Getting ahead
Truman Elementary School A Mock School Improvement Plan (SIP)
AHEAD SOLUTIONS
Prepared by Travis M. Landers in his pursuit of a Master’s degree in Education with a focus on ESL Learners at FHSU.
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Table of Contents 4-5
OVERVIEW
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PROBLEMS
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OUR PHILOSOPHY
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NEEDED INFORMATION
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ACTION STEPS
12-13
ISLLC STANDARD 6
PERCEPTUAL & TESTING DATA
ISLLC STANDARD 6
MEETING IT... JUSTIFYING IT...
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FINAL THOUGHTS
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SOURCES
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OVERVIEW
Travis has been at Truman for 2 years now. Before he had a position at another school in the district, Roosevelt Elementary School. TRAVIS M LANDERS PRINCIPAL AT TRUMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Understanding Truman Elementary BEGINNINGS
Truman elementary school is the largest elementary school in the district with 700 students. At Truman, we use the basal reading system in our classes. Recently, we have had lower scores in reading on state tests than we would have liked. This has gotten people in the community and parents concerned. The Parent Teacher Organ4
ization (PTO) has written me a letter describing what they feel are the problems with the reading program. Reacting to this, I asked our district reading supervisor to come observe some of our classes and see what she thought about the way we conduct classes. She admitted that there are areas we could improve on.
In the wake of this, the state has announced that they will be giving out grants to schools who plan to install researchbased reading programs. Our mission is to answer the concerns of the community, help our students, and get a grant to further our reading program. Come along as we explore this problem!
TRAVIS M LANDERS PRINCIPAL
The District
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PROBLEMS
Key points we’ve learned from 1
...spelling, phonics, and the overall content in the reading program deserve more attention. Our students don’t even know how to sound out words! MARY ELLEN SARCOZZI PTO PRESIDENT
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Teachers need a more balanced approach in reading class. They should focus on phonemic and phonetic skills, strategies to improve reading comprehension, and integrated writing activities. BETH RHINEHART DISTRICT READING SUPERVISOR
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hy·poth·e·siz·ing could it be.... STRIKING SIMILARITIES
There is more to the story. Besides the similarities in the comments to the left, there are other things both of our contacts have mentioned. The PTO president said that parents have noticed their children are not interested in reading these days. The district reading supervisor mentioned that during her observations, in a normal reading class: “...the story is read by the class and the students then complete workbook pages individually.“
I can’t help but think that a big part of our reading problem is how we are using our current reading system, the basal reading system. Others categorized this system as being: “too rigid and as containing bland, boring fiction, nonfiction and poetry that do not spark or support a child’s interest in learning to read. [It is] often said to stifle teachers’ creativity and to present a one-size-fits-all approach to reading instruction.“ 1 Perhaps we are not using this system correctly? [ see sources 1 ]
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PHILOSOPHY
ISLLC STANDARD
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The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards basically establishes guidelines for effective educational leaders.
An educational leader should promote the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.2
A Solid Plan Needs a Solid Foundation KEEP IN MIND
ISLLC’s standard six, which is written above certainly takes a lot into consideration. We know a bit about our problem as a school but mainly we just know our reading program needs a change. However, in doing so we have to keep all the aspects of the problem straight. We must work to ensure that all students are being represented in whatever solution we propose.
Not only that, we have to include the community, parents, teachers, the things listed above, and many other issues. It is enough to make you dizzy so how can we sort it all out. To do this we will use a technique developed by Victoria L. Bernhardt. Using her continuous improvement model will allow us to meet the ISLLC Standard 6 and ensure all our students are being thought of during the decision-making process. [ see sources 2 ]
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NEED TO KNOW
Some of the information we need still needs to be obtained.
Uncovering who we are and what we want DIGGING DEEPER
With ISLLC’s standard six in our mind we need to collect some information to get to the heart of our problem. The information provided by the PTO president and our district reading supervisor is good but we are missing so much. Why is this happening? In what grades? What groups of students are doing well? Do any of our current teachers have solutions? We need disaggregated cleaned up data to answer these questions and others. 10
We should collect: 1
Perceptual Data from: • Students • Parents • Teachers • Community Members
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More Testing Data: • State • MAP
ACTIONS
Actions to reach our goal 1
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Talk with PTO
District Reading Supervisor
Reassure them of their concerns. Get opinions with questionnaires. Ask for help building relationships with community and businesses for future projects.
Get her input on professional development. Get connections with other schools in the district to see what they are doing with their reading program.
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Gather Data
Keep Regulations in Mind
We need the data described on page 10 to make any kind of thoughtful decisions for our school and students. We need it disaggregated and organized.
We must collaborate with our district supervisors to make sure we meet all state and federal regulations. Also we need to keep standard 6 in mind.
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Find Our Gaps
Put Our Plan to Action
After we have all our nice cleaned up data, we need to determine the differences between our current state and where we want to be. This will determine our professional development focus and other means of attack.
This would include professional development for teachers, changes to structure of our school(teams, etc.), implementation of new systems to motivate our students, and more.
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ISLLC’s Standard 6
An educational leader should promote the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.2
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[ see sources 2 ]
JUSTIFICATION
Casting the NET meeting the Standard 6 Meeting the ISLLC’s standard 6 is so important because the heart of the guideline ensures that we have thought about everyone who is vital to our school.
Like a fisherman casts his net, we too must cast a wide enough process to collect all the opinions of our stakeholders and make them feel included.
Group Examined
How Examined
Students
Questionnaires, Testing Data(2 or more sets), Teachers’ opinions, Parents’ input Questionnaires throughout the professional development process PTO involved in voicing opinions through a questionnaire and helping create ties with the community for motivational projects and real world applications Chance to voice their opinions at open regular meetings monthly. Questionnaires will be made available.
Teachers Parents
Community Members
By using these tactics I think we have done a great preliminary job of including our stakeholders in our movement forward.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Lots more to uncover at Truman Elementary This case has a lot of interesting things going on. For me I see one underlying truth that seems to point to most of the problems in the school. BOREDOM From the initial information we got from the PTO and our reading supervisor, it seemed that classes are too boring. We need to make reading fun. We need to get our students interested to the point that they are using their free time to read. They need to discover the beauty and majesty of opening a good 14
book you can’t put down. Somewhere we have lost them. Without data to back up this hunch, though, it is nothing more than an unguided plunge into darkness. With an organization as important as a school, we can not afford to make unguided decisions. There are too many at risk. The plan outlined here gives us direction to uncover if these are the true causes of our failing reading program.
TRAVIS M LANDERS PRINCIPAL
Sources 1
“Benefits of Basal Reading Programs.” Demand Media. Tanya Lee, n.d. Web 10 May 2014.
2
“ISLLC Standards: Overview.” North Dakota Lead Center. School Leaders Licensure Assessment, n.d. Web 10 May 2014.
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Step into the Future
School Improvement Plan (SIP) Mock Project
Prepared by Travis M. Landers in his pursuit of a Master’s degree in Education with a focus on ESL Learners at FHSU
AHEAD SOLUTIONS