1. How does a school stay ON
TARGET?
The Important Process of a
School’s SIP
An interview with Principal and RTI Coach Kelley Boynton
Nelson Elementary
Bethel School District
By Elissa Dornan
WSU EDAD 510
September 2014

2. ON TARGET
Continuous School Improvement Process
Do
Implement Plan
Monitor Plan
Evaluate Plan
Gather
Get Ready
Collect School Data
Build School Profile
Student
Achievement
Plan
Develop School
Improvement Plan
Study
Analyze Data
Set Goals
Set Measurable
Objectives
Research Best Practice

3. ON TARGET
Considerations for a High Quality SIP
Kelley Boynton opened up Nelson Elementary-one of the
highest functioning elementary schools in the Bethel School
District. Here is what his SIP process looks like…
Teacher Buy-in – A SIP plan must reflect the collective voice
of the staff. Their input is paramount in keeping the SIP
alive.
Review of School Data – How can the results be leveraged?
What are the best practices that will fill in the holes and
guide instruction?
Action Plan – What will be done with the Data? What
measurable steps will be outlined in the plan and how will it
be revisited throughout the year?
Progress Monitoring – Without defined dates for revisiting of
the school improvement plan, the SIP is nothing more than a
document. To keep it living, the staff must revisit often.
Accountability-Systems must be in place within the school
culture to keep the SIP from becoming obsolete.

4. ON TARGET
DATA
• State Assessments (Smarter Balanced,
MSP)
• District Assessments-MAP, DIBELS,
RBA
• Common Formative Assessments in
Math, ELA, and Writing that grade
level teams commit to administering,
sharing, and analyzing
• Common Interim and Summative
Assessments
TOOLS
• Homeroom
• Bethel SIP Template
• Indistar
• Common Scoring Protocols
Necessary Data and Tools

5. ON TARGET
Kelley’s primary focus: High Functioning PLC’s to keep the SIP alive

6. ON TARGET
Nelson Elementary’s PLC
Criterion-Developed by
Teacher Leaders
1. Unpack Standards
and Create a Map.
2. Lock the
Assessment
for the
Standards
3. Build Lessons for
Assessment Success
4. Teach
Lessons for
Assessment
Success
Kelly and the Leadership Team at
Nelson Elementary are working to
define what kind of PLC’s they feel
they need to have in order to
sustain their SIP. Kelley wanted to
“leverage the PLC” by having
teachers define what it looks like
when a PLC is functioning well and
then developing a criteria for
assessing themselves. At each PLC
meeting, grade levels submit
through google forms (created by
Kelley) a quick check list of how
much time they spent in these 6
component areas. Kelley provides
data on how effective their PLC
time is, where the work is
generally being done, and what
areas that grade level can increase
time and efforts on. This
is all linked to
Nelson’s SIP plan,
thus keeping alive the
vision/mission of the school
through the work of the
grade level teams.
5. Conduct
Assessment
6. Analyze and
Respond

7. ON TARGET
With Kelley’s Google Forms,
teams can track how much
time they are spending on
the 6 criterion they created
of effective PLCs
58%
Sample Grade Level PLC Status
23%
10%
9%
Report
19%
Kelley and his teams can see the
percentage of time spend on
1. Unpacking standards and
creating a map
2. Locking the assessments for the
standards
3. Building lessons for assessment
success
4. Teaching lessons for assessment
success
5. Conducting assessments
6. Analyzing Assessments and
Responding to student needs

8. ON TARGET
Staying on Target
A School Improvement Planning cycle must begin with
Leadership from the teachers on defining what high
quality instruction looks like, otherwise, the plan is just
a plan, and not a living document that defines the very
purpose of the work that must be done to increase
student learning. I’ve learned the hard way, that time
must first be invested in developing high functioning
PLC teams. A principal cannot sustain the SIP, but
he/she can set up a systematic way for teachers to
own the work outlined in their SIP.
-Kelley Boynton