Themes, Objectives, and Year-One Initiatives and Action Steps 1. Use data to inform all instructional decisions. 2. Develop systems that support student-focused, data-based decision-making. a. Facilitate the accurate collection, analysis, use, and reporting of data. 1. Develop a District Data Team to review data reporting methods. 2. Create a data dictionary for the Academic Team. 3. Determine measurement tools. 4. Create an assessment schedule. 5. Develop standard reports. 6. Provide training and professional development on business rules for all personnel entering data.
7. Develop a schedule for checking for fidelity. 8. Collect staff feedback. 9. Develop a communications plan to keep staff informed. 10. Revise standard reports. b. Allocate resources according to researchbased best practices for student success. 1. Finalize the membership of the Budget and Program Evaluation Team. 2. Communicate to budget managers the Budget and Program Evaluation Team’s selection of programs and departments for evaluation. 3. Review requests for new funding.
4. Review and implement a prioritization process to evaluate budget additions, reductions, and reallocations, and present suggestions to the Board of Education. 5. Determine a list of programs to review in the fall of the 2020-2021 school year. 6. Provide the Board of Education an update about any requests for new funding for the 2020-2021 school year. 7. Present a draft of the 2020-2021 budget to the Board of Education. 8. Support the Board of Education in conducting the annual public budget hearing and considering approval of the 2020-2021 budget for publication.
Superintendent Shares Strategic Plan Update Among the priority student outcomes of the district’s strategic plan are increasing students’ reading proficiency by third grade and math proficiency by eighth grade. The district created a common assessment this year in order to identify the standards students have mastered and diagnose others they find challenging. This information serves valuable to teachers in modifying instruction. The common assessment, aligned with the Kansas State Assessments and administered across all Lawrence schools, evaluates student understanding on the standards being taught in third grade reading and grades 6-8 math. Standards are what the state expects students to know and be able to do at each grade level.
Third Grade Reading • Common assessment results show 15% of third graders at the mastery level, 46% nearing mastery, and 39% needing remediation on those reading standards. 12
MAY 2020
• State assessment results for third graders showed 47% in 2018 and 48% in 2019 scoring at levels 3 (meets standards) and 4 (exceeds standards) in reading. • AIMSWeb, a literacy assessment given in the fall and again in the winter to measure foundational skills, shows that most (76% in the winter of 2020) third grade students are at low risk of failing to meet the reading benchmarks.
Eighth Grade Math • Common assessment results show 26%, 30%, and 44% of eighth graders scoring at the mastery, nearing mastery, and remediation levels, respectively, on those math standards. • In 2018, 28% of eighth graders scored at levels 3 and 4 (meets and exceeds standards) on the state assessment in math, and in 2019, 30% of eighth graders scored at those levels.
