Brevard Public Schools

School Improvement Plan

2015 – 2016

Name of School: Area:

Principal: Area Superintendent:

SAC Chairperson:

Superintendent: Dr. Desmond Blackburn

Mission Statement:

To provide a positive and safe environment for all students with a challenging curriculum, with high expectations for student achievement, and with emphasis on critical thinking skills, problem solving, sound knowledge base, and lifelong learning skills.

Vision Statement:

To seek excellence in who we are, what we know, and what we do.

Stakeholder Involvement in School Improvement Planning:

Briefly explain how stakeholders are involved in the development, review, and communication of the SIP.

The SAC consisting of teachers, administration, and parents will collaborate to develop the school based objective and other components of the School Improvement Plan, SIP. The school improvement plan will be communicated to all stakeholders via the school and district web sites. The plan will be shared with staff members during faculty and professional learning community meetings. Teacher input during the school accreditation (AdvancED) process will be used to develop school improvement plan goals. The SIP chairperson will present the school improvement plan to the Parent Teacher Organization and the School Improvement Committee. A hard copy of the plan will be made available in the school’s front office.

Brevard Public Schools

School Improvement Plan

2015-2016

Part 1: Planning for Student Achievement

RATIONALE – Continuous Improvement Cycle Process

Data Analysis from multiple data sources:

What are the areas of successful professional practices and what data shows evidence of improvements? What are the concerns with professional practices and how are they revealed with data?
Teachers at Edgewood have worked hard in their professional learning teams over the past year. They are creating common benchmark assessments to monitor progress of student achievement. Teachers are using common benchmark assessments at a minimum of one per nine weeks. Student End of Course (EOC) scores in Algebra 1, Biology, Civics, and FCAT science have increased over the past two years since implementing these strategies. Teachers submitted common assessments each quarter, and conducted subject area analysis to their evaluator.
2015 / Edgewood Pass Rate
Algebra 1 / 100%
Biology / 99%
FCAT Science / 93%
Civics / 97%
The areas of concern are that teachers need to increase the frequency of common assessments and increase the communication amongst those teachers with common subject areas to compare their test score data. Singleton teachers, those who do not share a common subject, teach in isolation not having another teacher to collaborate. They also may not have support to create high quality relative benchmark assessments.
What are the areas of successful student achievements and what data shows evidence of improvements?
What are the concerns with student achievements and how are they revealed to the data?
Edgewood Pass Rate 2014 / Edgewood Pass Rate 2015
Algebra 1 / 100% / 100%
Biology / 99% / 99%
FCAT Science / 94% / 93%
Civics / 84% / 97%
U.S. History / 98% / 99%
This past year 97% of 10 grade students scored proficient on the new FSA ELA (Florida Standards Assessment English Language Arts). Writing is now a component of the FSA ELA Assessment and Edgewood will continue to write across the curriculum and focus on text-based writing and citing text evidence. Last year 63% of the students earned 8 or 10 points on the text based writing portion of the exam.
What other areas of strength or opportunity are revealed in data from leading indicators?
Students may pursue the Advanced Placement International Diploma which allows students to demonstrate outstanding academic achievement on AP exams across several disciplines. Edgewood offers 23 different AP courses from which students may choose.
School year / # of AP Students / # of AP exams taken / % of students with 3 or higher
2014 / 408 / 845 / 72.5%
2015 / 430 / 999 / 68%

Analysis of Current Practices:

Describe action steps that have become non-negotiable, things that you will continue doing.
Currently, teachers work independently and collaboratively in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to work on common assessments that are both formative and summative. Teachers in PLCs are working together to prepare students for the Florida State Standards assessments, EOC, AP, and any other standardized tests within the school environment by creating and following curriculum pacing guides that are aligned and incorporate the Florida State Standards. Incorporating the practice of PLCs will ensure that teachers will share and develop the best practices for student achievement with continuous monitoring and improvement. All teachers are continuing to dedicate time and effort to both horizontally and vertically align the curriculum so students receive the same information across the curriculum and students receive the necessary information they would need to be successful in the next course in the district progression plan. Last year Edgewood expanded its PLC efforts by utilizing the media center and its staff more effectively. Edgewood became a Power-Library School to compliment it being a Model PLC school. Florida Power-Library is state recognition which highlights schools with a collaborative approach to improving student achievement. Participating schools have libraries that meet specific guidelines for either Developing or High Performance library media programs.
Teachers at Edgewood continue to make strides in conducting classroom activities and lessons around student leadership. Not only are teachers having data chats with students, but the teachers are also helping students establish academic goals for themselves. The progress is monitored through various formative common assessments throughout the school year. Student-led discussions are being utilized in the classrooms as well. Teachers are serving more as facilitators as the students take ownership of their learning. Included in this student centered concept is the incorporation of technology in the classroom. More teachers are using interactive methods of instruction such as interactive notepads, interactive white boards, and electronic notebooks. Students are given more opportunities to get out of their seats and participate in the learning process. Teachers are also incorporating turnitin.com in their classes. Students are able to preview the originality of their work as well as peer edit one another’s writing before submitting a final draft.
An additional focus of our school this year will be the commitment of teachers to utilize an understanding by design (UbD) approach to focus on course standards and teachers will utilize the computer programs such as, Unify and performance matters, to analyze student performance data.

Best Practice:

Based on research, as it relates to the data analysis above, what should be best practices in the class room?
Implementing research-based formative assessment practice can engage students in reaching their full potential and closing their own achievement gaps and improve the quality of instruction in a way that brings teachers and students closer together through assessment. (Learning Point Associates, 2009). Integrating summative and formative assessments so that data from external assessments is used for system monitoring may be used to shape teaching and learning in the classrooms. Formative assessment methods and techniques produce significant learning gains (Looney 2011). Edgewood wants to continue the formative instruction by utilizing common assessments in which student outcomes can be compared and contrasted to influence teacher instruction.
The use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) is a research-based practice in which members of the school have a common vision of teaching and learning, for which teachers are mutually accountable. Collaboration amongst members increases cohesiveness in strategy implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement. Common assessments and teacher collaboration will provide students with a more consistent educational experience, and provide an environment where students are more likely to succeed and show mastery of state mandated standards (Dufour 2013). During this practice, teachers become aware of inconsistencies in pace, practice, and assessment. Teachers share best teaching strategies with each other and catalogue successful lessons for reference. By using Rick Dufour’s guiding questions: 1. What do we expect students to learn? 2. How will we know when they have learned these skills? 3. What will we do if they do not learn these skills? 4. What will we do when students do learn these skills? (Dufour 2010) teachers have a foundation in their PLC. Understanding by Design" (UbD) offers teachers an instructional planning process that allows critical thinking to easily be integrated into curricula. Through UbD's backward design process, instruction becomes focused on internalizing the big ideas of a discipline rather than just learning a litany of facts and information. Teachers deepen understanding by involving youngsters in an active process of discovery and inquiry. Learning is transferred to different contexts (i.e., applying a math formulation in different real life situations). Williams, David; Williams, Margot Understanding Our Gifted, v22 n1 p19-23 Fall 2009. Understanding by Design helps teachers identify and prioritize the standards for their curriculum.

School-Based Goal: What can be done to improve instructional effectiveness?

Increase academic performance of all students as measured by the End of Course Exams.
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) will collaborate throughout the school year sharing teaching strategies to address the learning needs of all students. While focusing on the Florida State and District Standards in each course, concerted efforts will be made by teachers to develop common formative assessments that will be used as benchmarks each grading period throughout the school year to help progress monitor student performance. Teachers will utilize an understanding by design approach to focus on course standards and teachers will utilize the computer program, Performance Matters, to analyze student performance data.

Strategies: Small number of action oriented staff performance objectives.

Barrier / Action Steps / Person Responsible / Timetable / Budget / In-Process
Measure
1.Teachers prioritizing standards – teacher awareness and knowledge / 1. UBD Training
2. Stage 2 UBD
3. Oct. UBD Training
Prioritizing standards / Administration
Linde - teacher
Perotti- teacher
Noah - teacher
All teachers / Semester 1
October / $0.00 / Teachers will create one UBD lesson plan by February
Informal Observations – feedback – IPPAS/Pro Goe
2. Detailed lesson plans – teacher expectations and understanding of UbD model / 1. UBD Training
2. establishing stages 1 & 2 of the UBD template – writing detailed lesson plan
3. October training / Administration
Mentor teachers / End of year
First quarter / $0.00 / Annual teacher evaluations
Inspect lesson plans during each visit during informal formative observations
3. Teachers are still unclear as to all of the available data they can use to direct instruction. / 1. Specific training using:
Performance Matters
CPalms
Unify / Dr. Winn, Mrs. Hall, PLC Leaders / September / $0.00 / Survey data regarding professional development offered, Teacher PGP
Survey Data collected during accreditation process (AdvancED)
4. More frequent and meaningful data analysis. / 1. PLCs and common subjects compare data more frequently twice per semester
2. Monitoring instructional delivery / Dr. Winn, Mrs. Hall, PLC Leaders
Oliver - teacher
Administration / End of year
Quarterly
On going / $0.00 / Benchmark assessment results, EOC, FSA results.
Performance Matters data
Utilizing Common Assessment Data Worksheets

EVALUATION – Outcome Measures and Reflection-begin with the end in mind.

Qualitative and Quantitative Professional Practice Outcomes: Measures the level of implementation of professional practices throughout your school.

Where do you want your teachers to be? What tools will you use to measure the implementation of your strategies? What tool will be used to measure progress throughout the year? Use real percentages and numbers.
Approximately, 75% of core subject area teachers participate in data chats with their students and complete the Common Assessment Data Worksheets. By May of 2016, 100% of core subject area teachers will provide opportunities for students to analyze test data and establish individual learning goals utilizing the Common Assessment Data Worksheet. Teachers will share teaching strategies with each other and evaluate their effectiveness. They will target the Florida State Standards first, then they will work backwards to create their lessons by utilizing “Understanding by Design” training with a focus on stages 1 & 2. The idea in backward design is to teach toward the "end point" or learning goals, which typically ensures that content taught remains focused and organized. This, in turn, aims at promoting better understanding of the content or processes to be learned for students. The educator is able to focus on addressing what the students need to learn, what data can be collected to show that the students have learned the desired outcomes and how to ensure the students will learn.
Qualitative data will be collected through the evaluation process of each individual teacher’s lesson plans through Brevard County’s Instructional Personnel Performance Appraisal System (IPPAS) In dimension I: Instructional design and lesson planning, specifically element 3: designing ways to monitor learning designs use of appropriate instructional resources and designs formative assessments, designing quality classroom formative and summative assessments that measure student learning of a lesson or unit objective using the instructional strategy writing to summarize. The majority (over 50%) of teachers during the 2014-2015 school year scored “effective” in Dimension I, element 3. The goal is to have 100% of the teachers score highly effective on this same dimension by the end of the 205-2016 school year. Florida State Assessment reading and writing data as well as state and district EOC exams will be analyzed in the spring to determine learning gains. Teachers will meet in a collaborative setting to address teaching strategies in order to improve academic performance. This will be measured by reviewing PLC/PLT minutes, School Leadership Team minutes, Faculty meeting minutes, Math English Science History (MESH) meeting minutes, classroom walk-through data, and teacher feedback.

Qualitative and Quantitative Student Achievement Expectations: Measures student achievement.

Where do you want your students to be? What will student achievement look like at the end of the school year 2015-16?
What tools will be used to measure progress throughout the year?
While focusing on the Florida State and District Standards in each course, concerted efforts will be made by teachers to develop common formative assessments that will be used as benchmarks throughout the school year to help progress monitor student performance. Teachers will develop UbD lesson plans. In 2016, 90% of the students will score proficient on all state and district End of Course (EOC) exams and Florida State Assessments (FSA). 100% of students will be earn college ready scores on the ACT, SAT, and PERT exams. In 2015 54% of the students scored a 26 or higher on the ACT and 97% of students scored a 1170 or higher on the SAT. This is an average of 70% scoring high enough to be Bright Futures eligible. This year 75% of students will score a 26 or higher on the ACT or 1170 or higher on the SAT earning Bright Futures Scholarship eligibility.

Part 2: Support Systems for Student Achievement