School Improvement Plan - Essay Example

School Improvement Plan I. Review of School Improvement Plan The School Improvement Plan (SIP) is divided into vision for learning, inquiry process, master plan design, completing the SIP plan and budget for the overall cost of carrying out the plan. These are the main headings that are divided into other subheadings describing the SIP in good detail. The goals and objectives related to students and teachers’ welfare are described in the improvement plan such as recruitment of more qualified teachers, meeting individualized needs of students and ensuring teacher-student communication. Vision for learning includes Climate, Achievement and Participation (CAP), all of which are part of the student learning and betterment of provision of educational services to them. Goals set by the district such as enhanced achievement of students, professional achievement of instructors and expansion of recruitment of qualified teachers. The inquiry process incorporates key strengths that should be a part of the improvement plan along with priority concerns related to “student achievement, instruction, remediation strategies, program implementation and professional development”. For each priority concern, the root causes and solutions are given. Master design plan, section A includes action and monitoring plans that should be taken in the lieu of improvement. For action plan, resources for implementation, time period and responsible people are described, similarly in monitoring plan, the success for implementation measurement, time period and responsible people are elaborated. In section B of master design plan, the evaluating plan for implementation is given that is helpful for measuring success of the plan. Under the heading of completing the SIP plan, several questions are asked, which should be answered using the concepts of CAP. These questions are related to policies and practices, testing systems, instructional strategies, available resources, funding, etc. At the end, budget for the overall cost of carrying out the plan is given that incorporates funds required for goals accomplishment and funds available. II. Linkage of School Improvement Plan to School Assessment Results The School Improvement Plan can be linked to School Assessment Results based on goals and objectives designed for the improvement of student education. There are many programs that are started by the school management in order to get good results such as “Success For All” reading program, “Everyday Math” program and writing programs such as “Set-Up to Writing”, “Write Traits”, “Thinking Maps” for enhancing writing skills of students. The School district set a goal for the improvement of English language arts, mathematics and science and their initiated achievement programs that are mentioned above meet their set goal. For second-language students, a program named High Quality Sheltered Instruction (HQSI), was started that proved beneficial. Teachers were also given chances to improve their teaching skills. The district set a goal for improvement of professional development of teachers, which was met by initiation of programs for teachers in order to meet students’ needs. Students were tested in terms of their achievement on monthly basis in order to check their attained knowledge and the teachers’ proficiency in enabling the students. School wide ELA proficiency and Math proficiency when assessed on daily basis with respect to teachers’ instructions showed an increase of 2.7 % and 2.1 % respectively. According to the SIP, monthly analysis of student achievement data showed increase in proficiency for Math and ELA at 3rd, 4th and 5th grades while daily usage of cooperative learning for students showed proficiency increase for all subgroups of students. The school wide writing plan also showed increased proficiency of writing of students. The assessment scores are not altogether better but they also show a decline such as CRT ELA results indicate towards a decline in proficiency of the students of 3rd grade, CRT Math results indicate towards a decline in proficiency of 5th grade students and IEP subgroup and Black subgroup showed a decline in writing skills in place of improvement. The instructional strategies set by the district were not fully followed by the teachers due to which, a decline was seen in various programs set by the school. III. School Improvement Team Committee Meeting School Improvement Team Committee Meeting analyzed the achievements of the set programs by the district, they identified the strengths of the programs that can be further followed in order to meet the students’ needs and they also recognized the priority concerns and the root causes for the troubles created as all the goals and objectives set by the district were not met fully. Solutions were also given after conducting a research that were helpful in terms of further improvement of the program. The school’s assessment results proved to be beneficial for the School Improvement Team Committee as they enabled the committee to look towards the need for development in selected areas. The committee identified that the teachers were responsible in terms of decline in proficiency of students at various grades and for various programs as in root causes, the committee identified the problems that were there in terms of instructional strategies provided to the students. The committee also informed about the achievements as it reported about various programs started by the district, which helped the students and teachers to develop in a positive manner. The teachers were given opportunities to improve their teaching skills on daily basis while they were also given knowledge and instructional strategies about various programs related to English language learning, Mathematics and science. All these programs were overall helpful for the students as they helped the students to improve to a great extent. The proficiency level also declined because of some ignorance of instructional strategies. IV. Analysis of School Improvement Team Committee Outcomes School Improvement Team Committee showed support for the achievements of the school by claiming that they feel proud as the school is successful in conducting proficiency improvement programs. When these programs were implemented, they gave positive results to a great extent. The committee also discussed that if the set programs were performed with their full specification, they were much more fruitful. The committee held meeting that was successful as the committee was able to analyze the improvement programs by discussing all the facts and figures. The mission statement of the school is concerned about development of the students of all levels without any prejudice. It is felt that it is the due right of the students to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically. The school considers itself responsible for commencing such programs that are entirely for the betterment and improvement of students. According to the mission of the school, the students should be facilitated with all the required skills of academics in order to help them develop in a better manner with all the specifics of education. The school management feels that the students should be able to value diverse cultures and all the students should be provided with their due rights keeping every kind of biased and prejudiced attitude aside. There will be class analysis worksheets, classroom analysis worksheets, observation logs, classroom observation forms, AYP designation report, writing practice test scores and survey results that will be used to assess the progress of students and teachers. Monthly benchmark data, interim assessment data, SRI data, 4sight data, work meaning tests, Quarterly assessment summaries, CRT data, benchmark observation log data, classroom observations, student writing portfolios, writing practice tests, Nevada proficiency exam in writing and professional development survey are the outcomes of the plan. The overall mission that is to help the students to develop in all academics is met by the above-mentioned outcomes, as the students will be given opportunity to learn and show their learning by means of various tests and assessments. Students and teachers will be assisted with many assessment and observation techniques so that they can be able to improve their performance as a whole. V. Proposed Action The School Improvement Team can perform a number of activities to improve student-learning outcomes. Weekly, monthly and yearly assessment programs and tests can be arranged to evaluate the performance of students. A number of worksheets, analysis reports, observation forms and survey results can be adopted to assess improvement. Students can be targeted in terms of their needs related to their proficiency level. English transition program can be inaugurated for students that are new to English learning. Teacher allocation can be done at stage 1 when students are admitted to a class, after that, the students can be tested in terms of analysis of their skills so that they can be provided with required education and expertise. After instruction sessions, the students can be tested in terms of their acquired knowledge. Every day, the students can be tested by means of classroom worksheets. Each week, they can be tested by means of tests. There can be bimonthly and monthly tests while at the end of the year, there can be a yearly exam. So, the educational time period of each grader can be expanded to a full year during which, the student can be provided with various chances to acquire academic skills. VI. Reflection The overall improvement of the school based on assessment results has a number of activities to be performed such as initiation of programs for increasing proficiency of English language learning, Mathematics learning, science learning and writing. All these need to be dealt seriously in order to support the students to acquire maximum knowledge through grade 1 to grade 5. The improvement programs contribute towards overall improvement of the school. After analysis of assessment results, the School Improvement Team Committee proposed a number of activities for betterment of students and teachers such as usage of class worksheets, observation checklists, survey forms and much more. These activities were based on assessment results. The Committee saw some improvement in the students’ proficiency because of its commenced programs related to English language learning, Mathematics learning and writing exercises. The daily, monthly and weekly assessment and instructional strategies were continued after assessment as they were beneficial for the students as well as teachers while new improved strategies and programs were also introduced after recognizing some deficiencies in the assessment results. References School Improvement Plan (SIP), 2009-2010. Read More