Kickemuit Middle School
Bristol-Warren
The SALT Visit Team Report
March 18, 2005
School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT)
The school accountability program of the Rhode Island Department of Education
Rhode Island Board of Regents
for Elementary and Secondary Education
James A. DiPrete, Chairman
Jo Eva Gaines, Vice Chair
Colleen Callahan, Secretary
Frank Caprio
Representative Paul W. Crowley
Sue P. Duff
Senator Hanna M. Gallo
Gary E. Grove
Patrick A. Guida
Mario A. Mancieri
Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Peter McWalters, Commissioner
The Board of Regents does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, or disability.
For information about SALT, please contact:
Rick Richards
401-222-4600, x 2194
or
.
1. introduction 1
The Purpose and Limits of This Report 1
Sources of Evidence 2
Using the Report 2
2. PROFILE OF Kickemuit Middle School 4
3. PORTRAIT OF Kickemuit Middle School AT THE TIME OF THE VISIT 6
4. FINDINGS ON STUDENT LEARNing 7
Conclusions 7
Important Thematic Findings in Student Learning 9
5. FINDINGS ON Teaching for Learning 10
Conclusions 10
Commendations for Kickemuit Middle School 12
Recommendations for Kickemuit Middle School 12
6. FINDINGS ON SCHOOL support for learning and teaching 13
Conclusions 13
Commendations for Kickemuit Middle School 15
Recommendations for Kickemuit Middle School 15
Recommendations for Bristol Warren School District 15
7. Final Advice to KICKEMUIT MIDDLE SCHOOL 16
Endorsement of SALT Visit Team Report 17
report appendix 19
Sources of Evidence for This Report 19
State Assessment Results for Kickemuit Middle School 20
The Kickemuit Middle School Improvement Team 26
Members of the SALT Visit Team 27
Code of Conduct for Members of Visit Team 29
Kickemuit Middle School SALT Visit Team Report Page 27
1. introduction
The Purpose and Limits of This Report
This is the report of the SALT team that visited Kickemuit Middle School from March 14 through March 18, 2005.
The SALT visit report makes every effort to provide your school with a valid, specific picture of how well your students are learning. The report also portrays how the teaching in your school affects learning and how the school supports learning and teaching. The purpose of developing this information is to help you make changes in teaching and the school that will improve the learning of your students. The report is valid because the team’s inquiry is governed by a protocol that is carefully designed to make it possible for visit team members to make careful judgments using accurate evidence. The careful exercise of professional judgment makes the findings useful for school improvement because these judgments identify where the visit team thinks the school is doing well and where it is doing less well.
The major questions the team addressed were:
¨ How well do students learn at Kickemuit Middle School?
¨ How well does the teaching at Kickemuit Middle School affect learning?
¨ How well does Kickemuit Middle School support learning and teaching?
The following features of this visit are at the heart of the report:
Members of the visit team are primarily teachers and administrators from Rhode Island public schools. The majority of team members are teachers. The names and affiliations of the team members are listed at the end of the report.
The team sought to capture what makes this school work, or not work, as a public institution of learning. Each school is unique and the team has tried to capture what makes Kickemuit Middle School distinct.
The team did not compare this school to any other school.
When writing the report, the team deliberately chose words that it thought would best convey its message to the school, based on careful consideration of what it had learned about the school.
The team reached consensus on each conclusion, each recommendation and each commendation in this report.
The team made its judgment explicit.
This report reflects only the week in the life of the school that was observed and considered by this team. The report is not based on what the school plans to do in the future or on what it has done in the past.
This school visit is supported by the Rhode Island Department of Education as a component of School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT). To gain the full advantages of a peer visiting system, RIDE deliberately did not participate in the active editing of this SALT visit report. That was carried out by the team’s Chair with the support of Catalpa. Ltd.
The team closely followed a rigorous protocol of inquiry that is rooted in Practice-based Inquiry™ (Catalpa Ltd). The detailed Handbook for Chairs of the SALT School Visit, 2nd Edition describes the theoretical constructs behind the SALT visit and stipulates the many details of the visit procedures. The Handbook and other relevant documents are available at www.Catalpa.org. Contact Rick Richards at (401) 222-4600 x 2194 or for further information about the SALT visit protocol.
SALT visits undergo rigorous quality control. Catalpa Ltd. monitors each visit and determines whether the report can be endorsed. Endorsement assures the reader that the team and the school followed the visit protocol. It also assures that the conclusions and the report meet specified standards.
Sources of Evidence
The Sources of Evidence that this team used to support its conclusions are listed in the appendix.
The team spent a total of over 160 hours in direct classroom observation. Most of this time was spent in observing complete lessons or classes. Almost every classroom was visited at least once, and almost every teacher was observed more than once. Also, the team spent a total of 45 hours talking with teachers, staff and administration over the course of the visit.
The full visit team built the conclusions, commendations and recommendations presented here through intense and thorough discussion. The team met for a total of 33 hours in team meetings spanning the five days of the visit. This does not include the time the team spent in classrooms, with teachers and in meetings with students, parents, and school and district administrators.
The team did agree by consensus that every conclusion in this report is:
¨ Important enough to include in the report
¨ Supported by the evidence the team gathered during the visit
¨ Set in the present, and
¨ Contains the judgment of the team
Using the Report
This report is designed to have value to all audiences concerned with how Kickemuit Middle School can improve student learning. However, the most important audience is the school itself.
How your school improvement team reads and considers the report is the critical first step. RIDE will provide a SALT Fellow to lead a follow-up session with the school improvement team to help start the process. With support from the Bristol-Warren School Improvement Coordinator and from SALT fellows, the school improvement team should carefully decide what changes it wants to make in learning, teaching, and the school, and amend its School Improvement Plan to reflect these decisions.
The Bristol-Warren School Department, RIDE and the public should consider what the report says or implies about how they can best support Kickemuit Middle School as it works to strengthen its performance.
Any reader of this report should consider the report as a whole. A reader who only looks at recommendations misses important information.
2. PROFILE OF Kickemuit Middle School
Kickemuit Middle School is a regional school located near the Kickemuit River in Warren, Rhode Island. It serves students in grades six through eight from the towns of Bristol and Warren in southeastern Rhode Island. After forming one district in 1992, the two towns began to develop plans for a new middle school, which officially opened in September 1993 in the former Warren High School. This school served seventh and eighth grade students, while sixth graders attended the Guiteras School in Bristol. A new wing was completed that same year, and a second extensive addition was completed in 1998, which includes a library media center, a main office suite, a human services suite and three computer labs, 58 classrooms and various conference rooms. This allowed for grade six students in the regional district to join seventh and eighth graders under one roof.
Of the 841 students who currently attend Kickemuit Middle School, 61% live in Bristol and 39% live in Warren. Ninety-eight percent of the students are white, one percent is African-American, and one percent is Hispanic. Currently, 16% of the student population receives special education services, and 2.6% of the students receive ESL support. In addition, 29% of the students qualify to receive free or reduced price lunch as part of the federal school lunch program.
A principal, an assistant principal and a dean of students make up the administrative team at Kickemuit Middle School. The staff includes 58 full-time teachers, two full-time library-media specialists, two reading specialists/consultants, a literacy coach, three guidance counselors, three grade leaders, a half-time speech therapist, a social worker, a school psychologist, a student assistance counselor, a full-time nurse, a physical therapist, and an occupational therapist. Also supporting Kickemuit Middle School are 14 teacher assistants, eight secretaries, seven custodians and three maintenance members.
Supportive structures that are in place include a Language Arts Coordinator, who facilitates the development of literacy instruction blocks, and a guidance counselor/grade leader pair, who follow each class through its three years at the middle school.
Kickemuit Middle School allows students at all levels of ability and achievement to work in inclusive, heterogeneously grouped classes within their teams. The Life Skills program provides additional intensive service for students who require it. The school employs the Institute for Learning Principles of Learningä, especially Clear Expectationsä, Accountable Talkä and Academic Rigorä.
Teaching teams within the school vary in size from two to four teachers, with each team having a special education and/or an ESL teacher, along with teacher assistants, as supporting members of that team. There are four teams at each grade level: the sixth grade has two 2-teacher teams and two 4-teacher teams. Each of the seventh and eighth grades has one 2-teacher team and three 4-teacher teams. The Kickemuit staff supports the philosophy that the team concept benefits students in their transition from elementary school to high school by providing a smaller setting within a large school. Also, the team structure affords teachers an opportunity to individualize and differentiate their instruction, reinforce skills, and provide review, tutorials and remediation. The school carefully constructs the membership of each team.
Kickemuit Middle School offers a wide range of extra curricular activities. Students participate in more than 20 clubs and organizations led by faculty and staff members, as well as by parent volunteers. Thirty-five percent of Kickemuit Middle School boys and girls participate in interscholastic sports, such as soccer, cross-country, track and field, basketball, wrestling, cheerleading, and baseball, as well as several intramural sports. Other activities, such as Jazz Band, All State Band, Choral Festival and Solo and Ensemble Music Festival are offered. A theater group, the Masquers, established in 1997, produces plays, such as The King and I, the Miracle Worker, Really Rosie, Jungle Book, Tied to the Tracks, and Annie. This year’s production is Huck Finn: The Musical. Between 40 and 125 students participate in each Masquers performance. Many clubs, sports teams and organizations have received top awards at the state and regional levels. Several extracurricular activities, such as the Community Service Group and the Rhode Island Veterans Home group, have direct connections with community organizations and local businesses.
3. PORTRAIT OF Kickemuit Middle School AT THE TIME OF THE VISIT
Kickemuit Middle School is a clean, orderly and welcoming place. The faculty, staff and students enjoy working together in this warm and friendly environment. Walking from class to class, one can see dynamic learning and teaching in progress. The school is humming with activity, the walls showcase excellent student work, and throughout the school, posters and signs declare high behavioral expectations of all.
The administrators work hard to improve the climate for learning throughout the school with the establishment of its new and effective code of discipline. Students know what is expected of them in their classrooms and around the building. They are respectful of, and helpful to, adults and to one another. Parents, teachers, staff and students report that this is a safe school. It is clear that a quality education is valued here. Many teachers and the administrators strive daily to find new ways to improve the overall education of their students.
A strong emphasis on the teaching and learning of reading, writing and problem solving across the curriculum is apparent. Teachers focus on the Institute for Learning: Principles of Learningä in their classrooms, especially Clear Expectationsä and Accountable Talkä. However, they are just beginning to emphasize Academic Rigorä in various classes. While quite a few teachers differentiate their instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students, some teachers have yet to embrace this new way of teaching. Some teachers need professional development to take on these numerous initiatives with confidence.
Various programs are in place for students who need extra supports to function well in a school environment. A strong full-inclusion model is in place for students with disabilities. Some teachers are still defining their roles as they work together in these inclusive classrooms. The technology resources are plentiful throughout the school; teachers and students very skillfully use them in innovative projects and assignments. However, some computers in the classrooms are antiquated or not functioning. The school has set in motion a very comprehensive plan for improving what it does for its students. This plan is in its initial stages of substantial growth.
4. FINDINGS ON STUDENT LEARNing
Conclusions
Students write extensively and often effectively in classes across the curriculum. Examples include journal entries, essays, personal writing, research papers and writing to explain a process. In most cases, students write well and create excellent finished products as they productively use rubrics, graphic organizers, peer edits and revisions. Additionally, some students utilize benchmark papers to produce writing that meets and/or exceeds the standard. Students successfully write, both formally and informally, about their feelings and their world, and they share their writing with one another. They develop their critical thinking skills when they persuade, compare, investigate and evaluate, as they write in various genres. Completed work reflects their choices and their creativity. The students’ high quality writing samples attest to their high performance on the state’s 2004 New Standards Reference Examination, where 73% of students met or exceeded the standard on the Writing Effectiveness subtest. However, students are not as strong in their writing conventions skills, where only 54% achieved the standard. (observing classes, following students, reviewing completed and ongoing student work, reviewing 2004 New Standards Reference Examination School Summaries, discussing student work with teachers, reviewing classroom assessments)