Priority School
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
Introduction 4
Priority School Definition 6
Goals and Objectives 7
Requirements for Priority Schools 8
Required Element 8
Data Retreat© 8
District/School Audit 8
School Support Team (SST) 8
Reporting Requirements 8
Interventions for Priority Schools 10
Required Intervention 10
Academy of Pacesetting Districts (APD) 10
SD LEAP (Indistar®) 10
SD Multi-Tiered System of Support (SDRtI) 11
Redesign School Schedule 11
Teacher and Principal Evaluations 11
Rigorous Curriculum 12
Professional Development 12
Principal Autonomy 12
Technical Advisor. 12
Strategies 13
Levels of Support 14
State 14
District 14
School 14
Funding 15
Monitoring 16
How to Exit Priority Status 17
Department of Education Staff 18
Resources 19
Glossary 20
Appendix 1
Appendix A- Data Retreat© Facilitators 1
Appendix B – Turnaround Planning Document Template 1
Appendix C- Academy of Pacesetting Districts 1
Appendix D - SD LEAP (Indistar®)South Dakota LEAP- Priority School Timeline 1
Appendix E – Four Intervention Models (optional) 0
Appendix F – Four Optional Interventions Documentation Form 1
Appendix G - 3-year chart 1
Appendix H - 1003(a) Funds – Interventions Breakdown 1
Appendix H – Application for Removal from Priority Status 1
In June, 2012, the South Dakota Department of Education (SD DOE) applied for a waiver to the US Department of Education requesting permission to implement a new accountability system. The waiver was approved on June 29, 2012. The new accountability system scores each school on five (5) indicators as part of the School Performance Index (SPI). The five indicators in the SPI are:
· Indicator 1: Student Achievement
· Indicator 2: Student Progress (Elem & MS); High School Completion (HS)
· Indicator 3: Attendance (Elem & MS); College & Career Ready (HS)
· Indicator 4: Effective Teachers and Principals
· Indicator 5: School Climate
Along with the SPI, SD DOE must identify each school as one of the following:
· Exemplary School
· Status School
· Progressing School
· Focus School, or
· Priority School.
Once a school has been identified as a Priority School, the school will need to implement certain interventions. The interventions are based on the following turnaround principles and call for greater school-level autonomy, more flexibility in staffing, scheduling and budgeting, along with greater accountability for results.
Turnaround Principles as listed in the U.S. Department of Education Flexibility Waiver Guidance include:
1. Providing strong leadership by:
a) reviewing the performance of the current principal;
b) either replacing the principal if such a change is necessary to ensure strong and effective leadership, or demonstrating to the SEA that the current principal has a track record in improving achievement and has the ability to lead the turnaround effort; and
c) providing the principal with operational flexibility in the areas of scheduling, staff, curriculum, and budget;
2. Ensuring that teachers are effective and able to improve instruction by:
a) reviewing the quality of all staff and retaining only those who are determined to be effective and have the ability to be successful in the turnaround effort;
b) preventing ineffective teachers from transferring to these schools; and
c) providing job-embedded, ongoing professional development informed by the teacher evaluation and support systems and tied to teacher and student needs;
3. Redesigning the school day, week, or year to include additional time for student learning and teacher collaboration;
4. Strengthening the school’s instructional program based on student needs and ensuring that the instructional program is research-based, rigorous, and aligned with State academic content standards;
5. Using data to inform instruction and for continuous improvement, including providing time for collaboration on the use of data;
6. Establishing a school environment that improves school safety and discipline and addressing other non-academic factors that impact student achievement, such as students’ social, emotional, and health needs; and
7. Providing ongoing mechanisms for family and community engagement
The proposed interventions are focused on developing teams at both the district and school level. Leadership should not reside with one individual but rather with a team that plans and makes decisions collaboratively, allowing for distributive leadership. When effectively implemented, organized and supervised, the team leadership approach will provide an infrastructure for continuous improvement. Planning and decision making within the district and school requires that teams have time and access to timely information.
The purpose of this guide is to introduce the Priority School requirements and interventions, the technical assistance available, and the resources provided by the SD DOE. This guide:
· Describes the requirements for a Priority School and interventions school staff will be working on for the next three years;
· Provides information about the required interventions, including information about the Academy of Pacesetting Districts (APD), SD LEAP (Indistar®), and the SD Multi-Tiered System of Support (RtI);
· Provides a list of the levels of support;
· Includes information on the monitoring requirements;
· Explains the process for removal from Priority School status; and
· Summarizes SD LEAP (Indistar®) Web-based planning tool.
A Priority School is a:
· Title I school whose Overall Score on the School Performance Index (SPI) ranks at/or below the bottom 5% of Title I schools.
· Tier I or Tier II school under the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program that is using the SIG funds to implement a school intervention model.
· Title I or Title I eligible high school with a graduation rate of less than 60% over two consecutive years.
The Priority status remains with a school for three (3) years. A school must show improvement in the areas to have the designation removed.
Priority School Guidance – Developed August 2012Page 2
To hold schools accountable, South Dakota will be using a combination of its School Performance Index and unique school-level Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) based on the goal of reducing by half the percentage of students in the “all students” group and in each subgroup, including the newly created GAP and Non-GAP groups, who are not proficient within six years. AMOs will be set separately for reading/language arts and math. The AMO goals will be set for these subgroups at each school, in annual increments called targets, to give that school a unique trajectory that recognizes where the school started in terms of student proficiency and to support continuous academic improvement among its students. The 2012-13 school year serves as the base year for setting these AMO targets. The minimum N size of 10 will apply for reporting purposes.
Because the baseline year isn’t until 2012-13, schools will need to set alternative measurable goals to make sure the school is progressing. Measure objectives should be set with local assessments to ensure the school has in place interventions that are contributing to the academic progress of the students.
Schools will record the goals, objectives, assessment used, as well as the benchmark data and progress towards the goal within the SD LEAP system.
Priority School Guidance – Developed August 2012Page 2
Once a school has been identified as a Priority School, there are specific requirements the school must meet with supports and interventions they will receive. Table 1 summarizes the Required Initial Steps/Actions
Table 1. Required Initial Steps and Structures for Priority Schools
Required Element / Description /Data Retreat©
A 2-day data retreat facilitated by individuals trained in the Data Retreat© process.
A list of those trained can be found in Appendix A. State assessment data, local assessment data, and other forms of data will be evaluated to prioritize the needs of the school. / · A leadership team must participate in a Comprehensive Needs Assessment, as part of a Data Retreat© developed by Dr. Judy Sargent with the four lenses of data analyzed (student achievement, professional practices, programs and structures, and family and community).
· Goals and objectives for the school will be set using the resulting data.
· Gaps in achievement within subgroups will be identified.
· Differentiated instruction based on individual student needs identified through the data will be provided as part of the multi-tiered system of support (RtI) for students.
· Data driven instruction will be based on progress monitoring and benchmarking student progress frequently and effectively.
District/School Performance Audit
An outside team, provided by SD DOE, will conduct a district/school level performance audit based on ten domains according to the District Performance Audit Tool developed by a workgroup associated with CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers). The audit tool has been revised to fit the needs of South Dakota. / Ten Domains for District/School Performance Audit
The domains in the audit parallel the Indicators of Effective Practice within SD LEAP (Indistar®) and the Academy of Pacesetting Districts (APD) which will help inform the district regarding strengths and weaknesses.
1. Leadership Implications
2. Academic Content and Achievement Standards
3. Curriculum and Instruction
4. Highly Qualified Staff
5. Professional Development
6. Assessment and Accountability
7. School Culture and Climate
8. Budget and Resources
9. Family and Community Involvement
10. Attendance, Career Readiness, and Graduation
School Support Team (SST)
A School Support Team will be assigned to the district to support the Priority School(s) by providing guidance regarding the interventions. / Activities may include site visits, assistance with SD LEAP and turnaround plans, and recommending differentiated technical assistance provided by SD DOE. If significant progress is not made during year 1, intensity of support by the School Support Staff will increase in year 2 as they work directly with school governance to help oversee the transformational process.
Reporting Requirements
As part of the reporting requirements, the district and school must provide the assessment and accountability information to parents and the community. / The assessment information is about all the students taking the test, while the accountability is only those students enrolled from Oct 1st through the assessment window.
The individual student reports must be given to parents as soon as they are available.
The district’s board of education and the public must be kept informed about the school’s progress towards achieving adequate progress and student achievement.
SD DOE will be kept informed of school and district progress through SST reports, SD LEAP reporting requirements, and APD documentation.
Adequate Resources / Adequate or additional resources (human, physical, and fiscal) must be provided to assist in the implementation and achievement of school program goals. The resources provided to these schools should be differentiated based on the needs of the schools.
Parent and Community Involvement
Research shows programs and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement and engagement is also linked to higher rates of school attendance, graduation, and pursuit of higher education. / Schools will provide opportunities for parent and community involvement in the decision making process regarding curriculum, assessment, reporting and school environment.
Information and resources on how to engage parents can be found in the Resource section of this document.
Once designated as a Priority School, the school and the responsible district must implement several interventions with guidance and technical assistance from the assigned SST team and DOE staff. Certain interventions are required. A tool has been provided to help districts decide how best to implement the interventions. The tool can be found in Appendix B. Some interventions are listed below.
Table 2. Required On-going Interventions/Supports
Required Intervention / Description /Academy of Pacesetting Districts (APD)
Districts with Priority Schools will be required to participate in the Academy of Pacesetting Districts within the first year of being identified. The Academy allows a district team to look at the district policies and procedures as well as provide the time and tools to formulate a plan to differentiate support to their schools based on need. This will be communicated through the District Operations Manual. / The districts will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) outlining the responsibilities of each entity. The district’s Academy team must include each principal from the identified Priority School. The team will meet five times a year with SD DOE staff and Academy coaches (SST member). The first meeting will be a two-day kickoff meeting where the team will be trained on the Academy and the procedures for the coming year. The next three meetings may be via webinar or may include face-to-face meetings depending on the needs of the cohort. The team will also meet monthly, along with the Academy Coach, to work on the District Operations Manual. The final summative meeting at the end of the year will allow districts to share their work.
A copy of the team requirements and timeline for the Academy can be found in Appendix C.
SD LEAP (Indistar®)
SD LEAP- Leading Effectively…Achieving Progress (Indistar®) is a web-based planning tool that assists schools and district level teams with assessing, planning, implementing, and monitoring progress toward accomplishing district improvement indicators (district-level academy teams) or the turnaround indicators (school-level teams). / SST members have been trained to provide individualized support throughout the year. SD LEAP provides an organized way to record meeting agendas and minutes, submit required reports, and analyze progress through a variety of reports and resources.
The SD DOE has created a timeline for the implementation of SD LEAP in Priority Schools, which can be found in Appendix B. Additional information regarding Indistar® can be found at http://www.indistar.org.
Year 1: Priority Schools will implement SD LEAP (Indistar) through the Academy experience at the district level. The district team will be trained during the kickoff meeting to use the District set of indicators. The school team will begin working on the RtI indicators. Training may also be provided by the RtI coordinators as the RtI indicators are assessed and implemented.
Year 2: The school team will continue to work on the RtI indicators as well as begin work on the Turnaround set of indicators in SD LEAP (Indistar). The timeline for indicators can be found in Appendix D.
SD Multi-Tiered System of Support (SDRtI)
The implementation of the South Dakota Multi-Tiered System of Support (South Dakota RtI/PBIS) in Priority Schools will begin the first year of identification. The South Dakota Multi-Tiered System of Support (SDRtI) includes providing high-quality instruction and intervention based on a student’s needs, changing instruction and/or goals through frequent monitoring of progress, and applying the student response data to important educational decisions. Students identified as at-risk through the universal screening process have their progress monitored and receive increasingly intense, multi-tiered interventions. / Three essential components of the SD multi-tiered system of support are: