Special SIT Blog

SIT Agenda

October 12^th, 2011

School Improvement Plan Sub-Groups:

School Vision and Mission Statement and Cover Sheet

Data Summary Analysis Goal

Reading/Math Goal

Highly Qualified Staff Goal

STEM Goal

Safe Schools/ PBIS Team

For the Good of the Order

Brunson Elementary School SIT Meeting

September 28, 2011

Attending:

Paige Sipe, Kim Mason, Kim Burch, Marcela Zarate, Annie Campbell, Debbie Woodruff, Lauren Saldana, Allison Phelps, Nicole Londono, Deb Fidali, Cindy Sanders, Andy Lester-Niles, Jeff Faullin, Kathy Wilheit, Julie LaPlante

The meeting was called to order at 3:23.

Agenda

• The minutes were read, and one correction needs to be made. Deb Fidali is not classified as a specialist on SIT, but is representing as Media Coordinator.
• Deb Fidali wanted to clarify that she already sent in her mission statement.
• Lauren Saldana, our new school counselor, will now be on SIT to learn more about our community. She will let us know later if she wants to be a permanent member of SIT.
• The agenda needs to be sent out to the staff so discussions can be had amongst grade levels or if they want to be included in on the agenda for the next SIT meeting.
• Minutes need to be written by the Friday before the next SIT meeting.

Magnet Implementation Updates

The following information includes the Purposes and Goals with the updates that were made.

Purpose 1: Magnet programs eliminate, reduce, or prevent the incidence and/or the degree of minority student isolation in targeted schools.

• Goal 1.1: Reduce minority group isolation from 82% to 70% (year 2 goal)
• Benchmark: The request is that we visit NCWise on the 20^th day of 2011/2012 school year to look at our demographics.

• Goal 1.2: The student application pools will reflect racial and ethnic compositions that, in relation to the total enrollment of the school eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group isolation applicant for the school year 2011-2012.

• Assessment: Kindergarten magnet school applicants for the school year 2011-2012
• Outcomes:

§       African Americans – 37.3%

§       Hispanic – 26.3%

§       Multi-racial – 4.3%

§       White – 27.5%

§       Asian Pacific – 4%

• Goal 1.3: The minority white ratio of every magnet school class will not deviate from the minority: white ratio of its grade by more than 15%.

• Benchmark: Class Rosters
• Outcomes:

§       Transitional Bilingual Kindergarten class is filled.

§       The two magnet kindergarten classes are full with the following distribution (Data not available).

Purpose 2: To develop and implement magnet school projects that will assist local education agencies achieve systemic reforms and provide all students the opportunity to meet challenging state academic content standards and student academic achievement standards.

• Goal 2.1: By October 15 of each project year, the School Improvement Team at each magnet school will have completed or revised a School Improvement plan with goals, objectives, and activities that support the adoption of high standards for all students. This plan will have objectives and activities that are directly related to (1) systemic reform and the alignment of curricula with state academic content standards; (2) the development of the school’s magnet themes; (3) staff development related to the objectives and activities of this grant; (4) expanding previous parent involvement initiatives

o      Benchmark: The school improvement plan (SIP) will be revised to ensure that all of the magnet themes and curricular reinforcements are in the SIP

• Action: The school improvement team (SIT) will meet bi-weekly. Additions and updates to the plan will be made as needed to ensure that the SIP guides the school’s educational focus.

o      Benchmark: Curriculum maps are in place for all grade levels. The format will be standardized for the 2012-2013 school year. Our targeted date was June 22, 2011. We have met this goal. We have removed that Kindergarten teachers will be trained in Learning Focused.

• Action: Staff will be working with prioritized curriculum. Staff will do curriculum mapping (June 22) to integrate the balanced literacy program, science, and math strands with the engineering modules to ensure that STEM instruction is integrated with the curriculum. This action is complete.
• Action: EIE (Engineering is Elementary) will be used for instruction beginning with the 2011-2012 school year.

o      Benchmark: EIE training will be done on June 17, 20, and 21, 2011.

o      Target Date: August 2011

o      Outcome: Training is complete.

• Goal 2.2: By the end of the second and third years of this project, there will be a significant increase from the previous year (baseline information will be collected at the end of the project year 1) in the number of  parents of magnet school students who participate in school activities related to the education of their children. The success of these activities will be determined by agendas and attendance sheets of school sponsored activities, other records of parent-school interactions kept by school staff and an analysis of parents responses to survey items.

o      We will continue to have sign-up sheets with everything we do that is related to STEM. Kim Mason will send out an email to ask how many parents we have had so far at Open House, Curriculum Night, Watchdog Pizza Night, and any other events that we have had so far that involves parent interaction.

o      Benchmark: Data collected at the end of the project year will be used to measure improvement.

o      Assessment: Documentation of sign-up sheets.

• Goal 3.1 Throughout the year the magnet school will facilitate and support the development and implementation of the magnet themes.

o      Outcome:

§       Eighteen kits were purchased and/or created. Engineering kits are allocated to grade levels according to the correlation to the curriculum.

§       Kindergarten has created age-appropriate design challenges and is using created curriculum.

• Goal 3.2 By july 31, 2012, 13,14 every student will receive high quality instruction directly related to the magnet theme for at least 5, 10, and 15 hours per week respectively.

Year 1 20% of instructional time

Year 2 40% of instructional time

Year 3 60% of instructional time

o      Benchmark: 90% of teachers are involved in teaching STEM.

o      Assessment:  Classroom walkthrough data Stem coordinator observation, and curricular mapping review utilizing the SSC processes, (The last part is new.)

o      Outcome: Link to master schedule

• Goal 3.3 By July 31, 2012 the magnet school will submit to the district a magnet curriculum document that includes the peer reviewed and approved lessons created as a result of this program.

Benchmark: Each grade level unit will have two peer reviewed lesson plans at the end of the 2011-2012 school year; one packaged EIE and one integrating STEM into an existing unit. (The underlined part has been added.) Incorporate STEM into units we already do. Make a design challenge out of it.

Purpose 4: Courses of instruction within mag net schools that will substantially strengthen the knowledge of academic subjects and the attainment of tangible and marketable vocational, technological, and professional skills of students attending such schools,

• Goal 4.1 By July 31^st, each magnet school will show improvement in reading and mathematics as measured by the North Carolina End of Course or End of Grade Tests. For each school the proportion of students scoring at or above the Proficiency Level will increase by at least 10% for the total population and for each of the NCLB defined subgroups. As a result, the percentage of schools attaining AYP each year will increase.

Action Planned:

• Continue to use the RTI structure and SSC process for student and staff support. Supply differentiated instruction to assess all students.

Benchmark: 2010-2011 school year – (Grades 3-5)

Reading

• Black         51.2%          Goal – 56.1%

• Hispanic    32.1%          Goal – 38.9%
• EDS           41.7%          Goal – 47.5%
• LEP           32% (SH)     Goal – 38.8%

Math

• Black         58.5%           Goal – 62.7%
• Hispanic    67.9%           Goal – 71.1%
• EDS           67.5% (SH)  Goal – 70.8%
• LEP           66.7% (SH)   Goal – 70%

Assessment:

• ABCs – EOG Scores
• NCLB – AYP Results

• Goal 4.2 Current Status - Stem notebooks are being used in classrooms to foster creating an environment focused on the Design Process.

Action Planned: Monitor implementation process using alternative performance measures.

• Goal 5  Improvement of capacity of the local educational agencies, including through professional development, to continue operating magnet schools at a high performance level after Federal funding for the magnet school is terminated.

Action Planned: Provide periodic coaching from the EIE trainer and STEM coordinator during the 2011-2012 school year.

Benchmark:

• Utilize the SSC process to ensure that all staff members are trained as needed for the magnet themes. With twice-weekly visits to Brunson, STEM coordinator will provide instructional coaching for 75% of teachers. 
• Attend state support session with EIE coach and STEM coordinator.
• Each grade level will meet once every 6 days to focus on implementation of instruction.
• Plan implementation and training. Train: Fall 2012- Begin Spring 2013
• All RS and RC days will focus on implementation of the Common Core Standards during the 2011-2012 school year.

Assessment: Administration ensures that all new staff needing training receives training in the magnet themes.

Outcome: Additional, new staff trained August 2011.

School Improvement Plan

• Three, strong measurable goals with 5 to 6 action steps to follow each goal.
• Working documents need to be complete by October 12^th .
• Rename the folder you will be working out of.
• Subcommittees:
• School Vision and Mission will be combined with Cover sheet- Annie Campbell, Andy Lester-Niles, Julie LaPlante
• Data Summary Analysis – Deb Fidali, Kim Burch, Debbie Woodruff
• Three Goals that need to be condensed:
• Reading/Math – Allison Phelps, Marsela Zarate, Nicole Londono
• STEM – Kathy Wilheit, Kim Mason, Paige Sipe
• Staff – Cindy Sanders, Jeff Faullin, Lauren Saldana
• Safe School Plan – PBIS Team will meet October 11.

Questions:

1. What do we want to do with clubs?
2. What leeway can  we have with SIT Plan since we are no longer a Title 1 school?

For the Good of the Order

• The next meeting will be October 12.
• We will be voting on a new co-chair for SIT at the next faculty meeting. Allison Phelps and Deb Fidali are the two choices.

Adjourned: 4:31                                    Respectfully submitted, Debbie Woodruff