Guskey's Matrix

Our students come from a wide range of elementary and middle schools and enter our building without consistent levels of instruction that they would receive if they were all coming from a feeder middle school, which leads us to have students with an incredibly wide range of abilities and skills sets when they enter our doors. In response, we have had to create strong structures that hold teachers accountable to sharing and using data to modify their lessons because it is infeasible for us to level our classes perfectly. To do so, we have our instructional coaches work one on one with our teachers to create and update 6-week plans every single week to ensure that their instruction is actually meeting the needs of the learners that are in front of them. Due to these strategies, we had the highest growth in our entire network on the PSAT in quarter one for our ninth and tenth grade cohorts and we are on track to exceed our growth goals for the year. However, it is important to note, that our students have a high level of learning and emotional needs, which means that we have to approach classroom management and social work services differently than another school might. Our classroom management system has to incorporate a high emphasis on relationship and coalition building. It also means that we must approach our instruction in a way that is culturally responsive, culturally sustaining, and data driven. Another strategy that we have implemented to ensure that students have access to rigorous and challenging work is to consistently use data not solely to tell them where they are, but to empower and reinforce to students their worth and capabilities on a daily level. We have VIP lunches, ceremonies that recognize growth, and jobs well done. It is imperative to create a culture of celebration when it comes to acknowledging their hard

Our professional development sessions are conducted weekly in a variety of subject areas, and the monthly school-wide session, using interactive reform activities, align with the Danielson Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 2013) to showcase best practices of teachers and to develop grade-level performance tasks, looking at students’ work to provide individual feedback that is aligned with the teaching rubric in order to show academic progress and growth in the target areas of ELA and Math.

The needs assessment consists of eleven total questions. The first nine questions employed a rating scale of 1 through 5. Question ten asked participants to choose one of the nine ELA shift kits on which they’d like to receive more information. Finally, question eleven asked teachers to rate our school’s progress on creating

My vice principal helped me analyzed my own assessment inventory; we set one of my teacher growth goals based on my inventory results. We also spent time going over the results of what teachers had answered on the survey. The last time I met with her, we reviewed my teacher growth goal as well as giving me ideas and resources. This has helped us change the structure of our PLCs and focus more on resources as well as student data. I have other people in mind as stakeholders for this project.

The Response to Intervention framework is a critical element of the Westside Elementary to meet the individual instructional needs of our students. The school utilizes universal screenings to access all students reading data in grades one through five, three times throughout the school year. Primarily, two assessments, STAR and Aimsweb data, determine the pathway of the students and the services deemed appropriate, including teacher information and collaboration with the MTSS team. The students partake in the assessments three times a year; fall, winter, and spring. Tiers are not stagnant; students may receive services from multiple tiers, depending on instructional, academic, and environmental needs. Therefore,

Prior to the conduction of this study, the researcher sought the approval of the Institutional Review Board with the Protection of Human Subjects in research. The researcher completed re-certification with the Institutional Review Board training on May 29, 2014 (See Appendix C). The researcher provided IRB with information such as research protocol, interview protocol, Demographic Questionnaire, researcher’s background information, consent form, and investigator’s assurance. Upon IRB approval, the research contacted the contacted the Superintendent of each school district for their permission to conduct the study in their districts. Next the principals of the schools were contacted for their permission to interview teachers in their building. At this point, the research was able to contact the participants for an interview. The Principals, after permission was given for the study, were asked to provide the participants e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

During the initial data needs assessment review, I wanted to make sure we addressed the local community’s needs. We utilized both the LCAP and the DLAC surveys, talked with school teams and informally talked with parents on the campus and PTA members. Part of this evaluation determined a need for more parent involvement and education.

Madison Community Unit School District services students grades K-12 and they have a support center that houses these same grade levels for challenged children. Children who display violence, and who are overly aggressive with students and teachers, during the school year are also sent to the support center. Ultimately, this is done as a means of attempting to reshape behavior that could ultimately result in some students being expelled for the remainder of the school year, or being sent to an alternative school. The demographic makeup of the Junior and senior high school is a matriculation of 300 students, which consist of 92.2% black, 4.8% white, 1.2% Hispanic, and 1.8% of two or more races. This school provides service to a base of 99% low income student, 11% of these students have an IEP, and the total number of students followed by the counselor equates to 199 students amongst Jr high and high school. The graduation rate is 82% which is rather high, but the percentage that is college ready is 6% and that seems rather low to me. The Counseling techniques utilized by the counselor is 50% career development and 50% educational improvement. There is a high need for social emotional training as well as the entire school needs to be addressed about bullying. Its evidence of this behavior taking place with the females, and the school is curious if it is happening with the males too. I will be tasked in the upcoming future, with creating a group for

In regards to the Marzano Instructional Frameworks as a guide, building administrators and teachers will meet monthly to guide professional growth discussions, set goals and identify future professional opportunities. In addition, the district TPEP committee will meet monthly to plan and guide professional development that includes a teacher leader to provide evaluation and framework training. SIP will identify Marzano instructional practices on a yearly basis as a school-wide focus for implementation and/or improvement. Student growth meetings will occur each fall between school administrators and teacher and will revolve around students at risk of falling behind their peers and student sub-groups that may be collectively behind the total student population (closing the achievement gap). And finally, time will be made each quarter for instructional rounds to facilitate professional growth among

The principal will monitor this implementation by conducting clinical observations of the teachers beginning with the sixth grade in year one and continuing with seventh and eighth grade teachers over the next two years. The principal will be able to provide immediate feedback based upon the clinical observations, however, the complete monitoring of this process will take some time because the effects of the new programs and resource allocations will not be realized until some additional data has been collected. Once the new standardized testing data has been collected and analyzed after year one, then the areas of deficiency will be evident and appropriate improvements can be made to the programs implementation in the

Each year, teachers at St. Timothy School assess student need using a variety of tools that measure student learning styles, as well as reading levels and math proficiency. Using ongoing assessments in this manner provides teachers with immediate feedback on student progress and allows teachers to analyze the effectiveness of instruction, and make modifications where necessary. Teachers then rely on the resources available to either remediate and intervene to prevent student failure; or accelerate and provide additional challenge for students. This remediation and acceleration model is fluid, and allows flexibility in grouping students. It is possible that a student would be accelerated in some areas, need remediation in others, and be on grade-level for still others. The St. Timothy School instructional model provides for the ultimate in individualized instruction.

A needs assessment was completed on Baker Middle School’s After School Program. The after school intervention program is for students that scored an Approaching Basic level or Basic level on the previous school year’s state assessment in reading, math, or both according to the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program(LEAP) or Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (ILEAP). Once students have taken the LEAP or ILEAP testing, the general education teacher analyzes the data. If a student shows Approaching Basic or above, in reading or math, the student is approached to participate in the program. There were allocated forty slots, once the deadline pass then another round of recruitment was done for those on the waiting list. In order to receive services to the program the teacher must have a parent conference or phone conference with the parent(s) to share the data, explain the program and explain the expectations of the program. Once the teacher has signed paperwork from the parents of the child, they are eligible for the program. The child is able to start the program after school twice a week from January until Spring testing in April. Baker Middle School tries to identify candidates as soon as the test results are available from the state but students are able to join the program even if they enter later on in the school year. Both the after tutoring program with the use of Successmaker were established to ensure strong student achievement in both

During Intervention. The main research question during the intervention phase is, “How effective are the professional development sessions and strategies implemented in the classroom?”. The data sources used during this phase of the intervention will be teacher interviews and classroom observations. To prepare the qualitative data for analysis, questions for the interview will be

Educational assessments was the main focal point this professional commitment by Morgan Wood. My opinion of this video is that it is a great way to improve the lives of children through educational assessments. This video informs of the important reasons why we need to use assessment to plan effective instruction. Teachers need to take an active role in making decisions about the purpose of educational assessment and the content that is being assessed. For these reasons, I believe this type of professional commitment will allow them to do just that. When educational assessment are implemented diagnostic feedback is provided as well as helps the teacher set standards. Also, educational assessments evaluates and relates to a student’s progress

This way, all the school staff became familiar with the intervention model and understood what was being asked of teachers. Teachers were asked to complete the pre-assessment package just before the training started. Informed consent was obtained and participants were told that anonymity would be preserved. Each participant completed their package at their own pace. The trainer and a doctoral student in Education were in the room to clarify possible