SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT MID-YEAR REFLECTION 2016
Directions for School Leadership Team: As part of the February School Improvement Training we will engage in collaborative conversation and share best practices based on each school’s Mid Year School Improvement Reflections. After input from the leadership team, each school is asked to bring this completed form to the training.
1. Has your school made progress towards achieving the goal?
A. How do the structures and systems in place at your school ensure all facets of the school culture create
predictable environments and a school climate that supports your SIP goal?
B. What are the gaps that exist between your current state and your desired state?
C. How will you address them between now and the end of this school year?
The 3-tiered approach of academic, therapeutic and behavioral supports that are embedded in the climate of Whispering Pines School seeks to improve upon student success in all of these critical areas. The first step toward making progress is increasing attendance, which is oftentimes a significant concern for our students. To address this need, among other efforts, Whispering Pines School has hired a school social worker who supports families in all aspects of social services, including but not limited to school attendance. Currently, we have 32.38% of our students who are considered Chronic Absentees, and 24.13% of our students have Excessive Absences. We are striving to improve both of these categories by at least 5%. In addition to the supports from the social worker, the school is encouraging increased attendance through monthly positive reinforcement activities and other extrinsic motivators, where attendance is a part of participation criteria.
2. Have alterable barriers been eliminated or reduced? (Alterable barriers are in-house infrastructure mechanisms such as scheduling, class structures, teacher attendance, student attendance, staff development plan, etc.)
A. What evidence do you see that a barrier has been reduced or eliminated?
B. What evidence do you have that the barriers are wide-reaching and will help you achieve your goal?
C. If progress towards eliminating the barrier is not sufficient, where or what is the breakdown?
D. Did you identify other barriers that could serve as effective re- entry points into the plan?
Attendance concerns are continually monitored through weekly child study meetings that are held at each grade level (elementary, middle and high school); however, at this point, 61/130 (46%) students are projected to have either chronic or excessive absences by the end of this school year. At this point, we do not see this particular barrier having been reduced/eliminated, so there is work to be done. Many of our students continue to have pervasive mental health issues requiring hospitalizations and intensive medication management, and their mental stability and basic functioning are a priority. For those students who miss school for hospitalizations, we offer after school care with tutoring assistance where they can receive individualized assistance to catch up on missed assignments. We also have a significant number of students with attendance concerns who are identified as homeless. Our school based social worker, therapists and community liaison coordinate assistance such as bus passes, clothing, food, etc. to help meet their basic needs, in an effort to improve school attendance and overall wellbeing.
3. Are your strategies being implemented with fidelity?
A. Were decisions to continue, intensify, modify, or terminate strategies or action steps based on specific evidence?
Yes, through comparing attendance summary data from last school year to this school year, in addition to attendance bulletins that disaggregate this data further, we are able to see that although overall attendance rates are at about 89%, there are specific students who would benefit from additional supports to encourage increased attendance. With this data in mind, we need to intensify and/or modify strategies in place to address the needs of these specific students.
4. What are your benchmarks for success?
A. How will you progress towards your goal impact student achievement?
B. What is your desired state?
C. What gaps exist between your current state and your desired state?
Progress toward meeting our goal will impact student achievement in that attendance is the first step in student success. We cannot teach our students if they are not present at school. If we can improve attendance, we can hopefully improve student achievement. Our goal is to decrease chronic and excessive absences by at least 5% from previous years. At this time, we are looking at about a 18% difference between our current state and our desired state.