The Dixon Middle School school improvement model consists of a three-layered approach in an effort to significantly improve individual student academic achievement. It is our belief that an increase in student achievement will result in a change in building attitude, focused teacher action (or response), and an analysis of relevant data that will be used to guide very specific instruction with a goal of defining very specific outcomes.
Let’s take a closer look at the processes’ foundation – Attitude. Like many schools aiming to improve the output of student learning, establishing a building attitude that both desires success and an attitude that can deliver success must be practiced. Ultimately, a building’s attitude (both from the teachers and students) will translate into a building’s culture. It is our aim that through attitude, an instructional culture will be formed that promotes academic success that is driven by student-centered instruction. What is more, that all immediate school stakeholders adopt a philosophy that is grounded in accountability. We provide an environment that promotes the ideals that the building leader is accountable for providing the resource and support for all school processes, teachers are accountable for aspects their students individual achievement, and students are accountable for meeting their learning goals.
It is our belief that given enough time and support, ALL students can achieve 100% of their personal and educational potential.
We aim to achieve 100% of a student’s personal and educational potential by primarily engaging in the principles of differentiated instruction. This involves providing students with different avenues to acquiring content; to processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of the differences in ability. This, in tandem with our action and analysis layers, (which will be discussed later), will complete our three-layer approach.
An Instructional Practices Inventory, or IPI, is a process for profiling student engaged learning. IPI is a strategy developed by Dr. Jerry Vaentine at the University of Missouri and is grounded in two frameworks for school improvement. One is a student-centered framework and the other a vision-driven process framework. The IPI process is a way to systematically profile student engagement during a specific timeframe, typically a school day, so faculty can study and apply the data as they facilitate classroom instruction. A formal definition being “A process for creating an optimum profile of student engagement in learning that teachers will view as fair and accurate, thus becoming a basis for collaborative faculty study and subsequent refinement of how students are engaged in learning throughout the school.”
Improving, or raising, student achievement is largely dependent on the actions employed to focus instruction. Traditionally, students are expected to learn based upon how a teacher teaches. We prescribe to the philosophy that teachers teach based upon a students’ way of learning. We aim to accomplish this through our differentiated approach and ancillary instructional interventions.
As a result of exhaustive research done in selecting a Response to Intervention (RTI) model, we have adopted an RTI model employed by Camdenton Middle School in Camdenton Missouri.
By committing our efforts to provide the best resources available to raise student achievement, Camdenton Middle School’s RTI model was merged with our values, beliefs, and resources to develop a guided academic intervention that fits our building. Through this process, we are able to increase content and cohort planning times as well as increase instructional time for students needing it (all within the regular school week). Those students identified as not requiring additional contact time participate in classes dubbed as “Areas of Special Interest” or ASI. This principle is based on a theory that not all students learn at the same speed and that not all students require the same resources in order to be equally competent. This is accomplished by identifying students needing additional learning opportunities and providing those opportunities throughout the school week. In short, as a student increases in learning, academic intervention is decreased. Conversely, as a students learning is decreased, academic intervention is increased.
Considerable effort has been made to provide the means for cohort core collaboration amongst teachers. Providing this weekly opportunity allows teachers to not only identify specific needs of shared students and assign specific weekly guided academic interventions, but to also plan faculty mentoring strategies. To maintain compliance with our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP), every middle school teachers is assigned one or more students who have been identified through data analysis and they monitor their grades, and homework.
After school tutoring is also available in the four academic core areas: Math, Communication Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Tutoring is provided by highly qualified faculty. Tutoring is also provided with a program called “Teaching kids through kids” where pre-screened, qualified student peers, under the direct supervision of a highly qualified faculty, assist in teaching their peers.
In order to provide specific individualized instruction, a system must be in place to establish, execute, maintain, and sustain data to guide the instruction that goes on in the building.
Four data teams, were formed to specifically establish, execute, maintain, and sustain data for the sole purpose of guiding instruction. Data teams will represent three content areas: math, communication arts, science and other ancillary content areas. The three core areas receive most concentration simply due to the fact that they are currently the states MAP assessed areas.
Internal data sources include, but are not limited to, school-wide formative and summative student assessments, Positive Behavior Support data and external data sources such as MAP assessment results. Data teams will pay particular attention to cohort MAP assessment data. This is conflict with current AYP reporting models published by the state.
However, it is our belief that monitoring cohort assessment data provides a greater reliability in monitoring individual student achievement as students’ progress through our building. IPI data is also utilized as a basis for collaborative faculty study and subsequent refinement of how students are engaged in learning throughout the school.
It is our aim that throughout the school improvement process that goals and expectations are clearly communicated. We communicate with two main groups in mind (students and teachers).
Communication with students includes sharing cohort group school wide assessment results. Results are posted in the building for both students and public to view. The purpose is two-fold, one … to allow cohort groups to self monitor achievement and two … to foster a sense of competition within the building between cohort groups. Periodic assemblies are also conducted to communicate expectations and to celebrate accomplishments.
Teachers are communicated through a variety of ways. Primarily, information is accessible at any time on the school’s web page “Principal Pages”. In essence, this is an online resource providing information ranging from curriculum to school improvement efforts.
The webpage also includes an interactive timeline that both illustrates accomplishments and identifies what is to happen in the future. All school improvement committees (data teams, master schedule, Areas of Special Interest (ASI), Response to Intervention (RTI), generate dates and activities that are posted on the timeline - Basically, any activity that leads to accomplishing the three-layer approach to school improvement, is documented using the interactive timeline and is available at any time.
Since our school is a Professional Learning Community (PLC), teacher training and school improvement updates are communicated here.
Finally, as described previously, adopting a guided academic intervention plan has facilitated the ability to reformulate the master schedule in order to accommodate common content preps for core teachers and cohort group meeting times once every week.We believe that given enough time and support, ALL students can achieve 100% of their personal and educational potential. It is our goal that through employing the three-layer approach of changing attitude, providing action, and the analysis of data, we can significantly improve individual student achievement and that our school will regularly meet Adequate Yearly Progress.