Thank you Kathy!!! How is the legislation requiring who needs to participate in building a SIP regulated or enforced? Is that a state or district responsibility? Ben!!! Thank you for making what seems complicated, very easy to understand! Well Done!!! I am excited about administering a vertically scaled assessment at ER. Additionally comparative student growth data is important data!
The issue is that the federal regulations under NCLB for AYP states that any school that is in a step of improvement must engage in the SIP process. At the state level we have WAC that spells out that each building will have a SIP and the elements that need to be included. At the local level, districts approach this in a variety of ways. Some have a standard template while others have more flexibility in creating their own. Minimally school board are to be made aware of SIP and there must be some approval process in the district. Hope this helps .. . . . . . .Kathy
Wow, so much valuable information tonight from two wonderful presenters---thank you Kathy and Ben! I left tonight with my brain firing neurons a million miles per hour---I can not wait to focus my professional development on learnning more in regards to Indistar and SGPs.
Kathy: I left pondering how individual school performance reports impact central office administrators involvement in the School Improvement Plan Process? If a school is not showing growth and their school performance report is showing large gaps in all area, how does this impact that school at the district, state, or federal level? Or does it at all?
Thanks again presenters and Glenn for providing such a high level of education for us all. Forever appreciative. Jenna Buswell
Jenna you ask a very good question. The building SIP should not only incorporate goals from the District Improvement Plan, but then should focus on building specific needs. The District Plan would incorporate all of the gaps and needs. Because their are schools in improvement the District must develop a plan targeted at assisting the individual schools and all students achieve at higher levels. They are linked I guess is the simple response.
I left last night with a better understanding of both SIP and student growth percentiles. Kathy and Ben’s perspectives and insight were invaluable and I appreciated their willingness to come and present to the class. I thought they both did a great job of explaining the importance of each of their topics and its relevance to our current and future positions. Kathy’s explanations of SIP were clear and specific. I will definitely consider her as a future resource and would welcome the opportunity to sit down and chat with her about some ideas for designing and implementing a new SIP plan. I loved her quote about gathering all the data regarding your school (achievement, demographics, behavior, etc.) and then ask the question, “What story is your data telling?” She reiterated the importance of collectively working through the process. To quote her again, “People will support what they help create.” Ben’s presentation on student growth percentiles and our class conversations about SBAC were reaffirming in the notion that we are headed in the right direction regarding the ability to determine actual student growth. Having a child who just entered the highly capable program, I couldn’t agree more with the idea that every child should have the opportunity to show their growth. The vertical alignment of the SBAC allows for those traditionally high students to be able to show growth without hitting a glass ceiling.
Yes! is exciting to think that all of our students will have the opportunity to show growth that is not just measurable in an assessment that is vertically aligned but also in an adaptive assessment that allows them to reach their own depth of knowledge, and not the grade they are in. -Melissa
I am excited to see what knowledge students can share through SBAC. I think the SBAC will give teachers a more accurate picture of what students are capable of than the MSP/HSP did/does.
Reflecting on last night I could not be more appreciative of the resources and support made available to us in this program. Kathy explained the SIP process in a clear and concise manner, I now feel I have a strong understanding of the big picture of a school improvement plan. Our mission to close the achievement gap needs to be focused and specific. As leaders, we need to look at comprehensive data to develop a deeper understanding. As Kathy said “What story is your data telling you”. We must start with our data, otherwise we risk making subjective ineffective decisions and we cannot afford to waste precious time. Another BIG takeaway for me was the importance of narrowing your focus on specific goal. Working towards accomplishing one important element is more effective then attempting to spread yourself too thin and accomplishing little. I loved her quote that leaders are “the builders of capacity” what an exciting role to be in! Following our discussion with Ben, I have a greater understanding of student growth percentiles and the direction we are heading to develop alignment between standards, curriculum, and assessments. What I love about using a growth percentile to measure achievement is that each child can be successful. Using the adaptive test allows students to demonstrating understanding at their level. Growth for each child varies, but I appreciate that we are now celebrating ALL students ability to grow.
I am impressed too, by the resources offered to us. It just feels like everyone has our best interest at heart and they truly want us to be successful at what we do.
Kathy's comment about narrowing your focus caught my attention as well. It's always better to be great at a few things than it is to just be good at a lot of things.
I thoroughly enjoyed our guest speakers, Kathy and Ben. My understanding of the SIP process and student growth percentiles is much clearer. I appreciate Kathy taking time to share her knowledge and expertise on the SIP process. Her guidance will be amazing throughout this journey. Kathy's explanation on Choice and the discussion around Title One funds intrigued me. I'm curious how my district is sharing this information with parents and if they are doing activities to promote these supplemental services.
I have a better picture in my head of how student growth percentiles work as well as how adaptive assessments measure students understanding at their level. I'm very excited about the the Achievement Index and how it relates to student growth. I want to share this with my staff! We are doing a good job and they deserve to see that their hard work is paying off.
Kristin- that was very interesting to me too, all that money with the challenge of finding a way to use it. The Achievement Index is really neat to look at, and what a great tool to insure that we are looking at growth for all students.
Kristin, I thought about the title one funds the whole ride home. I get perplexed at the thought of having to spend money in "a certain way" that is not based on a research of what is best for kids. It makes me crazy to think we could be using the money for intervention services, time for true PLC work, embedded PD around high-yield strategies,.....and on and on.....we KNOW that the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement.is having an effective teacher providing quality instruction. Why are we not all focusing on building on our teachers effectiveness instead of supplementing with outside people who may or may not even make a difference. Befuddles me.
I agree Brittane. It does seem silly that we have to allocate resources to spend on outside sources that are "for profit" when our schools are not. I did some digging on OSPI this weekend, and under the new LAP requirements there are a list of best practices (research based and evidence based) that is a sort of menu for LAP teachers to use in serving kids. I wonder then if there is such a doc for Title I? The highest scores from the panel were all evidence based, and included Summer school. I've attached the document for anyone interested in reading. http://www.k12.wa.us/SSEO/pubdocs/TechnicalReportBestPracticesStrategiesELA.pdf#Menu Melissa
I enjoyed listening to Kathy and felt like she made the SIP seem manageable. I liked when Kathy said, “Leadership in schools is the most essential work to be done...” (or something like that) I will remember Kathy’s advice to look at the data and be looking for and addressing the problem areas in our schools. A question for Kathy goes with her advice to get everyone in the building on the same page: If you’ve had difficulty getting someone on the same page, with the thinking that “all kids can learn at high levels” what did you do about that, how do you help to get everyone in the building on board? Ben’s presentation was great as well. That was a lot of information, that kind of made my head spin a little bit. I didn’t know that the SBAC was an adaptive test. The achievement index was interesting to hear about, and prompted me to look up my own kid’s schools. I am looking forward to learning a lot more about student growth percentiles!
My mind was a little more tired than usual after last night's gathering, though it made for a good night's sleep, perhaps because it was not my school (as a principal) on the screen with the fire-engine-red color on the spreadsheet. The insight gained from the presentations -thanks Kathy and Ben- gave me a bit more confidence going forward that I could start to develop a plan if it was in fact my school. As I heard from Kathy, there are some resources available for the sub-group of the school's population to get some extra learning resources, however credible they are. I also look forward to the challenge of increasing student growth across the board. Now I understand the importance Glenn places on growth percentiles and the implication of expanding EVERY student's performance and learning. I felt like I got a behind-the-scenes tour from Ben and Glenn into the realities of score comparisons and assessment realities. Questions I still have are : for Kathy - What are the bridges of communication between the families in need of extra resources and support and the building the student attends? What is the scaffold of dissemination of resources? Also, I am very curious how the result of predicted SBAC score decline will impact the legislature "game plan" for future accountability. From off-the-cuff, it seems that most schools will get to reset the growth percentiles and have a good shot at making gains and showing significant growth over the next several years. It is a bit invigorating to imagine the future at a time like this.
I always leave this class excited and energized and this Thursday was no exception. Thank you Kathy and Ben for your articulate and detailed presentations! It was exciting to see Colorado as a topic of discussion; looking at SGP's was a big topic of discussion in Colorado when I taught there 9 years ago. My question would be how will SBAC address student gains? As an adaptive assessment that's vertically aligned, ALL of our students can now be held accountable for more than 1 year's growth, but what does that look like? Will there be a systemic measure in Smarter Balanced that will easily demonstrate who makes more than 1 year of growth? Will this have a greater impact on our SIP's and how we allocate our building resources? Lots of questions!
It is an exciting time to see an assessment that truly measures a student's knowledge. When I left Colorado in 2008, the CSAP (their MSP) was not adaptive so we would have kids get 100% answers correct; who knows how much they knew. -Melissa
Thursday night's class was AWESOME!! Ben did such a great job explaining SGPS. The light bulb came on and only continued to grow brighter as Glen talked about meeting the needs of our students that have already met standard. If we are truly to meet the need of every student we must challenge each student to reach their full potential. I also enjoyed Kathy Ehman and the resources she provided. I feel so blessed to be in a program that has so much support from people in power wanting everyone to succeed and successful.
Thursday night’s session was filled with many questions which were then answered to help to create a clearer picture for me around SIP and SGP. A “shout out” to our presenters and Glenn. The information you shared is invaluable. It means even more to have information delivered by people who are working within the system daily and have a true understanding of how this is impacting our schools and the students we are serving. I appreciate the clarity Kathy gave for the SIP… “focus, vision, collective responsibility and ownership.” Ben’s explanation of SGP and the Accountability Index have provided me an opportunity to look at standardized testing data differently.
Thank you to Kathy and Ben for your insight and expertise. I am very appreciative for the current information and the delivery from folks "in the action". This is invaluable.
As Kathy mentioned, the key to assuring student achievement is to assure high-quality instruction is in each and every child's day. She also shared a quote, "A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world." With this being stated, why is it that a SIP for many leaders and schools is a just one of several hoops to go through and often put on a shelf till spring? I interviewed a few principals on their SIP process and I am surprised by how many did not view this as being important to "the work". For many, it is a task, an event not a guiding document or roadmap to student achievement. I am wondering, how can central office assure and create an environment where the SIP process is understood and embraced as the framework, the BLUEPRINT, to improve student achievement where all stakeholder have engagement, participation and shared decision making? How do we support our buildings to make sense of the multi-tiered systems of support for learning and teaching that is needed? How do we provide the differentiated support for building leadership teams to understanding data literacy and to be data driven, to seek multiple modes of data to include more than just academic data, select measurable goals and ways to measure outcomes of successful implementation and to continuously assess and make informed decisions? School improvement should not be an event with a fixed beginning and end. It is an ongoing process in a continuous cycle of planning, implementing and reviewing. A SIP will only be effective if it is kept in the forefront as the guiding map to the work.
Ben, the information you shared will take me a few more times of playing around with it to completely understand the work. I appreciate your hard work at jumping in and figuring it out. :) I jokingly told Jenna that I will most likely refrain from inviting a psychometrician to a dinner party...but in all seriousness, I am amazed at how little I understood of the way this data is measured and looked at in regards to median growth percentiles. I do know as a practitioner I appreciated the information from MAP, an adaptive assessment, as it gave me learning targets at the ZPD for each student and told me the 'typical growth" as compared to actual growth. This information is valuable to our day to day work. As for the median growth percentile and the achievement index......I will need more time to "see" the big picture. On an ending note.....for fun.,,,,, Hey diddle diddle the median is the middle you add and divide for the mean the mode is the one that occurs the most the range is the difference between.
Brittane, I wonder why all districts aren't using a formative assessment such as MAPs? What a powerful too for teachers to see what the expected growth is instead of where they are in respect to the grade level expectations? I am sure it creates a sense of relief, to know that while some students are not on grade level despite the hard work, but that they are on target to being grade level. This is how we were operating in Colorado. Looking at a child's Real AYP, not what the nation deemed as AYP. Kids that were a level 1 and made more than 1 year's growth were highlighted, even though they weren't benchmark. It's a powerful thing, and I imagine it would take away some of the stresses of TPEP tied to instruction and student growth if we could measure the actual growth of our students comparatively. -Melissa-
What a great night of insight! I couldn't take notes fast enough on all of the information that both Kathy and Ben presented. Kathy's comment that the SIP is a "living, breathing document" makes so much sense after learning about the SIP the past few weeks in class. Considering its importance and influence on the climate and achievement in schools, it's amazing how many schools still put it off until they are forced to either review it or change it. Kathy also mentioned that the entire staff needs to collectively believe that all students can learn and succeed. Although this may be obvious to a lot of us, doesn't it make you wonder how you can weed out those teachers who are not on board? Finally, I really didn't have a lot of knowledge about Choice Programs before Thursday’s class. I can't believe that the PSD has 54 of them! It's also disheartening that only six families showed up at the first vendor fair to take advantage of a great opportunity to help their child/children.
I loved the way Ben opened his presentation: "Being in situations like this makes you grow stronger." I hope doing the Performance Plus classes will do the same for me! I now see student growth in a completely different light. I love the example that even though a student is in the Quest program, for example, he/she may be experiencing little to no growth in comparison to other students. This proves the "All means all" philosophy for every student, whether he/she is being pulled out for remedial lessons or is highly capable.
Question for Kathy: As a principal starting at a new school, is it more important to review/revise the current SIP prior to the new school year or is it more important to start building relationships with your new staff?
If you are walking in September it will be important to build your relationships along with the sharing of your school's data. They do not need to be separate, but there is a fine dance that you will have to do in that you not jump into change quickly, but build an understanding of where your school stands academically, demographically, and perceptually. I think some of the resources will be helpful to walk you through this. Kathy
I agree with you Vince. Our advanced students should be growing too and not standing stagnant, or decreasing. This especially holds true when we are able to compare them with highly capable students at their same level. I appreciate your question about SIP vs Relationships. I wonder if the answer is "both"? Maybe these are the top two things to focus on in your first year as principal. The SIP gives your school direction and relationships strengthen trust? I am looking forward to hearing her response.
Thanks to a great group of WSU principal candidates. I had an awesome time and do not hesitate to call or email me if you have questions or want to brainstorm. Cheers! Kathy
Oh my goodness---priceless!
ReplyDeletewhoa...
ReplyDeleteI think that's one of my old principals!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kathy!!! How is the legislation requiring who needs to participate in building a SIP regulated or enforced? Is that a state or district responsibility?
ReplyDeleteBen!!! Thank you for making what seems complicated, very easy to understand! Well Done!!!
I am excited about administering a vertically scaled assessment at ER. Additionally comparative student growth data is important data!
The issue is that the federal regulations under NCLB for AYP states that any school that is in a step of improvement must engage in the SIP process. At the state level we have WAC that spells out that each building will have a SIP and the elements that need to be included. At the local level, districts approach this in a variety of ways. Some have a standard template while others have more flexibility in creating their own. Minimally school board are to be made aware of SIP and there must be some approval process in the district. Hope this helps .. . . . . . .Kathy
DeleteWow, so much valuable information tonight from two wonderful presenters---thank you Kathy and Ben! I left tonight with my brain firing neurons a million miles per hour---I can not wait to focus my professional development on learnning more in regards to Indistar and SGPs.
ReplyDeleteKathy: I left pondering how individual school performance reports impact central office administrators involvement in the School Improvement Plan Process? If a school is not showing growth and their school performance report is showing large gaps in all area, how does this impact that school at the district, state, or federal level? Or does it at all?
Thanks again presenters and Glenn for providing such a high level of education for us all. Forever appreciative. Jenna Buswell
Jenna you ask a very good question. The building SIP should not only incorporate goals from the District Improvement Plan, but then should focus on building specific needs. The District Plan would incorporate all of the gaps and needs. Because their are schools in improvement the District must develop a plan targeted at assisting the individual schools and all students achieve at higher levels. They are linked I guess is the simple response.
DeleteThank you so much Kathy---appreciate it.
DeleteI left last night with a better understanding of both SIP and student growth percentiles. Kathy and Ben’s perspectives and insight were invaluable and I appreciated their willingness to come and present to the class. I thought they both did a great job of explaining the importance of each of their topics and its relevance to our current and future positions. Kathy’s explanations of SIP were clear and specific. I will definitely consider her as a future resource and would welcome the opportunity to sit down and chat with her about some ideas for designing and implementing a new SIP plan. I loved her quote about gathering all the data regarding your school (achievement, demographics, behavior, etc.) and then ask the question, “What story is your data telling?” She reiterated the importance of collectively working through the process. To quote her again, “People will support what they help create.” Ben’s presentation on student growth percentiles and our class conversations about SBAC were reaffirming in the notion that we are headed in the right direction regarding the ability to determine actual student growth. Having a child who just entered the highly capable program, I couldn’t agree more with the idea that every child should have the opportunity to show their growth. The vertical alignment of the SBAC allows for those traditionally high students to be able to show growth without hitting a glass ceiling.
ReplyDeleteYes! I love how she emphasized collectively moving through the process!
DeleteYes! is exciting to think that all of our students will have the opportunity to show growth that is not just measurable in an assessment that is vertically aligned but also in an adaptive assessment that allows them to reach their own depth of knowledge, and not the grade they are in. -Melissa
DeleteI am excited to see what knowledge students can share through SBAC. I think the SBAC will give teachers a more accurate picture of what students are capable of than the MSP/HSP did/does.
DeleteReflecting on last night I could not be more appreciative of the resources and support made available to us in this program. Kathy explained the SIP process in a clear and concise manner, I now feel I have a strong understanding of the big picture of a school improvement plan. Our mission to close the achievement gap needs to be focused and specific. As leaders, we need to look at comprehensive data to develop a deeper understanding. As Kathy said “What story is your data telling you”. We must start with our data, otherwise we risk making subjective ineffective decisions and we cannot afford to waste precious time. Another BIG takeaway for me was the importance of narrowing your focus on specific goal. Working towards accomplishing one important element is more effective then attempting to spread yourself too thin and accomplishing little. I loved her quote that leaders are “the builders of capacity” what an exciting role to be in! Following our discussion with Ben, I have a greater understanding of student growth percentiles and the direction we are heading to develop alignment between standards, curriculum, and assessments. What I love about using a growth percentile to measure achievement is that each child can be successful. Using the adaptive test allows students to demonstrating understanding at their level. Growth for each child varies, but I appreciate that we are now celebrating ALL students ability to grow.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed too, by the resources offered to us. It just feels like everyone has our best interest at heart and they truly want us to be successful at what we do.
DeleteI agree, Lauralee!
DeleteKathy's comment about narrowing your focus caught my attention as well. It's always better to be great at a few things than it is to just be good at a lot of things.
DeleteI thoroughly enjoyed our guest speakers, Kathy and Ben. My understanding of the SIP process and student growth percentiles is much clearer. I appreciate Kathy taking time to share her knowledge and expertise on the SIP process. Her guidance will be amazing throughout this journey. Kathy's explanation on Choice and the discussion around Title One funds intrigued me. I'm curious how my district is sharing this information with parents and if they are doing activities to promote these supplemental services.
ReplyDeleteI have a better picture in my head of how student growth percentiles work as well as how adaptive assessments measure students understanding at their level. I'm very excited about the the Achievement Index and how it relates to student growth. I want to share this with my staff! We are doing a good job and they deserve to see that their hard work is paying off.
Kristin- that was very interesting to me too, all that money with the challenge of finding a way to use it. The Achievement Index is really neat to look at, and what a great tool to insure that we are looking at growth for all students.
DeleteKristin,
DeleteI thought about the title one funds the whole ride home. I get perplexed at the thought of having to spend money in "a certain way" that is not based on a research of what is best for kids. It makes me crazy to think we could be using the money for intervention services, time for true PLC work, embedded PD around high-yield strategies,.....and on and on.....we KNOW that the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement.is having an effective teacher providing quality instruction. Why are we not all focusing on building on our teachers effectiveness instead of supplementing with outside people who may or may not even make a difference. Befuddles me.
I agree Brittane. It does seem silly that we have to allocate resources to spend on outside sources that are "for profit" when our schools are not. I did some digging on OSPI this weekend, and under the new LAP requirements there are a list of best practices (research based and evidence based) that is a sort of menu for LAP teachers to use in serving kids. I wonder then if there is such a doc for Title I? The highest scores from the panel were all evidence based, and included Summer school. I've attached the document for anyone interested in reading. http://www.k12.wa.us/SSEO/pubdocs/TechnicalReportBestPracticesStrategiesELA.pdf#Menu
DeleteMelissa
I enjoyed listening to Kathy and felt like she made the SIP seem manageable. I liked when Kathy said, “Leadership in schools is the most essential work to be done...” (or something like that) I will remember Kathy’s advice to look at the data and be looking for and addressing the problem areas in our schools. A question for Kathy goes with her advice to get everyone in the building on the same page: If you’ve had difficulty getting someone on the same page, with the thinking that “all kids can learn at high levels” what did you do about that, how do you help to get everyone in the building on board?
ReplyDeleteBen’s presentation was great as well. That was a lot of information, that kind of made my head spin a little bit. I didn’t know that the SBAC was an adaptive test. The achievement index was interesting to hear about, and prompted me to look up my own kid’s schools. I am looking forward to learning a lot more about student growth percentiles!
My mind was a little more tired than usual after last night's gathering, though it made for a good night's sleep, perhaps because it was not my school (as a principal) on the screen with the fire-engine-red color on the spreadsheet. The insight gained from the presentations -thanks Kathy and Ben- gave me a bit more confidence going forward that I could start to develop a plan if it was in fact my school. As I heard from Kathy, there are some resources available for the sub-group of the school's population to get some extra learning resources, however credible they are. I also look forward to the challenge of increasing student growth across the board. Now I understand the importance Glenn places on growth percentiles and the implication of expanding EVERY student's performance and learning. I felt like I got a behind-the-scenes tour from Ben and Glenn into the realities of score comparisons and assessment realities. Questions I still have are :
ReplyDeletefor Kathy - What are the bridges of communication between the families in need of extra resources and support and the building the student attends? What is the scaffold of dissemination of resources?
Also, I am very curious how the result of predicted SBAC score decline will impact the legislature "game plan" for future accountability. From off-the-cuff, it seems that most schools will get to reset the growth percentiles and have a good shot at making gains and showing significant growth over the next several years. It is a bit invigorating to imagine the future at a time like this.
I always leave this class excited and energized and this Thursday was no exception. Thank you Kathy and Ben for your articulate and detailed presentations! It was exciting to see Colorado as a topic of discussion; looking at SGP's was a big topic of discussion in Colorado when I taught there 9 years ago. My question would be how will SBAC address student gains? As an adaptive assessment that's vertically aligned, ALL of our students can now be held accountable for more than 1 year's growth, but what does that look like? Will there be a systemic measure in Smarter Balanced that will easily demonstrate who makes more than 1 year of growth? Will this have a greater impact on our SIP's and how we allocate our building resources? Lots of questions!
ReplyDelete-Melissa-
DeleteI have some of the same questions. Now that I have a better understanding of SGPs, I'm excited to see how Smarter Balance scores will measure up.
ReplyDeleteIt is an exciting time to see an assessment that truly measures a student's knowledge. When I left Colorado in 2008, the CSAP (their MSP) was not adaptive so we would have kids get 100% answers correct; who knows how much they knew. -Melissa
DeleteThursday night's class was AWESOME!! Ben did such a great job explaining SGPS. The light bulb came on and only continued to grow brighter as Glen talked about meeting the needs of our students that have already met standard. If we are truly to meet the need of every student we must challenge each student to reach their full potential. I also enjoyed Kathy Ehman and the resources she provided. I feel so blessed to be in a program that has so much support from people in power wanting everyone to succeed and successful.
ReplyDeleteThursday night’s session was filled with many questions which were then answered to help to create a clearer picture for me around SIP and SGP. A “shout out” to our presenters and Glenn. The information you shared is invaluable. It means even more to have information delivered by people who are working within the system daily and have a true understanding of how this is impacting our schools and the students we are serving. I appreciate the clarity Kathy gave for the SIP… “focus, vision, collective responsibility and ownership.” Ben’s explanation of SGP and the Accountability Index have provided me an opportunity to look at standardized testing data differently.
ReplyDeleteThank you to Kathy and Ben for your insight and expertise. I am very appreciative for the current information and the delivery from folks "in the action". This is invaluable.
ReplyDeleteAs Kathy mentioned, the key to assuring student achievement is to assure high-quality instruction is in each and every child's day. She also shared a quote, "A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world." With this being stated, why is it that a SIP for many leaders and schools is a just one of several hoops to go through and often put on a shelf till spring? I interviewed a few principals on their SIP process and I am surprised by how many did not view this as being important to "the work". For many, it is a task, an event not a guiding document or roadmap to student achievement.
I am wondering, how can central office assure and create an environment where the SIP process is understood and embraced as the framework, the BLUEPRINT, to improve student achievement where all stakeholder have engagement, participation and shared decision making? How do we support our buildings to make sense of the multi-tiered systems of support for learning and teaching that is needed? How do we provide the differentiated support for building leadership teams to understanding data literacy and to be data driven, to seek multiple modes of data to include more than just academic data, select measurable goals and ways to measure outcomes of successful implementation and to continuously assess and make informed decisions?
School improvement should not be an event with a fixed beginning and end. It is an ongoing process in a continuous cycle of planning, implementing and reviewing. A SIP will only be effective if it is kept in the forefront as the guiding map to the work.
Ben, the information you shared will take me a few more times of playing around with it to completely understand the work. I appreciate your hard work at jumping in and figuring it out. :)
I jokingly told Jenna that I will most likely refrain from inviting a psychometrician to a dinner party...but in all seriousness, I am amazed at how little I understood of the way this data is measured and looked at in regards to median growth percentiles.
I do know as a practitioner I appreciated the information from MAP, an adaptive assessment, as it gave me learning targets at the ZPD for each student and told me the 'typical growth" as compared to actual growth. This information is valuable to our day to day work.
As for the median growth percentile and the achievement index......I will need more time to "see" the big picture.
On an ending note.....for fun.,,,,,
Hey diddle diddle
the median is the middle
you add and divide for the mean
the mode is the one that occurs the most
the range is the difference between.
Brittane, I wonder why all districts aren't using a formative assessment such as MAPs? What a powerful too for teachers to see what the expected growth is instead of where they are in respect to the grade level expectations? I am sure it creates a sense of relief, to know that while some students are not on grade level despite the hard work, but that they are on target to being grade level. This is how we were operating in Colorado. Looking at a child's Real AYP, not what the nation deemed as AYP. Kids that were a level 1 and made more than 1 year's growth were highlighted, even though they weren't benchmark. It's a powerful thing, and I imagine it would take away some of the stresses of TPEP tied to instruction and student growth if we could measure the actual growth of our students comparatively. -Melissa-
DeleteWhat a great night of insight! I couldn't take notes fast enough on all of the information that both Kathy and Ben presented. Kathy's comment that the SIP is a "living, breathing document" makes so much sense after learning about the SIP the past few weeks in class. Considering its importance and influence on the climate and achievement in schools, it's amazing how many schools still put it off until they are forced to either review it or change it. Kathy also mentioned that the entire staff needs to collectively believe that all students can learn and succeed. Although this may be obvious to a lot of us, doesn't it make you wonder how you can weed out those teachers who are not on board? Finally, I really didn't have a lot of knowledge about Choice Programs before Thursday’s class. I can't believe that the PSD has 54 of them! It's also disheartening that only six families showed up at the first vendor fair to take advantage of a great opportunity to help their child/children.
ReplyDeleteI loved the way Ben opened his presentation: "Being in situations like this makes you grow stronger." I hope doing the Performance Plus classes will do the same for me! I now see student growth in a completely different light. I love the example that even though a student is in the Quest program, for example, he/she may be experiencing little to no growth in comparison to other students. This proves the "All means all" philosophy for every student, whether he/she is being pulled out for remedial lessons or is highly capable.
Question for Kathy: As a principal starting at a new school, is it more important to review/revise the current SIP prior to the new school year or is it more important to start building relationships with your new staff?
If you are walking in September it will be important to build your relationships along with the sharing of your school's data. They do not need to be separate, but there is a fine dance that you will have to do in that you not jump into change quickly, but build an understanding of where your school stands academically, demographically, and perceptually. I think some of the resources will be helpful to walk you through this. Kathy
DeleteI agree with you Vince. Our advanced students should be growing too and not standing stagnant, or decreasing. This especially holds true when we are able to compare them with highly capable students at their same level.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your question about SIP vs Relationships. I wonder if the answer is "both"? Maybe these are the top two things to focus on in your first year as principal. The SIP gives your school direction and relationships strengthen trust?
I am looking forward to hearing her response.
Thanks to a great group of WSU principal candidates. I had an awesome time and do not hesitate to call or email me if you have questions or want to brainstorm. Cheers! Kathy
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