2015-2016 SCEP at a Glance – New Scotland Elementary School
The School Comprehensive Education Plan (SCEP) is an outgrowth of the Diagnostic Tool for School District Effectiveness (DTSDE) review held some time during the previous school year. Observations made during the DTSDE review essentially lead to the identification of areas that may need particular focus in a school building and provide a format for identifying action steps to be put in place the following school year to address those areas of need or focus from the previous one. The SCEP includes steps to be taken at the District level, as identified in its DCIP (District Comprehensive Improvement Plan) and then flows into steps to be taken at the building level under the SCEP.
Reflections on the previous year’s SCEP include:
The implementation of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) initiative resulted in a cultural shift towards more positive interactions between and among faculty, staff and students in the building.
Parent engagement funds not previously encumbered were enlisted at the end of the school year to support an ELA informational night for parents and families of English as a New Language learner students. It is believed that through this event, the parents are and will be more involved and better informed about their children's learning experience here at NSES. Furthermore, it is felt that these families will feel more welcome to engage with the school community and feel more accepted as part of it.
The following were taken into account in developing the current year’s plan:
A continued and more intense focus on how data is used; professional development, both embedded and before/after school. A student survey will be administered regarding their perceptions of safety and security. Additionally, we are beginning a dialogue/book study around the issue of racial sensitivity and self-awareness.
There is still a need for instructional staff to hone their question and answer skills to the end of engaging students on a higher cognitive level. There is also a need for continuous and planned professional development opportunities for teachers to continue to improve their skills in the collection and analysis of assessment data to inform instruction.
Professional development that is appropriately aligned to the CCLS and is delivered in a timely and systematic format and that is accessible to all instructional personnel, with related data components that are collected, shared and analyzed will foster meaningful teacher collaboration and student academic, behavioral and social-emotional growth
A school building that functions within a culture of safety, respect and responsibility is one whose students are inclined and enabled to reach their full academic potential and develop as healthy social-emotional individuals
A school building that has the most comprehensive level of involvement of faculty, parents and community members is one whose students feel supported both internally and externally and are more motivated to achieve academic success and fulfillment as student citizens
Continue to meet AYP for ELA and Math throughout all sub-groups. (currently under scrutiny as NSES did not meet the 95% participation rate for sub-groups that sat for the NYS assessments in Math and ELA in grades 3 through 5)
The intentional and planned sharing of the studio classroom model in both ELA and math across grade levels through embedded professional development and through school visits will inform instructional practice. Through the work of our PBIS, BLT, Multi-Cultural Committee and PTA, we will further improve the culture of our building toward one that is welcoming to parents and community members, and that is a safe and rewarding learning environment.
The efficient and targeted use of time for its intended purposes e.g. PD sessions, common planning meeting times are anticipated barriers and will be addressed through professional development targeted at exactly these challenges.
Studio classroom, school visits, embedded professional development around data use and collection, differentiation of math instruction in order to realize our goals for higher levels of student achievement.
The school leader will employ:
a. Weekly communication in the form of a principal’s newsletter to all faculty and staff informing them of upcoming PD opportunities, school and community events and activities.
b. Publication of the SCEP on the school building’s website.
c. Scheduled participation in grade level common planning time meetings.
d. Quarterly newsletter to parents and community informing them of school-wide and community events, data results and opportunities for involvement and engagement in said activities to be posted on the PTA website and in hard copy format for students to bring home.
The current document will be made widely available to the public via posting on the school's website and distributed to stakeholders through this SCEP At a Glance document.
The SCEP is broken down into tenets (holdings, beliefs or principles). Tenet 1 is largely a District driven function. Tenets 2 through 6 will be covered here and are presented as a needs statement, a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Results-oriented and Timely) Goal, Leading Indicators (used to monitor and finally, the action steps to be taken with start and end dates.as follows:
Tenet 2: School Leader Practices and Decisions - Visionary leaders create a school community and culture that lead to success, well-being and high academic outcomes for all students via systems of continuous and sustainable school improvement.
Needs Statement: The building continues to need the ongoing support of district coaches in the areas of literacy, mathematics and data, as well as additional support staff i.e. teachers' assistants/aides and speech pathologists to maintain momentum begun in the previous school year among the groups identified in the SWRDO.
SMART Goal: 80 % of the teachers will be able to successfully implement lessons appropriately aligned to the CCLS in mathematics and ELA and be able to effectively analyze their students' NWEA data to drive instructional practice by June 2016, as evidenced by a 7 to 10% increase in the number of students predicted to achieve proficiency on the NYS assessments. Through principal walkthroughs and teacher observations, the principal will observe teachers implementing common core aligned instructional lessons that reflect the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric of Standard 2 - Knowledge of content and instructional planning..
Leading Indicators: Student Participation in ELT (extended learning time) Opportunities, Student Growth on District-level assessments, Teachers Rated as “Effective or “Highly Effective” for NYSUT rubric Standard 2
Action Steps
Start Date / End Date / Action PlanSept. 2015 / June 2016 / Monthly PDs led by the school leader and/or District coaches. All instructional staff will attend. The intended impact is to increase the pedagogical shifts in instructional delivery that align with CCLS.
Sept. 2015 / June 2016 / The building leader will conduct weekly walk-throughs and address wonderings, noticings and "try this..." during the monthly principal PD sessions in an effort to inform, support and assist teachers to understand a strength that can be built upon in the direction of fostering a higher frequency in the usage of higher order thinking questioning techniques and depth of knowledge.
Sept. 2015 / June 2016 / The building leader will attend common planning time meetings at least monthly for all grades for the purpose of guiding and monitoring professional learning talk in the direction of purposeful, concise, focused and meaningful planning of instruction that is aligned with CCLS and the Studio Classroom model. Common planning time logs will serve as documentation of what is monitored and discussed.
Tenet 3: Curriculum Development and Support - The school has rigorous and coherent curricula and assessments that are appropriately aligned to the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) for all students and are modified for identified subgroups in order to maximize teacher instructional practices and student-learning outcomes.
Needs Statement: Students need to be exposed to rigorous and coherent curriculum, in order to meet the demands of the CCLS through having lesson objectives(purpose) clearly identified, communicated and discussed per the SWRDO (currently observed in approx. 67% of classrooms). Vertical teaming opportunities need to be consistent and scheduled regularly to ensure vertically and horizontally rigorous and coherent curriculum that is CCLS aligned.
SMART Goal: By March 2016, 85% of ELA and Math classes will include evidence of teachers identifying, communicating, and discussing lesson objectives as measured by administrator observations using a walkthrough/observation template.
Leading Indicators: Teacher Attendance at Professional Development, Evidence of lesson objectives communicated as documented on principal walkthrough/observation template, Teacher participation in coaching cycles.
Action Steps
Start Date / End Date / Action PlanDec. 2015 / Jun. 2016 / Math and ELA coaches will provide PD activities to teaching teams (K/1, 2/3, 4/5). The PD will focus on the effective use of higher order question and answer techniques to be presented during teacher release time focusing on vertical integration and scaffolding. Coaches will provide follow up embedded PD to develop differentiated math instructional techniques (to include Fosnot strategies and methodologies) and ELA instructional techniques (to include text complexity). These coaching cycles will occur on a weekly basis.
Dec. 2015 / Jun. 2016 / The building leader will conduct weekly walk-throughs and address wonderings, noticings and "try this..." during the monthly principal PD sessions for the purpose of informing, supporting and assisting teachers in their incorporation of higher level thinking questioning and answering techniques.
Jan. 2016 / Jun. 2016 / Teachers will participate in vertical team planning which will result in consistent lessons that reflect rigor and a coherent curriculum and a clear understanding of the progression of rigor K - 5 in ELA and mathematics. One teacher from each grade level team (on a rotating basis so each teacher at each grade level gains exposure) will participate in the grade level team meeting of the next highest and next lowest grade level once monthly.
Tenet 4: Teacher Practices and Decisions - Teachers engage in strategic practices and decision-making in order to address the gap between what students know and need to learn, so that all students and pertinent subgroups experience consistent
high levels of engagement, thinking and achievement.
Needs Statement: All students need to be exposed to lessons that meet their individual needs and lead to higher levels of engagement and achievement. Teachers need to be provided PD on how to use assessment data effectively and how to share this data information with their students in a purposeful manner to increase students' awareness of their own learning needs leading to higher levels of achievement. [Unit pre-assessments e.g. are a vehicle that indicate to teachers whether or not their students have the prerequisite skills to be successful in the upcoming unit.]
SMART Goal: Create a building culture where data is collected, disseminated in a timely fashion, discussed, understood and applied to make impactful changes in instruction and interventions that are evaluated in a timely fashion as a routine course of our every day practice. By June 2016, teachers will gain the knowledge and skills to routinely use multiple data measures for student grouping, intervention/enrichment, determination and lesson planning as evidenced by records of flexible student grouping, outcomes of interim assessments, classroom observations and lesson plan reviews. Inconsistency in this area was observed during the 2014-2015 SRWDO and will be reassessed during the 2015-2016 SRWDO.
Leading Indicators: Achievement of ELA and/or Math interim benchmarks, Teacher implementation of research-based practice as evidenced by lesson plans and classroom observation, Ongoing, fluid student groupings utilizing all providers, e.g. ENL/Sp.Ed./Reading/teachers
Action Steps:
Start Date / End Date / Action Plan1st week of December 2015 and 1st week of February 2016 / December 23, 2015 2015 and February 29, 2016. / In one common planning time session during the months of December and February, grade level planning teams will participate in the viewing and engagement of professional dialogue around specific videos related to student data review from the Teaching Channel in order to improve the efficiency and impact of their discussions around data as they affect differentiated instruction to better meet the individual needs of their students.
Session 1 - 10/17/15 Session 2 - 10/14/15 / 10/17/15 and 10/14/15 / District data coach will provide two 2 hour PD sessions to all teachers around using formative assessments to make data driven decisions during the common planning time. The PD will be provided after school in separate sessions distinguished by elementary v. intermediate grade level affiliation. (compensation will be afforded to all teachers who choose to claim it versus PD hours. Maximum = 40 teachers x 1 hour x 1 session. First hour of each session is contractual)
1/1/2016 / 1/1/2016 / Studio Classroom visits for all grade level teachers will be coordinated for grade level teams to observe the practice of math studio workshop that specifically focus on differentiated math instruction conducted by at Eagle Point Elementary School by their teachers currently being trained in math studio methodology. (30 teachers over a period of 3 days will attend. Sub coverage needs = 6 substitute teachers per day for 3 days. One grade level team + specialists for 2 1/2 hours in a morning session to be duplicated in the afternoon sessions for a different grade level)
Tenet 5: Student Social and Emotional Developmental Health - The school community identifies, promotes, and supports social and emotional development by designing systems and experiences that lead to healthy relationships and a safe, respectful environment that is conducive to learning for all constituents.
Needs Statement: Involve all stakeholders in school-wide PBIS initiative to improve building climate.
SMART Goal: By January 1, 2016 the New Scotland Elementary School community will universally and consistently implement the school's PBIS initiative in support of the students' social and emotional health and development, as evidenced by improved student attendance, a lower student suspension rate, fewer student conduct referrals and greater student achievement.
Leading Indicators: Student discipline referrals, Student Suspension Rate (short-term/long-term), Achievement of ELA and/or Math interim benchmarks
Action Steps:
Start Date / End Date / Action Plan9/3/2015 / 9/3/2015 / All staff will participate in a PBIS point sheet usage training session by a PBIS committee member/coordinator focusing on the correct and comprehensive usage of said point sheets to be held on a staff development day prior to the arrival of the students at the beginning of the school year for the purpose of ensuring the consistent application of the initiative and point sheets throughout the school year so as to positively impact student attendance, suspension rate, conduct referrals and student achievement.
11/2/2015 / Jun. 2016 / Student safety survey will be administered to the student body able to read on their own (grades 3 to 5) to identify possible areas of concern regarding student perceptions of their social and emotional well-being and safety so that additional supports and services can be provided if needed. The survey will be readministered in June 2016 to monitor effectiveness of steps taken to address areas of identified concern.
Dec. 2015 / Jun. 2016 / All faculty and support staff will be afforded the opportunity to participate in a voluntary book study and discussion on racial sensitivity offered and conducted by BLT members on a rotating basis before and after school over the course of several days (as can be arranged) to occur at least once monthly in order to continue the dialogue begun in early September around the impact of race and racial perceptions on student social and emotional health and development as a component of the overall climate of the school building.
9/4/15 / 9/4/15 / School leader will secure a facilitator to lead a racial sensitivity training/discussion in order to promote positive social emotional development of all students to be presented by a respected authority/facilitator on the topic. (anticipated compensation for facilitator = $6,000)
Tenet 6: Family and Community Engagement - The school creates a culture of partnership where families, community members and school staff work together to share in the responsibility for student academic progress and social-emotional growth and well-being.