WestVillagesElementary School
School Improvement Plan
2013-2014
Written by School Council Members:
Jana AhnquistTeacherKirk GibbonsPrincipal
<TBD> ParentKarin Schulz Teacher/ Co-Chair
Mary-Beth CapobiancoTeacherShelly DaviesParent
<TBD>Parent Lynne Burke Teacher
Ellen MacDonaldCommunity MemberJulie HopperCommunity Member
West Villages Elementary Vision Statement
The mission of the WestVillagesElementary School is to teach our children in a safe and nurturing environment as monitored by our Positive School-Wide Initiatives. Students will demonstrate their academic progress as measured by standards based assessments. Implementing data driven instruction, we will track student progress to make informed decisions about teaching and learning for all.
In order to accomplish our vision…
Students will:
Attend school everyday, on time.
Act in a respectful, responsible, and safe manner at all times.
Demonstrate effective effort and produce their best work.
Demonstrate proficiency at or above grade level.
Staff will:
Deliver high quality, standards-based instruction in an engaging and supportive manner.
Use ongoing assessments to challenge and support students based on their individual needs.
Provide strategies to enhance students’ social, emotional, and ethical development.
Provide a safe, respectful school environment that values communication, trust, and teamwork among staff, students, families, and the community.
2012 – 2013 Accomplishments
Our dedicated staff members have participated in many professional development activities this year which include but are not limited to:
- PBIS Drops in the Bucket Program
- Non-violent Crisis Intervention Training
- Keys to Literacy
- Smartboard Learning
- MCAS alternative training
- Work with James Levine on supporting student behavior
- Data training
- Professional Learning Community work
- RETELL training for teachers of ELL students
- Completion of the ECRI project
- Implementation of a new Educator Evaluation System
PTO activities have included but are not limited to: Fall Social, Walk-A-Thon fundraiser, Book Fair, Bingo Night, Art Show,all-school assemblies and a Read-A-Thon
For the 2013-2014 school year we have identified 3 conditions for school effectiveness that we will address:
Effective Instruction
Students’ social, emotional, and health needs
Family-school engagement
Condition #1: Effective Instruction
Improvement Goal: We will reduce the achievement gap as measured by a PPI of 75 or greater from MCAS in an effort to close the achievement gap by 2017.
List of Strategies to accomplish improvement goal:
1. Implementation of new Common Core Curriculum and curriculum maps
2. Collaboration as a school and district in the creation of unique units of instruction based on the Common Core and built on a
Understanding By Design philosophy
3. ERI groups for K students as a tier 2 strategy/Data Coach meets with K teachers/assistants monthly to review progress
Strategy #1 Implementation of new Common Core Curriculum and curriculum maps
Describe the specific strategy to be implemented: The teachers were provided with the new curriculum binders and the curriculum maps to implement this past school year. Trainings were provided for them as a part of their professional development days and they adjusted their practice accordingly. Well designed lessons based on state standards will be developed within this school year.Models provided from the DESE will be used for this purpose.
Selection criteria: All students will be receiving instruction aligned with the new maps. This will allow teachers to make the changes needed to prepare their students for the new PARCC assessment.
Timeframe:This will be implemented beginning the first day of school and continue on into the coming school year.
Indicators of success:Indicators will include MCAS for third grade, AIMSWeb and other common assessments as created by educator teams
Strategy #2 Creation of instructional units
Describe the specific strategy to be implemented: All teachers will collaborate to create one unit of instruction based on the principles of Understanding By Design. These units will begin with the Common Core Standards connected by a central unit theme, and will have essential questions, common assessments, performance tasks, lessons, reading lists, vocabulary, accommodations, ELL support and materials added to them. These units will then be shared between schools to develop a full battery of units for a year of instruction.
Selection Criteria: All teachers will participate and all students will receive the instruction from each unit and lesson
Time frame: These units will be written over the course of the 2013-2014 school year for implementation the following year.
Indicators of success: Indicators will include results of common assessments, performance assessments, MCAS/PARCC, and AIMSWeb assessments
Strategy #3 ERI groups for Kindergarten
Describe the specific strategy to be implemented: Instructional assistants will offer additional instruction as a Tier II intervention for children struggling in reading until the children are reading with fluency. All K assistants will meet on a monthly basis with the reading teacher who will continue to monitor their implementation of various strategies as well as monitor student success.
Selection criteria: Students identified on AIMSWeb screening in the fall.
Timeframe: Ongoing beginning in September though June.
Indicators of success: Student fluency will improve based on bi-monthly AIMSWeb assessment.
Condition #1: Effective Instruction
Improvement Goal: We plan to implement a daily schedule with safety nets in math to increase instructional time in math during the school day.
List of strategies to accomplish the improvement goal:
- Created a master schedule for our school outlining additional math instructional times at all grade levels.
- Determined a plan to utilize this time most effectively at each grade level.
Strategy #1- Create a new master schedule with safety nets
Describe the specific strategy to be implemented: As a school we took a look at our grades 1-3 schedule last year. In order to create a new block of instructional time we looked at times during the school day that were uninterrupted by specials for each grade level. Each grade level was assigned an additional 30 minute time block that was shared by the same grade level so that staff could group students to better meet their needs. Data hassupported this was an effective use of time. 81% of third grade students scored proficient or advanced on the Math MCAS last year.
Selection criteria: This was and will continue to be applied to all students grades 1-3.
Time frame: We will begin this process in September and continue all year.
Indicators of success: We will be looking at students’ scores on the AIMSWeb math assessments and measuring growth from the fall scores against the spring.
Strategy #2 Make a decision at every grade level on how best to use this time
Describe the specific strategy to be used: At the September staff meeting, each grade level was given the opportunity to discuss how best to utilize this instructional time. Most grades will use this as remedial or enrichment time.
Selection criteria: All children will benefit from this additional instructional time.
Time frame: On-going throughout the school year.
Indicators of success: Improved mathematical understanding and increased AIMSWeb and MCAS scores in an effort to close the achievement gap by 2017.
Condition # 2: Students’ Social, Emotional and Health Needs
Improvement Goal: We will continue our efforts to promote a positive, respectful, responsible and safe school environment by introducing an adjustment counselor to our school.
List of Strategies to accomplish this goal:
- Hire an adjustment counselor for the school to work on social skills.
- Continue the Drops in the Bucket Program.
- Use school assemblies to focus the entire school community on being safe, respectful, and responsible
- Create a project for the entire school to reinforce this concept of anti bullying messages and kindness.
Strategy #1 Hire and utilize the new adjustment counselor
Describe the specific strategy to be used: We hired a person with the correct credentials to both counsel children as well as teach a social skills curriculum for a half year opposite Health. This year we will be supplementing the instruction of second step and possibly other positive behavior curricula taught by the new adjustment counselor.
Selection criteria: All students will participate in this program
Time frame: Ongoing all year. It will be placed in the master schedule to replace the foreign language prep and therefore be offered as half year coupled with the health instruction in grades 1-3.
Indicators of success: Fewer behavior problems as measured by fewer referrals to the office or counselor for issues.
Strategy #2: Continue the Drops in the Bucket Program
Describe the specific strategy to be used:Beginning the first week of school, teachers will read the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today by Carol McCloud. This sets the premise for the entire year. Follow up will include the school psychologist and the new counselor visiting classrooms for individual classroom discussions.
Selection criteria: All students in our school will participate.
Time frame: With school beginning in September, our expectation is that the book will be read to the class before Friday of the first week of school.
Indicators of success: We will continue to monitor our office referrals to look for trends showing fewer referrals as compared to previous years’ data.
Strategy #3: School Assemblies
Describe the specific strategy to be used:Each month the school will meet together to focus on school rules, community building and character development topics. Classes will be encouraged to prepare short presentations that follow their curriculum
Selection criteria: All classrooms will participate. We will have K-1 meetings and 2-3 meetings in order to follow capacity requirements in the cafeteria
Time frame: Monthly
Indicator of success: Students will demonstrate increase tools of celebrating success, specific examples of safe behavior and regular use of common vocabulary
Strategy #4:Create a Project for the entire school
Describe the specific strategy to be used:Just as we used the creation of akindness quilt as a schoolwide project last year, we plan to use another book to talk about accepting our differences. All the children will be given the opportunity to draw themselves and we will hang these outside their classrooms. The figures will be joininghands forming one large circle throughout the school.
Selection criteria: All families will be asked to participate.
Time frame: We will have these figures go home to be decorated as a family activity during the first week of school.
Indicator of success: The atmosphere of acceptance created in our school will permeate all we do and reduce any behaviors that might lead to unkind actions or words.
Condition #3: Family-School Engagement
Improvement Goal: To attain a 97% monthly attendance rate and to decrease the number of students with 10 or more absences by 50%.
List of Strategies to accomplish improvement goal:
- A team of professionals which may include the school nurse, school psychologist and the adjustment counselor will oversee this process.
- Inform parents that attendance will continue to be a top priority for our students.
- Be sure that this is included in the Curriculum Night Presentation given by classroom teachers.
Strategies # 1 Develop a plan to have the team monitor student attendance and communicate the importance of school attendance to all stakeholders
Describe the specific strategy to be used: Inform parents from the first week of school that this is a top priority and what the consequences will be if children continue to miss out on school. A more positive reward system should be in place as well to reward good attendance.
Selection criteria: As the school year progresses, families of children with multiple absences will be contacted by the school adjustment counselor and discussions will be held on how to assist these families to get their children to attend school.
Time frame: Once the initiative has been introduced to families, daily attendance will be monitored throughout the year.
Indicators of success: Daily attendance will be reviewed and will show an increase over previous years.