teachers are using their data to discuss students in the bottom quartile and their VAM group to outline intervention strategies for lower performing students.
Because of this atmosphere of shared and mutual collaboration, many resources are used on campus to share strategies and focus on student performance. One great example is the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program which is active in providing weekly strategies and resources to our PLC’s and departments through their site team members and AVID Coordinator. Teachers of AVID students support AVID strategies and provide feedback to the AVID coordinator. The AVID site team is constantly working to recruit interested staff and new students to provide meaningful support.
Our Reading Leadership Team is also very active providing additional supports and professional development in a wide range of areas, not just reading. The reading leadership team conducts regular meetings where it discusses data from the various data tools available and address needs and concerns either in the form of informal professional development via email, department meetings, or PLC’s or formal professional development.

Best Practice: (What does research tell us we should be doing as it relates to data analysis above?)

After carefully discussing the needs of RHS, the administration has focused in research on three areas. First, what’s the best way to support our staff and share the direction we need to be going in to address current needs. Second, where do we start the conversation on standards based instruction for those that might not have a complete grasp of what is coming, while developing a system that also provides support to add rigor to subjects that are already working with standard based assessments? Third, what tools can we give teachers to make this transition easier?
In all of the research RHS has referred to there was one common quote, “The hallmark of any successful organization is a shared sense among its members about what they are trying to accomplish. Agreed upon goals and ways to attain them enhance the organization's capacity for rational planning and action” (Educational Leadership). With that guiding light as our beacon, RHS taking on the endeavor to bring a plan together that will help teachers reach our common school based objective. Further, according to Marzano’s research, it is possible to see short term drops in student performance if proper supports aren’t put into place for teachers to make the shift. As a result, RHS has already started to plan, with our district support staff, meaningful professional development opportunities throughout the school year. As time is a significant factor in planning change, the administration is making real efforts to change the focus of much of our meeting times and use them for proper training and support instead of leaving teachers to find time on their own.
According to the research that RHS has found, there are essentially two things that need to begin simultaneously. With EOC’s only existing in four subject areas, much of our approach will be wrapped around what research describes as the “WHAT”. According to the Beacon Learning Center, standards based instruction is really broken down into two steps. One is understanding what students should know and able to do, and the second is how educators will deliver and show mastery at different cognitive levels. RHS will be working in this first year to get the instructional staff comfortable with the new standards based FSA and school wide standard based EOC’s and DEOC’s. Along with the help of many different content area specialists and the office of testing and accountability a five step process is going to be developed, perfected, and implemented along with supporting professional development to help teachers through the “WHAT” and into the “HOW”.
Another part of the needs assessment that RHS is working toward is adding rigor to the already implemented EOC subject areas. As we have identified it seems that much of the standard based instruction we are seeing is based on surface level, teacher led instruction. As our research has uncovered, the old ways aren’t sufficient in reaching the needs of the more complex, rigorous and cognitively complex testing. Not only do those subject areas need more support as evidenced previously, all classes are going to need to add that rigor very quickly in order to prepare students properly. Both the FSA and the EOC’s require cross curricular approach to many English and Math standards as well as content area standards. One resource teacher described the approach as every student should be getting these English and Math standards seven periods a day. According to The Marzano Center, a shift from supply driven instruction to standard driven instruction must take place. Our textbooks should not be driving instruction, instead, should be a resource to teach the standard. The Beacon Center further supports this idea when it describes that the instructional activities and materials should directly support the standards and the assessment. This alignment of assessments, activities, materials, and instructional processes to standards not the other way around is the foundation of the standards-based planning system. According to a study done by the Marzano Center, only six percent of lessons included the cognitive level of reasoning needed for students to perform at the highest levels of achievement, while 58 percent of lessons concentrated on basic surface level learning, which supports further our needs assessment.
One area RHS has continued to provide support for teachers is with the materials they need to be successful. According to research analysis in Educational Weekly, differentiation doesn’t stop just because we are teaching everyone the same thing. In fact, according the article, with a complete understanding of the goals and objectives of state standards teachers can more closely align instruction according to students needs instead of guessing. One idea our staff has indicated loud and clear that it would like help gathering formative data to better make instructional changes. As a result, RHS is looking to get software for staff that will allow them to give formative assessments and have them graded and analyzed within a new program which will give teachers instant feedback on performance.

CONTENT AREA: