Organizational Performance Measures For School Performance

Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.

Data driven decision-making is leading to school success for many apparent reasons. Data driven decision-making is the direct correlation between teachers, curriculum coaches, principals, district educational supervisors, superintendent, and board members. According to Boudett and Moody (2005), the first important step in a successful data driven environment is the gathering of the group that will bare the responsibility for the procedural and executional procedural stages of data analysis.

Assessment is a valuable tool to measure students learning and achievement. It is an essential element for teacher to reflect on what and how they teach. To assess students is to collect evidence of their learning. Teachers use the information to modify their lesson plans and adjust their instructional methods; students need feedback on their performance to concentrate on their vulnerable areas. Assessment is necessary for parents to reinforce their children strength and assist them where extra attention is required. The data collected will inform school

Observations and assessments can help the teacher plan activities that take into account the individual needs of the children. They also show how a child is developing. In my setting the teacher uses observations when planning and we complete narrative observations on a daily basis.

I will use the district initiative,” Classroom Instruction that Works” to create student Effort and Achievement Rubrics that we will utilize in the Student Data Binders.

Assessment and data driven instruction are a vital part of teaching. Assessments are used frequently to guide the proceeding lessons. I am interested in learning more about the different types of assessments and the appropriate uses of each. I think it is critical as a future teacher to have many resources to back up my techniques, especially with the growing interest in data and tracking students’ progress. Gathering information about assessments will allow me to broaden my own techniques and strategies that I use in the classroom, more specifically the ways in which I grade and provide feedback on assessments so that students can use that feedback in a positive way. In my past experiences I have noticed my cooperating teachers providing grades on all assessments with no feedback because they want the students to correct their own mistakes. This may work on summative assessments but I think that there needs to be comments on formative assessments so that students know how to correct their mistakes for the end of the unit tests.

The major emphasis in education for the 21st century is on data driven accountability measured by student performance on standardized testing. National and state expectations require students to demonstrate mastery of curriculum objectives. Instructional objectives are the focus of the building principals to show measurable student progress. The improvements are evaluated based on data and monitoring of the curriculum.

Strategies that are in place are teachers and administration walk-through with feedback for growth. The school also provides support for teachers whose performance was

This information was gathered in an interview with Andrea Williams, Principal of Theresa Bunker Elementary. In the past three years that Mrs. Williams has been principal of this school she has brought a strong focus onto using data to make appropriate instructional decisions as well as execute strategic planning to help the school progress. The implementation of the PLC process has helped the teachers to gain an understanding of how valuable data collection and analysis can be for their teaching practice. Looking at data also helps the school attain the yearly goals laid out by the district’s strategic plan. One of the first steps taken in developing a strategic plan for the school is to gather and analyze data in order to find the school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth as well as any threats to the progress of the school. Early in the year the strategic planning team will review quantitative data collected from student achievement scores, attendance rates, discipline trends, financial records, transportation reports, and so forth. Depending upon the specific issue addressed in the planning process, these types of quantitative data serve to inform decision-making processes. The collection of qualitative data is also an integral part of best practices in development of a strategic plan. Qualitative data collection includes use of surveys, focus groups, and interviews with key stakeholder groups. It is important and useful to

The leadership team discussed specific outcomes that they want accomplish, taking into consideration the issues they want to address. After careful deliberation, they decided that they wanted to create a process of implementation with a feedback loop in which teachers and staff discuss each lesson. Documentation would be written down of what worked and what did not work and modifications could be done for the upcoming lessons. This could be accomplished by setting time for staff to meet and discuss lesson implementation, areas of strength and weakness. After discussion the staff would discuss and change the lesson plans to meet the needs of classroom. By crating this process of implementation staff can course correct

Stated in the school improvement plan at the end of every section is a list of assessments for monitoring student progress and evaluating the effectiveness of

Identify the specific learning objectives from the lesson plans measured by the assessment chosen for analysis.

The third instrument that I will use will be student summative assessment data in relation to how effective students transition from one level to the next with and without built in intervention to the SRA program all the way through to grade level reading.

Section II. Teaching Practice Question 1: The Washington County School District organizational strategies in place for teachers has increased academic student growth in my classes. Throughout the year, I participate in professional development activities that enhance my teaching skills and increase student learning. I collaborate with data analysis and colleagues to disaggregate student data, correctly identify the lowest benchmarks that students scored based on FSA performance and Washington County School District Progress Monitoring Program (three assessments from the previous year). For this reason, we develop an "Order of Instruction" for content areas based on data from various student measures that have been assimilated throughout the school year. In like manner, I meet with vertical/grade level teams during preplanning to gather resources and organize materials by units, critique online resources to incorporate new technology into daily lesson objectives. Prior to students entering my classroom on the first day, I locate my class roster in FOCUS, print out all student IEP 's and 504 's and incorporate that information into my data notebook. As a team, we meet weekly to design lesson plans, create informal/formal assessments, and collaborate with another to ensure that standards-based instruction is being implemented in our classroom. After students start the new school year and complete their baseline assessments, I meet with colleagues, data analysis and Washington

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.