Draft 3/09/01

STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION DESIGN SYSTEM

SELF STUDY SUMMARY AND ACTION PLAN

School Years: 2001 - 2002, 2002 - 2003, 2003 - 2004

School: Mililani Uka Elementary

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

1. Community Profile

Established in 1974, Mililani Uka Elementary School is located in a predominantly middle class suburban community. Approximately 950 students are serviced on an 8.2 acre campus.

Provided below are key demographic information of the communities it serves:

TABLE 1. SCHOOL COMMUNITY DATA

School Community / State of Hawaii
Average Family Size / 3.1 / 3.6
Percent of Households with
School Age Children (4 -19) / 53.3% / 31.8%
Median Household Income / $59,162 / $38,829
Per Capita Income / $18,341 / $15,770
Percent of Households with Public Assistance income / 1.6% / 11.6%
Percent of children (3-19) below poverty level / 0.6% / 11.6%
Percent of children (4-19)
who are at risk / 0.0% / 2.1%

Conclusions Drawn from Demographic Data:

•The median household income of $59,162 is higher than the State’s median income of $38,829.

•The percent of households with school aged children in the school community is very high (53.3%) compared to the State’s percentage of 31.8%.

2. Student Data

TABLE 2. ENROLLMENT DATA

1998 / 1999 / 2000
Fall Enrollment / 1255 / 1032 / 1010
Number and percent of students enrollment for the entire school year / 1173
93.5% / 966
93.6% / 880
87.1%
Number and percent of students receiving free or reduced cost lunch / 235
18.7% / 177
17.2% / 209
20.7%
Number and percent of students in Special Education programs / 75
6.0% / 61
5.9% / 65
6.4%
Number and percent of students with Limited English Proficiency / 16
1.3% / 26
2.5% / 13
1.3%

TABLE 3. STUDENT ETHNICITY DESTRIBUTION

Ethnic Category

/

Percentage of Total Population

Japanese / 24.1%
White / 20.8%
All Others / 17.4%
Part Hawaiian / 10.9%
Filipino / 10.3%
Black / 4.3%
Hispanic / 3.5%
Portuguese / 2.6%
Korean / 2.3%
Hawaiian / 2.0%
Chinese / 1.5%
Samoan / 0.5%

TABLE 4. STUDENT ATTENDENCE AND ABSENCES

SY 1997-98 / SY 1998-99 / SY 1999-2000 / State Standard
Average Daily Attendance (%) / 95.9% / 95.9% / 95.8% / 95%
Average Daily Absences (days) / 7.1 / 7.5 / 7.7 / 9

Conclusions Drawn from Enrollment, Ethnicity, and Attendance Data

•Mililani Uka Elementary School became a K-5 school in the 1998 school year when Mililani Middle School opened.

•The enrollment has been declining slowly since 1998 when the Middle School opened

and Mililani Uka Elementary became a K-5 school.

-Enrollment is affected by the number of renters and military population. The military have been known to rent until military housing is available or upon transfer.

-Progressive aging of the community -- older children

•The number of students receiving free or reduced cost lunch is slightly increasing.

•Number of students in Special Education programs have been increasing.

•ESLL data -- currently there are 16 students in the ESLL program

•The attendance rate for the school has been consistent for the past three years and they meet the State’s Standards.

•The average daily rate of absences has also been consistent for the past three years and have been below the State’s Standard.

•There is a wide diversity of ethnic groups. The larger groups are Hawaiian, Filipino, Other (Guamanians, Pacific Islanders, Mixed Races), White and Japanese.

TABLE 5: STUDENT PERFORMANCE (SY 1999-2000)

READING COMPREHENSION / Grade 3 / Stanine Cluster % / Grade 5 / Stanine Cluster %
Stanine 9
Stanine 8
Stanine 7 / 6%
12%
18% / 36% / 10%
8%
14% / 32%
Stanine 6
Stanine 5
Stanine 4 / 28%
18%
12% / 58% / 23%
17%
14% / 54%
Stanine 3
Stanine 2
Stanine 1 / 2%
4%
1% / 7% / 9%
3%
3% / 15%
MATHEMATICS PROBLEM SOLVING / Grade 3 / Stanine Cluster % / Grade 5 / Staniine Cluster %
Stanine 9
Stanine 8
Stanine 7 / 18%
18%
13% / 49% / 12%
12%
18% / 42%
Stanine 6
Stanine 5
Stanine 4 / 23%
11%
12% / 46% / 16%
16%
12% / 44%
Stanine 3
Stanine 2
Stanine 1 / 3%
2%
1% / 6% / 6%
4%
3% / 13%
Reading Comprehension / Grade 3 Stanine Cluster % / Grade 5 Stanine Cluster %
Stanine 7-9 / 35% / 31%
Stanine 4-6 / 59% / 34%
Stanine 1-3 / 7% / 15%
Math Problem Solving
Stanine 7-9 / 49% / 43%
Stanine 4-6 / 45% / 43%
Stanine 1-3 / 6% / 14%

Conclusions Drawn from Student Performance Data

•Mililani Uka’s SAT scores indicate that current levels of student performance are at or above the National norms.

•Mililani Uka has achieved the State’ s honor roll status due to our grade 3 and grade 5 students scoring at or above the National norms on the SAT tests.

•In grade 3, 71% of the students scored at or above national 50th percentile in reading and 76% of the student scored at or above the national 50th percentile in math.

•In grade 5, 60% of the students scored at or above the national 50th percentile in reading and 62% of the students scored at or above the national 50th percentile in math.

•In grade 5, 14% of the students scored in the stanine cluster 1-3 for problem solving compared to 6% of grade 3 students.

•In grade 5, 15% of the students scored in the stanine cluster 1-3 for reading comprehension compared to 7% of the grade 3 students.

3. Staff and Class Size Information

TABLE 6. STAFF AND CLASS SIZE INFORMATION

Teaching Staff
Regular Instruction / 40
Special Education / 6
Supplemental Instruction / 4
Total number of persons assigned to teaching / 50
Teachers with 5 or more years experience in this school / 47
Teachers with 10 or more years experience in this school / 32
Teachers’ average years of experience / 20.6
Students per teaching staff member
Regular Education K-2 / 21
Regular Education 3-5 / 25
Special Education / 13
Administrative and Student Services Staff
Administrator / 2
Librarian, FTE / 1
Counselors, FTE / 3
SSC / 1
Speech Language Pathologist
(2 sharing 1 position) / 2
Communication Aide / 1
Number of Principals at this school in last 5 years / 3

TABLE 7. CLASSIFIED STAFF

Educational Assistants / 11
AEPL (foreign language) / 1
ESLL / 1
CSR / 2
Kumu / 3
PCNC / 1
PPT / 4
Health Aide / 1
SASA / 1
Clerk Typists / 3
Custodians / 5
Adult Supervisors / 8
Classroom cleaners / 6

Conclusions drawn from staff data

•Mililani Uka has an experienced teaching staff with an average of 20.6 teaching years of experience. This offers students a degree of expertise in curriculum, instruction and management.

•84% of the teaching staff has had more than 5 years of teaching experience in this school. In addition, 57% of the teaching staff has had 10 or more years of teaching experience in this school. This indicates a staff with stability.

•The 6 SPED teachers are SPED certified.

•In the past five years, the school has been under the leadership of 3 different principals and 3 vice-principals. Prior to the 1998-99 school year when the school had a split campus, the school had two vice-principals. Presently, there is only one vice principal.

  1. School Quality Survey

Mililani Uka faculty, randomly selected parents and grade 5 students participated in the pilot testing of the School Quality Survey administered in the Spring of 2000. Survey items are categorized into six dimensions: School Quality, Teaching and Learning, Safety and Well Being, Communication and Relationships, Involvement, and Satisfaction. These dimensions have to do with the quality of our educational program and our systems of staff development, evaluation and improvement toward the vision, goals, and objectives aimed at student achievement of the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards (HCPS II). For summary purposes, the “Strongly Agree” and “Agree” answers were combined into a single “Positive” category, which is shown in the table below.

TABLE 8. SQS DIMENSION SUMMARY

Dimension / Teachers / Parents / Students
School Quality / 57.4% / 68.1% / 75.8%
Teaching and Learning / 81.3% / 69.8% / 74.7%
Safety and Well Being / 75.6% / 74.0% / 64.4%
Communication and Relationships / 64.9% / 77.4% / 71.5%
Involvement / 80.6% / 77.7% / 80.5%
Satisfaction / 59.3% / 76.2% / 73.1%

Explanation of Data

•The SQS data was synthesized by the district staff and provided to the schools.

•The data was arrayed for the schools such that similar questions across the stakeholder groups were aligned to facilitate the analysis.

•The Leadership Team members met with the complex school renewal specialist and resource teacher to become familiar with a process to involve the entire staff in the analysis of the data and to familiarize them with the data collection tool for this data analysis activity.

•Once the process was clear, the Leadership Team members who are chairs for their respective Focus Groups, involved their Focus Group members, during a staff meeing, in the analysis of the SQS dimensions which were congruent with the responsibilities of each Focus Group. All Focus Groups, however, addressed the School Quality dimension of the survey.

•The areas identified as requiring further investigation to enable focused problem solving were: standards based learning, student safety, communication, resources, GLO 4.

Conclusions drawn from School Quality Survey

All participants rated the school favorably in all dimensions.

School Quality

•96% of the students feel that “their teachers expect them to do good work.”

•76% of the parents feel that “the school emphasizes student thinking and problem-solving, not just memory work.”

Teaching and Learning

•91% of the students feel that “their teachers explain what they want me to learn.”

•94% of the teachers feel that “they use a variety of teaching strategies and learning activities to help students learn.

Safety and Well Being

•76% of the students feel that “their school is a good place for learning.”

•85% of the teachers feel that “most students in the school are well behaved.”

•82% of the parents feel that “their child’s school is orderly, pleasant, and supports learning.

Communication and Relationships

•86% of the students feel that “their teachers care about them and treat them with respect.”

•84% of the teachers “encourage and welcome parents to the school.”

•77% of the parents feel “the school keeps them informed about what goes on at the school.”

Involvement

•87% of the students feel that “their parents make important decisions about their education.”

•92% of the teachers feel “they have a major role in standards-based curriculum development in their school.”

•93% of the parents “check their child’s homework regularly.”

Satisfaction

•87% of the students feel that “they are learning a lot from their teachers.”

•84% of the parents “are satisfied with their child’s school.”

Although the previous data shows an overall favorable response, below are some areas of concern as identified by the Focus Groups. These concerns will be addressed in our SID.

School Quality:

•58% of the students and 45% of the teachers feel that “our school offers quality educational programs and a variety of courses based on the HCPS II.

students58%

teachers45%

parents73%

Communication/Relationships

There is open communication among administrators, teachers, other

staff and parents.

Teachers52%

There is an “aloha” spirit with a feeling of “ohana” (family) in this school.

Students58%

Teachers50%

Parents74%

I give students and parents feedback on student progress and provide

suggestions for improvement when needed or requested.

Teachers98%

My teacher tells me how I’m doing and how I can improve.

Students77%

Teachers tell me how well my child is doing in his/her classes.

Parents78%

Safety and Well-Being/School Facilities

I feel safe in school.

Students68%

Teachers87%

Parents86%

I feel my child is free from threats, bullying , and harrassment at school.

Parents68%

Teaching and Learning

My teaching and learning activities are focused on helping students

achieve the HCPS II and the GLOS.

Students46%

Teachers 82%

I have the equipment and materials I need to teach effectively.

Students70%

Teachers52%

Parents64%

My homework assignments are appropriate and productive in

meeting the HCPS.

Students78%

Teachers76%

I give students a variety of ways to show how well they have

learned (ie. completing projects, portfolios, presentations)

Students81%

Teachers65%

Parents78%

5. Other School and Community Characteristics

•Mililani Uka has a tradition of excellence. It was recognized as Hawaii’s Blue Ribbon School in 1991-92. The school programs emphasize high academic standards, positive learning environment, and parental involvement. Fine arts, performing arts, and technology are infused into the curriculum.

•Mililani Uka has applied for and received funding for programs such as the Artist-in-the-School and Foreign Language (Japanese and Spanish).

•Over the past three years, the following grants were awarded:

-The Safe Schools grant provided para-professional teachers (PPT) who assist identified students in Grades 3-5 in the area of Reading.

-The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund Complex grant provided inservice for teachers to integrate technology in their curriculum. Students are provided computer lab time afterschool to work on projects. Complex technology workshops for students were held during Fall, Winter and Spring breaks. Parent workshops were also provided.

-Two Good Idea grants were awarded to Mililani Uka teachers the school year 2000-2001.

-District Goals 2000, Eisenhower, Title VI, and Safe Schools grants provided professional development in the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics Standards Implementation.

•Students in grades 4 & 5 can volunteer to be in the school chorus. The chorus meets every Wednesday afternoon to prepare for school assemblies and community programs, such as the Wellness Fair, the Christmas program at the Wahiawa Skilled Nursing Facility and the Mililani Complex Music Festival.

•Students in grade 5 are offered an afterschool Strings program by the Mililani Middle School Music Department.

•The JPO program consists of grade 5 students who volunteer their time so that the students can cross the streets safely in the mornings and afternoons. Their presence helps alleviate traffic congestion at the beginning of each school year. They diligently raise and lower the American and Hawaiian flag each school day.

•The Primary School Adjustment Project (PSAP) is a program which gives identified K-3 students additional help to adjust to school and to the classroom.

•Peer Mediators are selected students from Grades 3-5 who are trained to mediate problems that occur among their peers during the school day. During recesses, peer mediators, who are easily identified by their orange vests, are available to mediate any dispute.

•To increase drug awareness, the school institutes the first Wednesday of every month as Wear Red Day. Each student and staff member is encouraged is wear red to show support of a drug free lifestyle.

•Each year, selected 3rd, 4th and 5th graders participate in the Mililani Mauka Invitational Cross Country Meet in the Fall. Selected 5th graders participate in the Mililani Drug-Free Schools Invitational Track Meet in the Spring.

•To encourage and school spirit, students and staff are encouraged to wear a blue or school T-shirt on the first Friday of every month.

•Every month, two students from each classroom are recognized as a Ha’aheo student and NaHoku student. The Ha’aheo student is one who demonstrates academic excellence and exemplary citizenship. The Na Hoku student is recognized for his/her perseverance in improving academically and socially. The students are recognized at a monthly assembly. Parents of recipients are invited to the assembly.

•The Mililani Uka Student Council consists of students in grades 4 and 5. They initiate school spirit activities, plan and conduct school assemblies, and attain funds through aluminum can recycling drives. This year, all funds raised through can reycling went to obtaining playground equipment. In the past, funds raised supported the school’s technology program by purchasing printers and video equipment. Student Council representatives keep all classrooms, grades K-5, informed of Council activities.

•The Hui O’Mililani Uka (parent, teacher organization) is very active and provides funds to supplement the school budget. The Hui has been instrumental in securing funds for much needed playground equipment, library materials, chorus, JPOs, and student activities such as the grade 5 camp and field trip expenses for the grade levels. The Hui is extremely supportive of Mililani Uka’s teachers. Yearly, the Hui provides funds to support teacher development and to purchase classroom materials.

•Mililani Uka is a SCBM school since 1993. The SCBM council has continued to support initiatives at our school such as a modified school calendar and waiver days to work on implementing standards based education.

•School Counseling Program consists of Career Kokua, divorce support group, anger management, social skills, asthma support group, and new student/family orientation.

•Mililani High School provides activities involving our students such as Chemistry Outreach, Winter Math Day and Math Olympics. These activities provide our students an opportunity to interact positively with high school students.

6. School’s Vision and Mission

The Mililani Uka’s Vision and Mission were developed through the collaborative and inclusive Focus on Learning process over 4 years ago. Through the SCBM process, parent and community support were obtained. The School’s Vision and Mission were revisited in Spring 2000 as part of the SID process. Through the process, GLO4 was selected to best fulfill our Vision and Mission.

Vision:

•Excellence at our school is everyone continually working together as lifelong learners

to be responsible citizens.

Mission:

•Our mission is to provide an environment that nurtures student(s) potential

(toward/and/for) lifelong learning through effective guidance.

  1. Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs) and General Learner

Outcome (GLO) focus

Mililani Uka has used the FOL process to involve all stakeholders in the development of their Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs). The ESLRs developed by the school are listed below:

•Effective Communicator

•Lifelong Learners

•Problem Solvers and Critical Thinkers

•Academic Achievers

•Responsible and Productive Citizens

•Collaborative Worker

In the Spring of 2000, the Standards Implementation Process was shared with the

faculty. The first step involved aligning the school’s ESLRs to the GLOs as follows:

GLOsESLRs

1. Ability to be responsible for one’s •Life-long Learners

learning •Responsible & Productive Citizens

2. The understanding that it is •Effective Communicators

essential for human beings to •Collaborative Worker

work together.

GLOSESLRs

3. The ability to be involved •Problem Solvers & Critical Thinkers

in complex thinking and problem solving.

4. The ability to recognize and produce •Academic Achiever/Quality

quality performance and quality Producers & Performers

products.

To identify the GLO focus for the school, the SRS met with the Leadership Team weekly to provide an opportunity to experience a process by which teachers would be

able to identify the GLO which they believed would best fulfill the school’s Vision and Mission. This process honored the teacher’s knowledge and experience as a way to identify the GLO for which data would then have to be collected. After much discussion, the staff came to an understanding that to recognize and produce quallity performance/products, one must be responsible for one’s learning, understand that human beings must work collaboratively, and be able to engage in complex thinking and problem solving. Hence, consensus was reached to focus on GLO 4.