Lovell High School
Lovell, Wyoming
Scott O’Tremba, Principal
2016-2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOMAIN 1: TEACHING AND LEARNING
- Standards and Curriculum (3.1)
- Monitoring and Adjusting Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment (3.2)
- Instructional Strategies that Engage Students (3.3)
- Instructional Leadership (3.4)
- Collaborative Learning Community (3.5)
- Instructional Process (3.6)
- Mentoring, Coaching and Induction (3.7)
- Family Engagement (3.8)
- Student Advocacy Structure (3.9)
- Grading and Reporting (3.10)
- Professional Learning (3.11)
- Learning Support Services (3.12)
- Student Assessment System (5.1)
- Collecting, Analyzing and Applying Learning from a Range of Data Sources (5.2)
- Training in the Interpretation and Use of Data (5.3)
- Determining Verifiable Improvement in Student Learning (5.4)
- Communicating School Performance (5.5)
Teaching and Learning Improvement Plan
DOMAIN 2: LEADERSHIP CAPACITY
- Purpose Revision Process (1.1)
- Culture Based on Shared Values and Beliefs (1.2)
- School Improvement Process (1.3)
- Board Policies and Practices (2.1)
- District Board Operations (2.2)
- Leadership Autonomy (2.3)
- Leaders and Staff Foster Culture (2.4)
- Stakeholder Engagement (2.5)
- Leader and Staff Evaluation (2.6)
Leadership Capacity Improvement Plan
DOMAIN 3: RESOURCE UTILIZATION
- Staff Recruiting and Retention (4.1)
- Sufficient Resources (4.2)
- Safe, Clean and Healthy Environment (4.3)
- Information Resources (4.4)
- Technology Resources (4.5)
- Supports to Meet Physical, Social and Emotional Needs (4.6)
- Services to Support Student Educational Needs (4.7)
Resource Utilization Improvement Plan
Corrective Action Plan
Restructuring Plan
DOMAIN 1: TEACHING AND LEARNING
AdvancED Standard 3: Teaching and Assessing for Learning
Standards and Curriculum (3.1)
The school’s curriculum provides equitable and challenging learning experiences that ensure all students have sufficient opportunities to develop learning, thinking, and life skills that lead to success at the next level. (3.1 Rubric) / EFFECTIVE PRACTICEYES / The school provides educational programs sufficient for all students to meet uniform content and performance standards in all areas of the common core of knowledge and skills. (Wyoming)
YES / The school has adopted and implemented strategies to monitor the teaching of standards. (Wyoming)
YES / Instruction is provided in the essentials of the state and federal constitutions. (Wyoming)
N/A / If applicable, all Hathaway Scholarship Program course requirements, including the Eighth Grade Unit of Study and Hathaway Success Curriculum, have been met and implemented. (Wyoming)
N/A / If applicable, the school is providing foreign language instruction in grades K-2. (Wyoming)
N/A / If applicable, Career Technical Education courses are offered in a three-course sequence in grades 9-12. (Wyoming)
Summary of Practices:
Lovell High School strongly relies on curriculum, instructional design and assessment practices to guide and ensure teacher effectiveness and student learning. Specific areas of strength include differentiated instruction, curriculum mapping, the school improvement process, professional development practices, the teacher evaluation system, collaboration, engaging families, and grading and reporting practices, Handbook for Continuous School Improvement, all of which help our staff provide equitable and challenging learning experiences for all students.
Curriculum mapping has allowed our staff to make great strides in meeting the needs of students. This process provides opportunities for staff members to both horizontally and vertically align curriculum, which ensures equal opportunities for students within a challenging curriculum. Through mapping, teachers have become familiar with their standards and have identified the essential learnings at each level to make sure that students are learning the appropriate concepts and skills to prepare them for success at the next level.
Monitoring and Adjusting Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment (3.2)
Curriculum, instruction, and assessment are monitored and adjusted systematically in response to data from multiple assessments of student learning and an examination of professional practice. (3.2 Rubric) / AcceptableAll Title I Schools: Explain how school-wide research-based instructional reform strategies strengthen the core academic program, increase amount and quality of learning time, and provide additional supports to all students.
SIG Schools: Explain how the district and/or school ensures that the curriculum, instruction, and assessment are aligned with state standards and vertically aligned from one grade level to the next.
Summary of Practices:
Our 9th grade teachers meet annually with the 8th grade teachers from Lovell Middle School in a process fittingly titled Maps, Gaps, and Overlaps to review curriculum maps and determine gaps and overlaps. This work helped to define the curriculum practices that should be maintained at various levels as well as any adjustments that should be made to ensure students receive instruction in all the required standards and with the appropriate reinforcement to guarantee student learning. In addition, curriculum maps serve as tools for teachers to refine their assessments, both formative and summative. These assessments are then used as an assurance that horizontal and vertical alignment has been achieved. Our assessment system provides LHS with necessary data, which is used to guide our school improvement process.
Lovell High School has begun implementing PLC's (Professional Learning Communities) both in content areas and grade-level teams. This PLC work will ensure horizontal alignment with equivalent learning expectations for like courses/classes, and vertical alignment through teacher collaboration, lesson plans, curriculum maps, and data analysis to prepare students for success at the next level.
Instructional Strategies that Engage Students (3.3)
Teachers engage students in their learning through instructional strategies that ensure achievement of learning expectations. (3.3 Rubric) / AcceptableSIG Schools: Explain how teachers differentiate assignments in response to individual student performance on pretests and other methods of assessment.
Summary of Practices:
Teachers at Lovell High School engage students in their learning in a variety of ways such as through technology and multi-media, student-response methods, student collaboration, student-teacher conferencing, and differentiated instructional strategies. Achievement of learning expectations is measured through authentic assessments, student work demonstrating the application of knowledge, findings from supervisor walk-thru and observations.
Another strength at Lovell High School is its consistency in using common grading and reporting procedures. Following district policy IKAB ensures not only building consistency but also regular parent notification. Our building procedures are used across grade levels and content areas. Handbooks outline the frequency in which grades are updated, the grading scale, and program requirements, which ensure uniformity amongst staff members. PowerSchool is a vital communication tool used by various stakeholders, including appropriate staff and administration, students, and parents. LHS teachers have received training on creating and implementing content area rubrics as well as building writing rubrics in order to clearly communicate requirements and expectations to students. The staff handbook requires that teachers have a classroom learning policy in place to help meet students' needs in mastering content and skills as defined by the state standards. The handbook also requires that teachers produce a syllabus to communicate essential learnings, classroom expectations, and course content for each class taught.
Teachers write student-learning statements that define essential learnings within the framework of a unit. The essential learning statements are written in student language and shared with students during instruction. These statements explicitly express what students are expected to learn and what they will be able to do. They tie together the standards and the concepts of the unit. Teachers record their essential learnings on the curriculum map.
Instructional Leadership (3.4)
School leaders monitor and support the improvement of instructional practices of teachers to ensure student success. (3.4 Rubric) / Effective PracticeSummary of Practices:
The use of the McRel Teacher Evaluation system monitors and supports the improvement of teachers' instructional practices, which in turn have direct implications on student learning. This process, combined with our school improvement process, ensures that teachers and their practices align with our school's values and beliefs, are teaching the curriculum as required, and are overseeing students' learning through direct engagement. As an evaluation tool, a piece of McRel requires teachers to set goals for themselves for the year. Throughout the year, teachers then meet with the principal to monitor their progress in meeting their individual goals. The number of times the principal meets with individual teachers is based on a teacher's years of experience, and in addition to the district's new teacher induction program, the principal meets more often with new teachers to ensure their adherence to school goals. In conjunction with the principal's evaluation of teachers, teachers also collaborate with peers to improve teaching practices. In conjunction with the school improvement process, teachers complete the ELEOT to better understand what an effective learning environment looks like; it is also a reflective process to help teachers improve their own teaching.
Collaborative Learning Community (3.5)
Teachers participate in collaborative learning communities to improve instruction and student learning. (3.5 Rubric) / AcceptableAll Title I Schools: Describe how your school involves teachers in decisions regarding the use of assessment data to improve instruction and student performance and for continuous improvement, including by providing time for collaboration on the use of data.
SIG Schools: Explain how instructional teams analyze assessment results and make decision about curriculum, instruction and interventions.
Summary of Practices:
Continuous professional development (PD): LHS has weekly Friday PD, monthly PD meetings and weekly Wednesday morning PLC meetings. These various meetings consist of BIT meetings, PLC meetings (grade-level/content area), AdvancED Committee meetings, Building Leadership Team meetings for implementation of school improvement plans, curriculum mapping, data evaluation, prioritizing standards, technology trainings, technology committee meetings, Teacher Learning Time and Para-professional trainings. Some of these meetings involve book study discussions, current school improvement issues, and guidance on instructional best practices. Our staff is also involved in PLC meetings outside of our PD to allow staff members to meet about vertical and horizontal alignment throughout our building and between schools. Particularly in the weekly PLC meetings, BLT meetings and AdvancED committee meetings data analysis from our standardized tests (MAP, ACT Suite) is used to write School Improvement goals, and to adjust learning for individuals and subgroups.
Instructional Process (3.6)
Teachers implement the school’s instructional process in support of student learning. (3.6 Rubric) / AcceptableSIG Schools: Explain how all teachers use instructional strategies that are grounded in research-based practices and address the learning needs of all students.
Summary of Practices:
Teachers at LHS implement the use of Essential Learning Statements as an instructional tool that clearly guides and informs students of learning expectations and standards of performance. Essential Learning statements for each unit are displayed in a prominent place in classrooms as a focus and goal for student learning by the end of each unit. Essential Learning Statements are required to be included in each teacher's curriculum map for each course taught by the end of each semester to show vertical alignment.
Our expectation is for all teachers to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students. Teachers differentiate for students by tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Teachers differentiate content, process, products, and/or the learning environment. Teachers use ongoing assessment and flexible grouping as instructional approaches. Teachers will differentiate through their learning policies, which provide students with the opportunity to learn at their own pace to ensure mastery of content.
Rubrics, formative assessments, summative assessments, student response methods (including technology apps) to provide teachers with instant feedback on student understanding, teacher-generated examples and student work are often used as exemplars to guide and inform student learning.
LHS has frequently participated in book studies: Todd Whitaker’s What Great Teachers Do Differently, Rick Wormeli‘s Fair Isn’t Always Equal, Mike Schmoker’s Focus, The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core (Silver, Dewing and Perini), Chris Tovani’s Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? and Janet Allen’s Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. These book studies have really helped staff to stay abreast of current pedagogical trends and to keep on the same page with one another.
Instructional Strategies
The district has established an expectation for common instructional strategies based on the foundation of two sources:
· McREL’s Teacher Evaluation System: Standards II and IV
· AdvancED’s Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool (eleot)
Instructional Strategy: Teachers will provide instructional strategies that result in: / Other Supporting District Practices/Professional Development· A positive, well-managed classroom / · District PD: The Effective Teacher (Wong, H.)
· Student understanding/awareness of connections to their own and others’ cultural background.
· High expectations for student learning / · Essential Learnings built on the foundation of the Wyoming Content and Performance Standards (documented on curriculum maps)
· Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains
· Differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students / · Participation in SDE National Conference on Differentiated Instruction
· LMS/LHS Book Study: Fair Isn’t Always Equal (Wormeli, R)
· The use of technology (both teacher and students) to maximize student learning. / · District Technology Plan which addresses the ISTE Standards for Teachers and Students
· Student cooperation and collaboration
· The use of assessment and feedback to improve teaching practice and student learning. / · District Book Study: Focus: Elevating the Essentials To Radically Improve Student Learning (Schmoker, M.)
· Documented on curriculum maps
The expectation is that all teachers will embed these instructional strategies into their classrooms. The implementation of the strategies is monitored through administrative evaluation and peer observation as defined below.
Monitoring Instructional Strategies:
Document / Description / Access to Document / Yearly ExpectationsEleot/McREL Correlation / The document aligns the Eleot tool with the McREL Teacher Evaluation System. The purpose of this is to place eleot into the context of the district evaluation system to define common instructional strategies. / District Share Folder / · Used as part of professional development on an annual basis
Eleot / From AdvancED: The purpose of the eleot tool is to help identify and document observable evidence of classroom environments that are conducive to student learning. This process includes discussion and feedback regarding the observations. / District Share Folder: Curriculum / · Principals/Directors use eleot for observation and feedback purposes.
· All teachers: 2 times per year peer observation using eleot.
Mentoring, Coaching and Induction (3.7)
Mentoring, coaching, and induction programs support instructional improvement consistent with the school’s values and beliefs about teaching and learning. (3.7 Rubric) / Effective PracticeYES / The school employs qualified instructional facilitators to provide professional development, teacher mentoring and educational leadership based on identified needs and school improvement planning. (Wyoming)
Summary of Practices: