END OF YEAR
INVENTORY
Principal/School Coach
Booklet & Sample Report
2015
Prepared by
The National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching (NCREST)
Teachers College, Columbia University
ISA Annual End of Year Inventory
Principal & School Coach
2015
Contents of Booklet
- ISA Annual End of Year Inventory Overview & Purpose1
- ISA Annual End of Year Inventory Process3
- Annual End of Year InventoryChart5
- On-Track-to-Graduation Indicators Chart17
- Tools
- ISA Principles19
- Observation Tool23
- College Readiness Skills25
- Sample ISA End of Year Inventory Report29
ISA End of Year Inventory
Overview and Purpose
As a strategy for the implementation of the “Continuous Organizational Improvement” principle of the ISA Model, ISA thinks it is critical that the principal and staff reflect deeply on the school year and take stock of the successes and challenges the school experienced in implementing a college-ready, academically rigorous, and personalized school framed by the ISA model. The ISA End of Year Inventory provides the principal and staff with an opportunity for this reflection and the subsequent discussion on next steps in the school’s development.
Specifically, the purpose of the inventory is to help the school identify and sustain the school's accomplishments in implementing the ISA model and to identify and make plans to strengthen and develop those areas that need work.Research and evaluation studies have shown that when there is high implementation fidelity to a successful model that schools are far more likely to achieve the intended student performance outcomes.
There are four components to the ISA End of Year Inventory, that are described in more detail in this booklet:
- A review of the school’s implementation of the ISA model by the principal and ISA school coach and other staff whom the principal might designate
- A review of the school’s implementation of the ISA model by an external ISA coach
- A conversation among the principal, ISA coach, and external coach on the findings from the review
- A written report on the findings and recommendations by the external coach.
The end-of-year inventory will answer these questions:
1. Where is our school in the implementation of the ISA model?
2. In what areas does evidence show our school is being effective in implementing the model?
3. In what areas does evidence show we need further development?
4. What student performance outcomes did the school achieve?
5. What objectives will we include in the school’s 2014-15 action plan to address those areas that need work?
ISA Annual End of Year Inventory Process
Following is a description of the process for the End of Year Inventory.
- ISA Coach and principal together do the following:
●Review and complete Annual End of Year InventoryChart together
●Principal and ISA school coach do walk through of classrooms together to gather evidence for the indicators on instruction on the Inventory Chart
●Tools to use for the walk throughs:
- ISA Principles
- Classroom Observation Tool (included in booklet)
- College Readiness Skills (included in booklet)
- ISA Inquiry and Literacy (separate booklets)
- Other inquiry tools your school is using (e.g., Bloom’s taxonomy, Conley’s college knowledge skills)
●Together, principal and ISA school coach discuss and complete On Track to Graduation Indicators Chart
- Meeting of External Reviewer, Principal and ISA Coach: 4-hours toone day
●Principal and ISA school coach meet with the External Reviewer
●Principal provides overview of the school
●Principal provides External Reviewer with folder including the following materials (most of these should already exist):
oCopy of completed Annual End of Year InventoryChart
oSchool’s ISA Action Plan
oSchool schedule showing student and teacher programs
oProfessional development calendar
oAgendas and decision minutes from grade level team meetings:
▪One set from October, 2014
▪One set from December, 2014
▪One set from February, 2015
oList of issues principal and coach are working on together and activities they do together
oAdvisory schedule and curriculum outline
oThree samples of student work that demonstrate students’ growth in a content area
oCompleted On Track to Graduation Indicators Chart (in booklet).
●Principal, ISA Coach, and External Reviewer do a walk though of 5-8 classrooms to look for evidence of inquiry and literacy across the curriculum.
oClassrooms observed should include teachers who have been working with the ISA school and content coaches
oClassrooms observed should reflect a distribution across content areas.
oTools to use:
▪Classroom Observation Tool (included in booklet)
▪List of Inquiry Behaviors (included in booklet)
▪ISA Inquiry, and Literacy Rubrics (separate booklets)
●Principal, ISA Coach, and External Reviewer review the school’s Annual End of Year Inventorychart, evidence from their walk through, and other materials in the folder.
●On the basis of the review of the school’s Annual End of Year Inventorychart, evidence from their walk through, and other materials in the folder Principal, ISA Coach, and External Reviewer discuss the following questions:
- Where is the school in the implementation of the ISA model? (Not yet underway, beginning implementation, mature implementation, advanced implementation) The discussion should include the school’s implementation of each of the ISA principles.
- In what areas does evidence show that the school is being effective in implementing the ISA model? Cite the evidence by providing examples.
- In what areas does evidence show that the school needs further development in the implementation of the ISA model? Cite the evidence.
- What student performance outcomes has the school achieved?
- What should the school focus on in order to sustain the school’s achievements and continue the school’s development in those areas that need work?
●External Reviewer gives oral recommendations to Principal and ISA Coach on the priorities for change and use of resources to increase the school’s implementation of the ISA model, to help sustain achievements, and continue the school’s development in areas that need work.
- After the visit, the External Reviewer writes up a report using the electronic report template and submits the completed report to Gerry House at ISA and Jackie Ancess at NCREST.
- ISA provides principal and coach with written report.
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© Institute for Student Achievement. 2015. ARR.
ISA IMPLEMENTATION Chart
School Name:______Implementation Year: ______
DIRECTIONS: PRINCIPAL AND COACH TOGETHERDISCUSS ANDCOMPLETE CHART
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.1. Small School Organization / ******************************** / ********************************
1. The small school has contiguous dedicated space.
2. The small school has dedicated staff, including principal, teachers, counselors, ELL and special education teachers.
3. The small school has dedicated support personnel, such as: secretaries, aides, assistants, stud. lifecoord; etc.
4. The small school has a dedicated group of students, numbering around 100 per grade.
5. The dedicated group of students in the small school includes ELL and Special Education students and a heterogeneous academic distribution of students.
6. The small school grows a grade per year beginning with the 9th grade cohort.
7. The small school has regularly scheduled common planning time,at which teachers and counselors who teach the same students meet to discussinstruction, do casemanagement of students, and keep agendas and decision minutes to assess progress.
8. The small school leader supervises and rates staff including teachers, counselors, ELL and Special Education teachers
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.
Distributed Leadership / ******************************** / ********************************
9. Decisions governing staffing, instructional program, scheduling, professional development, governance, budget, counseling, student services and behavior, and student assignments are made at the school level by the small school principal in collaboration with the faculty.
10. There is a structure in place for regular and ongoing collaborative decision making by the small school leader, teachers, and the coach.
11. Those implementing decisions have a voice in making them.
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.
College Prep Instructional Program / ******************************** / ********************************
12. The small school has an instructional framework that guides curriculum and instruction and operationalizes ISA college preparatory principles, district goals, and Common Core Learning Standards.
13. The small school has developed a set of common teaching practices all teachers are expected to implement that operationalize the instructional framework
14. The majority of classrooms show evidence of the common practices designed to operationalize the school’s instructional framework
15. The majority of classrooms show evidence of inquiry teaching and learning:
●open ended questions,
●student discussion,
●students’ use of evidence to support their points of view,
●students’ analysis of material and ideas being studied
●students’ taking a stand on issues and presenting counter arguments
●the school’s habits of mind and/or work
16. The majority of classrooms show evidence of literacy development related to the content area:
●students writing to increase their understanding of the central ideas of the content area
●students’ using the specialized vocabulary/language of the content area to increase their understanding of the content area’s central ideas
●students reading multiple texts including original sources in the content areas
17. The majority of classrooms show evidence of numeracy across the curriculum:
●students have opportunities to make sense of numerical and other non-verbal information
●students have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of ideas and material by using numerical information and formats (e.g., graphs) and other non-verbal formats
18. The majority of classrooms show evidence of multiple forms of assessment, including:
●teacher made and standardized tests
●oral presentations
●a variety of written products (short paragraphs as well as elaborated writings)
●projects
●visual products
●multi-media and technology
19. There are formal and informal academic interventions for struggling students that increase students’ progress and achievement.
20. The small school has developed a set of grade-level student benchmarks that are used to determine student progress on inquiry, literacy and numeracy in the content areas.
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.
Distributed Counseling / ******************************** / ********************************
21. Every student has an advisor/advocate, who knows the student well and is responsiblefor monitoring and advocating for the student's academic and social progress.
22. There is regularly scheduled time for advisory or other Distributed Counseling mechanism.
23. There is a written curriculum for advisory or other Distributed Counseling mechanism.
24. There is a 4-year college preparatory plan that is implemented through advisories or other mechanisms to establish a college-going culture, starting with 9th grade; there are:
●college visitations,
●parent orientations about college preparation, including financial aid opportunities
●opportunities for studentsto take college courses while in high school.
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.
Continuous Professional Development / ******************************** / ********************************
25. The small school has a strategic plan for professional development that includes a schedule for the ISA coach’s work with staff and follow up supervision by the principal.
26. Professional development is aligned with the small school’s ISA action plan, the implementation of the ISA instructional principles, and district standards.
27. The school’s professional development plan uses the ISA school coach in a systematic and strategic way:
●the ISA school coach works regularly with the school leader and a specific teachers on outcomes identified in the school action plan
●the ISA school coach works with grade level teams and/or grade level team facilitators/leaders on specific outcomes from the school action plan
●the ISA coach and school leader do regular walk-thoughs and confer on evidence of progress and plans for next steps.
28. Teachers work with ISA content coaches to implement the outcomes in the school action plan.
29. Teachers and leaders have supports (e.g. time, resources) to achieve the outcomes defined in the school’s ISA action plan.
30. Common planning time for grade level teacher-counselor teams is used for professional development (e.g., review of student work, use of data to inform instruction, curriculum planning, integrating guidance strategies into classroom pedagogy, etc.).
31. All teachers, counselors, and school leaders participate in ISA PD opportunities such as the Summer and Winter Institutes and Leadership and Counselor Networks.
Indicators of the ISA Model / What is the evidence of implementation? / Changes that need to be made.
Parent Involvement / **************************** / ****************************
32. The small school has its own, individual parent association.
33. The small schoolis implementing a coherent parent engagement program that reaches out to all parents.
34. Teachers and advisors communicate regularly with parents and track their communications.
35. The majority of parents participate actively in the small school and school events and activities.
36. Parents play meaningful roles in the organization and decision making of the small school.
Extended Day & Year / ******************************** / ********************************
37. The small school has mechanisms such as extended day and school year to support struggling students as well as provide enrichment for all students.
38. Teachers and other members of the small school plan, organize, and participate in the extended day/year programs for academic support and curricular enrichment.
Continuous Organizational Improvement / ******************************** / ********************************
39. The small school has developed an annual action plan in which the school leaders and faculty set their particular instructional and organizational goals and strategies and identify benchmarks to track progress.
40. The small school uses the student results from the ISA writing and math assessments to inform instruction in writing and math.
41. The principal continuously assesses the implementation of the small school’s action plan with the faculty by scheduling specific times for this purpose and using data as evidence of progress.
42. The small school principal and faculty use the ISA rubrics to assess progress on implementation of their action plan and ISA principles.
43. At team meetings, teachers assess how effectively their teaching and curriculum strategies are achieving the learning goals set for students.
44. The principal meets regularly with the ISA coach to develop and coordinate plans for implementing inquiry-based instruction.
45. The principal meets regularly with the ISA coach to assess the school’s implementation of the ISA principles and district goals and to coordinate plans to implement the ISA principles and their action plan goals.
46. The small school keeps track of student performance indicators through formal and informal monitoring processes.
47. Student performance indicators such as the ISA writing and math assessments, end-of-course tests and other state/district tests, SAT scores, etc. show continuous improvement.
ISA On Track to Graduation Indicators Chart
Name of School: Date:
Average Daily Attendance Rate for school:
What software program is the school using to keep track of students?:
Course passing rate (%): ELA, math, sci. ss. / % of students with required credit accumulation / % of students on track to graduation / Required Regents passing rate (%)9th Grade
10th Grade
11th Grade
12th Grade
The ISA Model
The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) partners with high schools and school districts to create new small high schools and transform big ones into successful small learning communities. ISA believes that in highly-supported small schools/small learning communities, meaningful, sustained relationships develop between teachers and students that facilitate higher student motivation, achievement and aspirations. ISA’s strategic partner in the implementation and documentation of the ISA Model is the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching (NCREST) at Teachers College, Columbia University.
A clear, explicit set of non-negotiable principles defines the ISA Model. Each school develops a customized plan of how the ISA principles are operationalized in the school’s organizational, instructional, counseling, and parent involvement components. Where schools need help in designing a particular component, ISA and NCREST may recommend appropriate pre-packaged programs, curriculum, assessments, organization, and professional development.
All ISA sites implement and accomplish the principles described below. These principles are based on ISA’s achieved effectiveness and current educational research. ISA, with NCREST, facilitates the implementation of these principles through the coaching, professional development, and technology strategies that research shows effectively support program development and higher levels of student achievement and school affiliation. The ISA Model principles consist of:
1)College preparatory instructional program: the instructional program prepares all students for college admission and completion by focusing on students’ intellectual development and emphasizing the development of higher order thinking skills, organization skills, habits of work such as perseverance and preparedness, and mastery of basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. Literacy and numeracy are embedded in content areas across the curriculum and students are taught literacy and mathematics skills explicitly where needed.
Elements of the instructional program include:
●An inquiry approach to curriculum and instruction, focusing on the goal of enabling students to use their minds well (i.e., rigorous intellectual development for all as the central feature of the model). Intellectual rigor in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student work is based on commonly used criteria for identifying rigor, such as construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and value beyond school