Alief ISD Case Study

Headland Middle School completed our School Improvement Plan in May 2014. The school leadership team, which consisted of parents, analyzed the 2013-14 School Improvement

Alief ISD prepares students for tomorrow - caring for them today. Alief operates 45 campuses and programs which educates a highly diverse population of 47,000 students of which 82% which are economically disadvantaged and speak 80 different languages. Despite the high number of students identified as economically disadvantaged, over 70% of Alief schools have earned one or more distinctions in English language arts, math, science, social studies, student progress, post-secondary readiness, and in closing the achievement gap. More importantly, at its core, the district’s staff consists of 3,253 dedicated teachers with an average of 10.3 years of experience and 26.4% who hold advanced degrees. Alief staff has contributed many accomplishments over

In addition the three main goals, several strategies for achieving each goal are listed. For goal one, the strategies include: improve academic performance, increase consistency with district initiatives, evaluate school calendar options, develop student personal management skills, and create an online school. Secondly, the goal two includes the following: create an “East Noble Story” for all stakeholders, and provide opportunities for stakeholders to experience “East Noble” stories. Finally, goal three has one strategy: to develop and maintain facilities to effectively serve the students of ENSC.

The elementary educators both viewed the strengths of the program as flexibility to servicing the students, and being able to work with students in small groups. The middle school teacher thought that the participation of the general education teachers in the program was a definite strength. Among the weaknesses, teachers thought scheduling was difficult, and there is not enough staff to service the students. Also, teachers thought it was difficult to provide consistency of services and communication throughout all the buildings in the district. The middle school ELL teacher also noticed a lack of formal assessments and progress monitoring to help meet the changing needs of the students. The teachers’ goals addressed these weaknesses. They wanted to improve communication, and consistency of the ELL program, learn more about assessing Ells and ensure that the current ELL program moves forward. The elementary teacher also thought it was important to keep ELL students a priority even though our district doesn’t have many students who qualify. I also thought it was interesting that the middle school teacher also wants to provide general educations teachers with more support and guidance. I think that is a great goal that will help the students and the teachers!

Headland Middle School believe our students deserve the best education we can provide. With this plan, it builds the foundation for our vision and direction for making it happen. As our motto suggests: “Learning Today…Leading

Making Middle Grades Work recommendation (CSR), Georgia Assessment of Performance on School Standards (GAPSS) recommendations, improvement team suggestions from the state department, various community consultants, and self-evaluations within the school all had major effects on improved academic performances and the culture of the school. The first areas for improvements targeted Language Arts, Mathematics and Reading. We simply felt that these areas would give students the necessary attention academically to be successful. Secondly, we strive to make sure our students do well on standardized testing and promote that their reading is beyond the classroom. The school’s contact with successful mentorship programs help structure the social, emotional and even cognitive aspect of healthy growth for our

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

First of all, continual feedback allows teachers to self-reflect on best practices. For example, a teacher can target his/her areas of weakness in order to grow professionally and gain further insight of best practices. Another benefit, of teacher evaluations is higher student success rates. These, for example, are measurable through district assessments and state standardized assessments. If a teachers success rate has significantly improved through modification of practices, T-TESS has served its intended purpose. Finally, yet another benefit of teacher evaluations is the fact that the educator is an active participant in his/her evaluation process. For example, through goal setting, the educator is allowed the opportunity to decide where he/she want to grow. Through the evaluation cycle and the communication therein, the appraiser and educator both take greater responsibility in understanding and meeting established goals. Finally, at the end of the process, student growth is an indicator of a well-developed and integrated evaluation system. These are but a few of the many benefits reaped from an evaluation systems such as T-TESS (TEA,

“The transformation model requires replacement of the school principal, strengthening of staffing, implementation of a research-based instructional program and new

As an educational leader, I must have a vision and mission statement for the school that is known by the staff, students, and parents. The vision will address the needs of the students academically, emotionally, and socially. According to DuFour (1998), “ Those who seek to transform their school into a professional learning community as characterized by an environment fostering mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth, and a synergy of efforts.” The leader must implement a plan that will cultivate the success of all students. The mission will speak to the direction of the school community stating what the desire goals are. The building leader will lead by example. High expectations will be communicated and encourage by staff and students. The educational leader of a school must develop a culture of team work to create a climate that is student friendly. The vision mission and goals of the leader should be transparent. The establishment of common goals is the first step. Without common goals, sustainable progress will be impossible and thus everyone will have lower expectations. The students, parents, and staff should be commented to the goals of every child reaching their full academic potential. The school environment should speak to goal setting and high expectations for all students and staff.

Ms. Avery, the principal instituted specific curriculum goals and objectives that aligned with the school district. She organized a team of parents and teachers who was in charge of developing new

An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the

Administrators and teachers must work together to develop the PLC plan addressing the needs of their students. This means administrators need to trust teachers and allow them to work in a way that is autonomous from leadership. Delegating more responsibilities to staff was a way of creating a more knowledgeable community that could cope with the diversity of demands created by schools moving from being relatively simple organizations to highly complex ones. It was also recognized as in accord with the rhetoric of distributed leadership recommended as a strategy for school improvement and raising pupil attainment (Bolam et al. 2005, Webb, et al.

From the pre-assessment, we learned that teachers needed to learn more about intervention strategies-61% of those surveyed could not name an intervention strategy, steps in the referral process-89% of those surveyed could not accurately list the steps in the referral process and understanding an

As we review and synthesize data of a district for planning school improvement, the following information is needed to access and determine the needs of a school. First, a thorough analysis of performance data must be reviewed to see how school districts measure up with state and federal accountability. During this process, it is very important that schools focus the performance indicators that will guarantee growth and success. School teams must refer to the districts mission and vision to guide the planning process. The performance indicators will provide data that will be beneficial in creating improvement strategies. So, after careful evaluation of the data, the next step would be to plan effective methods and strategies that will improve student achievement. Moreover, this plan should include needs, demographics and opportunities for students to be successful. Additionally, the baseline data is important information to include in the improvement plan.