10/10/18

Evaluation of Title I Schoolwide School Improvement Plan–

Sandy Springs MS

Evaluate the Effectiveness of your School Improvement Plan from 2011-2012 and make adjustments as needed.

You will include this Evaluation in your Title I Documentation Notebook. Answer these questions for the evaluation. [Rubric will be attached at year-end]

  • Has our overall achievement increased as a result of our Title I School Improvement Plan? Why or Why not?
  • Our overall achievement did increase as a result of our Title I School Improvement Plan with the exception of Math. We used our funds primarily for personnel to help students who were not achieving at grade level in math and to support Students with Disabilities and students who speak English as a Second Language. Our Math scores increased in sixth grade by 13 percentage points but decreased in seventh grade by 2 percentage points and 17 percentage points in eighth grade. Using funds for after-school tutoring our ELL students increased in Math overall by 10 percentage points and our SWD increased overall by 9 percentage points. Because of our focus school status we will continue to monitor these groups and implement an action plan for our focus students.
  • 2 types of evaluations – ongoing or annually. Which type was selected? _ongoing______?
  • What needs to be changed in our School Improvement Plan for FY2012-13 to address the needs of our students as a result of current data?
  • We need to make sure that we are closely monitoring of our Focus students and subgroup students in math this year by examining Common Assessments, Checkpoints, Unit Assessments, and CRCT practice tests to assess their areas of need. We will add additional strategies to address the challenges that our students face. We are committed to the implementation of different strategies so that we can effect true change. As a result of our designation as a Focus School under the waiver that the Georgia Department of Education received from the federal government, we have more resources to assist us in raising student achievement with our target groups. One new strategy that we plan to employ will be to assign each member of the leadership team a “caseload” of three to four targeted students. Each leadership team member will meet with and “check up on” their caseload students on a regular basis to ensure that the students are attending school, keeping up with their school work, and are engaged in school activities. We also intend to pursue our parents more aggressively to help them become more involved in their children’s education by ensuringeffective communication between home and school and byassisting parents in becoming an integral part in their child’s education.
  • 80% of Black Students will meet or exceed standard on the CRCT in Math.
  • 65% of ELL students will meet or exceed standard on the CRCT in Math.
  • 80% of ED students will meet or exceed standard on the CRCT in Math.
  • 52% of SWD students will meet or exceed standard on the CRCT in Math.

Table of Contents

Schoolwide Planning

Page # / Criteria
4 /
  1. Comprehensive Needs Assessment:
Strengths and Challenges
Identifies needs in the key areas that affect student achievement
Root causes of such needs with graphs, data analyses, parent/teacher/staff perception data, etc.
Migrant paragraph (required)
17 /
  1. Develop schoolwide reform strategies (reference the research)
  1. Provide opportunities for all children in the school to meet or exceed Georgia’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance.
  2. Are based upon effective means of raising student achievement.
  3. Use effective instructional methods that increase the quality and amount of learning time.
  4. Address the needs of all children, particularly targeted populations, and address how the school will determine if such needs have been met and areconsistent with improvement plans approved under Educate America Act.
  5. Must include documentation to support that any educational field trip used as an instructional strategy is aligned to the comprehensive needs assessment found in the schoolwide plan and must be connected to the support of assisting students to achieve proficiency or advanced status in relation to the State Academic content standards. Documentation must be provided during the budget approval process. Required based on FY12 US ED monitoring.
  6. Flexible Learning Program Plan that addresses Priority, Focus and/or AlertSchools (if applicable).

21 /
  1. Provide instruction by highly qualified teachers.
  1. Strategies to attract highly qualified teachers to high-needs schools

21 /
  1. Provide high-quality and ongoing professional development for staff to enable all children in the school to meet performance standards.

26 /
  1. Develop strategies to increase parental involvement.

28 /
  1. Devise a plan for assisting preschool, 5th to 6th, and 8th to 9th children in transition.

21 /
  1. Measures to include teachers in decisions regarding the use of academic assessment information for the purpose of improving student achievement and the overall instructional program.

27 /
  1. Coordinate and integrate Federal, State, and local services and programs.
  1. List of State and local educational agency programs and other Federal programs that will be included.
  2. Description of how resources from Title I and other sources will be used.
  3. Plan developed in coordination with other programs.

18 /
  1. Provide activities to ensure that students who experience difficulty mastering proficient or advanced levels of academic achievement standards shall be provided with effective, timely additional assistance.
  1. Measures to ensure that students’ difficulties are identified on a timely basis
  2. Periodic training for teachers in the identification of difficulties and appropriate assistance available to the student at the school or in the community
  3. Teacher-parent conferences that detail what the school will do to help the students, what the parents can do to help the student and additional assistance available to the student at the school or in the community.

19 /
  1. Description of how individual student assessment results and interpretation will be provided to parents.

8 /
  1. Provisions for the collection and disaggregation of data on the achievement and assessment results of students.

8 /
  1. Provisions to ensure that disaggregated assessment results for each category are valid and reliable.

8-9 /
  1. Provisions for public reporting of disaggregated data.

7 /
  1. Plan revised yearly and/or Plan developed during a one year period, unless LEA, after considering the recommendation of its technical assistance providers, determines that less time is needed to develop and implement the schoolwide program.

6 /
  1. Plan developed with the involvement of the community to be served and individuals who will carry out the plan including teachers, principals, other school staff, and pupil services personnel, parents and students (if secondary).

6 /
  1. Plan available to the LEA, parents, and the public.

7 /
  1. Plan translated to the extent feasible, into any language that a significant percentage of the parents of participating students in the school speak as their primary language.

  1. Plan is subject to the school improvement provisions of section 1116.

FultonCountyVision Statement:

The vision of the FultonCountySchool System is for all students to learn to their full potential

FultonCountyMission Statement:

The mission of the FultonCountySchool System is to educate every student to be responsible, productive citizens

Characteristics of the Vision:

Excellence

Trust and Honest Communication

Common Understanding

Personal Responsibility

Commitment

Academic Achievement

Measured Results

Continuous Improvement

Safe and nurturing environment

Involved family, community and staff

Transparency and Accountability

Title I Department Goal:

The Title I goal is to ensure that each child successfully meets or exceeds Georgia’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance and meets or exceeds expectations on local, state and national assessments.

Schoolwide Comprehensive Title ISchool Improvement Plan

Directions for Plan Completion:

Schoolwide Program (SWP): Complete all sections of the plan, except those that are highlighted in PEACH.

Targeted Assistance Program (TA): Complete any section containing a TAcomponent as well as the PEACHhighlighted sections appropriate to your designation (TA)

Flexible Learning Program (FLP). Please include statements to align the Flexible Learning Programs where indicated or applicable. Flexible Learning Program template should be completed along with your Title I Documentation.

Themes / SWP/TA/FLPComponent / Description
Comprehensive Needs Assessment and Planning / SACS / Include school mission, vision, and beliefs (System Mission, Vision, Beliefs on previous page)
The vision of our committee is to have a school that accomplishes the following:
Foster a nurturing and positive school culture in which our students feel safe and to establish an advisor program to help students recognize that they are surrounded by adults who want them to be the best that they can be
Invest parents and the local community in our school by initiating family and community partnerships;
Provide a rigorous curriculum, including exposure to Latin, with opportunities for all students to participate in extracurricular activities;
Increase academic achievement and PRIDE;
Meet the needs of our diverse student population by fully implementing the model advocated by the National Middle School Association in its landmark work entitled This We Believe (1982);
Implement true interdisciplinary team teaching strategies that incorporate the arts into a curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploratory;
Expand our extracurricular activities to reflect the diversity and needs of our students, families and community; and
Prepare our students to enter our feeder high school by aligning our curriculum and a majority of our extracurricular activities to North Springs Charter High School (NSCHS) magnet programs.
The goals we have set for ourselves in order to realize this vision are to:
  1. Offer a seamless transitional experience for students and parents from elementary school through twelfth grade.
  2. Increase student achievement in all content areas for all groups of students including gifted, on-level, remedial, special education and ESOL students, and continue to narrow the achievement gap between low socioeconomic-status students and their higher socioeconomic-status peers.
  3. Distinguish our school so that we attract, enroll, and matriculate more students from our community who are currently in non-public school educational environments.
  4. Improve the use of technology and current research-based proven techniques in all aspects of our school life.

SW – 1
TA – 1
FLP /
  1. Describe the System/ School Demographics
The FultonCountySchool System is home to approximately 93,000 students. There are 100 schools in FultonCounty, each accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. These include 58 elementary, 19 middle, and 16 high schools, as well as 7 start-up charter schools. Of the total student population: 33% are White, 42% are Black and 13% are Hispanic, 9% Asian and 3% Multi-racial. Fulton County reports 44% of students are economically disadvantaged, 11% are students with disabilities and 07% are English Language Learners.
Sandy SpringsCharterMiddle School has approximately 880 students. Of the total school population 20% are white, 52% are black, 21% are Hispanic, 2% are Asian and 5% Multi Racial. 60% of our students are Economically Disadvantaged, 9% are English Language Learners and 12% are Students with Disabilities.
SW – 1
TA – 1
FLP /
  1. Describe how the School Improvement Plan is revised annually with the participation of the Title I Committee(TIC)/ LocalSchool Advisory Council (LSAC). Include a paragraph about the TIC.(who they are, how they were selected, how they have helped with the needs assessment and plan, how they share data and information with the staff and get feedback from the staff)(Be sure to include a well-rounded group of school, community, district – inside stakeholders, as well as objective outsiders. Be sure to have DATED sign-in sheets from all planning meetings. Indicate which participants are parents and community members.)
  1. Listed below are the members of our Governance Board/Advisory Council and their titles / roles.
Member Name / Title / Role
Dr. Kay Walker / Principal
Natalie Cowart / 8th Grade Teacher
Elizabeth Demaree / Connections Teacher
Sabrina Taylor / Data Support Specialist
Janet Lane / Graduation Coach
Allen Johnson / Governance Board President and Parent
Theresa Wooldridge / Parent PTA Liaison
Saudah Parsons / Teacher and Title I Parent
Irene Schweiger / Community Business Partner
Andrea Farmer / Parent
Gary Viersen / Parent
Jennifer Langill / Governance Board Co-Chair
Joan Miller / Parent
SW-15 /
  1. Describe how plan development involved all staff, as well as community/parents/ school council
We have developed, and will revise yearly, our school improvement plan with the participation of individuals (staff, community members and parents) who will participate in carrying out our comprehensive school improvement plan.
The process we used to select our team is that we utilize our leadership team, elected teacher representatives from our Governance Board, elected parents from our Governance Board and PTA Board, and community members from our community advisory groups (such as the Sandy Springs Education Force and the Sandy Springs Parks and Recreation Department.)
SW-16 /
  1. Describe how the plan will be distributed to all parents and made available to all stakeholders once it is completed. (beginning-of-the-year packets/ on the web/PTA/PTSA meetings)
Once the draft of our plan is completed, it will be shared with our staff by the Principal during the grade level meetings.
We will use their feedback to make final revisions to the plan. After complete, our plan will be made available to all of our stakeholders.
Our school improvement and parent involvement plans will be sent home in our beginning of the year information packets with all of our students. We will also post our plans on the school website and distribute copies at our PTA/PTSA and school council meetings to any interested stakeholders. Additional copies of the plans will be available in the front office for distribution to newly enrolled students, or upon request.
SW-17 /
  1. Explain that the plan will be translated into other languages(Everyone translates into Spanish.Translate into other languages where feasible and needed… based on significant percentage of parents)
A copy of our school improvement and parent involvement plans, as well as our School-Parent Compact, will be translated into Spanish after it is written and reviewed with the assistance of parents and community members. Copies of these plans are distributed as needed. Copies of these documents are also housed in the office area and the Parent Resource Room/Area. Copies of the documents are given to new students when they register. We have included Spanish versions of these plans/compact in the Appendix section of our notebook.
TA-1
SW-1
FLP / Describe the process used to complete the Comprehensive Needs Assessment and how it identified students at-risk of not meeting state standards.
Each of the members of our team had a part in the completion of our comprehensive needs assessment and school improvement plan. The process we followed to complete our plan was weexamined student achievement and survey data from a number of sources. The data was examined to determine our strengths (reading and language arts achievement) and our weaknesses (math science.) We also collected data from surveys to determine how we could address the needs of our school through online, paper, and face to face meetings with stakeholders. Our research led us to develop conclusions regarding the most at-risk students and possible means to address their needs. In addition, we utilized the data that the state and Title One office provided to us in regards to our designation as a FocusSchool. Through the development of our Flexible Learning Plan we have been able to identify our students who are most in need of additional time and support.
SW -11
FLP / Identify the types of data
We have used the following instruments, procedures, or processes to obtain student data:
ITBS tests
CRCT tests
Checkpoints tests
Staff surveys
Parent surveys
Attendance data
Student Support Team data
Discipline data
Common classroom assessments
Anecdotal data from teachers and parents
Free/reduced lunch status and CRCT scores for FLP students.
SW-11 /
  1. Explain how student data is collected and disaggregated.
Our data was disaggregated by subgroup, grade level, and content areas for analysis. The student’s past and present year teachers collaborate to analyze student data and make informed decisions Data results are included in the School Improvement Plans and Flexible Learning Plan.
  1. How did you identify students most at-risk of not meeting state academic standards?
We identified students at-risk of not meeting state standards by disaggregating the data to and examining the results of each sub-group using the 2011-2012 CRCT results.

SW-12
FLP /
  1. Procedures are in place to ensure that disaggregated assessment results for each category are valid and reliable.
The data we collect is from the School Report Card on the DOE website or data sent to us by our Assessment Coordinator. These student test results administered by the state are valid and reliable. The data we receive from both sources has already been disaggregated by subgroup by the Georgia DOE.
SW-13
FLP /
  1. Describe your methods for the public reporting of student data.
Test data is reported to the public through the school website, school marquee, system website, school newsletters, newspapers and on the GDOE website. The web addresses are posted for easy location of results by stakeholders.
The Georgia School Report Card and the reports are posted on the Georgia Department of Education website
Our school improvement plan, including data, will be posted on the school website
Data is shared with the Leadership team and parents. It is reviewed regularly with the Governance Board which is comprised of parents, community members, administrators, and teachers.
We publish our results on our school website and in school newsletters.
The data is discussed with parents during conferences.
The Georgia School Report Card and the Adequate Yearly Progress reports are posted on the Georgia Department of Education website
The data is discussed with parents during our Title I parent meeting, conferences and data talks.
In addition, individual student data is discussed with students each year to assist them in identifying their own strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.
As a Focus School, parents are notified by the school and Title I concerning Flexible Learning Program status, goals and objectives.
  1. School Profile (SeeSchool Data Profile):

Elementary or Middle School Profile