Transcript School Improvement Plan 2011-12

Silas Deane Middle School
Steven J. Cook, Principal
Cynthia Fries, Assistant Principal
October 22, 2013
Wethersfield Board of Education

2 Goals - Performance and progress on the
academic learning measures in the state’s
accountability system for schools
◦ School wide SPI Progress
◦ School wide SPI subgroup Progress

3 Goals - Performance and growth on locally
determined measures
◦ Non-tested subject or grades (high school must include
graduation goal)
◦ Two more Student Learning Goals – indicators may focus
on student results from a subset of teachers, grade
levels, or subjects


At this time the CSDE has not released School
Performance Index data.
This data will be shared once available.
Goal 1
 The number of RTC (Responsible Thinking
Classroom) referrals will decrease by 5
percent from spring 2013 to spring 2014.



RTC is a positive behavioral support for
students.
It allows students to reflect on their negative
behaviors and not repeat them.
By intervening with students with high
numbers of RTC visits, there will be more
minutes spent in the classroom working
towards the mastery of learning concepts.



Administration will provide all staff with a bi-weekly
update of all students who chose to attend the
Responsible Thinking Classroom
Administration will meet with academic teams to
discuss strategies designed to keep students in the
classroom
At weekly data team/support staff meetings,
administration and support staff will determine best
strategies to support student making better
decisions



Support staff will meet with high frequency
students bi-weekly to provide feedback and to
design intervention strategies. They will also
involve parents in the process
Teachers will develop alternative management
strategies to re-engage students
Through the implementation of the
Advisor/Advisee Program, students will establish
positive relationships with staff which will
support positive classroom environments
Goal 2
 Silas Deane Middle School students will show
an average of 12% growth in writing during
the 2013- 2014 school year as determined by
the fall Writing to Sources Assessment
compared to the spring.


Based on student performance on the
2012-2013 CMT, writing is a focus area.
If district-wide curriculum, Writer’s
Workshop, and data team initiatives are
implemented with fidelity across both grade
levels students will show improvement in the
Writing to Sources Assessment



Utilize Columbia Teachers’ College writing
rubric to monitor progress and assess
student writing
Teacher evaluation goals for all staff centered
on improving writing for all students, some
with an emphasis on males
Implement Writing To Sources assessment to
be administered and scored by ELA and Social
Studies teachers


Implement Common Core Standards through
the use of the Writing Workshop model and
provide ongoing support
Develop collaborative processes to analyze
student work, monitor student progress and
adjust curriculum and instruction to meet the
diverse needs of all students (content teams
and data teams)
Goal 3
 Silas Deane Middle School students will show
an average of a 10 point increase in math
during the 2013- 2014 school year as
determined by the MCAP district assessment
while addressing the Smarter Balanced
Assessment Claims for Concepts and
Procedures, Problem Solving, Communicating
Reasoning and Modeling and Data Analysis.


As evidenced by the 2013-2014 CMT’s, math
is a focus area.
If district and school-wide curriculum
implementation and data team initiatives are
implemented with fidelity across grades 7
and 8, students will show growth on the
MCAP over the course of the 2013-2014
school year

Implementation of the new common core
based curriculums in both Pre-Algebra and
Algebra

Utilizing the Math Workshop model

Creating Student Learning Objectives (SLO’s)
focused around the Smarter Balanced Claims

Increasing the amount of writing in math with
a focus on problem solving


Implementation of data teams and the
continued PLC content meetings to identify
struggling learners and teaching strategies
Development of an extended day SRBI
initiative to support identified students in
need of remediation

1 Goal - Teacher Practice
◦ What will be the building level focus to improve
classroom instruction? Consider the bottom lines,
Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument
(Danielson, 2013) and district focus areas.

1 Goal - Team Improvement Goal
◦ Based on The Seven Stages of Professional
Learning. What is the goal related to data teams?

1 Goal - School Climate and Culture
◦ Consider stakeholder feedback survey data (parent
and staff)
90% of teachers will effectively implement
student feedback strategies as determined by
the Danielson Rubric

Domain #3 in the Danielson Rubric focuses
directly on questioning techniques with
relation to student feedback. In order to
achieve this goal, consistent collaboration,
professional discussion and reflection must
take place across all content areas and grade
levels with the focus of providing student
feedback.

Utilize content collaborative time to share best
practices on providing student feedback

Implement standards based grading for the purpose
of discussion of concept mastery with students


SDMS staff will allow “Re-dos” for assessment and
part of the process is to receive feedback from staff
on how to improve their work and achieve content
mastery
All staff will utilize Advisor/Advisee program to assist
students in goal setting and providing feedback for
success



PowerSchool Parent Portal to be opened for
both parents and students
Support staff will conduct student interviews
to give students feedback on numerous
categories such as academic growth,
behavioral growth and social growth
SDMS staff will keep running logs of
conferences with students and feedback
given
By the end of the 2013-2014 school year,
100% of our grade level data teams will be
working at or above stage 5 (Analyzing Student
Learning) as described in the 7 Stages of
Professional Learning Teams Rubric.

This goal directly relates to the Wethersfield
School Improvement Plan of improving
instruction across all content areas. This goal
will emphasize using data to drive
instruction, will require continuous reflection
and collaboration, and will improve teaching
and learning. This goal can help to improve
learning for our subgroups, who historically
perform poorly on the CMT




Teachers will meet as professional learning
teams to plan collaboratively and analyze data
and identify students in need of support
Staff will view video clips of schools who have
successful data teams and elicit ideas
Staff will participate in a minimum of two
professional development opportunities focused
on implementation of data teams
Teachers will differentiate their individual
instruction to meet specific student needs
The percentage of parents who know how their
child is doing in school before they get their
childs’ report card will increase from 76% to
81% from spring 2013 to spring 2014

Based on parent feedback in the spring of
2013, SDMS staff determined to increase
communication in order for parents to be
more involved in the collaborative aspect of
learning for students.





Open the parent portal in PowerSchool, sending a
letter home to parents with directions so they
have access to their children's academic progress
Provide professional development for staff on
how to use the parent portal
The use of WikiSpaces & Team Blogs –
Development of a school blog: “The Lion’s Roar”
Email/call parents for positive reasons and for
intervention purposes with logs to be kept by
staff
“Positive Post Cards” to be sent home to update
parents of students performing well