South Kingstown Public Schools
District Newsletter online edition September 2007
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on the Article You want to Read
SK Announces Teacher-of-the-Year
School Committee Sets
Priority - Efforts Linked
District Sets Communication
Forums
When the
School Committee undertook its goal setting process last year, one goal was to
create a “Balanced Report Card” that would accomplish several things, among
them:
1.
To
communicate to the community how well the school district is doing in a simple,
easy to understand format.
2.
To
create measures of success that include - but also go beyond - test scores,
knowing that scores are important, but the community expects more.
3.
To
benchmark the South Kingstown schools against other demographically similar
districts.
The first
version of SK’s report card is now online at skschools.net. The measures in the report card are
based on the district’s accountability system, written about in an earlier
edition of this newsletter. The
complete accountability system is also at the district website.
The report
card is called “balanced” because it includes multiple measures – for
example reading and math test scores, scores of student subgroups, high school
graduation and honors class enrollment, survey responses of parents, students
and teachers, and how well the schools live within their budget. The report card is not done and
improvements are in the works, including data on how money is spent.
In order
to identify comparable districts, demographic data from across the state was
analyzed, and North Kingstown, Chariho, and Cumberland were chosen as our
cohort for analysis. The report
card includes targets based on the performance of these districts.
The report
card is not perfect, however.
Better data is needed on performance in the arts and student engagement
in school life, as the only data available now that can be formatted in the
report card relates to athletics.
Similarly, parent responses to SALT surveys range from over 80% to under
10%, requiring better outreach to secure more reliable results.
The report
card includes clear trend data in 22 categories, 20 of those are positive, and
targets were reached in several categories. The report card also indicates where improvement is
necessary, as our disadvantaged students are not keeping pace with the general
population across the entire district.
Please
take a look for yourself at skschools.net.
South Kingstown has
become a statewide leader in the implementation of PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention
and Supports), a nationally validated systems approach to creating effective
learning environments in schools.
Matunuck and Wakefield
Elementary Schools began PBIS implementation last September. After a successful year, they were able
to share their experience, reporting to the School Committee this spring on
their work. This year, Peace Dale,
West Kingston, Hazard, and South Kingstown High School begin, SK being only the
second high school in the state to sign on.
The philosophy of PBIS
is that most behavior problems in schools can be avoided by creating an
environment that supports positive behavior. It goes without saying that we want to prevent the major
“behavioral earthquakes” that we hear about in the news. However, research
teaches us that efforts to prevent these serious problems are more successful
if the school as a whole supports school wide positive behavior
While some believe that
students come to school knowing these rules of conduct, and that those who
don’t follow them simply should be punished, research and experience has taught
that systematically teaching behavioral expectations is a much more positive
approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. It also
establishes a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm. Finally, the
use of these strategies results in dramatic reductions in the number of
students being sent to the office for discipline.
In the spring
the South Kingstown Schools proudly announced 24 teachers who were nominated to
represent the excellence of its faculty.
At its September 11 meeting, the School Committee will honor Elizabeth
Ferguson, from among those 24, to represent our district in the state
Teacher-of-the-Year selection process.
Elizabeth is a language arts teacher at Broad Rock Middle School and has
taught in SK since 1998. Her
nominator cited her great enthusiasm, inspiration of students, community
involvement, and passion for teaching.
But she is not only an excellent teacher and community member; her work
extends beyond her classroom walls as she makes her school and district better
- her role in bringing student led conferencing to SK being but one example. She
was also recently appointed language arts coordinator for Broad Rock. South Kingstown is proud to have her
represent its teaching excellence.
When the School
Committee reviewed district goals and progress this summer several things were
evident, most notably that progress is evident on many fronts, but in one area
gains have been difficult to achieve.
While overall achievement is strong and continues to improve, that is
not the case for each and every student in the district.
The School Committee
recognized and commended substantive improvement in:
o the
achievement of high school special needs students
o improved
graduation rate
o more
graduates completing college prep programs
o greater
elementary and middle school parent satisfaction
o improved
professional development
o gains
in middle schoolers’ resistance to drugs
o
achievement growth that exceeds the state’s
In spite of the progress
and multiple signs of success, there remains an issue of success for some
student subgroups - specifically special needs and disadvantaged students -
whose achievement lags. Several
district initiatives are designed to work together in closing the achievement
gap and these are in place in every educational level in the district. These initiatives will not only address
underperforming students, but already show signs of improving achievement for
each and every student in our schools.
Laboratory Classrooms
- “Lab classes” are designed to accomplish two things, implementing the
workshop model of literacy instruction and the “7 Keys to Comprehension” that
provides for increased individualization and student responsibility and to
serve as demonstration sites where teachers can come, watch each other’s
lessons, and share thoughts on best practice implementation. Teachers undertake a rigorous summer
institute and follow up training in order to become “lab teachers.” We began with 4 lab classes three years
ago, and with twelve additional classes coming on line this summer now have 17
classes in elementary and middle schools.
Last spring, teachers from other districts began visits to our
demonstration rooms.
Disciplinary Literacy
– “DL” as it is known uses design of content instruction lessons to
accomplish several things. One is
to share ways to increase student comprehension of content material. A second is to create additional access
points to content for students of varying skill level so that more students
learn the required material. The
third is to link content instruction with skill development. In DL, teachers
work in content teams to develop and analyze lessons and materials based on the
goals above to bring back and share with their colleagues.
PBIS – This
initiative is more fully described in another article in this newsletter, and
its role in overall district and school improvement is that teams in each
school work together to collect data and implement strategies regarding student
behavior so that more effective learning takes place in school – less
time on discipline and more time on teaching and learning.
Common Planning Time
– The high school schedule was revised this year to provide additional common
planning time for teachers and administrators without taking away from student
instructional time. A goal of the administration at the high school is to use
common planning time (CPT) as a focal point for improvement efforts, organized
by subject area and led by department chairs. Our action plan with the Department of Education to address
the missed high school subgroup targets focuses CPT for teachers on data
analysis and instructional improvements for underperforming subgroups of
students.
Math Coaches
– Our math coaches were added to support the implementation of our new
math program two years ago and support teachers in grades K-6 in mathematics
teaching. They analyze math
achievement data and work with teachers both individually and in groups on
designing and implementing instruction that targets curricular goals. They have also supported parents and
families in introducing our mathematics program and supporting it at home.
Response to
Intervention and Personal Literacy Plans – RTI and PLP’s target students
working below grade level, students who struggle to succeed. The premise of each is that when
students struggle, a team will look at their learning, design interventions,
collect data, and then get back together to see how well the interventions work. If they are working, keep them going
until the student’s at grade level, if not, try another intervention.
These initiatives have a
common underlying philosophy that the most effective and longest lasting
improvement comes when we work together to analyze our work, use data to measure
effectiveness, and design, implement, and test strategies to get better
results. They rely on the
expertise and capacity of our teachers and administrators to work together in a
professional community of learners and break down the traditional isolation of
teachers and teaching. They also
support the individualized delivery of rigorous curricula to students, which is
critical in supporting the learning needs of students of varying performance
levels.
One of the
School Committee’s goals in the district strategic plan is the improvement of
communication across the district, and one step in that process is the
development of policy and expectations for communication. The goal states that communication
should be a system-wide goal permeating every facet of the school system. To that end, two public forums
are scheduled to gather community input on what communication should be like in
the South Kingstown Schools. The forums will ask community members
to share their expectations for communication among the various constituencies
that make up our school community.
Once data is gathered from multiple sources, it will be compiled and
presented to the School Committee for adoption in the form of a policy and
standards for communication. The
policy and standards will guide the work of schools and district in
communication improvements.
Community
Communication Forums
Wednesday, October
10, 4:00 PM
SKHS
Library
Thursday, October
11, 7:00 PM
West
Kingston Cafeteria