Unified Improvement Planning: Overview for Health and Wellness Champions In 2008, Colorado introduced the Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) to streamline the improvement planning components of state and federal accountability requirements. This process reduces the total number of separate plans schools and districts are required to complete with the intent of creating one plan that has true meaning for its stakeholders. Schools and districts are required to publicly post their improvement plans through the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) web site (www.schoolview.org), Due to this, the UIP also provides a mechanism for external stakeholders to learn about schools’ and districts’ improvement efforts. The state accountability system focuses on four Performance Indicators: 1. Academic Achievement 3. Academic Growth Gaps
2. Academic Growth 4. Post-Secondary and Workforce Readiness
These priorities are determined by federal requirements (such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)); state mandates (such as the Student Graduation and Completion Plan (from HB 09-1243) and the Education Accountability Act (SB 09-163)); district requirements and school initiatives.
Timeline The UIP is a continuous improvement process that allows schools and districts to continuously check and monitor progress. Each year, schools and districts are required to submit a two-year unified improvement plan that is revised and updated to reflect the current and following school year on at least an annual basis with data reviewed at least quarterly. Key Dates: August 15th - CDE issues School Performance Framework September - CDE issues pre-populated template and initial plan type to all schools and districts January 15th - The following must submit a UIP for review by CDE: • Schools with a Turnaround or Priority Improvement plan type, Tiered Intervention Grant (TIG) awardees, Title I Priority and Focus Schools • Districts with a Turnaround or Priority Improvement plan type, Targeted District Improvement plan type (TDIP), Student Graduation Completion plan designation and Title III Program Improvement April 15th - All school and district UIPs are submitted to CDE for publication on SchoolView
Who Completes the UIP? This can vary per school, but in general, planning teams consist of building leadership, teacher representatives and parent and/ or community representatives. In fact, schools must consult with parents, school staff, their district staff and outside experts to review and help develop their UIP. Who takes the lead? Typically at the district level, Superintendents, District Assessment Coordinators, District Accountability Contacts, Federal Programs Coordinators, Chief Academic Officers, among others, may take on this role. Typically at the school level, principals, instructional coaches, teachers on special assignment (TOSA), among others, may take on this role.
W W W. C O L E G A C Y. O R G
Processes of the UIP 1. Narrative on Data Analysis a. Review of all data points available to identify notable trends and performance challenges. 2. Target Setting a. Prioritize performance challenges using specific statements about student performance that reflect the magnitude of the challenges. b. Root Cause Analysis will identify the underlying causes of prioritized performance challenges. c. Set performance targets that will focus improvement efforts for the next two years. 3. Action Planning a. Identify Major Improvement Strategies with corresponding action steps that should eliminate or correct root causes and ultimately, prioritized performance challenges. 4. Progress Monitoring a. Identify Implementation Benchmarks, or the measure (with associated metrics) used to access the degree to which action steps have been implemented.
Where Does Health and Wellness Fit In? One of the most powerful policy levers would be one that integrates health and safety promotion into the fundamental mission of schools and into the accountability system to ensure implementation and monitoring. The UIP processes provide a vehicle to: • • • • • •
Emphasize how health and wellness strategies support overall performance at the school and district Allow for accountability for school health outcomes Support for ongoing health-related professional development for all school staff Encourage data driven decisions Act as the driving force for funding and decision-making Encourage parent and community involvement
Gathering and Organizing Relevant Data CDE pre-populates the UIP with achievement data, i.e. Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) scores (Colorado’s standards-based assessment designed to provide a picture of student performance), academic growth gap data and graduation rates. However, it is a common misconception that the pre-populated data is the only data that can be included. http://www.cde.state.co.us/uip/Downloads/UnifiedImprovementPlanning/PreparingToPlan_Table1.pdf In fact, CDE encourages schools and districts to use their own local data for a rich analysis. This data can include: climate surveys, Healthy Kids Colorado/Youth Risk Behavior Survey, School Health Index, student perception data, breakfast participation rates, Safety and Discipline Incidence Data, student attendance/absences, number of visits to the school nurse, staff characteristics, etc. Schools should address other factors that influence learning, such as health and safety in the UIP. There is nothing restricting the inclusion of these strategies. A growing body of research suggests that educational improvement efforts that only focus on instruction, assessments, standards or effective educators can be of limited benefit because they do not address student
motivation and ability to learn. As an evidence-based strategy to improve student outcomes, improvement efforts must also take into consideration student health, engagement, safety and other factors that influence learning, especially for low-income students experiencing barriers to learning. It comes down to what do you know about the needs of the students you serve and what are you willing to do to meet those needs and reach academic achievement goals? At this point, the most common health and wellness factors represented in the UIP are culture/climate, parent engagement and behavior. These are often found in the data narrative section (Section 3) and within action steps identified to meet Major Improvement Strategies.
Elements to Consider in the uip: Elements
Processes of the UIP Data Analysis
Root Cause
Action Planning
Progress Monitoring
• Strategies that specifically address relevant academic achievement problems: E.g., Breakfast in the classroom, physical activity breaks and bullying prevention measures.
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• Family and community components: Include parents and community partners in the process; they are often the biggest voice and catalyst for change.
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• Data collection: Ideally, to incorporate data into the UIP, you need 3 years of trend data (see examples of data above).
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• Leadership and professional development: E.g., Train staff on health education, the health and learning connection, bullying prevention, etc. •
After/before school opportunities shown to improve academic and student outcomes: E.g., Girls on the Run, Gay Straight Alliances, etc.
• School climate: I.e., How do students perceive the school; do they feel engaged, safe?
According to CDC’s 2010 School Health Profiles, throughout the nation, secondary schools are including health related goals and objectives in their school improvement plans: • • • • •
61% include Healthy and Safe School Environment 61% include Family and Community Involvement 35% include Health Education 36% include Physical Education and Physical Activity 30% include Nutrition
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“We just finished our Unified Improvement Plan. In that plan there is a whole process where we can plug in assessment and observational data. We can analyze how we did last year, and set goals for the following year. We are also including three overarching goals for next year; one of them is a safe, healthy and collaborative school environment.” -Gunnison Elementary, Gunnison School District
State Examples of School Improvement Plans: Arkansas: Requires one wellness priority, based on School Health Index results, be written into the improvement plan annually. North Dakota: Requires schools to use data on health, nutrition, safety, school environment, employee wellness, and attendance and discipline records to make decisions about school improvement and professional development needs. Rhode Island: District strategic plans must incorporate a health component from recommendations provided by the District Health and Wellness Subcommittees. Washington: All elementary schools include 3 goals in their improvement plans: 1) Reading; 2) Math; 3) Implementing Coordinated School Health.
Examples from Colorado Sheridan School District: • Major Improvement Strategy #3: A positive climate and culture exists as evidenced by Positive Behavior Support system, implemented with fidelity, parent and community involvement and a sense of community as evidenced by (strategy): Recognition and Communication. • Root Cause(s) Addressed: According to the School Climate Survey, only 53% of students report that they feel comfortable asking for help when they fall behind in school. • Action Steps: Recognition of all students and communication with all students and parents will ensure that even the most disenfranchised families will find a staff member at school with whom they can communicate. Adams 14 School District: • Major Improvement Strategy #4: Effective Middle Years Transitions to High School. • Root Cause(s) Addressed: Insufficient attention to early warning signs in elementary and middle schools (e.g. poor attendance, behavior issues, course failure). • Action Steps: Determine risk levels of students and develop intervention plan for highest risk students. Using a modified check and connect protocol, a counselor will meet with each student monthly, tracking the success of interventions in helping students stay on track to transition to high school at grade level. Colorado Springs District 11: • Major Improvement Strategy #3: Create a positive climate and culture as evidenced by Positive Behavior Support system, implemented with fidelity, parent and community involvement and a sense of community. • Root Cause(s) Addressed: Behavior issues with students cause lost instructional time. • Action Steps: Evaluate bullying with the goal of elimination of this behavior through rubric for safe schools. Center Consolidated Schools: Data used in UIP includes, among others: • Student Learning Data – Student Early Warning System data • Local Demographic Data – Student characteristics, Staff characteristics, Student attendance/absences, Safety and Discipline Incidence Data • District Processes Data – Family/community involvement policies/practices, Professional development structure, Dropout Prevention and Student Engagement Practices Assessment • Perception Data – Teaching and learning conditions survey (TELL Colorado), Perception survey data (e.g., parents, students, teachers, community, school leaders), School climate/prevalence of risk surveys (e.g., Health Kids Colorado Survey)
What questions can I ask to get this conversation started in my school/district? Getting Started/Local Infrastructure: • Who is responsible for facilitating the UIP? Who makes up the UIP planning team? • What information/resources do you need to be able to start thinking about integrating health into UIP? • What are the Major Improvement Strategies of your school’s/district’s UIP? – How can health and wellness be aligned? • How do I elevate the relationship of health and wellness to local priorities so that it is considered being included in the UIP?
– Can it be or has it been applied to the UIP? – Check out CDE’s Inventory of Other Data to help get you organized, click here. • What data does the school or district need? What data can I start collecting now? – Has the school or district collected culture and climate data? • How could you support the UIP planning team to understand how to utilize/analyze available health and wellness data to make sense with other measures/ metrics?
Data Analysis: • What health and wellness data is your school or district already collecting? – How long has your school or district been collecting this data?
Action Planning: • What community partners and/or parents can you collaborate with?
Big Ideas - UIP and Health and Wellness: • The UIP is a flexible planning document that can be used to highlight health and wellness strategies as a way to bolster student success in schools. Planning teams need to determine what makes the most sense given local context. A good place to begin is by organizing health and wellness data, such as a climate survey data, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey or other local healthrelated information. This data can strengthen the data narrative and root cause analysis. This data can also be used as an interim measure (target setting section) or as implementation benchmarks (action planning section). • Look at the local values of your school board and school’s/district’s vision and mission. How are you doing in relation to those values? - Health and wellness fits well here. • Look at local expectations set by your local board, school/district and legislation. How are you holding yourselves to those expectations and what do you need to do to improve?
• Consider a holistic approach to your UIP. For example, look at the needs of the whole child in relation to the data points available. • Find out who is on the UIP planning team and invite yourself to the meeting. – State why you need to be at the table when student achievement is being discussed and present valuable information the team will need to know. (E.g. ECEA required SPED Program Evaluation, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, School Climate Survey data, research connecting health and wellness to academic achievement). Use these items to leverage participation and get your foot in the door. • What other departments should I involve: Special Education (SPED), English Language Acquisition, Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO), Counselors, Nurses, Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS), Drop-out Prevention
For more information regarding the UIP process, please visit: www.cde.state.co.us/uip/index.asp. Please contact Lisa Medler, medler_l@cde.state.co.us or 303-866-6993. For more information about health and wellness, please visit: www.colegacy.org. Please contact Amy Dyett, adyett@colegacy.org or 303-736-6477 ext. 216.
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