How does a school stay ON TARGET?

The Important Process of a School’s SIP

An interview with Principal and RTI Coach Kelley Boynton

Nelson ElementaryBethel School District

By Elissa DornanWSU EDAD 510

September 2014

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Continuous School Improvement Process

DoImplement Plan

Monitor PlanEvaluate Plan

PlanDevelop School

Improvement Plan

GatherGet Ready

Collect School DataBuild School Profile

StudentAchievement

StudyAnalyze Data

Set Goals Set Measurable

ObjectivesResearch Best Practice

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Review of School Data – How can the results be leveraged? What are the best practices that will fill in the holes and guide instruction?

Considerations for a High Quality SIP

Kelley Boynton opened up Nelson Elementary-one of the highest functioning elementary schools in the Bethel School District. Here is what his SIP process looks like…

Teacher Buy-in – A SIP plan must reflect the collective voice of the staff. Their input is paramount in keeping the SIP alive.

Action Plan – What will be done with the Data? What measurable steps will be outlined in the plan and how will it be revisited throughout the year?

Progress Monitoring – Without defined dates for revisiting of the school improvement plan, the SIP is nothing more than a document. To keep it living, the staff must revisit often.Accountability-Systems must be in place within the school culture to keep the SIP from becoming obsolete.

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DATA

• State Assessments (Smarter Balanced, MSP)

• District Assessments-MAP, DIBELS, RBA

• Common Formative Assessments in Math, ELA, and Writing that grade level teams commit to administering, sharing, and analyzing

• Common Interim and Summative Assessments

TOOLS

• Homeroom• Bethel SIP Template• Indistar • Common Scoring Protocols

Necessary Data and Tools

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Kelley’s primary focus: High Functioning PLC’s to keep the SIP alive

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Nelson Elementary’s PLC Criterion-Developed by Teacher Leaders

1. Unpack Standards and Create a Map.

2. Lock the

Assessment for the Standards

3. Build Lessons for Assessment Success

4. Teach Lessons for Assessment Success

Kelly and the Leadership Team at Nelson Elementary are working to define what kind of PLC’s they feel they need to have in order to sustain their SIP. Kelley wanted to “leverage the PLC” by having teachers define what it looks like when a PLC is functioning well and then developing a criteria for assessing themselves. At each PLC meeting, grade levels submit through google forms (created by Kelley) a quick check list of how much time they spent in these 6 component areas. Kelley provides data on how effective their PLC time is, where the work is generally being done, and what areas that grade level can increase time and efforts on. This is all linked to Nelson’s SIP plan, thus keeping alive the vision/mission of the school through the work of the grade level teams.

5. Conduct Assessment

6. Analyze and Respond

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With Kelley’s Google Forms, teams can track how much time they are spending on the 6 criterion they created of effective PLCs

59%23%

10%

9%

Sample Grade Level PLC Status Report

Kelley and his teams can see the percentage of time spend on

1. Unpacking standards and creating a map

2. Locking the assessments for the standards

3. Building lessons for assessment success

4. Teaching lessons for assessment success

5. Conducting assessments6. Analyzing Assessments and

Responding to student needs

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Staying on Target

A School Improvement Planning cycle must begin with Leadership from the teachers on defining what high quality instruction looks like, otherwise, the plan is justa plan, and not a living document that defines the verypurpose of the work that must be done to increasestudent learning. I’ve learned the hard way, that time must first be invested in developing high functioning PLC teams. A principal cannot sustain the SIP, but he/she can set up a systematic way for teachers toown the work outlined in their SIP.

-Kelley Boynton