Mt. Zion Elementary School
Title I Schoolwide Plan
Mt. Zion Elementary School
Title I Schoolwide Plan
Table of Contents
FY15
Page Number
School Name and LEA Information Form...... 3
Planning Committee Members Form...... 4
SWP Components
1—Comprehensive Needs Assessment
A. Planning Committee/Meeting Information...... 5-6
B. Instruments, Procedures, and Processes...... 6
C. Migrant Students (Services Provided)...... 6
D. Reflection of Current Achievement Data...... 6
E. Overall School Performance on Stated Mandated Test/Subgroup
Performance/Domains...... 7
F. Conclusions Regarding Achievement...... 7
G. Measurable Goals/Benchmarks...... 8
2—Schoolwide Reform Strategies (Scientifically Based)...... 8
A. Strategies and Programs...... 8-9
B. Examples...... 9-11
C. Increased Learning Time...... 11-12
D. Monitoring Instructional Goals...... 12
E. Title I Field Trips...... 13
3—Highly Qualified Professional Staff (Narrative)...... 13
A. HiQ Teachers...... 13
4—Professional Development for Staff
A. Root Causes/Stakeholders Involvement...... 14
B. Alignment of Professional Development...... 14
C. Resources...... 14
D. Teacher PD to Understand Academic Assessment...... 14
5—Strategies to Increase Parental Involvement
A. Description of Parental Involvement in Schoolwide Planning Process...... 15
B. Assessment Results/Availability/Compacts/Checklist...... 15
6—Student Transitions Into/Out of School
A. Plans for Assisting Students as they Transition In/Out of School...... 16
7—Teacher Involvement in the Use of Assessments
A. Teacher Involvement...... 16-17
8—Coordination and Integration of Federal, State, and Local Services and Programs
A. Coordination of Federal Programs/Implementation...... 17
a. List of State/LEA Educational Programs and Other Federal Programs ...... 17
b. Chart Describing Resources from Title I and Other Sources...... 17-18
c. Plan Developed in Coordination with Other Programs...... 18
9—Students Experiencing Difficulty Mastery Standards (Effective and Timely
Assistance)
A. Activities...... 18-19
a. Measures to Ensure Student Weaknesses are identified on a Timely Basis.....19
b. Periodic Training for Teachers in the ID of Weaknesses with Appropriate
Assistance...... 20
c. Teacher-Parent Conferences Details...... 20
10—Description of Individual Student Assessments/Results/Interpretations for Parents 20-21
11—Collection/Disaggregation of Data on the Achievement and Assessment Results....21
12—Ensure that Disaggregated Assessment Results for Each Category are Valid/Reliable22
13—Public Reporting of Disaggregated Data...... 22
14—Title I Schoolwide Plan Development...... 23
15—Stakeholder Involvement of Title I Schoolwide Plan...... 23-24
16—Availability of Title I Schoolwide Plan to LEA/Parents/Public...... 24
17—Translation of Title I Schoolwide Plan...... 24
18—Plan is Subject to the School Improvement Provisions of Section 1116...... 24
School Name:Mt. Zion Elementary School
School Mailing Address:
260 Eureka Church Road, Carrollton, GA 30117
LEA Name:
Carroll County Schools
LEA Title One Director/Coordinator Name:
Dr. Karen Strickland
LEA Title One Director/Coordinator Signature: / Date:
LEA Title One Director/Coordinator Mailing Address:
164 Independence Dr. Carrollton, GA 30116
Email Address:
Telephone:
770-832-3568
Fax:
Title I Schoolwide/School Improvement Plan
Planning Committee Members:
NAME / POSITION/ROLELindy Altman / Parent
Lucinda Gibson / Parent
Cindy Parker / Principal
Tena Musick / Assistant Principal
Drew Veal / Counselor
Shana Hartsfield / Media Specialist
Charlene Rogers / Kindergarten Teacher
Robin Bryant / 1st Grade Teacher
Mary Ann Smith / 2nd Grade Teacher
Stephanie Hodges / 3rd Grade Teacher
Melissa Trippe / 4th Grade Teacher
Melissa Dearman / 5th Grade Teacher
Michaela Ethridge / Special Education Teacher
Renea Huddleston / Paraprofessional
SWP Components
*1. A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school that addresses all academic areas and other factors that may affect achievement.- We have developed our schoolwide plan with the participation of individuals who will carry out the comprehensive schoolwide/school improvement program plan. Those persons involved were Lindy Altman, Lucinda Gibson, Cindy Parker, Tena Musick, Drew Veal, Shana Hartsfield, Charlene Rogers, Robin Bryant, Mary Ann Smith, Stephanie Hodges, Melissa Trippe, Melissa Dearman, Michaela Ethridge, and Renea Huddleston. They were involvedthrough active participation of the Mt. Zion Elementary School Leadership Team (SLT) that consists of a teacher representative from every grade level and every department and parent representative. Team members are selected based on their leadership abilities and enthusiasm for school improvement.
Twice each year the SLT attends a full day planning session to review and analyze data and check the progress of meeting each performance objective. Revisions are sometimes made during these planning meetings and other actions steps may be added as necessary. Administrators meet with the SLT the third Thursday of each month to disseminate and receive information, discuss progress of the CCGPS, and review a portion of the School Improvement Plan and Title I Components. Minutes of these meetings are shared on our Google Drive with the entire faculty. SLT representatives meet weekly with their team to present information from the monthly meetings, gather information regarding needs, and analyze progress towards the School Improvement Plan and performance objectives. School and individual student data is discussed and adjustments are made to instruction at this time. Agendas and minutes of these meetings are shared with administration weekly. The responsibilities of the SLT include a yearly analysis of student performance data and other school performance measures such as surveys from parents, teachers, staff members, and students. The team works with a consultant to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses.
Additionally, all stakeholders are afforded frequent opportunities to contribute and monitor the plan. The plan is reviewed during monthly faculty meetings which provide another opportunity for input from faculty and staff. Grade level teams also attend weekly meetings to monitor both grade level and individual student progress pertaining to school goals and initiatives. The MZE School Council which consists of teachers, community/business partners, and parents meets at least four times each year to provide recommendations and feedback. The Mt. Zion Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meets with MZE administration regularly to discuss topics pertaining to school improvement. PTO meetings occur at least five times per school year and provide an opportunity for school data and initiatives to be shared with the community and students’ families. Revisions to the plan are made based on the outcome of discussions and regular review of data. Dissemination of information and feedback occur naturally as a result of these (all-inclusive) meetings.
- We have used the following instruments, procedures, or processes to obtain this information. MZE uses STAR Reading and STAR Math as universal screeners with every student four times a year. We also utilize Edusoft for benchmark assessments (for math, ELA, science, and social studies), GEORGIA MILESTONES data, and reading fluency, DRA reading diagnostic inventories, writing benchmarks, pre/post-tests and GRASP. Teachers examine classroom data gathered through technology devices as well as paper and pencil assignments. Teachers use all of this data to appropriately place students in the multi-tiered Response to Intervention (RTI) process. Student interventions and progress are monitored closely to ensure student success. Teachers record the student data on a Google Drive spreadsheet that is shared with administration.
- At the current time there are no migrant children enrolled in WhitesburgElementarySchool. If a migrant child should enroll, the district will contact the Director of Federal Programs who will contact the migrant consortium to assist the school in providing services to the migrant student. Migrant students will be provided all services for which they qualify.
- We have reflected current achievement data that will help the school understand the subjects and skills in which teaching and learning need to be improved. We have reflected upon current achievement data that will help the school understand the subjects and skills in which teaching and learning need to be improved. On June 17-18, 2014, the SLT conducted a comprehensive needs assessment in which data from state, local, and school assessments was reviewed. MZE data was compared to system and state data. As a result, the SLT identified areas of strength and weakness within our school. Though we experienced a great deal of academic growth, we identified areas for growth in reading, writing, and math.
- We have based our plan on information about all students in the school and identified students and groups of students who are not yet achieving to the State Academic content standards [the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS)] and the State student academic achievement standards.
Because of the large percentage of economically disadvantaged students, MZE addresses these needs with schoolwide initiatives. RTI interventions are put in place to address the needs of these students.
MZE’s Hispanic population, which is 14%, scored an average in the 90th percentile in reading, but decreased in math and ELA.
Math scores increased in 3rd and 5th grades, but decreased significantly in 4th grade. Students exceeding on theCRCTincreased in 3rd math, 4th grade reading, and 5th grade reading and math.
- The data has helped us reach conclusions regarding achievement or other related data.
The major needs we discovered were reading, math, and writing.
The needs we will address are reading skills and vocabulary acquisition in the area of reading, numbers and operations and measurement in math, and writing throughout the grade levels.
The specific academic needs of those students that are to be addressed in the schoolwide program plan will be reading skills and vocabulary acquisition through the use of Thinking Maps and Reading Eggspress software program, as well as the concentration of literacy standards in non-ELA content standards.We are addressing the needs in math through school level professional learning and a school-wide daily spiral math review. The use of STAR Math and Accelerated Math provided by Renaissance Learning software program will assess, monitor and increase math achievement. In the area of writing, while our 5th grade scores stayed constant, we are addressing writing across the grade levels by implementing writing benchmarks and the use of WriteScore.com to assess benchmarks in grades 3-5. The Vertical Writing Team is aligning rubrics to be used for scoring writing benchmarks.
The ROOTCAUSE/s that we discovered for each of the needs were teacher understanding of the new curriculum (CCGPS), lack of student retention of math skills, lack of support and word exposure at home, and inconsistent writing expectations.
With the implementation of a new state assessment this year (Georgia Milestone), all teachers will receive instruction on preparing students for constructed response questions in all content areas.
- With the implementation of a new state assessment (Georgia Milestone), overall scores are expected to dip. Therefore, the measurable goals/benchmarks we have established are to score higher than the state average in all content areas. Benchmark goals to ensure this are 70% in all content areas.
*2. Schoolwide reform strategies that are scientifically researched based, directly tied to the comprehensive needs assessment and academic standards.
The school identified scientifically based strategies that have been effective in addressing our areas of weakness which include ELA, writing, and mathematics, as well as, students with disabilities.
2(a). Schoolwide reform strategies that provide opportunities for all children in the school to meet or exceed Georgia’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance.
- The ways in which we will address the needs of all children in the school particularly the needs of students furthest away from demonstrating proficiency related to the State’s academic content and student academic achievement standard are . . . (Strategies to be used.)
- Class Size Reduction through the hiring of an additional teacher and paraprofessional. Research shows that reducing class size increases student achievement. With a lower pupil-teacher ratio, teachers have a better opportunity to monitor and analyze student data and provide more one-to-one instruction.
- Collaborative and Collegial Planning. Collegial planning days will be provided once per nine weeks for all teachers. During the planning sessions, the teachers create unit and lesson plans which implement best practices in order to ensure that all students receive quality instruction in the state’s required curriculum. Data are regularly reviewed to determine individual student needs for meeting and exceeding the desired level of performance. Appropriate differentiation, remediation, and acceleration strategies are designed, as well.
- Extended Day Tutoring. Students not meeting standards will be provided the opportunity to receive additional instructional time with a tutor four days per week during school beginning in January. The students will be served during non-instructional times during the day so that they continue to receive full instruction from their teachers. This will allow targeted students to receive 2 segments of math, reading, or ELA instruction each day. Because many of the students at Mt. Zion Elementary School come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, they often lack learning opportunities outside of the school environment. The additional tutoring will provide them the opportunity to overcome this barrier, and having the tutoring during school will allow all students to attend without having to have transportation.
- Professional Development. Teachers will receive professional development through weekly Professional Learning Communities. The Professional Development will be based on teacher needs to increase knowledge and application of state curriculum and proven teaching strategies. As teachers gain more knowledge and have time to practice, instruction will improve.
- Constructed Response Questions. Teachers will receive Professional Development from RESA and state conferences to become more informed of the structure and expectations of constructed response questions on the new state assessment, Georgia Milestones. Teachers will include constructed response questions in daily lessons to prepare students to answer these questions on the state assessment.
- STEAM Initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math). By integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, students will become more engaged in the classrooms and better prepared to solve problems. STEAM requires critical thinking, creativity, and innovation which are all skills necessary in the 21st Century.
- Differentiated Instruction and Flexible Grouping. Teachers will use data from various assessments to group students and provide differentiated instruction based on student needs. Differentiated instruction will meet students at their current levels and help them extend to even greater success.
- ELT (Extended Learning Time/Power Time)School-wide Extended Learning Time (Power Time) is conducted for a 45 minute segment each day to provide all students remediation and/or acceleration. Grade levels examine data and utilize this time for the students in their grade levels to improve math and reading. This time is used for all students, EIP, SWD, gifted, etc.
- Math Manipulatives. All students will use math manipulatives in their mathematics classes to model mathematic content and problem solving. Elementary school students need concrete examples in order to visualize mathematical concepts and gain a greater understanding of math reasoning.
- Integration of Technology Across the Curriculum. Current elementary school students must be proficient in technology in order to be college and career ready. Students must be taught how to use technology to find information and solve problems. By integrating technology across all areas of curriculum, students will become proficient and better prepared to become college and career ready.
- Daily Spiral Review in Math and Literacy. Research has show that students must continuously review content in order to maintain competence by transferring the knowledge into long-term memory. Daily Spiral Review in math and literacy classes will provide MZE students with continuous review and practice to increase success and confidence in these areas. Daily Spiral Review will also include constructed response questions to give students daily practice for the new Georgia Milestones assessment.
2(b). Are based upon effective means of raising student achievement.
- Following (or in our appendices) are examples of the SCIENTIFICALLY BASED RESEARCH supporting our effective methods and instructional practices or strategies. . (Cite Research to support selected strategies.)
- A great deal of research that has been conducted indicates a strong correlation between reduction in class size and student achievement.