Ware County Schools

Consolidated Application FY16

Ware County School District System

FY16 – Consolidated Application

Narrative

  1. A description of the process the LEA used to determine the academic needs of its student body including the unique needs of students served through each applicable federal program. An analysis of the results should be included.

Ware County School District is committed to high-level education that will ensure all students are successful, productive citizens in society. The LEA contains one Pre-K school, six elementary schools, two middle schools, and a 9-12 high school. Ware County School District serves approximately 6154Pre-K-12 students. The Pre-K school, DAFFODIL, is the only school within the LEA that is not a Title I school. DAFFODIL serves approximately 396students and is funded partially by the “Bright from the Start” grant as well as local funds.

Needs Assessment Process

Ware County School District is actively involved in a variety of processes in order to analyze and address the needs of all students in the school system. A Title II-A needs assessment survey was conducted in April/May of 2015. The assessment results provided an opportunity for input from the LEA’s stakeholder groups. Teachers, leadership, paraprofessionals, parents, and community members/leaders participated in the appropriate group version of the survey. The needs assessment survey was conducted electronically. Paper copies for parents were also advertised and available in all schools’ front offices. Publicity regarding the survey was in the local newspaper and through written communication from the schools. A link to the parent survey was available on the LEA’s home page and each individual school’s parent portal through the district’s SIS. Home language needs were met by providing other translations. An additional Professional Learning Survey was also conducted in Spring, 2015 with teachers, paraprofessionals, and leadership in order to analyze the effectiveness of ongoing and FY15 professional learning opportunities and also identify further need areas. The LEA met with higher education representatives regarding the results of the needs assessment and areas for future collaboration. Okefenokee Regional Educational Services Agency (OKRESA) facilitated the meeting with regional districts and will continue to assist with building this continued partnership.

All schools have completed the Title II-A Needs Assessment Worksheet for FY16. The results have been compiled and presented to the Superintendent’s Cabinet for prioritization. The analysis from that meeting was developed into the prioritized list for the district.

The assessment results provided data on sub-groups’ performance; areas of needed professional learning in order to continue to meet diverse students’ needs; information about the retention rate of new teachers; identification of areas of need for parental involvement and assistance; and evidence regarding parental perception of school climates.

The Title II-A Needs Assessment Survey, Annual Professional Learning Effectiveness Survey, data from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission MYSPA School Personnel Analysis reports, the Title I Comparability report, state CCRPI reports, Student Growth Model reports, individual school and district level Balanced Scorecards, and the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement’s district and school report cards have all provided insight into the LEA’s progress and needs. The Spring 2015 Title II-A Needs Assessment Surveys and local teaching assignments, recruitment, and retention reports have been collected and analyzed.

During the 2014-2015 school year, the LEA conducted a comprehensive strategic planning process which included peer review and focused technical support. Internal and external stakeholders were important to this planning process. A site-based School Improvement Planning Team consists of teachers, administrators, parents, and student representatives, where appropriate. The School Site Council includes parents, teachers, school leadership, and business/community members/leaders. Stakeholders are also involved at the school level in addressing the recruitment and retention needs of each school through the school improvement planning process. A variety of business/industry and community organizations partner with the district in order to serve on advisory committees, participate in improvement planning, and take part in educational activities with teachers and students. The LEA collaborates with partners in Higher Education in order to meet the needs of staff and also to insure that students are prepared for post-secondary endeavors.

Using the Georgia School Standards (GSS), all individual school improvement plans (SIPs) are developed based on the needs assessments including an emphasis on the Title II-A Needs Assessment Worksheets and current student assessment data. All SIPs are aligned with current district-level goals and objectives. The individual schools’ Comprehensive Needs Assessments/Balanced Scorecards (BSCs) and site-based SIPs are consolidated into the district-level BSC and the Comprehensive Local Improvement/Implementation Plan (CLIP) descriptors. Priority areas are addressed to provide for improved student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Areas where student progress meet or exceed standards are also studied so that highly qualified teachers and appropriate educational programming can be enhanced. The system's main focus is on ensuring that all sub-groups of the student population are included in curricula and instruction that meet their needs within the differentiated standards-based classroom.

Site-based SIP Teams consist of teachers, parents, and student representatives where appropriate. School Site Councils include parents, teachers, and business/industry representatives. Business/industry, higher education, and community organizations partner with the system in order to serve on advisory committees, participate in improvement planning, and take part in educational activities with teachers and students. A Title I parent meeting for CLIP is conducted annually as well as components discussed at local school parent involvement meetings.

Formal collaboration occurs across the system through annual SIP peer reviews. GAPSS-based action plan benchmark reporting is required each nine weeks andeffectively provides for review in implementing school improvement plans. All schools also provide model evidence of links between the benchmark strategies’ implementation and the direct impact on student achievement. Monitoring of the school improvement process and documentation is done through the Office of Student Achievement in concert with the Title ProgramsCoordinator. Technical assistance is provided as needed.Once the current data and responses from the stakeholders’ needs assessments are analyzed, and SIPs are created in order to plan for the new school year, strategies are immediately implemented in order continue to meet the diverse needs of individual learners including all sub-groups, Migrant, Students with Disabilities, English Learners, and Homeless students.

Recruitment

The LEA is committed to a comprehensive teacher recruitment program which will be supported with Title II-A funds in FY16. The Director of Human Resources attends recruitment fairs throughout the year at colleges and universities and other venues statewide. Other district employees and community representatives participate in recruitment efforts by paper screening applications and being a part of interview panels. These recruitment panels include regular education and special education representatives and minority teachers in an effort to attract more special education and minority teachers to the LEA. In FY15, the Director of Human Resources did attend one job fair within the state to recruit highly qualified teachers. This endeavor was supported by local funding. The Director of Human Resources left the position at mid-year. A new Director of Human Resources was named in May of 2015. The new Director is firmly committed to utilizing recruitment in order to meet the needs of the system and provide for serving Ware County’s diverse student population.

Retention

According to the latest GAPSC MYSPA School Personnel Analysis report, most of the Ware County Title I schools exceeded the state average of 99.83% in regard to retention rates of teachers. William Heights Elementary’s retention rate is 99.99; WaconaElementary’s retention rate is 99.96%; Center Elementary’s retention rate is 99.94%; and Ruskin Elementary’s retention rate is 99.91%. Memorial Drive Elementary’s retention rate is 99.81% and WaresboroElementary’s retention rate is 99.79%. Ware County Middle School has a retention rate of 99.8% and Waycross Middle School with a retention rate of 99.92%. Ware County High School has a retention rate of 99.92%. Overall, the district retention rate is better than that of the state average.

Professional Learning

All facets of the Georgia School Standards (GSS) will continue to be embedded together for a systemic educational environment throughout the LEA. TKES and LKES will be used with all staff across the system FY16 to measure classroom effectiveness. By reinforcing professional goal setting and performance evaluations, with strong ties to student achievement, SY16 these evaluation instruments will provide the link between school/district improvement plans and professional growth. When working through instructional improvement processes and implementation, such as the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Math Design Collaborative (MDC), opportunities are provided for teachers that include in-depth training in developing rigor in producing students’ higher order thinking skills and differentiating instruction to meet students’ needs.

The Ware County LDC focuses on “incorporating literacy into middle and high school content areas. It is designed to make literacy instruction the foundation of the core subjects, Science and Social Studies. LDC allows teachers to build content on top of a coherent approach to literacy. This is drastically different than past, less structured notions of “adding” reading and writing when possible to the teaching of content.” (LDC Book, 2012). In FY16 LDC and MDC will be expanded into the elementary grades with the focus on incorporating project based learning. Soft data indicates with the implementation of the GA Milestones there continues to be a need for writing instruction across all grade levels and curriculums. The LEA continues to be proactive in the rollout of these assessments by incorporating professional learning to assist instruction and student learning. Designing constructed responses and extended responses in the Student Learning Objectives (SLO) testing process will provide opportunities for increasing student achievement. Unit learning tasks incorporating the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) continue to be made available to the teachers. Pacing guides provide further support in meeting student needs.

The MDC continues toprovide a vehicle for creating math unit learning tasks, building greater depth of content, and is assisting in moving each student’s reasoning abilities forward. Formative and summative assessments and resulting analysis are vital in implementing this initiative. System content specialists, teachers, GaDOE personnel and Math RESA consultants will continue to participate in the MDC annually.

The GaDOE’sSummer 2015 Math Academy provided focused content specific training for 9-10 math teachers in order to assist with professional growth and increase student achievement in this need area.College and career readiness begins in the elementary schools, continues in middle school, and culminates at the high school level. A continued emphasis on academic/CTAE curriculum infusion into career pathways and the use of the End of Pathways Tests (EOPA) provides a measure for technical skill mastery by the end of the senior year in high school.

Incorporating technology into the classroom continues to be a major focus of the LEA.A Title II-A District Instructional Technology Coach is available to work with all schools. The District Instructional Technology Coach will provide professional learning using multiple technology devices, including smartphones, iPads and Chrome Books, as tools in effective 21st Century instruction and learning. New teachers and veterans needing assistance will continue to be offered professional learning in the integration of technology in the classroom. Intermediate and advanced levels of training will be offered to all staff members.All professional learning and training for teachers, paraprofessionals, and school leaders is aligned with the LEA’s goals and objectives and is based on the comprehensive needs assessments. Participants are held accountable for follow through and implementation as evidenced by assigned documentation and materials, certificates of completion (i.e. FIP modules), classroom walk-throughs, TKES and LKES evaluation instruments, student progress reports, specific student performance data analysis, and other professional learning evaluation as needed.

Highly Qualified Status

The FY15 data indicate that the district is at 100% HiQ.

The FY15 data indicate that 100% of paraprofessionals are HiQ.

Teacher Experience

The average number of years of teaching experience for the LEA is 13.87 years. The experience continuity ratio is .88. At the elementary level the average years of experience is also 13.15 years with a continuity ratio of .90, at the middle school the average years of experience is 13.52 years, continuity ratio .86 and at the high school the average years of experience is 13.76, and the continuity ratio is .88.

Teacher Training to Meet Diverse Student Need

In order to meet the needs of teacher preparation and ability to meet the diverse needs of all students, the LEA has focused, intense professional learning and technical assistance planned for FY16. Using the information gathered during the Comprehensive Needs Assessment process in the Spring of 2015 the LEA will respond by providing professional learning to assist teachers. Responding to the changes in state curriculum requirements and analyzed individual student needs, staff will be supported through targeted professional growth opportunities that will include, but is not limited to:

Class Size

During the 2014-15 school year, the LEA’s class size average was 22.7:1. The elementary schools ranged from 23.5:1-18:1. The middle schools had a average class size average of 23.4:1. The high school had a class size average of 29.5:1.

Summary Analysis of Achievement Data

In FY15 the LEA used all of the following assessment tools: Student Learning Objectives (SLO), Benchmark assessments; End of Grade (EOG), End of Course (EOC), Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS), the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA), and the ACCESS for ELs. The Georgia Milestones data results will not be received/available until Fall 2015.

A thorough analysis of FY15 system assessment data has been conducted. Individual schools have also analyzed data in order to prepare for the FY16 school year. Meeting the needs of all students is a focus for school improvement planning along with data-driven decision making in implementation of programming. In the individual core content areas, district and school level goals have been set that align with the GaDOE’s performance targets. The system level and each school’s Balanced Scorecard/Comprehensive Needs Assessment (BSC) provide a summary of students’ performance. Goals for meeting the needs of identified sub-groups/content areas are set.

Data from Milestones End of Course (EOC) and End of Grade (EOG) will not be available until the fall of 2015. As such, the LEA analyzed data from benchmark assessments which were created at the system level and implemented in every school in our district. These assessments were designed utilizing the Georgia Standards of Excellence and were administered prior to the administration of the EOC’s and EOG’s. Utilizing benchmark data, the 1st grade average in Reading was 79.333, ELA was 78, Math 76.33, Science 85.5 and Social studies average for the system at the elementary school level was 70.83. The second grade benchmark assessments resulted in a 79.667 average for Reading, 76.667 in ELA, 75.83 in Math, 73.167 in Science and a 70 in Social Studies. Third grade students scored lower in all subject areas with a 66.33 in ELA, 57.83 in Math, 63.5 in Science and a 60.17 in Social Studies. The trend continued in fourth grade with the system average score for ELA being a 56.5, Math 52.33, Science 63.167 and Social Studies was a 53.17. The 5th grade students demonstrated an increase in system averages with a 74.67 in ELA. 63.17 in Math, 71.333 in Science and a 60.67 in Social Studies. Using a score of 70 as the achievement level score, overall the elementary schools in Ware County still identify ELA as an area of need and math continues to be a critical area of need.

The results indicated a need for more rigorous math, writing and reading instruction in our middle schools. Ware Middle and Waycross Middle students also scored lower in ELA with averages of 58.18 in ELA, 49.68 in Math, 57.64 in Science and 62.83 in Social Studies for 6th graders. Seventh grade students scored 49.61 in ELA, 39.92 in Math, 59.36 in Science and 65.97 in Social Studies. The eight grade student’s scores indicated growth in ELA with an average of 62.55, 48.26 in Math, 58.49 in Science and a 61.14 in Social Studies. These scores indicate a continuing concern in the areas of ELA and Math.

Data further supporting ELA as an area of critical need is the Writing score of students in grades 3rd-8th. Areas of weakness are Organization Purpose (weaker in the areas of introduction and conclusion), Evidence/Elaboration (weak in citations) and Language usage (spelling and word choice). As a system, we were below average in all three response detail categories of the Write Score diagnostic assessment.