Delaware Success Plan Template

Part 1: Introduction and summary

Vision: How will your LEA be different in 2014? How will student outcomes be different? What will this mean for students, teachers and administrators?
Vision: To become a premier learning community and to be recognized regionally for student excellence.
The focus of our attention for the next four years will be to build upon growth and achievement of our students from Woodbridge Elementary School and Phillis Wheatley Middle School to a new Arts and Science program at the newly constructed Woodbridge High School. The specific details of the program, and proposed operations plan for the new school, are attached to this document in the Appendix.
The students, teachers, and administrators will see a significant change in the focus of our district to make all students college and/or career ready. Students will experience an increase in supports for academic achievement, more exposure to post-secondary options, and augmented academic programs that work towards the goal of preparing our students for our global society. There will be greater supports for our teachers, administrators, and parents as well. Administrators will have additional supports through professional development programs and the use of a School Administration Manager. An aggressive professional development plan coupled with a revised mentoring program will bring our teachers to a greater comfort level, and parents and community members will have the opportunity to take advantage of various informational and personal development offerings identified through a community needs survey.
These added supports for all stakeholders will result in an increase in our current graduation rate (71%), an increase in college enrollment rate (36.5%) and increased academic achievement for all sub-groups (see common measures section for detailed numbers).
Needs Assessment: Based on your LEA’s data, what are your greatest performance challenges? What are the root causes of those performance challenges? [Note: This can be a narrative, or in the format of “Group Name/Needs/Root Causes/Data” found on the Success Plan website]
Our committee identified 3 major performance challenges. These performance challenges are addressed by the numerous activities described throughout the document.
1) Our needs assessment shows that we have a continuous pattern of achievement scores lower than the state average in Mathematics and Reading in our high school (see Common Measures), which is also in its seventh year of school improvement. If we strive to make certain our students are college and career ready, this must be strongly addressed. After an analysis, the committee determined that root causes of the problem were multi-faceted.
Root Causes Include.
1.  A lack of academic learning time in those subject areas throughout their high school career. In instances that we scored well, such as 10th grade mathematics in the 2009-2010 school year, additional time in Mathematics was given. Much more academic time is devoted to CTE courses, which are outstanding, award-winning programs and have benefitted from the additional instructional minutes.
2.  A General lack of an academic focus, as evidenced by:
a.  Only 43 minute classes for Core courses.
b.  Lack of emphasis on post-secondary preparation.
c.  Inconsistent rigor in Pre-AP courses.
3.  Many top academic students leave to go to other high schools, which are newer and have distinctive programs. Each year 20 students, almost all of whom meet and exceed standards, go to Sussex Tech.
4.  Low-income community lacks college-bound culture (only 36% of students continue their education), which may limit student aspirations. Additionally, low income status affects the social, emotional, and physical well being of our student population. We have a 5% homeless rate and 17 students to date were placed in foster homes.
2) We also have a strong need to bolster academic achievement for our special education program, as our achievement scores for our Special Education population is insufficient.
1.  Root causes include:
a.  A lack of strong belief that Special Education students can indeed achieve, as evidenced by in numerous cases (in Special Education), academic rigor at the high school being lower than rigor in the middle school.
b.  Proper training and support for teachers in content and pedagogy are lacking.
c.  There is little structured time for students to get assistance with class work in which they struggle. Limited schedule structures and teacher utilization which prohibit support also add to the problem.
3) The Middle School Making AYP and staying out of Improvement Status with increased cut scores. Recently, achievement scores in the middle school have flat-lined or decreased, as evidenced by scores since the 2006 school year. One more insufficient year will cause them to be in school improvement.
1.  Root Causes Include:
a.  Difficult 5th grade transition year, where there is a significant decrease in achievement over time.
b.  Lack of focus on Important and Essential content standards, as evidenced by walkthroughs and evaluations.
c.  Lack of vertical curriculum fidelity, as evidenced by evaluations and walkthroughs.
d.  Lack of appropriate pacing of lessons, as evidenced by evaluations and walkthroughs.
Achievement data to for grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 are in the appendix support our analysis.
Overview: What are your priorities, and how do they fit together? How will they impact your identified needs and Common Measures? How do they represent an improvement over what you have done before?
Our overarching priority is the reconfiguration of Woodbridge High School (WHS), including building a new facility, developing specific career pathways to be centered on the Arts and STEM education, establishing clear business partners within the community, and realignment of the curriculum. This priority has implications for the other schools in the district, as high school success does not only happen at the high school level, but is predicated on student preparation at the middle school and elementary school levels as well. The realignment of the curriculum based upon the common core standards as well as the specific arts and STEM career pathways in the new high school will be a key to the success of the project, as these distinctive programs will draw top academic students from the middle school. With our work done through LFS and the associated walkthroughs, realignment is vital to the successful realization of this priority, which will address our first need listed in the Needs Assessment portion of this document. A major component will be placing a focus on the academic programs in our secondary schools, which include adding support to make all students college and career ready.
Our second priority, based upon our data and associated with our identified needs, is to put an emphasis on the success of our lowest achieving students (special education, low income, and African American) and provide support for these students and their teachers. With our ever increasing numbers of ELL students, we also need to address the communication gap that stands as a barrier between the students and their families with our staff. In addition, due to our disproportional representation of African American students in special education, we need to address how to effectively work with a diverse student population. The activities targeting the Special Needs populations will serve to increase the academic achievement of our students.
Our third priority is to provide support for specific targeted groups of students affected by low-income status, as noted in several of our identified root causes. Support from the home provides the key to the success of our educational program. Additional factors that weigh into this being a priority for WSD include our high poverty rate with its accompanying issues for our students including lack of appropriate health care, lack of transportation, many undereducated parents, and a disproportionate number of emergency placements for foster students who bring a myriad of issues including social, emotional, and complex special education needs. While we make attempts to address these issues now, additional support by additional personnel will allow us to focus our efforts more specifically and get our staff members sufficient support to handle the myriad of problems that are associated with serving a high-poverty area.
Our middle school concerns will be addressed through an increased focus on professional development, monitoring of curriculum fidelity, added reading support through the Read 180 program, and an alteration of the master schedule to increase the learning time in our mathematics and language arts classes.
In the past, many of these issues have been addressed. However, there has not been a focused effort to address all the root causes at once to accelerate change. This plan represents the first comprehensive attempt to resolve performance and structural changes throughout the district. Each of these identified priorities supports the others to address the overarching priority of the reconfiguration of WHS within a new building that supports the plan of work. The success of the new school and school configuration will require the realignment of curriculum, the support of the community, effective professional development, and an educational culture and environment conducive to student engagement and achievement. When this occurs, we expect our student achievement to increase, and for there to be an increase in our college bound population.
Stakeholder Engagement to Develop Your Plan: How did you engage stakeholders in the process of developing this plan?
Stakeholders were involved in Race to the Top planning at the outset of the process. The committee is comprised of four district office administrators, 3 building administrators (one from each school), the School Board president, and staff members from each building. Among these were a teacher from the elementary school, a teacher and a counselor from the middle school, and two teachers from the high school. One teacher specifically served as the Woodbridge Education Association representative.
The committee completed data and root cause analyses in initial meetings, and then were given the task of developing and prioritizing activities to meet the district needs. Sample evidence is contained in the appendix.
The committee met monthly since September, with five full-day workdays, as well as a few after-school meetings to work through the needs and activities. As drafts were completed, they were distributed to all members of the committee for review, and revisions were made after further discussion.
A special public board meeting was held on Monday, April 4 to present the Race to the Top application to the Woodbridge Board of Education. As there were proposed personnel cited in the document, the committee thought it prudent to get the board’s approval prior to the submission of the draft.
All building personnel were addressed twice throughout the process to apprise them of how the Race to the Top application may affect them as a group and individually. Presentations were done by various committee members.
A public relations campaign that occurred prior to a recent major capital building referendum (passed March 29, 2011), included information to the public regarding the primary objectives of this Race to the Top proposal. It included an increase in STEM offerings and associated career options for our students. Information regarding the proposed programs at the new school was distributed during 23 community presentations given by the Superintendent from January 21 to March 17. In addition, a print ad appeared in the Sussex County Post on March 23. This paper outlined the High School program proposal and provided an explanation of the changes as outlined in our Race to the Top plan.
The Race to the Top application has been posted on the district website, and it is noted that it is pending approval from the Delaware Department of Education.
Common Measures and Targets: The state has defined fourteen Common Measures with corresponding state targets. Please specify your LEA’s targets for each of these common measures.
Common Measures[1] / LEA Baseline (cite date) / LEA Targets / Relevant State target
2010-11 / 2011-12 / 2012-13 / 2013-14
% meets standard on DCAS Reading / 69.5%
DSTP / 78%
Subject to change based upon new DCAS assessment results / 85% / 90% / 100% / 100% by 2013-14
% meets standard on DCAS Mathematics / 69.5%
DSTP 2010 / 75%
Subject to change based upon new DCAS assessment results / 81% / 87% / 100% / 100% by 2013-14
% meets standard on DCAS Science / 4-97.1
6-82.9
8-54.1
11-33 / TBD
New grades taking DCAS 2010-2011 / TBD / TBD / 100% / 100% by 2013-14
% meets standard on DCAS Social Studies / 4- 75.3
6-73.6
8-45.9
11-22 / TBD
New grades taking DCAS 2010-2011 / TBD / TBD / 100% / 100% by 2013-14
% advanced on DCAS 4th Grade Mathematics / 4 students – preliminary data based upon Winter DCAS / +10 Students / +6 students / +6 students / 60% proficient on NAEP by 2015
% advanced on DCAS 4th Grade Reading / 8 Students / +8 students / +6 students / +6 students / 55% proficient on NAEP by 2015
% advanced on DCAS 8th Grade Mathematics / 2 students – preliminary data based upon Winter DCAS / +12 Students / +6 students / +6 students / 55% proficient on NAEP by 2015
% advanced on DCAS 8th Grade Reading / 17 students – preliminary data based upon Winter DCAS / +6 Students / +6 students / +6 students / 55% proficient on NAEP by 2015