Title I Schoolwide Plan for
Clay Elementary School
Written/Revised during the
School Year:
9/11/2006
11/15/2006
9/12/2007
9/15/2008
12/12/2008
10/11/09
10/30/10
For implementation in:
2010-11
PagesComprehensive Needs Assessment ……………………………………………….. / 3
Schoolwide Reform Strategies …………………………………………………. / 5
Highly Qualified Professional Staff……………………………………………….. / 5
Professional Development…………………………………………………………. / 6
Strategies to Increase Parental Involvement……………………………………….. / 6
Transition for Preschool and Fifth Graders………………………………………... / 7
Including Teachers in the Decisions……………………………………………….. / 7
Coordination and Integration of Federal, State, and Local Services and
Programs………………………………………………………………………... / 8
Activities to Insure Mastery for Students Who Experience Difficulty
Mastering Standards……………………………………………………………. / 9
Individual student Assessment Results and Interpretation Provided to
Parents………………………………………………………………………….. / 9
Collection and Desegregated Data………………………………………………… / 10
Valid and Reliable Assessment……………………………………………………. / 10
Provisions for Public Reporting of Disaggregated Data……………………...... / 10
Title I Schoolwide Plan: / 11
Developed During a One Year Period………………………………………….. / 11
Developed with the Involvement of the Community, Teachers,
Principal, Other School Staff, Pupil Personnel, and Parents………………... / 11
Available to LEA, Parents, and the Public……………………………………... / 11
Translated and Other Documents………………………………………………. / 11
Provisions for Meeting the Needs of any Homeless Students / 12
Clay Elementary Title I Schoolwide Plan
Table of Contents
Comprehensive Needs Assessment
We developed our Title I Schoolwide Plan and our School Strategic Plan with the participation of School Improvement Team and other individuals who will carry out the plan.
Our School Improvement Team Members are:
Name / PositionFlorence S. Williams / Principal
Cynthia L. Winter / Assistant Principal
Danielle Hickerson / Academic Coach
Susan Parker / Kindergarten Teacher
Kate Starowicz / 1st Grade Teacher
Rachel Reagan / 2nd Grade Teacher
Sherita Pugh / 3rd Grade Teacher
Jane Maguire / 4th Grade Teacher
Cindy Burkett / 5th Grade Teacher
Elbonie Metcalfe / Special Education Teacher
Nan Bowen / ESOL Teacher
Heidi Hunt / Art Teacher
Monique Shaw-Spencer / Counselor
Diana Vazquez / Parent Facilitator
Danyale Johnson / PTA President
Under the guidelines of No Child Left Behind of 2002, Clay's students have demonstrated adequate yearly progress since 2001, and were recognized as a "Georgia Title 1 Distinguished School" for the 2001 through 2005 school years as indicated by the State mandated Criterion Reference Test (CRCT). In 2005 our students, specifically the ELL subgroup, struggled with meeting the standards when the State Curriculum changed to the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). In the spring of 2007 our ELL students made more than ten percent improvement which allowed our school to may AYP under Safe Harbor. We have continued to make progress with our ELL subgroup. In 2010 we made AYP under Absolute Bar and regained our Title I Distinguished School Status. Although we have made AYP for four consecutive years we noticed that our students were not scoring in the exceed standard range, therefore that is our focus this year, getting more students exceeding the standard. We are very proud of our students and teachers for all of their hard work and we are designing a plan to improve even more this year.
At Clay, students are demonstrating success with the challenging Standards Based Curriculum. In addition, our students face other significant challenges such as economic, language and social, as they work to achieve academic excellence. Although we have these many challenges to overcome we are constantly working collaboratively to identify strategies and resources needed to consistently make AYP under Absolute Bar in the spring of 2011 and the years to come.
Students at Clay have demonstrated improved student achievement on both formative and summative assessments. That success continued this past year with instruction being guided by the backward design instructional strategies utilizing the Georgia Performance Standards. We have utilized research based strategies and best practices to assure students’ academic success. We also utilized the Balanced Literacy model and the Early Intervention Program to improve the reading/writing performance and guided math to improve math performance of our students. In addition, we have implemented an Extended Day tutorial program for our students in grades three through five. In the past we have served only low performing students but this year we have served those students who have scored between 785 and 845 on the CRCT/math in third and fourth grade. In an attempt to increase the number of students exceeding the standard; our fifth graders who scored 846 and above are tutored by a math teacher from our feeder Middle School. We also provide advanced instruction for students in grades three and four one morning each week before school.
We have utilized the expertise of our School District Literacy and Math Coaches and our local school academic coach to teach our teacher Writer’s Workshop, Guided Reading, lesson planning and the new Language Arts Adoption-Words Their Way component. We will continue to provide grade level collaborative planning time for teachers to collect and analyze student pre-and post assessment data to improve instruction and student performance and mega planning time to fully implement the data team model.
STUDENT LEARNING PRIORITIES
The central goal of Clay Elementary is to instill high expectations for academic achievement in all students. Clay’s mission is to provide a rich diverse yet nurturing climate to ensure productive learners for tomorrow’s leaders. The faculty and staff have emphasized literacy instruction this year, followed closely by mathematics and writing instruction. In keeping with the No Child Left Behind legislation and county regulations, Clay strives to have all students reading on or above grade level by the end of the school year. Because reading comprehension is the foundation for learning across the curriculum, it is imperative that instructional processes and procedures are focused on all students reading on or above grade level.
The three prioritized goals of this plan were selected based on the needs of students identified through a variety of assessment tools. The tools and the strategies employed are based on scientific research to elicit educational growth and progress in our students. Clay Elementary is a Title I school and, as such, is required to have reading, math, and parent/community goals as part of our Schoolwide Strategic Plan. Title I provides funding to meet these requirements. The priorities for student learning have been captured in these three goals of the Clay Elementary School Improvement Plan.
PRIORITY 1: Based on the results from the ITBS, CRCT and DRA from 2009-10, Clay's staff has determined reading comprehension and vocabulary to be critical instructional areas to address.
PRIORITY 2: Based on the results from the CRCT and the Georgia Writing Assessment results from 2009- 10, Clay's staff has determined writer’s workshop to be a primary instructional area to address.
PRIORITY 3: Based on the results ITBS, and CRCT Clay's staff has determined that we must focus attention on challenging our high achieving students to increase the percentage of students performing at the exceeds standards level on the CRCT.
SCHOOL PERFORMANCE PRIORITY
In an effort to measure Clay Elementary School's effectiveness in instruction and organization, Cobb County School District School Improvement Survey was administered to all students in fourth grade, a random sample of parents from all grade levels, and all staff members. Responses to survey question items followed a standard Likert scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". In keeping with Clay's Priorities for Student Learning and Priorities for School Performance, the results from the survey were used to help develop one of the school's priorities.
PRIORITY 1: Based on the Cobb County School District School Improvement Survey, Clay's staff has determined the increase teacher collaboration, planning, assessment, monitoring results and communicating to and with our parents and the community at large. Since parental involvement is part of our mission, and our PTA is a fully functional organization we will provide more opportunities for parents to serve and get involved.
Schoolwide Reform Strategies
Strategy# 1: Provide extended day activities for students performing across the academic spectrum.
Strategy# 2: Evaluate skills needed to improve reading comprehension.
Strategy# 3: Evaluating skills needed to improve student writing skills.
Highly Qualified Professional Staff
Clay's professional staff has over 98% with more than five years experience in education. Out of 53 member certified teaching staff, sixteen hold Bachelor degrees, twenty-nine hold Master’s degrees, and eight hold Educational Specialists degrees. We have 99% of our staff is highly qualified according to the guidelines of NCLB. Additionally, seven certified staff members hold a Reading endorsement, six are certified in Educational Leadership, four teachers are certified Teacher Support Specialists, two are bilingual (English/Spanish) and one classified staff member is bilingual (English/Spanish).
Professional Development
Teachers completed a needs assessment with our Academic Coach to determine their professional development needs for the 2010-11 school year. We included our certified staff, and paraprofessionals as needed. The following is a list our scheduled professional development sessions for this school year,
· 21st Century Technology (iResponse system)– teachers and instructional paraprofessionals
· Balanced literacy- New ELA Adoption
o Adoption Components/planning-all teachers
o Guiding Reading – selected teachers
o Writer’s Workshop
o Training for needed components of Balanced Literacy – teacher’s request or selected by the administrators
· Data Team – Reading/Math - administrators and classroom teachers
· Mathematics instruction/Guided Math – all teachers
· Lesson planning – on-going training for all teachers
· Book Study – Literacy Work Stations- all teachers
We have planned many of the training dates around our School District provided teacher training dates. Also, we have allocated sufficient resources to provide needed materials and or equipment to complete the implementation of these professional development activities.
· Title I funds and School-Focused Professional Development Funds have been allocated to provide substitutes for teachers to attend in-services and trainings throughout the school day as well as time to collaborate with their grade level team and support staff.
· Title II Grant was written to fund release time for teachers to collaborate, analyze student date, identify struggling learners and plan instructional strategies to meet the needs of those students.
· Early Intervention Program funds are used to purchase materials needed for the professional development sessions.
Strategies to Increase Parental Involvement
Parent Involvement has been a struggle for Clay Elementary School for several years. The language barrier has been one of the reasons for this problem. We purchased three sets of (16) personal public address system to assist us with overcoming this problem. During our PTA and other group meetings we secure a translator from our International Welcome Center to translate the contents of the meeting for those parents who are using the personal public address system headphones.
Additionally, we have scheduled other opportunities for parents to stay connected and involved with the local school.
· Sneak-A-Peak
· Moms & Muffins
· Dads & Donuts
· Clay Day
· Academic Nights (Math & Literacy)
· CRCT overview (PTA meetings)
· Fall Festival
· Thanksgiving Luncheon
· Parents Assuring School Success Program (PASS)
· Preschool Reading Program
· International Night
· All are invited to our PTA, PTA Executive Board and School Council meetings
Going forward we will continue to provide opportunities for our parents to join us in their child’s education. Our largest ethnic group is our Hispanic families. We have maintained a full time bilingual parent facilitator to assist us in communication with our Spanish speaking parents. Also we have two other certified bi-lingual staff members who assist in meetings and in emergency situations. In order to enhance our home school connection we have access to the Communities and Schools Mobile for small group sessions and/or conferences with our parents. Finally, we use In-Touch call out system to communicate important information to our parents along with written communication.
Transition for Preschool and Fifth Graders
In the past we have not encouraged the local preschools and daycares from the community to spend a transition day with our Kindergarten classes. However we have discussed the possibility of working with them each year. We will include our Special Needs Pre-Kindergarten students in this activity.
Our fifth grade students take a field trip each year to spend the day with our feeder middle school. Prior to their visit a group of our former fifth graders visit with our current fifth graders. We have a whole group atmosphere where the sixth graders talk to our students about middle school and there is a question and answer session following. Our guidance counselors facilitate these transition activities for our students.
Including Teachers in the Decisions
Through staff, grade level, and Building Leadership meetings, parent/community surveys, and staff questionnaires, we have been able to determine our strengths and the areas that are in need of improvement. The parent/community survey provides information on the perspective of the quality of education that is obtained at Clay Elementary School. Data results are carefully reviewed to make modifications or changes to our programs, and procedures that may affect our school climate.
We analyzed the results from the Cobb County School District parent, teacher and student School Improvement Opinion Survey to help us review the extent to which our students currently believe we have demonstrated achievement of our goals and the level of priority for improvement in those areas. The survey also measures our success rate in school climate, staff development, leadership, parent involvement, student discipline and safety. The results from the 2009-10 survey indicated a variety of areas that parents, staff, and students believe Clay Elementary School is working successfully towards the improvement goals. This data is also used to target improvement goals for addressing areas in need of improvement. Through the staff development, team collaboration, and the Georgia Keys, the staff embraces the goals and developed steps for improvements.
Clay has allocated time during the school day for teachers to meet collaborative. We have adjusted the Specials Schedule to allow for each grade level team to have ninety-minutes of planning one day per week. This time is used to analyze student performance data, create common assessments and design lessons that are aligned with the GPS. Also we provide one grade level collaborative day per grading period to allow teachers to design content maps, unit plans, common assessments and enrichment/remedial activities.