together we: learn, grow, & thrive

THORNTON ELEMENTARY

INNOVATION PLAN

Together We: Learn, Grow, & Thrive

Table of Contents Cover Page – for Colorado Department of Education (CDE)

Letter from the School Design Team

Executive Summary

School Profile

Vision, Mission, and Values

The Need for Innovation

Proposed Innovation Model

SECTION I: CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE

SECTION II: EDUCATIONAL MODEL

SECTION III: TALENT MANAGEMENT

SECTION IV: BUDGET AND OPERATIONS

Expected Outcomes: Improvement in Academic Achievement

Conditions Necessary for Innovation: Waivers

SUMMARY OF REQUIRED CHANGES

A. DISTRICT POLICY WAIVERS

B. STATE STATUTE & RULES WAIVERS

C. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WAIVERS

Appendix A: Evidence of Majority Support from Administrators, Teaching Staff, and the School

Accountability Committee

Appendix B: Evidence of Support from Additional School Community Stakeholders

Appendix C: APS Graduation Policies (High Schools Only)

Appendix D: Unified Improvement Plan (UIP)

Cover Page – for Colorado Department of Education (CDE)

INNOVATION PLAN COVER PAGE

**PLEASE SUBMIT THIS PAGE AS THE FIRST PAGE OF THE INNOVATION PLAN**

Direct innovation plan questions to Kelly Rosensweet ([email protected])

Innovation School Name: Thornton Elementary School

Location (address): 991 Eppinger Boulevard, Thornton, CO 80229

Plan Contact (name and position): Betsy Miller, Principal

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (720) 972-5663

Please answer the following questions to help us review the innovation plan as efficiently as

possible.

Is this plan for a new school or an existing school (circle one)? Existing

Has the school submitted a request for to CDE for a new school code, grade change, name change,

etc.? N

➢ Has the school been granted status as an Alternate Education Campus (AEC)? N

➢ If the school does not have AEC status, does the school plan on submitting an application

for AEC status before opening? (Please note that the deadline is July 1ST.) N

Is the school in Priority Improvement or Turnaround? N

➢ Is the school a recipient of the federal School Improvement Grant (10039g))? N

Will the school be seeking a waiver for graduation guidelines? N ➢ Please indicate in the plan if the school will follow district requirements and include the

district graduation policy as an appendix.

**PLEASE SUBMIT THIS PAGE AS THE FIRST PAGE OF THE INNOVATION PLAN**

Implementation of this Innovation Plan is conditioned upon obtaining waivers of provisions in the DTEA Master Agreement that may be required. DTEA and District are working collaboratively through the IBS process.

mailto:[email protected]


U

Five Star Schools Thornton Elementary School

991 Eppinger Blvd. , Tho rn ton, CO 80229

Office 720-972-5660 Fax 720-972-5679

Betsy Miller

Principal

February 2017

Letter from the Innovation Planning Committee

To the Adams 12 Five Star Schools and Colorado State Boards of Education:

The Thornton Elementary School Innovation Planning Committee is pleased to submit to you its

Innovation Plan. A core group of ten teachers, administrators, coaches, paraprofessionals and parents

was created to represent the diversity of perspectives at THE. We have worked vigorously over the past

1 Yi years to prepare this plan. We believe that it captures the full array of voices in our community and

provides a strong foundation upon which we can dramatically improve student achievement and build

toward our vision: "Thornton Elementary will be a performance innovation school where students are

successful and productive problem solvers who contribute to a global community."

The Planning Committee began its work immediately after receiving recommendation for school closure

from a 2015 State Review Panel. Though disappointing, the recommendation galvanized the school

community into action, and helped to coalesce school staff, leaders and families around the need to

effect rapid and dramatic change at Thornton . Initially, the Committee spent time researching and

discussing innovative schools and practices, seeking to transform its understanding of what was possible.

From there, the Committee performed a deep dive to prioritize Thornton's areas of greatest need and

brainstormed ideas for addressing them . Throughout the process, stakeholder and parent input has been

critical to designing innovations and building consensus behind the Committee's ambitions. Since the

beginning of the 2015-16 school year, the Committee has spent countless hours elaborating, critiquing,

and refining innovations in order to arrive at the final plan presented below .

This process has been thoroughly inclusive and collaborative, as demonstrated by the letters of support

from multiple stakeholders in Appendices A and B. Parents were surveyed early and often to determine

their needs, interests and satisfaction with early implementation efforts. The whole staff was invited to

share their own innovative ideas and share feedback as we began the process. Throughout the 15/16

and 16/17 school years, the Committee frequently engaged the whole staff, parents, and the community

in order to present the plan, answer questions, solicit feedback and input, and ensure that the plan

delivered to the Board was supported by all of the school's stakeholders.

This plan is designed to be both visionary and actionable, and the Committee has full confidence that it

will guide the transformation of Thornton Elementary into a premier center of learning. It is imbued with

the deep commitment to equity and the strong sense of community out of which it sprang. We look

forward to presenting our proposed innovations, and are excited to begin the challenging but rewarding

work of developing all students into successful international leaders.

With gratitude,

Thornton Elementary Innovation Planning Committee - /- k

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Executive Summary

Thornton Elementary is a Title I school in Adams 12 Five Star Schools serving a diverse population of 338 students in grades K-5. The Thornton community is singularly focused on improving academic achievement and closing achievement gaps. This year, the school received a rating of “Performance” on its School Performance Framework. After five years on Priority Improvement and a 2015 State Review Panel’s recommendation that the school be closed, this came as welcome relief and signified the remarkable strides the school has made in the past three years. It also further galvanized staff, school leaders and families into moving forward with an Innovation plan that could build upon and sustain these momentous gains.

Now more than ever, Thornton must continue strengthening its school culture and climate and diversifying learning experiences while reorganizing its school day and year to fit the needs of its staff and students. The school’s mostly new but dedicated staff will rely on effective structures for professional development and career growth. Lastly, Thornton needs a new, more flexible approach to human capital that enables the school to recruit, retain and develop staff that fit its unique community.

This Innovation plan seeks to address the need for more and better learning time, a supportive and collaborative professional culture, and systems that attract talent, distribute leadership, and consistently improve instructional practice. It outlines strategies for creating a culture of performance by fostering a positive learning environment, implementing a robust multi-tiered system of student supports, providing diverse enrichment options, and engaging the school’s stakeholders. It offers a blueprint for improved academic systems, including a partnership with the renowned Boettcher Teacher Residency, a teacher leadership pathway, an expanded school day and year, and structures to enhance collaborative data-driven instructional planning. And it plots a new approach to talent management that increases the focus and rigor of recruitment and hiring, establishes a foundation for growth through observation and feedback, and improving the way professional development is done.

The proposed innovations are intended to enable Thornton to continue improving student achievement and growth while closing growth gaps. Changes to the school’s culture and instructional model, as well as the increased presence of families and community stakeholders within the school, will increase student engagement and students’ sense of community. With a more cohesive community, students become more motivated to learn and confident in their abilities. Similarly, as teachers receive the professional supports they need to grow and succeed, they become more confident and capable instructionally. In the long term, as teachers remain at Thornton and the school attracts talented educators, relationships between teachers and students will grow and support continuous school improvement. As a result, students will graduate from Thornton equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in school, career, and life, and will thrive in whatever they choose to do.

In service of these goals, Thornton has already begun to implement several of the innovation strategies proposed below. However, to continue improving student outcomes and remain responsive the unique and ever-changing needs of the community, the school requires autonomy and flexibility in key areas. Thornton is requesting waivers from district and state policy and the collective bargaining agreement in order to retain authority over learning time, talent management, and budget. Successfully implementing this innovation plan will also require the school to maintain strong relationships with district administrators, community partners and families.

School Profile

Thornton Elementary

Principal Name and Contact Information: Betsy Miller

Leadership Team Members: Betsy Miller, Tracie Stauffer, Shannon West, Felicia Vigil, Emaleigh Reagan, Cate Schoenherr, Ashleigh White, Debra Daughters, Courtney Mitchler, Ali Blanchette

Enrollment Data: 2014-2015

Grades: K-5 5-Yr Enrollment Trend:

Student Enrollment: 407 Mobility Rate: 19%

School Day Per Year: 2016-2017

Total # of Student Days Per Year:

165 Instructional Minutes/Day: 420(M,T,Th,F)

330 (W)

Total # of Teacher Days Per Year:

184 Extended Day Program? Yes

Student Demographic Breakdown: 2014-2015

% Black: -- % Male: 52%

% Hispanic: 65.6% % Female: 48%

% White: 23.3% % ELL: 44%

% Other: 7.9% % Special Education: 13%

% F/R Meals: 77% % Gifted and Talented: 1%

Personnel Data: 2014-2015

# of Administrators: 2 % of Teachers “Basic”: 0

# of Teachers: 33 % of Teachers “Partially Proficient”: 8.7%

# of Support Staff: 5 % of Teachers “Proficient”: 69.5%

# of Psychologists: 0 % of Teachers “Accomplished/ Exemplary”:

21.7%

# of Social Workers: 1 3-yr Teacher Retention Rate:

School Climate Data: 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15

Average Daily Attendance Rate:

94% 94.6% 94.1% 92%

Chronic Absenteeism Rate:

Total # of ISS/OSS/Expulsions: 19 12 95* 88*

School Performance Framework:

10- 11 11- 12

12- 13 13- 14 14-15

SPF Rating: PI PI PI PI PI

State Assessment % at or above Proficient:

READING 11-12 12- 13 13- 14 MATH 11- 12 12- 13 13- 14

Grades 3-5

29.1

36.6

35.4

Grades 3-5

43.8

49.0

42.9

PARCC (% at or above Proficient) READING 14-15 15-16 MATH 14-15 15-16

Grade 3 14.3 21.43 Grade 3 5.4 14.29

Grade 4 17.1 23.73 Grade 4 7.9 18.97

Grade 5 13.3 12.16 Grade 5 10.0 9.59

*Regarding the Total # of ISS/OSS/Expulsions category above: Accurate behavior data was not collected during the 11/12 and 12/13 school years. Systems were then put into place to electronically track ISS and OSS data which is why there was a jump in reported incidents in both the 13/14 and 14/15 school years. In addition, the structures put in place to support positive behavior were fully implemented during the 15/16 school year which resulted in a 30% decrease in overall ISS/OSS referrals which is not captured on the graph.

School Historical Context and Background

Thornton Elementary (“THE”) is a Title I neighborhood school in the southeast corner of the Adams 12 Five Star School District. The school is part of a shared campus with Thornton Middle School and Thornton High School, all three of whom participate in the district’s International Baccalaureate Program. The school serves a diverse population of 338 students in grades K-5. Seventy-seven percent (77%) for students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and 39% are English language learners. Special education services are provided to 13% of students. The school also has a high student mobility rate (19%) which exceeds both state and district averages.

The THE community includes a significant number of English language learners and has a higher rate of poverty (21%) than the City of Thornton as a whole (9%). Accordingly, many common features of high-poverty neighborhoods are present in the THE community. A significant number of students walk to school because their families lack reliable means of transportation. Parents often work multiple jobs and night shifts to support their families. It is not uncommon for children to be raised by their grandparents or extended family members. As a result of poverty, family instability, and other adverse experiences, students experience toxic stress, anxiety, trauma and other mental health issues that can get in the way of learning.

While families at THE are consistently positive, resilient and responsive to the needs of their children and the school, many parents struggle to support their children academically at home. With few academic role models in the community at large, academic behaviors and routines are not being reinforced outside of school. Despite cultural and linguistic barriers, however, families remain highly engaged in the school. THE has a small but active Parent-Teacher Organization and generates consistent turnout at events such as Parent Coffee and Conversations and Literacy Nights. A majority of parent volunteers are Spanish-speaking moms, who help to bridge the gap between the school and its

diverse community.

Currently, enrollment is well below the school’s capacity of 558, and has been steadily declining over the past five years. The neighborhood’s school-aged population is shrinking, likely due to the aging of the community and rising housing costs pricing out some low-income families. During the 2015-16 school year, the number of elementary-aged children living in the school’s attendance boundary fell by 17%; THE enrollment dropped 15%. While the families whose children do attend THE are loyal to the school, in recent years many families have chosen to enroll their children in schools with better academic performance. Three times as many students within the school’s attendance boundary now opt out of rather than into THE.

THE has a long history of poor academic performance, and was assigned Priority Improvement status in 2010. In response, THE sought to transform its instructional model by becoming an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB-PYP) school, a process that was completed during the 2014-15 school year. In 2013, after three years of stagnant achievement and growth, Adams 12 replaced the principal and assistant principal. The new leadership brought renewed energy and a fresh perspective to the school and district’s turnaround efforts. They quickly realized that, while THE staff shared a deep commitment to their students, the school’s instructional practices were neither robust nor consistent enough to close significant, persistent achievement gaps and eliminate language acquisition deficits. Similarly, THE’s MTSS and Response to Intervention systems were not effectively using data in order to target students’ cognitive, affective and behavioral needs. Lastly, there was a need to ensure stability and accountability among staff while providing the professional supports that teachers needed to accelerate student achievement.

With these insights in mind, and students still languishing academically, the new leadership engaged school staff and the community to develop strategies for rapid, dramatic improvements in student outcomes. Based on the unique needs of THE’s students and families, the school prioritized the implementation of a school-wide literacy-centered instructional model, rather than making IB-PYP their focus (formally, the IB-PYP model remains in place, but it is not an instructional priority at this time). Nevertheless, at the end of THE’s fifth year on Priority Improvement status in May 2015, a CDE State Review Panel recommended that THE be closed, citing the school’s history of underperformance and the numerous failed attempts to turn around the school. The recommendation came as a disappointment to the school’s staff, leaders and families. It also galvanized them into action: for the THE community, school closure was not an option.

In response to the Panel’s recommendation, the district made key investments in building leadership capacity for school turnaround, including sending both leaders to the Relay Graduate School of Education and participating in the Colorado Department of Education’s School Turnaround Network. Efforts to transform the school’s culture and climate began to payoff, as demonstrated by a 30% drop in office referrals in 2015-16. THE adopted a new reading and writing curriculum in January 2016. After experiencing 50% staff turnover in 2013-14 and 46% turnover in 2014-15, turnover prior to the 2015-16 school year was just 20%. With support from district leaders, THE formed a team of administrators, licensed and classified staff, and parents to explore the possibility of seeking Innovation status and develop innovation strategies.

At the end of the 2015-16 school year, a second State Review Panel saw a much different THE than had the first Panel the year before. In particular, the Panel noted the strength and readiness of school

leadership, THE’s more focused and targeted instructional program, the stabilization of teacher turnover, increasingly positive school culture, and the community’s commitment to the school, evidenced by its support for the Innovation process. Accordingly, the Panel affirmed the school’s new direction and reversed its previous finding by recommending THE continue to pursue Innovation status. Another even more encouraging affirmation came in September 2016, when THE catapulted to Performance status for the first time in the school’s history.

The THE community has not sat idly by, waiting for their school to improve; rather, they have taken immediate action, pressing forward with innovative strategies to improve student learning. This year, the school has already implemented an extended school day, additional time for literacy instruction, and enrichment opportunities chosen by the students themselves. Encouraged but unsatisfied by the recent progress, THE remains singularly focused on continuing to enable students to succeed and contribute to a global community. Thus, this Innovation Plan documents THE’s journey so far, and charts its new course forward.

Vision, Mission, and Values

1. Insert the school’s vision, mission, and values.

Vision: Thornton Elementary will be a performance innovation school where students are successful and productive problem solvers who contribute to a global community.

Mission: Thornton Elementary community, parents, staff and students together will ensure success for all students by providing:

● Safe, engaging, and positive learning experiences and environments ● A rigorous research based literacy and math instructional model ● 21st century life, learning and literacy skills ● Opportunities for maximizing and expanding teaching and learning time ● A differentiated and culturally responsive school

The Need for Innovation

Explain the need for innovation.

Before achieving Performance status this year, THE had been on Priority Improvement status for five consecutive years, from 2011 to 2015. Across all content areas and grade levels, academic achievement and growth were low and flat before beginning to increase gradually in 2013. Even then, however, the school continued to underperform state and district averages, and students were still not making enough growth to meet grade-level proficiency standards. Reading and writing proficiency was especially low: just 12% of students scored proficient or advanced in reading and 29% in writing in 2012, growing slightly to 16% and 35%, respectively, by 2014. Similarly, THE fourth and fifth graders are performing well below their peers in Science and Social Studies, achieving scores of Strong and Distinguished at a third the rate of state and district averages. Discouragingly, benchmark assessment data actually showed a decline in the number of K-3 students reading at benchmark between the spring and fall of 2015.

Student behavior is another area of concern. A significant number of students, especially among fourth and fifth graders, are losing substantial instructional time due to behavioral incidents and the need to remove them from the classroom. Bullying, fighting, and disrespectful behaviors are the most common incidents. Not only do these incidents disrupt learning time, they also test the school’s largely novice teaching staff and put a strain on limited resources for intervention.

As part of its annual UIP process, THE examines student performance data and feedback from staff, students and parents. The school also benefitted from a diagnostic review by Mass Insight in 2015 and the two State Review Panel reports from 2015 and 2016. Recent, significant findings included:

● Lack of a comprehensive and aligned curriculum grounded in the Common Core State Standards and other relevant benchmarks.

● Inconsistent high leverage reading and writing instruction and practices provided in grades Kindergarten through 5th.

● Inconsistent set of research-based, non-negotiable instructional practices shared across all classrooms.

● Limited implementation of a robust MTSS (RtI) system to support both students in need of intervention and those ready for acceleration.

● Inconsistent and deliberate differentiation of instructional activities, resources, and flexible student groupings to meet the needs of all students.

● Limited social-emotional supports that allow teachers to reach all of their students effectively.

● Limited intervention time for students with significant needs ● Inconsistent, intentional use of data to drive continuous improvement in all areas, both

instructional and non-instructional. ● Lack of focus with leadership team to maximize student achievement through ongoing

monitoring of improvement strategies. ● Lack of clear defined roles and responsibilities within committees aligned to the school

improvement strategies.

Based on these findings, THE identified four high level root causes:

1. Lack of articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy.

2. Lack of articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth.

3. Lack of systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership. 4. Lack of alignment between school needs and district systems around use of time, budget

flexibility, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

At the end of the 2014-15 school year, a CDE State Review Panel analyzed performance data and school documentation and conducted a site visit in order to determine an appropriate school turnaround strategy for the THE community. The Panel considered four potential strategies: turning the school over to another management entity, converting to a charter school, closing the school, or seeking Innovation status. The Panel recommended school closure, based on the school’s persistent underperformance and the failure of past attempts to improve and sustain student achievement and growth.

The THE community did not want to close their school, however. Instead, they formed an Innovation Planning Committee and began taking immediate action to raise student achievement. The school adopted a new reading and writing curriculum and began integrating literacy instruction into other content areas. THE also established new expectations for staff and students and implemented school-wide behavior and academic support systems. The principal formed new instructional leadership teams and adopted new observation feedback protocols in order to lay the foundation for a distributed leadership model. THE conducted extensive research and planning to expand the school day by 45 minutes, opening up additional time for literacy instruction, collaborative planning, and a weekly enrichment period to implement for the 2016-17 school year.

At the end of the 2015-16, a second State Review Panel examined the state of the school and its early innovation planning. Commending the quality of school leadership and the readiness and capacity of the school to develop an Innovation plan, the Panel changed its recommendation from closure to Innovation status. The Panel cited several “early indicators of change”:

● the narrowed curricular focus on literacy, ● more effective instructional supports for staff, ● the staff’s commitment to the school and its students, ● the stabilization of teacher turnover, ● the creation of structures to support distributive leadership, ● the school and district’s embrace of the Innovation planning process, and ● successful early efforts to implement innovations, such as the extended school day for

2016-17 school year.

The Panel reported that “the essential elements are currently in place to increase student achievement,” including consistent instructional practices, time and structures for data-driven planning, and monitoring and evaluation protocols. The Panel concluded:

“Innovation status will allow the school to extend the year and/or day outside of the

negotiated agreement with the teachers’ union. The school would also be able to utilize the

staffing pattern in innovative ways different from other schools in the district. The school

leadership is open to feedback and has used it to make changes in their focus...that are

centered on student achievement.”

Now, with a clear, shared vision, positive momentum and strong backing from district leadership and external experts, THE has an opportunity to solidify and expand its early gains by securing Innovation status. This Innovation plan is designed to build on the progress that THE has made in the last two years, as well as provide additional flexibility and autonomy to continue reorganizing the school around targeted strategies for school improvement and student achievement. THE had an SPF rating of PERFORMANCE for the 2015-16 school year. However, It is still critical for THE to proceed with a formal Innovation Plan because while there has been considerable academic growth, the academic achievement is well below the state and district, with less than 25% of students meeting state grade level expectations. In order to implement the innovations proposed herein fully, successfully and with fidelity, THE will need continued strong district support and partnership and will need considerable latitude to set its own direction and create structures for sustained improvement in its unique context.

As THE continues to implement its literacy-based instructional model, Innovation status will enable it to restructure its school day and academic calendar to better support collaborative, data-driven instructional planning. Innovation status will also provide the flexibility THE needs to execute and adapt school-specific professional learning strategies to strengthen and accelerate the evolution of the school’s distributed leadership model. Similarly, by allowing THE to determine its own observation and feedback practices, it can build teacher capacity and create support structures that foster a positive, professional staff culture. Flexibilities around budget and human capital management will ensure that THE can respond in a timely and effective manner to needs and challenges as they emerge.

Proposed Innovations

SECTION I: CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE

A. Positive Culture & MTSS

1. Overview and Rationale

In order to create a safe, positive, rigorous and responsive learning environment , THE will continue to build structures and systems to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of its diverse student population. This means fostering a school culture that is culturally-responsive and addresses each student’s cognitive, affective and behavioral needs. THE has already begun the work of transforming its school culture by implementing PBIS and setting high expectations for student behavior and achievement. The school has also adopted a bullying prevention curriculum and begun identifying gaps in its MTSS. Ultimately, THE aims to create a school community where all staff and students are valued and receive the supports they need to succeed.

Maintaining high student expectations and consistent routines around behavior and academics is a top priority for THE. This begins with best first instruction in every classroom. Targeted instruction is delivered in the classroom based on student data. Using the RtI model, teachers at THE are able to match students with academic supports that are individualized and developmentally appropriate. Similarly, the school uses a social-emotional learning curriculum and a school-wide bullying prevention program to provide universal behavioral support. More intensive supports and interventions, delivered by a mental health team, are available to identified students.

All students need to learn certain academic behaviors in order to learn more quickly and effectively. Additionally, behavioral issues cause frequent disruptions and detract from valuable learning time. When a student is sent to the office, much less suspended or expelled, their punishment only exacerbates this loss of learning. Ensuring that every student is in the classroom and prepared to learn will maximize the impact of instruction at THE. This will require the school to continue rolling out its team-based, data-driven MTSS and RtI processes. It also necessitates school-level authority to adapt to the changing culture of the school and needs of the students.

2. Detailed Description of Innovation

The goal of this innovation is to create a community in which all staff and students are valued and receive the supports they need to succeed. To foster a safe and positive school culture, staff must be singularly focused on raising student achievement, express and hold students to high standards, celebrate success among both children and adults, analyze data to identify and address individual students’ needs, and collaborate regularly to monitor progress and refine prevention and intervention strategies.

In particular, the school is currently focused on improving its Tier II and III interventions and establishing strong progress monitoring practices. It is also working to ensure that social-emotional learning and bullying prevention curricula are being implemented with fidelity and consistently across classrooms. When targeted academic and behavioral interventions are needed, teachers collaborate with parents and community partners to increase student skills in a variety of contexts. Targeted assessments are used to monitor progress and make adjustments to interventions as necessary.

THE uses a school culture rubric to regularly assess its MTSS and RtI. Staff adjust school-wide routines annually on the basis of student data, with an emphasis on refining RtI processes and procedures for students not meeting grade level expectations. MTSS implementation is founded on a team-based, data-driven approach. Multiple grade-level and programmatic teams collaborate to identify student needs and appropriate interventions drawn from a continuum of evidence-based supports. These supports supplement universal instruction and provide students with more intensive and more frequent opportunities to master skills. Supports are developmentally appropriate and individualized to student needs to ensure all students receive an equitable education.

3. Conditions for Innovation

By and large, the conditions for promoting a positive school culture and building out MTSS are in place at THE. The school has already implemented school-wide PBIS and high student expectations, new curriculum around social-emotional learning and bullying prevention, and professional development around collaborative planning and data-driven instruction. Continued professional learning will be essential to solidifying the gains THE has made, especially for new teachers. Likewise, effective onboarding of new teachers will equip them to provide effective and consistent core instruction.

Ultimately, THE staff and leaders need dedicated time for monitoring implementation progress, analyzing student data, and professional learning. THE also needs to create time to engage students and the school community, e.g., in school-wide meetings to celebrate staff and student achievements. In this way, the school can reinforce positive behaviors, cultivate a sense of community, and encourage teachers and students to take ownership of their learning environment. Strong parent engagement will also help bridge the gap between school and home, creating positive feedback loops between students’ personal and academic experiences.

It will also be necessary to continue to have a full-time counselor that is working in conjunction with the school social worker to meet the intense student needs at THE. This may require additional financial support at the district level or grant funding to ensure that this is possible while still maintaining the current level of supports including 1-25 teacher student ration and instructional coaching for teachers.

4. Anticipated Outcomes

A stable, safe and positive school culture has numerous benefits for both children and adults. First, strong best first instruction supplemented by interventions for students who need them and teachers well-versed in classroom management skills will increase student engagement. In turn, there will be fewer disruptions in the classroom, increasing learning time for all students. At the same time, differentiated instruction that is targeted to the individual needs of each student will help to shrink achievement gaps between students. As the school’s prevention strategies take hold, students will begin to feel safer, enabling them to focus on learning. Over time, students will gain a sense of community and agency, as they learn to feel comfortable and take ownership of their learning environment.

Adults at THE will also benefit from a stronger culture. As teachers’ classroom management skills improve, leading to more engaged students, they will acquire a newfound sense of self-efficacy, and grow confident in their instructional practice. As a result, they will want to remain teaching at THE longer, helping to further stabilize staff turnover. This will start a virtuous cycle among THE

B. Enrichment

personnel: as the staff grows more effective and stable, they will collaborate more and work better together, reinforcing the professionalism and sense of accomplishment that make teaching desirable and satisfying.

After implementation of the Positive Culture & MTSS initiatives, THE saw a 30% reduction in Office Discipline Referrals, 36% reduction in Out of School Suspensions, 69% reduction in In-school Suspensions, 58% growth in the reduction in student stress and 41% increase in students feeling more confident in school. We will continue to monitor these outcomes in our Colorado Department of Education Performance Management tool and anticipate that this trend will continue with the continued implementation of these programs.


THE is committed to accelerating learning while exposing students to a variety of subjects, interests and activities through multiple regular enrichment opportunities. The proposed innovation builds on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which holds that students use a variety of processes and mental tools for learning and understanding the world around them, and that each student may acquire the same skills or knowledge as their peers by different means. In turn, students may learn better when they are able to approach content in multiple, distinctive ways. Enrichment activities that are engaging and aligned to academic standards constitute an important supplement to core instruction. These activities also give students opportunities to direct their learning, apply it in unique situations to solve problems, discover a passion, and see the world in new ways.

THE began piloting a weekly enrichment period during the 2016-17 school year. In a parent survey conducted mid year, 95% of respondents reported that their children enjoyed the additional learning opportunities. THE proposes to continue increasing options for students, as well as taking steps to empower students to choose their own enrichment activities based on their interests.

To continue providing enrichment to students, THE also proposes to seek and build community partnerships that relieve existing school staff of enrichment duty. This will make the enrichment period more sustainable, as well as open up the possibility of providing activities that are not limited to staff interests and knowledge. THE also plans to make student engagement an explicit goal of the enrichment program.


The addition of a 45-minute weekly enrichment period, with activities offered in six week “sessions,” has shown early signs of success. Student, parent and staff perceptions of its impact are favorable. This Innovation plan proposes to expand and sustain this enrichment period, ensuring that it meets student needs and expectations, improves engagement, and drives gains in student achievement and growth while reducing growth gaps. THE will do this by explicitly using enrichment as an engagement strategy, transitioning enrichment duties to community partners and volunteers, and adjusting the structure of enrichment as necessary to ensure success.

THE plans to regularly monitor student outcomes related to enrichment, especially around engagement. By taking additional time to review student data, THE will be able to determine the impact of enrichment activities on student learning. This will also enable THE to use participation in enrichment activities as a “carrot” to motivate student attendance and behavior. As more options are offered to students, and students are able to exercise a greater voice in the development of activities, the value of this strategy will increase. Regularly reviewing student data alongside student and parent feedback will also help THE staff identify the activities that contribute most to overall achievement and growth while making continuous program adjustments.

Currently, THE staff develop and deliver enrichment content, based largely on their own knowledge and interests. However, enrichment is likely to be most successful when it offers students what they want, as well as opens them up to a wide range of new activities, perspectives and interests. Thus, THE proposes to seek out new community partnerships with organizations that can expand offerings to students while helping kids make connections between their learning, their community and the larger world around them. Moreover, having parent and community volunteers teach enrichment sessions will free up THE staff to focus on best first instruction and the development of a strong school culture.

To remain responsive to emerging needs and interests, THE plans to continually monitor, review and adjust the enrichment period. In the long term, the school aims to offer longer enrichment sessions than six weeks as well as increase the amount of weekly time dedicated to enrichment.


THE has already begun to create the conditions necessary to implement this innovation successfully, but further development and expansion of enrichment will require some flexibility around time and budget. In terms of funding an increasing array of activities, THE plans to be able to repurpose funds from other areas of their budget, based on other school improvement strategies that yield cost savings. THE will be seeking a waiver to collapse Leadership, Department Chair and Co-Curricular budgets into one budget that will allow flexibility in funding the Enrichment program as well as providing stipends/incentives to teachers that take on additional and extensive leadership responsibilities. Staff also need time to plan, deliver and monitor programming.

As the enrichment program grows in variety and effects positive student outcomes, THE will explore expanding the enrichment period, requiring further autonomy around their school day and calendar. To sustain the program, THE needs to be able to cultivate community partnerships with organizations and volunteers who can take over enrichment activities. This will eventually reduce the money and time necessary to manage enrichment. Until then, however, the school will dedicate time and energy to community engagement and to monitoring programming to ensure that it is having a positive impact on students.


Enrichment activities are a useful supplement to high-quality core instruction. By exposing students to familiar content in new ways, enrichment programming helps them to build connections between different ideas and approaches to problem solving. Likewise, enrichment can build helpful background knowledge that students can directly apply in the classroom. Enrichment also exposes students to content they might not otherwise encounter, allowing them to explore new interests and see the world through different perspectives. By breaking out of the typical mold of classroom instruction, enrichment activities can help to make teachers more approachable and enable

C. Stakeholder Engagement


Effectively engaging stakeholders is crucial to making significant and lasting improvements at THE. When parents are actively involved in their child’s education, academic achievement and growth increase. By reinforcing positive attitudes toward education as well as academic behaviors and routines, parents accelerate their child’s learning and foster a community that is dedicated to student success. Giving parents a voice in the school likewise gives them a sense of agency, ownership and pride; as a result they are more likely to advocate effectively for their family, volunteer in the school, and recruit other families to THE. Within the larger community, engaging stakeholders can create new opportunities for students that allow them to learn new content, discover new experiences and interests, and build connections between academic content and the real world. Sustained partnerships also help to build a larger community of people who advocate on behalf of the school and its students.

For these reasons, THE is committed to facilitating the active participation of parents and community members in improving student outcomes. Existing venues for parent engagement have been somewhat successful, but the school has not yet approached stakeholder engagement holistically. THE recognizes that sometimes, parents are not engaged because of their own experience of or attitudes toward public education. At the same time, school staff and leaders are confident that this barrier can be addressed through consistent communication, multiple and varied opportunities for parents to get involved and voice their concerns, and a genuine willingness to meet families where they are at.

Forming sustainable community partnerships that contribute to student learning is another priority at THE. Developing these relationships takes time, but can generate significant returns. Community partners bring new opportunities and perspectives into the school, enhancing student experiences and enabling them to make valuable connections to their community. As volunteers, partners take some of the burden off of school staff, who can then focus their energies on best first instruction

students to form unique, common bonds with school staff and adult volunteers. These positive relationships are protective factors socially and emotionally, and contribute to students’ academic growth. Moreover, both the activities in which students participate and the relationship they form increase their motivation to learn, in turn boosting achievement.

Teachers also benefit from stronger relationships with their students, and from more motivated learners. Both factors increase the likelihood that instruction will be successful, and reduce the amount of time spent on classroom management. Teachers themselves enjoy and learn from opportunities to share their interests and passions with students. Often, the process of making connections between enrichment activities and academic content is illuminating to teachers themselves, and helps them to improve their practice in the classroom. As THE grows its enrichment programming and sustains it through partnerships and volunteers, teachers will also have more time to collaborate with their peers and plan for high-quality instruction, while leading the enrichment activities when they are interested and able.

THE will monitor effectiveness of the Enrichment through student and staff surveys and adjustments will be made based on the data.


The process of developing this Innovation plan has provided a template, as well as a catalyst, for continued work around stakeholder engagement. The school has communicated early and often with parents over the last two years to solicit input and feedback on proposed innovations before implementing them. Parents have been strongly supportive of the Innovation work, and consistently indicate their satisfaction with the results of early implementation on year-end parent surveys. In turn, THE’s own understanding of what kinds of engagement would be possible and meaningful has evolved.

The school’s primary aim is to build parent capacity to support their children’s academics at home. This is difficult, but all the more necessary, in a community with relatively low levels of education attainment and a significant concentration of English language learners. Thus, THE plans to work with parents to gradually increase their involvement and responsibility over time. Initially, teachers will work with parents to set their children’s literacy goals and develop specific strategies parents can use to reinforce academic behaviors and content at home. Building on this work, THE will begin to build a parent mentoring program, in which parents are trained to become mentors for other parents, helping each other to navigate the school system and acquire the skills to support academics at home. As mentioned above, parents will also be recruited to lead enrichment sessions.

As parents grow in confidence and their level of engagement, THE will continue to expand their role. Eventually, teachers will work with parents and students to set all academic goals for each child. As relationships develop over time, school staff and leaders will have a better sense of how to recruit and use parent volunteers to fill school needs and engage the community in meaningful ways. Parents will offer their own feedback as to what works and what doesn’t in the school’s engagement strategy, allowing THE to refine volunteer opportunities and tailor them to community needs and interests.

As described above under I.B, Enrichment, THE also proposes to engage stakeholders in the broader school community, namely in order to establish partnerships that help sustain the school’s enrichment programming. The school will identify and recruit partners qualified to provide content and activities aligned with student interests, as well as partners seeking volunteer opportunities for their employees. THE plans to work collaboratively with the district HR and Communications departments to build partnerships with local universities and businesses to support initiatives outlined in the Innovation plan.

and targeted interventions. Lastly, partners are often a source of material support, and can become powerful voices for the school in the broader community.


Engaging parents and other community stakeholders is a time- and labor-intensive process. While it does not necessarily require flexibility or autonomy, it does require dedicated resources and an authentic desire to involve the community in student learning, even when it is difficult or burdensome to do so. This begins with a careful examination of when, where and how stakeholders can become involved. It also means asking community members to share their interests, expertise and time with the school, in order to maximize the options available to

potential volunteers and partners. Lastly, the school must engage stakeholders, especially families, on their own terms, e.g. at times and places that are convenient and accessible to them.

THE will need to develop a more specific plan for cultivating parent mentors, including recruitment, training and monitoring procedures. This will take time for teachers and school leaders to prepare, though it does not require additional waivers. Similarly, time and attention will need to be dedicated to identifying the right community partners for the school, matching their interests and supports to student demand and need.


When schools and families are on the same page, students thrive academically. The routines and behaviors they develop in school are reinforced outside of school and, ideally, modelled for them in the home. Students become more motivated and engaged in their learning, and are prepared socially and emotionally to succeed in the school environment. In turn, student achievement and growth go up. As low-income and non-native English speaking parents are also those which struggle the most to support their children academically, stronger parent engagement also helps to close achievement gaps.

When parents participate in the school, they ease the burden on teachers, as well. The responsibility for increasing achievement is shared, reducing teacher stress and burnout and enabling the teacher to better understand their students. Additional support in the classroom increases their capacity to deliver targeted instruction to students who need it, and this individualized attention in turn helps teachers more effectively manage the varied demands of their classroom.

SECTION II: ACADEMIC SYSTEMS

A. Boettcher Teacher Residency


Building a talent pipeline to support a stable, high-quality teaching staff is a top priority at THE. For this reason, the school is partnering with the Boettcher Teacher Residency to place teaching residents in THE classrooms. Each resident is paired with an experienced mentor teacher, and the two co-teach for a full school year while receiving professional development targeted to their specific roles and needs. After their residency, residents will be licensed and prepared to take on their own classroom, creating a hiring pool of exceptional candidates who are already familiar with the staff, students and culture of THE.

In the past, teacher turnover has created a significant barrier to learning at THE. Some teachers have not been up to the challenge of teaching in a high-poverty, low-performing school, while others have chosen to leave the teaching profession altogether. A significant number of teachers leave after their first year. This creates instability in schools, and increases the burden on school leaders and districts to train and retrain staff every year.

Research shows that when a new teacher integrates his/her university experiences and affiliations with that of the school, it increases the likelihood of remaining in both the school and the profession. Likewise, when new teachers perceive their school as “well-functioning”, the likelihood of them staying at that school increases. Collegial relationships with faculty combined with a more experienced teaching force are instrumental in a new teacher’s decision to remain, because the professional culture fosters opportunities for further growth and development. THE’s partnership with the Boettcher Teacher Residency will enable the school to cultivate high-quality teaching candidates while increasing the professionalism and instructional and leadership capacity of its existing teaching staff.


The Boettcher Teacher Residency is a linchpin of this Innovation plan, and will create the conditions for sustained improvements in student achievement and growth at THE. THE will gradually grow the program in accordance with school need and capacity. The school will also use the innovation as a template for the development of the Mentor Model Teacher Leader innovation described below in II.B. Along with enhanced observation and feedback cycles, the Boettcher Teacher Residency will help to drive THE’s professional development priorities.

Starting in year one of Innovation status, THE will pair 1-4 resident and mentor teachers. Residents will co-plan and co-teach lessons with mentors, working side by side four days a week throughout the school year. As the year progresses, mentors will gradually release teaching responsibilities to the resident. Residents will also support the delivery of individualized and small group instruction in the classroom. Both residents and mentors will receive extensive, targeted professional development. In particular, residents will participate in professional learning around classroom management, best first instruction, and specific programming being implemented at THE, such as the school’s social-emotional curriculum. Mentors will take on the responsibility of observing and

providing actionable feedback to residents, while administrators and teacher leaders will help mentors develop their own leadership and mentorship capacities.

After year one, THE plans to expand the number of residents in the building to seven or more, depending on need and capacity. The school will also begin to cultivate a hiring pool of Boettcher residents. In order to expand opportunities for professional learning and hiring, THE will also seek out partnerships with institutes of higher education in order to provide a site for classroom visits and satellite teaching. This will both supplement and reduce THE’s reliance on Boettcher to generate high-quality candidates interested in teaching in the THE community. Over time, the school will monitor and evaluate the impact of the program in generating strong new hires that remain and succeed at THE.


Because the Boettcher Teacher Residency is closely intertwined with other proposed innovations, THE will need to carefully manage a variety of conditions in order for this innovation to have the desired impact on student learning. First, the school will need to be diligent about establishing a pathways to teacher leadership, which will encourage new and highly-qualified teachers to stay at the school and grow professionally. Second, the school will need to provide effective, differentiated professional development and onboarding for new teachers, modifying teacher support structures for residents during their residency and after being hired as a full-time teacher.

More broadly, the school will need to continually engage parents to share the impact of the program and foster community support. School leaders will need to dedicate time upfront to building a strong foundation for the program so that it can succeed and expand over time. Cultivating partnerships with Boettcher and institutes of higher education is critical to sustainability.


The Boettcher Teacher Residency is a promising approach to improving student achievement and growth and closing achievement gaps. The presence of the resident will immediately reduce student/teacher ratios, allowing students to receive more individualized attention and freeing up the mentor teacher to provide targeted instruction and intervention as needed. As a result, teachers and students will have more time to form strong, supportive relationships. As teachers remain at THE longer, those relationships will last and continue to accelerate student learning over time.

This innovation will also be a tremendous boon to THE’s teaching staff. Extensive and differentiated professional development will increase instructional capacity for both residents and mentors, enhancing their sense of self-efficacy and job satisfaction and thereby encouraging them to stay at THE. By necessitating more collaboration among colleagues, the residency program will strengthen the professional culture at THE. Moreover, the residency program will create a cadre of teachers, both new and veteran, who are able and willing to take up teacher leadership positions in the school. Not only will this enable teachers to grow professionally, but it will create a virtuous cycle through which staff culture is self-reinforcing and has lasting, positive effects for students.

We will monitor the specific targeted academic goals and outcomes that are connected to implementing this practice in our 2017-18 Colorado Department of Education Performance Management tool.

B. Mentor Model Teacher Leader and Distributed Leadership


Increasing student achievement and growth at THE will require continually building teachers’ instructional and leadership capacity. By providing teachers with opportunities for professional growth and advancement, THE will be better able to retain a high-quality teaching staff. Additionally, when the duties and responsibilities of school leadership are shared among staff and administrators, THE will be positioned to build a strong community of educators that is empowered to sustain the innovations implemented under this plan. For these reasons, THE proposed implementing the Mentor Model Teacher Leader (MMTL) program. MMTL will create ways for teachers to take up leadership positions in the school without leaving the classroom or sacrificing contact time with students. MMTL will also established a distributed leadership model, in which the principal becomes a leader of leaders, or small groups of teachers headed by teacher leaders.

THE has spent the last two years developing leadership pathways and a distributed leadership model that will give teachers opportunities to grow professionally, collaborate more effectively with their colleagues, and contribute meaningfully to key decisions and processes that affect the whole school. New teams have been formed to address grade level instructional planning, vertical alignment of standards, MTSS and RtI, and other programs and practices being implemented at the school. These teams are learning how to use data to make decisions, engage their peers, and conduct observations and provide feedback to advance instructional practice in classrooms.

THE also recognizes the need to embed mentorship opportunities and model classrooms in their school, separately from the Boettcher Teacher Residency. While building on the latter, MMTL will allow THE to cultivate a cadre of mentors to support grade level teams through coaching, co-teaching, and modelling. This will enable THE to extend the reach of their best teachers without increasing the size of classrooms or reducing student to teacher ratios. The model will also allow teachers more time for planning, collaboration and job-embedded professional development.


MMTL includes several components. THE will use year one of innovation status to formalize an implementation plan for MMTL and distributed leadership, including a vision, goals, defined roles, and a formal recruitment and selection process. By the end of the year, THE will have selected its first cohort of 1-2 mentor teachers. Mentors will receive professional development on instructional excellence and leadership to prepare them for implementation of the model in year two of innovation status. Distributed leadership positions will be available to all THE staff via an annual open application process. Candidates with a wide range of experiences and demonstrated commitment to teacher leadership will be selected by administrators.

In year two, THE will implement MMTL in 1-2 partner grade bands or specialized areas. MMTLs will continue to receive professional development and coaching, both as a cohort and individually based on targeted needs. Each MMTL will teach half-time and coach other teachers in their assigned grade band half-time. They will also work with school leaders to develop a model

classroom and a schedule for mentee teachers to access that classroom. Lastly, mentor teachers will lead the implementation of data-driven instruction, observation/feedback cycles and participate in the evaluation of teachers among their grade band. Mentor teachers will receive stipends for their extra duties.

In year three, THE plans to expand the MMTL program across multiple grade levels and include ELD and Special Education classrooms. The school will develop monitoring and evaluation protocols, and make program adjustments as necessary. Mentor teachers will gradually grow in their roles and responsibilities as school leaders, and continue increasing their capacity to develop new mentor teachers.


MMTL will significantly change the way school leadership and professional development are structured at THE. In order to accomplish these ambitious changes, several conditions need to be in place. First, school leadership must work with existing teacher leaders to establish systems and structures that enable THE to select and train effective mentors. Likewise, the school will work with the district’s human resource department to adjust contract requirements and compensation structures to accommodate mentors’ increased responsibilities.

Developing a cadre of highly-qualified mentor teachers is the most important condition for the success of MMTL. Building on the Boettcher Teacher Residency, THE must continue to draw from a strong hiring pool of teaching candidates, maintain a positive and supportive professional culture, and identify potential leaders early on in order to encourage and empower them to progressively acquire responsibility and instructional capacity. Retaining teachers is critical to ensuring the success of this innovation, as well as expanding at across the school to impact more students.

Creating the time to implement MMTL will require THE gains autonomy to define its school day and calendar. Similarly, THE will need flexibility to train mentor teachers in evaluation procedures so that they can lead observation/feedback cycles. Lastly, granting the school more authority over reductions in force will give them the leverage they need to exit low-performing teachers and hire effective, aspiring leaders.

Additionally, it may be necessary to have flexibility to move personnel from one grade level to another based on needed leadership opportunities, student needs and staff strengths.


MMTL will completely transform teaching and learning at THE. Initially, by decreasing student to teacher ratios, the innovation will enable teachers to provide students with more individualized attention. In turn, teachers will be positioned to deliver instruction that is targeted to the needs of each student. Over time, as the teaching staff at THE stabilizes and teachers become more effective at implementing strong instructional practices, students and teachers will form stronger, longer lasting relationships with students. As a result, student achievement and growth will increase, and achievement gaps will begin to shrink.

MMTL will directly impact the work of teachers at THE. Both resident and mentor teachers will have more opportunities to increase their instructional capacity. They will also be encouraged to collaborate more, while receiving supports that enable them to get more out of collaboration and peer-to-peer learning. As teachers grow in their leadership capacity, they will be able to take part in school decision-making and the school improvement process. Not only will this allow them to

C. Expanded Day

grow professionally, but it will increase their voice, and thus their stake, in the school’s direction and performance. In turn, teaching at THE will be more satisfying, stabilizing teacher turnover and fostering a professional environment that attracts both new and veteran teaching candidates.


Research shows that the amount of time students spend learning is a crucial determinant of their academic performance. Facing the need to quickly catch kids up to grade level and equip them with the skills they need to succeed in middle and high school, college, and career, THE has expanded the school day to provide more time for its students to learn. Not only is the school day longer, it has also been restructured to ensure that students are receiving the specific instruction and supports they need. In particular, the expanded day is aligned to THE’s adoption of a school-wide instructional focus on literacy. As of the 2016-17 school year, THE had already begun to implement this innovation. In a parent survey conducted in October of 2016, a few months into the year, 91% of parents reported that the later start time had positively impacted their children’s learning. Additionally, 95% believed that their students were benefitting from the school’s increased focus on literacy. The expanded school day has also enabled THE to implement a widely popular and growing enrichment program (described above in A.II).


With continued support from parents and staff, THE will continue with its currently expanded school day as well as explore other schedules and academic calendars to that meet the needs of students. THE has expanded the school day by 45 minutes for the 2016-17 school year, and plans to maintain this increase at the current level next year. The additional time has also allowed the school to restructure the day, ensuring that students now receive a minimum of 180 minutes of daily literacy instruction. Continuing to ensure that all students have uninterrupted daily access to explicit, targeted instruction is a top priority.

Based on this year’s schedule, THE students receive 116 more session hours than are required by the district. The additional learning time, especially given the school’s focus on literacy, is critical to sustaining THE’s recent spike in performance. Once granted Innovation status, THE will have the discretion to maintain and, as necessary, adjust its school day to continue meeting the needs of students. Each year, the school will review the impacts of the expanded day on student achievement and growth and engage staff and families in order to determine the structure of the school day for subsequent years.

In addition to providing additional time in the literacy block, expanded day makes it possible to differentiate language instruction based on student language level and provides opportunities for multiage instruction based on these language bands to narrow and focus the targeted instruction. The expanded day schedule has also afforded teachers the good fortune to have a 90 minute collaborative planning time to navigate their way through the Teaching and Learning Cycle including participating in regular, formal Data Driven Instruction protocols.


D. Expanded Year

While THE has already expanded its school day, it has done so at the discretion of the school district and without making changes that require waivers from the Master Agreement. Waivers from district and state policy as well as the Master Agreement will ensure that THE is empowered to do what is necessary to sustain and continually improve academic achievement. Along with this freedom, however, it is critical that THE successfully engage the school community to generate ideas and support for new and expanded schedules.

Additional learning time is only as good as the instruction that fills it. That’s why the school must continue to improve the quality of literacy instruction, while embedding literacy in a wide variety of content areas. Professional development and data-driven planning practices will further support the delivery of targeted instruction.

In order to deliver the Expanded Day programming it is essential to have three ELD/Language teachers paired with 2.5 FTE Specials allocation to support the additional time in literacy, targeted language instruction and 90 minutes of collaborative planning time. It is also critical to have 1.6 FTE to support students with targeted intervention identified through student PALS/PALS Plus data.


THE is already seeing the positive effects of an expanded school day. Students are getting their individual needs met through additional time and more effective targeted instruction. Achievement and growth are both up in literacy. Similarly, more students are and will perform at grade level, increasing their confidence and motivation in school.

Teachers also benefit from the expanded day. Staff now receive more opportunities to accelerate and catch up struggling students, as the time allows for a deeper level of differentiated instruction. The school is also providing more support to teachers through professional development around literacy instruction specifically. With more time to plan and collaborate, teachers will be able to better leverage the additional instructional minutes and form professional relationships with their colleagues and codify their instructional practices. As teachers grow in their practice and self-efficacy, their motivation to teach at THE will ramp up, creating a more stable teaching staff.



Along with an expanded day, THE proposes to implement an expanded, alternative academic calendar. The goals of future calendars will be to respond to staff and student needs, use instructional time more efficiently, and stabilize the academic year by reducing disruptions to learning. In short, the new calendar will minimize the trade-offs, experienced by every school in every district, between professional development and instructional time.

Providing students with consistent learning time is critical to raising achievement and promoting growth. When regular instruction is interrupted - e.g, when teachers must leave their classroom for professional development, or when breaks fall in the middle of curricular units - students are less

likely to retain content knowledge. Interruptions and inconsistencies also pose a barrier to the development of strong student-teacher relationships.

Similarly, when teachers’ planning and collaboration time is not allocated efficiently, the impact of that time on instructional practice is limited. Poorly timed planning periods can even be an additional burden on teachers, especially when they do not result in the achievement of clear and important objectives. While teachers are often eager to improve their craft by participating in professional learning, they must weigh the benefits against the risks and challenges of leaving a substitute teacher in charge of their classroom. Moreover, without adequate time to collaborate with their fellow teachers, it is difficult for them to form supportive professional relationships that improve job satisfaction and stability.


For the 2016-17 school year, THE piloted an expanded calendar by providing stipends to bring teachers back to school earlier than before. This provided additional time in professional development, school-specific induction for new teachers, and extra planning and preparation for the arrival of students. This expansion was implemented with district permission and, because it did not entail changes to teacher contracts, was not affected by the Master Agreement. Students continue to operate on the traditional, district-determined calendar.

This innovation will give THE full discretion over its own academic calendar. Each year, the school’s leadership team will engage staff and families to determine the needs, opportunities and limitations that will drive the creation of the next year’s calendar. Currently, the school plans to continue providing professional development days at the beginning of the school year, above and beyond what is included in the traditional district calendar. During year one of innovation, THE will consider alternative calendars for students, with an emphasis on increasing learning time while accommodating the needs of parents and families.


This innovation will require a waiver from state and district policy, which delegates calendar authority to the district Board of Education. Currently, this innovation does not require that any Master Agreement language be waived, because no changes have been made, or will be made, to teacher contracts. In the future, however, alternative calendars for students may change the balance of professional development and instructional minutes, requiring THE to revisit its relationship to the Master Agreement.

The success of an expanded school year will also rest on support from the school community. If staff and families are engaged and feel they have a voice in the calendar process, they will likely support the school’s decisions. Constant and effective engagement will thus ensure that the school is able to develop responsive strategies around instructional and planning time.


More learning time will positively impact THE students. With more time to develop relationships with their teachers, students will become more engaged in their learning. As with the expanded day, an increase in school days will allow THE to build out its literacy-based instructional model, addressing the school’s greatest need in terms of achievement. More instruction of a greater

E. Collaborative Planning

quality, coupled with the time needed to differentiate that instruction based on individual need, will ensure that each student is supported.

Staff are already experiencing the benefits of an expanded calendar that makes more time for planning, classroom preparation, professional development and collaboration. With more time to learn and practice new instructional strategies, teachers’ are rapidly increasing their capacity to accelerate student achievement. They are mastering techniques of data-driven instruction and differentiation, making them more effective at dealing with struggling students. They are also learning from their colleagues on a regular basis, and building a professional culture capable of attracting and retaining talented educators.


Consistent, effective instruction is dependent on structures and supports for teachers that enable them to work together to identify and address student needs. Moreover, when teachers collaborate to improve student outcomes, they form professional relationships that make them feel valued and part of a community. Accordingly, THE prioritizes staff collaboration to support student growth and achievement.

While a variety of structures are already in place to support collaborative instructional planning at THE, this innovation reflects a basic commitment of the school, and a key driver of the school’s vision for the future. By reinforcing this commitment and continuing to build upon the work they’ve already accomplished, THE staff and leadership will secure the gains they’ve already made and enable further improvements.


THE is focused on improving the structure of collaborative planning meetings, increasing the amount of time dedicated to planning, and ensuring that teachers have the right skills and knowledge to participate in and leverage collaborative planning to the benefit of students. Beginning in year one of innovation status, THE plans to implement data-driven instruction protocols for reading, writing and math. The school will continue to provide 225 minutes of planning time per week.

Moving forward, THE plans to conduct weekly data meetings, using data-driven instruction protocols, across all content areas. The school’s leadership team will continuously monitor collaborative planning time to determine the needs of teachers, and whether or not more planning time would impact student learning. The school will also link collaborative planning to observation and feedback cycles in order to continually increase teachers’ instructional capacity.


For collaborative planning to have a positive impact on student learning, teachers must buy into the methods used, and be driven to effectively leverage a limited amount of time. With the right norms and protocols, teachers will be able to accomplish planning objectives efficiently and consistently. Adjustments to the school day may also facilitate more planning time.

In order to deliver the Expanded Day programming it is essential to have three ELD/Language teachers paired with 2.5 FTE Specials allocation to support the additional time in literacy, targeted

F. Supports for Special Populations

language instruction and 90 minutes of collaborative planning time. It is also critical to have 1.6 FTE to support students with targeted intervention identified through student PALS/PALS Plus data.



When teachers effectively use data to plan instruction, they are able to provide more targeted and differentiated instruction, increasing growth and reducing growth gaps. Collaboration also provides an opportunity for teachers to work together in grade level teams, aligning lessons to ensure equitable instruction. Similarly, when teachers are able to articulate standards vertically, they ensure that students are prepared to succeed in the next grade up.

Collaborative planning is good for teachers, too. It helps to foster relationships and support networks that improve professional practice and increase job satisfaction. It also enables teachers to tailor their instruction to the needs of their students, improving student-teacher relationships, student engagement, and thus reducing classroom management issues. Ultimately, a culture of collaboration will encourage teachers to stay at THE, reducing teacher attrition and attracting talented candidates.

1. Compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Adams 12 and THE recognize that all innovation plans must be implemented in accordance with the Colorado Exceptional Children’s Educational Act (article 20 of title 22, C.R.S.), which itself is intended to “closely align” with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under IDEA, state statute, and the Colorado Rules for the Administration of the Exceptional Students’ Educational Act, all students with disabilities must be educated in their least restrictive environment. Therefore, any and all plans for implementing innovations will be subject to review by special educators at the school and, if deemed necessary or appropriate, external expertise. Any changes to the individualized education plan (IEP) goals, educational setting, or location of services for students will be made during properly constituted IEP meetings and will be based on individual student needs. Parents, guardians, and advocates will be made aware of their procedural rights during such meetings.

2. Implementation of Specific Innovations

As THE works to implement this innovation plan, due care will be taken to ensure all innovative programs, curricula, and other school activities are made available to students with disabilities in accordance with his or her IEP. Should a student stop making progress towards his or her IEP goals at any point in time during a transition from a pre-existing service model to an “innovative” model, it is expected that the student’s teachers of record take the necessary steps—up to and including calling for an IEP meeting—to ensure that appropriate modifications, accommodations, or (if necessary) adjustments to the student’s IEP are made, and that the IEP is delivered with fidelity.

zIn order to best serve our students identified as ELL and in addition to providing additional time in the literacy block, expanded day makes it possible to differentiate language instruction based on student language level and provides opportunities for multiage instruction based on these language bands to narrow and focus the targeted instruction.

3. District-determined Placements

For students who are currently educated outside of the general education setting within district-determined placements, the school will continue to implement the current IEP with fidelity. However, in accordance with the law, the school will also seek opportunities to educate the student alongside his or her non disabled peers wherever possible, and will modify IEPs during properly constituted IEP meetings conducted according to district, state, and federal policy to ensure the student is educated in his or her least restrictive environment.


Students identified as ELL have historically performed at or above median growth targets. We anticipate that this growth would continue as well as increase student achievement. Through improvement and continuity in best instructional practices as well targeted instruction, student achievement will increase and begin to close the achievement gap with students identified as having special needs.


SECTION III: TALENT MANAGEMENT

A. Recruitment and Hiring


To sustain and build upon the gains THE has made in the last two years, the school plans to recruit, retain and develop an exceptional staff. Talent management begins with recruitment and hiring practices that ensure that the teaching staff at THE is ready and willing to meet the needs of the school’s unique community. This can be difficult in a historically low-performing, high-poverty school; but it can be done. Much depends upon where and how THE recruits new teachers, and the rigor of its hiring process.

Half of novice teachers nationwide leave their schools or the profession within their first five years of teaching. This high turnover has serious consequences for schools. High turnover reduces student achievement and thus overall school performance. Turnover also undercuts the instructional capacity of the school, due to over reliance on inexperienced teachers to meet students’ academic and social-emotional needs.

To combat this problem in their own building, THE plans to recruit and hire only those staff who are called to serve culturally- and economically-diverse populations. New staff must understand and fit the unique culture at THE to be successful. The school will create responsive staffing policies that allow them to adapt to emerging needs and hire the right candidates at the right time. THE will also leverage other innovations, namely the Boettcher Teacher Residency, to strengthen its hiring pool.


Cultivating an exceptional staff begins with recruitment, which has not been a consistent school focus in the past. Beginning immediately in year one of innovation, THE will send representatives to recruit candidates at local and national job fairs and conduct classroom observations of potential recruits. School leadership will also work to formalize a school marketing plan. THe will develop school designed job descriptions and maintain an “open” job posting for any unexpected turnovers. Additionally, teachers will be hired as “primary” or “intermediate” teachers offering flexibility in movement among grade levels based on student needs, teacher strengths and leadership opportunities. Only candidates with positive pre-references will be invited to interview for positions at THE.

As the school implements and grows its partnership with the Boettcher Teacher Residency, it will draw heavily on the pool of resident teachers. Similarly, THE will collaborate with metro-area institutes of higher education to create unique opportunities for student teachers and potential recruits. In year two of innovation status and beyond, THE plans to recruit at job fairs from around the state as well as in other states. The school will also provide incentives to existing staff for recruiting new, highly-qualified teachers.

To shore up its hiring process, THE proposes to create a hiring rubric that includes desired competencies and indicators of success. The rubric will be unique to THE and will be constantly adjusted to reflect current conditions and needs. During the hiring process, candidates will be rigorously screened and tested, including through observations and performance tasks, to ensure that they are a “fit” for THE.

B. Observation and Feedback


Because Adams 12 does not perform involuntary placements, THE is not significantly constrained by the district’s current staffing policies. Eventually, THE would like to ensure salary portability for out-of-district teaching candidates, but this does not currently require a waiver. More than anything, THE recognizes that recruitment and hiring are just the first steps toward cultivating a motivated, effective staff. Once staff are hired, they must be provided with consistent, high-leverage onboarding and continuous professional development. By providing multiple opportunities for advancement and growth within the profession, THE will be able to sustain a positive, attractive professional culture that is self-reinforcing.


When teachers understand and accept the challenge of working in diverse, low-income schools, students are more likely to succeed. Of course, a high quality staff boost student achievement and growth. More than that, a stable staff that remains committed to the school over the long term creates lasting bonds between kids, schools and communities. Over time, these bonds reinforce positive academic trajectories, and are key to turning schools around and sustaining improvements.

Effective talent management strategies are self-reinforcing. When you recruit, hire and retain effective staff, they foster a culture of professionalism, collaboration and growth. In turn, this culture makes teachers want to stay, and encourages teachers to come to the school. As the school’s performance improves, so does teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and their pride of accomplishment. As a result, a virtuous cycle is initiated that supports long-term individual and school success.


Teacher evaluation is a key component of holding staff accountable and promoting professional growth. Effective evaluation practices combine these two goals and support the development of a culture of mutual support and collaboration. For these reasons, THE is committed to strengthening its observation and feedback cycles. Increasing the frequency and consistency of observation feedback cycles is essential to supporting classroom instruction and creating a more holistic teacher evaluation system at THE.


Building on the best practices taught by the Relay Graduate School of Education, THE proposed to continue developing its observation feedback processes to improve teacher practice. THE will begin by establishing clear expectations and outcomes for the process. School leaders will also leverage the MMTL and distributed leadership innovation to gradually release evaluation responsibilities to appropriately trained teacher leaders. Observations will be periodically videotaped for review by the observed staff, administrators and mentor teachers, teacher leaders and instructional coaches.

C. Professional Development

THE will also increase the frequency of observation and feedback. This will support the school’s proposed innovations around professional development, as well as provide teachers with action items they can begin to implement immediately. Lastly, THE will commit itself to frequently and publicly recognizing professional excellence, and use observations to support the development of coaches and model classrooms.


No waivers are needed to implement this innovation. Most important to the success of the school’s proposed innovation is the success of other related innovations, namely the MMTL model. A well-implemented MMTL will allow THE to increase the reach and frequency of observation and feedback without overburdening a small handful of school leaders. Ensuring that teachers are comfortable with videotaped observations, which has not been a problem in the past, is also important to facilitate the most efficient observation feedback process.


Observation and feedback helps ensure that instruction is consistently responsive to the needs of students. On the one hand, it supports instant improvements in instructional practice, and thus helps to boost student achievement and growth in the short term. On the other hand, it also equips school leaders to develop professional learning activities that are differentiated to staff needs, which in turn, over time, supports significant gains in student performance. Frequent and consistent observations and feedback also promote consistent instruction across classrooms, contributing to equity and the reduction of achievement gaps.

Observation and feedback cycles are the basis of effective staff support. They allow teachers to grow both immediately and gradually, and hold them accountable for their performance. In this way, evaluation also cultivates teacher leadership. By empowering mentor and model teachers to conduct observations, this innovation will contribute directly to the advancement of growth-driven staff. Over the long term, strong and consistent observation feedback cycles will improve relations between staff and school leaders, and create a culture of collaboration in which everyone benefits from mutual support.



An effective staff is not just one that supports the success of all students, but one that is continually growing, learning and improving their practice. The work of building instructional capacity is never finished. THE will tailor professional learning opportunities to the specific needs of staff, students, and the community, so that time spent in professional learning is fully leveraged to improve student achievement. This begins with sufficient, dedicated time at the beginning of each school year to thoroughly onboard new staff and prepare and plan for instruction. Throughout the year, professional development will be differentiated to meet the needs of a staff with diverse needs, strengths, and goals for improvement.

Of course, learning does not occur in seminars and workshops along. THE recognizes that collaboration among teachers, as detailed above in II.E, is an essential conduit for professional development. Likewise, strong observation and feedback cycles, described in III.B, enable the school to hone in on the needs of staff and students to ensure that professional learning is necessary, appropriate and effective. Changes to the school calendar (II.D) and the school’s new MMTL (II.B) are also critical to the success of professional development at THE. Thus, THE will support the professional growth of its staff by linking these innovations together, and honing its mechanisms for teacher development.


A top priority for THE is creating an Orientation Team to onboard new teachers at the beginning of every school year. With the addition of professional development days to the academic calendar, this Orientation Team will be given time and authority to identify the needs of new staff and create individual and whole group professional development plans. In year one of innovation status, THE’s leadership team will establish structures and routines for this Orientation Team to guide their work in future years.

THE also plans to provide more job-embedded professional development to all teachers, in order to minimize the tradeoff between instructional time and professional learning. Coaching, mentoring, and model classrooms will be available thanks to other innovations proposed herein. Collaborative planning time will enable teachers to increase their skills in data-driven instruction and learn from their peers.

Lastly, a key focus of professional development will be differentiated learning opportunities. Through ongoing observation and feedback cycles, school leaders will be better positioned to identify the strengths and needs of staff and create unique professional development opportunities that lead to immediate and sustained improvements in instructional practice. In year three and beyond, THE will begin to transition responsibility for observations and professional development planning to teacher leaders.


This innovation does not represent a significant departure from currently allowed practice. It does, however, mark an important shift from business as usual. Instead of providing one-size-fits-all, “sit and get” professional development, it will enable the school to offer differentiated, job-embedded learning that meets the individual needs of teachers without pulling them out of the classroom or subjecting them to abstract lessons without an opportunity to practice and apply their learning. Accordingly, solid and consistent observation/feedback procedures are crucial. Close relationships between staff and school leaders, as well as among staff themselves, will further promote collaboration and peer learning. A strong distributed leadership and mentor teacher (MMTL) program will ensure that school leaders can eventually transfer professional development responsibilities to teacher leaders, increasing teacher voice and creating the conditions for sustainability.


Students are constantly changing, which means that teachers must grow and adapt in order to consistently meet their needs. As the quality of instruction improves at THE, so will student engagement, achievement and growth. Similarly, when teachers needs are being met, they are

D. Compensation

more likely to succeed and stay in the profession. Effective, differentiated professional development is key to establishing a positive and supportive professional culture that attracts and retains talent, in turn reinforcing and sustaining gains in student achievement.


Recruiting, hiring, developing and evaluating staff are essential to improving the quality of instruction at Thornton and ensuring stability and the growth of a positive and supportive professional culture. Yet without concomitant changes in how the school compensates its staff, there will be little incentive for staff to take on positions that are historically hard to fill, or to advance professionally when doing so requires taking on additional responsibilities and time commitments. Thus, Thornton proposes to access existing district systems as well as seek the flexibility to repurpose existing funds in order to align its compensation structures, including bonuses and incentives, with the innovations proposed above.


Thornton will implement two strategies for aligning compensation structures to its proposed innovations and goal of staff retention. First, the school will utilize the district’s current Strategic Compensation system to provide a monetary incentive. Incentives would be used for compensation for teachers that remain at THE, in good standing, for multiple years. This would hopefully entice more candidates to apply to THE, a school that historically has had a smaller candidate pool for certified teaching positions. In this way, Thornton will be able to access district funds and existing compensation structures in order to recruit and attract high-quality candidates for positions that have a significant impact on student achievement, growth and achievement gaps and prevent the cost of replacing staff that leaves.

Second, Thornton will repurpose funds allocated to the school under Article 12 of the collective bargaining agreement designated for co-curricular activities, such as committee chairs and activity coaches. These funds will be used primarily to compensate teachers who become mentors and teacher leaders within the school’s MMTL and distributed leadership model. Such stipends will prove crucial in incentivizing teachers to participate and take on the additional responsibilities pertaining to school leadership roles.


There are two conditions critical to the success of Thornton’s innovative approach to staff compensation. First, the school, in collaboration with its district-level Executive Director, must effectively leverage the district’s Strategic Compensation system in order to access funds for hard-to-fill positions. The school does not currently have, nor does it project having sufficient funds of its own to offer bonuses to candidates who accept hard-to-fill positions, forcing Thornton to rely on the district’s existing structures for providing such bonuses.

Second, the school is seeking a waiver from provisions in the collective bargaining agreement governing the use of funds designated for co-curricular purposes. This will enable Thornton to repurpose existing funds to provide stipends to teachers who take up additional leadership and

SECTION IV: BUDGET AND OPERATIONS

A. Budget and Policy

Thornton Elementary School

**Preliminary Estimates**

Staff and Operating Needs in Addition to SBB Allocation Projected

Number Students

Projecte d FTE

Allocatio ns

Estimated Costs

Notes

Class and Program Staffing

Total Certified Staff

16.5

$ 1,326,567

This includes: classroom teachers based on a 25:1

average, 2.5 Specials, 1 Counselor, 1.6 Intervention

mentorship responsibilities. Without these stipends, it will be difficult to maintain staff engagement in other innovations, namely the MMTL program.


Repurposing funds and using the strategically compensate mentor teachers, teacher leaders, and staff who accept hard-to-fill positions will enable Thornton to reduce staff turnover, make Thornton more attractive to prospective candidates, and increase staff retention and satisfaction. In turn, teachers and students will be able to form stronger, longer lasting relationships that are supportive of learning. Teachers will form stronger professional ties among their colleagues, improving both the job performance and their desire to stay at, and recruit other teachers to Thornton. These outcomes will further improve the quality of instruction at the school, increasing achievement and growth and ensuring consistent learning experiences across classrooms and grade levels, helping to close achievement gaps.

Resource Allocation to Support Innovation Plan Implementation

Under Adams 12 current practice, school leaders are given considerable autonomy over their building’s budget. For instance, schools are given a lump sum budget to determine how money will be distributed and what initiatives will be prioritized. However, elementary budgets are relatively small, especially schools with low enrollment which limits the flexibility available.

In addition, the innovations proposed and waivers requested in this innovation plan, especially those regarding staff compensation, are sufficient to ensure that Thornton has the flexibility and autonomy it needs to use its resources responsively and responsibly in the future. By maintaining strong, positive relationships to district personnel, especially the school’s district-level Executive Director, Thornton will be able to continue targeting funds to its areas of greatest need. Thornton is only seeking a waiver or flexibility in the use of Leadership, Grade Level Chair and Co-curricular budgets to leverage those funds to support the Enrichment program and additional compensation for staff in leadership/mentoring roles.

Admin/Office Staff

Total Admin/Office Staff

4.0

357,493

Classified Staff

Total Classified Staff

1.41

49,709

Media Clerk, Paras, Health Aide

Required Operating Expenses

Materials & Supplies-Classroo ms

328 x

$48.00

$ 15,744

Classroom/Specials/Media materials and supplies

Materials & Supplies-School Wide

328 x $67.00

$ 21,976

PD, Curriculum resources, printing, Systems/Structures support, Tech. resources, Book room

Total Required Operating Expenses

$ 37,720

Total $ 1,771,489

Title I / District Grant Funding

Total Title I/District Grant Funding

6.8 $ 509,617 Support staff: 1.6 Interventionist, 2.0 Coaches, 3.0 Language Teachers, 1.0 Counselor, 1.5 Kinder Teachers, Family Liaison

SPED Funding

Total SPED Funding

5.6 $ 448,519 SPED Staffing (Teachers, SW, Para, Health Aide

Other Funding

CDE Turnaround Grant Allocation (Final Year)

$50,000

Professional Development, materials, substitutes connected to UIP and Innovation Plan goals

SECTION V: DISTRICT PARTNERSHIP

A. Supervision and Accountability

Thornton Elementary will continue to receive the services of a district-employed Executive Director of Schools (EDS). The EDS will provide direct support to Thornton’s administration and staff in the following areas: UIP review; implementation of a guaranteed and viable curriculum; program implementation; budget alignment based on school-identified priorities and district, state and federal guidelines/policies; and hiring, supervision, evaluation and dismissal of staff. The EDS will meet regularly with Thornton’s administration to monitor the implementation of the Innovation Plan and major improvement strategies included in the UIP. In addition, the EDS will advocate at the district level for the identified needs of the school.

The partnership between Thornton and the district is critical to sustain and increase student growth and more importantly achievement as less that 25% of students meet state grade level expectations as measured by PARCC. Continued differentiated support in the areas of people, time and money provided by the district will be essential as this Innovation Plan is implemented.

B. Leadership Framework

Thornton implemented many initiatives and protocols prior to other schools within the district including Mondo Bookshop as a resource, DDI, Observation/Feedback Cycles and Culture/Climate systems and structures. Through this implementation and positive feedback from both district and state officials, other district schools and individual teachers have reached out to visit and observe the work that has been in place. Under the Innovation Plan this practice would continue and be expanded with the partnerships being developed with Boettcher, local universities and our Teacher Leader Pathway program. THE teacher leadership will grow and expand as they are given opportunities to model and serve as mentors for other teachers within and out of the district.

Expected Outcomes: Improvement in Academic Achievement

School Performance Goal:

Thornton Elementary is confident that through this plan, we will dramatically impact student growth

and achievement. The table below outlines our annual targets.

Performance Management: Individual School Initiatives There will be a number of school specific initiatives. Some of these initiatives will predate the innovation plan , while others will result from the plan or new opportunities for the school. Thornton Elementary will report on these initiatives to their instruction leadership team, any subcommittees or others who are delegated the responsibility for monitoring implementation of such initiatives.

Student achievement data tracking at the school level Thornton will continue to implement data-driven, student centered instruction, stemming from regular and consistent grade level collaboration meetings.

SAMPLE PERFORMANCE TARGETS TABLE (Modify as necessary):

School Performance Targets (Innovation Years 1-4)1

Expected PARCC ELA (MGP) (Grades 4-5)

Expected PARCC

ELA-Mean Scale Score

Expected PARCC Math (MGP) (Grades 4-5)

Expected PARCC

ELA-Mean Scale

Score

Expected MGP WIDA-Access

Year 0 (2016 data)

53

720.1

55

716.3

52

Year 1 55 730.9 57 726.7 58

Year 2

57

739.5 (50th percentile)

59


60

Year 3 59 747.7 61 743.1 60

Year 4

61


63


60

These are the expected progress monitoring benchmark will be in odd years to see if we are moving in

a positive direction. We will continue to look at formative classroom and grade level data through

DDI. the

Conditions Necessary for Innovation: Waivers

SUMMARY OF REQUIRED CHANGES

Thornton seeks specific conditions necessary to support and implement the innovation plan in order to address the specific needs of its school community.

Thornton is a Title I school serving a high-poverty, high-ELL population. The school has a long history of low performance, and more recently of turnover among staff and school leaders. After five years on the accountability clock, the school attained Performance status in 2016-17. Still, the Thornton community recognizes that there is much work yet to do in order to continue improving student achievement and academic growth while closing achievement gaps between student subgroups. This year, the school began implementing several innovations, including and expanded school day and a weekly enrichment period. Now, Thornton is poised to expand, accelerate and sustain its progress by formalizing its plan for innovation.

The innovations presented below are designed to address the unique, specific needs identified at Thornton in the past several years. The school community has agreed to develop and implement innovations in three high-leverage areas: a culture of performance, academic systems, and talent management. Thornton will begin by creating a positive learning environment where students and families are engaged and receive the supports and opportunities they need to succeed. The school will continue to implement an expanded day and begin exploring a longer school year, while strengthening the supports provided to teachers and giving them opportunities to grow and advance professionally. Lastly, Thornton will improve the way it recruits, hires, develops and retains teachers in order to stabilize staff turnover and build a robust professional culture.

The proposed innovations are intended to enable Thornton to solidify its recent successes and continue building on them so that every student learns, grows and thrives. Changes to the school’s culture and academic systems, as well as the increased presence of families and community stakeholders within the school, will increase student engagement and students’ sense of community. With a more cohesive community, students become more motivated to learn and confident in their abilities. Similarly, as teachers receive the professional supports they need to grow and succeed, they become more confident and capable instructionally. In the long term, as teachers remain at Thornton and the school attracts talented educators, relationships between teachers and students will grow and support continuous school improvement. As a result, students will graduate from Paris equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in school, career, and life, and will become international leaders.

To implement this ambitious plan successfully, Thornton is requesting autonomies and flexibilities that are carefully targeted to the school’s most urgent needs. Thornton is seeking waivers from district and state policy and the collective bargaining agreement in order to secure school-level authority to make decisions regarding the school day and year, staffing, and compensation. At the

A. DISTRICT POLICY WAIVERS

Request for Waivers from District Policy

District Policy 6100 - Perpetual School Calendar

Area of Impact: Calendar and Schedule

Policy Text

PERPETUAL SCHOOL CALENDAR

1.0 Students shall be scheduled to be in attendance for at least the number of days mandated by state law. In addition, the number of hours of teacher-pupil contact and teacher-pupil instruction shall meet or exceed state statute for each educational level.

1.1 Teacher-pupil contact and teacher-pupil instruction shall include time during which a pupil is actively engaged in the educational process, including independent study as set forth in Superintendent Policy and passing time between classes.

2.0 Teachers shall be on duty for such number of days required in the certified employee master agreement.

3.0 There shall be four grading periods consisting of approximately 45 days for elementary, middle, K-8 and high schools using a traditional quarter/semester system.

4.0 Teacher planning or orientation shall commence two days prior to the first day of classes for students. There shall be four (4) teacher duty days during the year. There shall be two planning/orientation days prior to the start of classes each year. There shall be a planning day at the close of each semester. There shall be a comp day for parent/teacher conferences the first Monday of Thanksgiving week.

5.0 The school calendar shall provide for the following holidays/school closure days:

Labor Day - first Monday in September.

Veterans' Day - to coincide with the federal holiday.

Thanksgiving Vacation - Tuesday through Friday of Thanksgiving week. Winter Vacation - ten consecutive week days of vacation, beginning the Monday prior to Christmas; however, when January 2 falls on a Monday, school shall resume on January 3 (for a total of 11 days).

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - third Monday in January.

Presidents' Day - third Monday in February.

Spring Vacation - five weekdays of vacation during March.

Memorial Day - last Monday in May.

same time, the school will continue to work within many district support systems, such as Strategic Compensation, to create the necessary conditions for innovation.

Rationale for Innovation

To effectively implement the innovation plan the school requires increased flexibility around scheduling and use of time, including but not limited to increasing student learning time and teacher planning time.

Replacement

Policy

In accordance with the innovation plan, the school shall determine the length of time the school will be in session during the following year. To ensure that the school calendar is shared with the Adams 12 Board, school employees, and parents in a timely manner, school leadership in collaboration with the Leadership Team and any delegated staff leadership committee, will determine the following year’s school calendar by May 1st each year.

The school year calendar adopted by the school will meet or exceed minimum district and state determinations for the length of time during which schools shall be in session during the next school year. The actual hours of teacher-pupil instruction and teacher-pupil contact shall meet or exceed the minimum hours set by the district and state for public instruction.

B. STATE STATUTE & RULES WAIVERS

Innovation Schools may request waivers from state statutes and policies except as otherwise 1

prohibited by the Innovation Schools Act. If you are seeking these waivers, provide a summary of the

policy along with replacement language for each of the statutes you plan to waive out of. Use the

sample table provided below as a guide. For each State Statute provision that you would like to

request a waiver from, please copy and paste the table (below).

Each statute for which a waiver is being requested should include a rationale for why the school is seeking the waiver and a replacement plan either delegating the power from the district to the school and/or zone OR indicating how the school will meet or exceed the intent of the law in a different way.

Request for Waivers from State Statute

State Statute

C.R.S. 22-63-201 Teacher Employment Act-Compensation & Dismissal Act-Requirement to hold a certificate (201)

Area of Impact: Talent Management – Teacher Hiring and Licensure

Statute Text

(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (2) of this section, the board of a school district shall not enter into an employment contract with any person as a teacher, except in a junior college district or in an adult education program, unless such person holds an initial or a professional teacher's license or authorization issued pursuant to the provisions of article 60.5 of this title.

(2) (a) The general assembly hereby recognizes that many persons with valuable professional expertise in areas other than teaching provide a great benefit to students through their experience and functional knowledge when hired by a school district. To facilitate the employment of these persons and comply with the requirements of federal law, the general assembly has statutory provisions to create an alternative teacher license and alternative teacher programs to enable school districts to employ persons with expertise in professions other than teaching. These provisions enable a school district to employ a person with professional expertise in a particular subject area, while ensuring that the person receives the necessary training and develops the necessary skills to be a highly qualified teacher. The general assembly strongly encourages each school district to hire persons who hold alternative teacher licenses to provide a wide range of experience in teaching and functional subject matter knowledge for the benefit of the students enrolled in the school district. (b) A school district may hire a person who holds an alternative teacher license to teach as an alternative teacher pursuant to an alternative teacher contract as described in section 22-60.5-207.

(3) The board of a school district may enter into an employment contract with any person to serve as an administrator based upon qualifications set by the board of the school district. Nothing in this article shall be construed to require that an administrator, as a condition of employment, possess any type of license or authorization issued pursuant to article 60.5 of this title.

1 See 33-32.5-108 (1) and (2), C.R.S. for specificity on state statutes that cannot be waived out of using an innovation

plan.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/colorado/?app=00075&view=full&interface=1&docinfo=off&searchtype=get&search=C.R.S.%2B22-63-201

Rationale for Innovation

To strategically recruit, hire, and retain staff with qualities and credentials in alignment with the innovation plan, the school requires the authority to select staff, including the flexibility to hire non-licensed teaching staff for non-core subjects (interacts with 22-32-109(1)(f) & 22-63-206).

Replacement Policy

The school will employ highly qualified and licensed teachers for teaching of core content pursuant to the federal ESEA Act. Teachers in all necessary areas will be highly qualified. The school may employ non-licensed teachers for supplemental and enrichment instruction as necessary to implement the innovation plan. Any non-licensed staff will be hired under the established hiring process at the innovation school.

State Statute C.R.S. 22-63-402 Teacher Employment Act-Certificate required to pay teachers (402)

Area of Impact: Talent Management – Teacher Hiring and Licensure

Statute Description

No order or warrant for the disbursement of school district moneys shall be drawn in favor of any person for services as a teacher, except for services performed for a junior college district or in an adult education program, unless the person holds a valid teacher's license or authorization from the department of education. Such license or authorization shall be duly registered in the administrative office of the school district wherein the services are to be rendered. A teacher shall hold a valid license or authorization during all periods of employment by a school district. A person who performs services as a teacher without possessing a valid teacher's license or authorization shall forfeit all claim to compensation out of school district moneys for the time during which services are performed without the license or authorization.

Rationale for

Innovation

To strategically recruit, hire, and retain staff with qualities and credentials in alignment with the innovation plan, the school requires the authority to select staff, including the flexibility to hire non-licensed teaching staff for non-core subjects. A waiver to C.R.S. 22-63-402 is required to pay any non-licensed teaching staff hired for non-core subjects.

Replacement Policy

The school will employ highly qualified and licensed teachers for teaching of core content pursuant to the federal ESEA Act. Teachers in all necessary areas will be highly qualified. The school may employ non-licensed teachers for supplemental and enrichment instruction as necessary to implement the innovation plan. Any non-licensed staff will be hired under the established hiring process at the innovation school.

State Statute 22-32-109(1)(n)(I), C.R.S. Local board duties concerning school calendar (109)


Statute

Description

(n)(I) To determine, prior to the end of a school year, the length of time which the schools of the district shall be in session during the next following school year, but in no event shall said schools be scheduled to have fewer than one thousand eighty hours of planned teacher-pupil instruction and teacher-pupil contact during the school year for secondary school pupils in high school, middle school, or junior high school or less than nine hundred ninety hours of such instruction and contact for elementary school pupils or fewer than four hundred fifty hours of such instruction for a half-day kindergarten program or fewer than nine hundred hours of such instruction for a full-day kindergarten program. In no case shall a school be in session for fewer than one hundred sixty days without the specific prior approval of the commissioner of education. In extraordinary circumstances, if it appears to the satisfaction of the commissioner that compliance with the provisions of this subparagraph (I) would require the scheduling of hours of instruction and contact at a time when pupil attendance will be low and the benefits to pupils of holding such hours of instruction will be minimal in relation to the

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/colorado?app=00075&view=full&interface=1&docinfo=off&searchtype=get&search=C.R.S.%2B22-63-402


cost thereof, the commissioner may waive the provisions of this subparagraph (I) upon application therefor by the board of education of the district.

Rationale for

Innovation

To effectively implement the innovation plan the school requires increased flexibility around scheduling and use of time, including but not limited to increasing student learning time and teacher planning time. Thus, the school requires a waiver from C.R.S 22-32-109(1)(n)(I) to determine its own school year and school day calendar.

Replacement Policy

In accordance with the innovation plan, the school shall determine the length of time the school will be in session during the following year. To ensure that the school calendar is shared with the Adams 12 Board, school employees, and parents in a timely manner, school leadership in collaboration with the Leadership Team and any delegated staff leadership committee, will determine the following year’s school calendar by May 1st each year.

The school year calendar adopted by the school will meet or exceed minimum district and state determinations for the length of time during which schools shall be in session during the next school year. The actual hours of teacher-pupil instruction and teacher-pupil contact shall meet or exceed the minimum hours set by the district and state for public instruction.

State Statute

22-32-109(1)(n)(II)(B), C.R.S. Adopt District calendar (109)

22-32-109(1)(n)(II)(A), C.R.S. Actual Hours of Teacher-Pupil Instruction and Contact (109)


Statute Description

(n)(II)(B) Prior to the beginning of the school year, each district shall provide for the adoption of a district calendar which is applicable to all schools within the district or shall provide for the adoption of a school calendar for each individual school within the district. The district calendar or individual school calendars may be adopted by the board of education, the district administration, the school administration, or any combination thereof. A copy of the calendar shall be provided to the parents or guardians of all children enrolled in schools within the district. Such calendar shall include the dates for all staff in-service programs scheduled for the school year. The board, district administration, or school administration shall allow for public input from parents and teachers prior to scheduling the dates for staff in-service programs. Any change in the calendar, excluding changes resulting from emergency closings or other unforeseen circumstances, shall be preceded by adequate and timely notice from the board, district administration, or school administration of not less than thirty days.

Rationale for

Innovation

To effectively implement the innovation plan the school requires increased flexibility around scheduling and use of time, including but not limited to increasing student learning time and teacher planning time. Thus, the school requires a waiver from C.R.S 22-32-109(1)(n)(II)(B) to determine its own school year and school day calendar.

Replacement Policy

In accordance with the innovation plan, the school shall determine the length of time the school will be in session (days and instructional minutes) during the following year. To ensure that the school calendar is shared with the Adams 12 Board, school employees, and parents in a timely manner, school leadership in collaboration with the Leadership Team and any delegated staff leadership committee, will determine the following year’s school calendar by May 1st each year

A copy of the upcoming school-year calendar and school-day schedule shall be provided to all parents/guardians of students who are currently enrolled in the school. Such calendar shall include the dates for all staff in-service programs scheduled for the school year. The school shall allow for public input from parents and teachers prior to scheduling the dates for staff in-service programs. Any



C. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WAIVERS

With limited exceptions, Innovation Schools may request waivers from district negotiated collective

bargaining agreements. If you are seeking these waivers, provide a summary of the article along with

replacement language for each of the articles you plan to waive out of. Use the sample table provided

below as a guide. For each collective bargaining agreement section from which you would like to

request a waiver, please copy and paste the table (below).

Thornton Elementary School’s Innovation Replacement Policies for Additional Waivers from Collective Bargaining

Agreements

Article 12 Transfers and Reassignments

Article Summary

General provisions:

12.1.2 Transfer shall mean a change in assignment from one building to another due to reduction in building-based student enrollment or a voluntary transfer. Reassignment shall mean a change of assignment in subject area or grade level or both within a single building

12.1.3 Teachers shall be notified of vacancies in their buildings and shall be given preferential consideration

12.7.8 Mutual Consent Placement does not apply: 12.7.8.1 Reduction in student enrollment within a building 12.7.8.2 To accommodate the return of leave returnees to their original positions 12.7.8.3 In the event that an administrative transfer or reassignment is required in

accordance with 12.1.3, the grade level or team where a transfer or reassignment is necessary shall be identified by the principal. Teachers shall be given the opportunity to volunteer providing they meet the educational needs of the program. If no voluntary requests, utilize Appendix

E. 12.7.8.4 In elementary schools anticipating a decline in student enrollment in the following school year, non-probationary teachers impacted by this decline shall be reassigned first within their school to one grade level above or below their current assignment.

School’s Replacement Policy

Teacher Assignment: In order for THE to meet the building programming needs, student needs, and staff leadership opportunities we will use an in-building interview process that includes Administration and School Leadership Team with the support of Appendix E as needed to determine teacher reassignment within the building.

change in the calendar except for emergency closings or other unforeseen circumstances shall be preceded by adequate and timely notice of not less than thirty days.


Agreements

Article 1: Definitions:

1.7 School Year

Article 27:

Non-Teaching Duties:

27.17

Mandatory Training

Article Summary

Teachers who are required or mandated to attend training outside of the school year shall be compensated at the teacher’s per diem rate, but not to exceed the rate of pay of $34.00 per hour.

School’s Replacement Policy

Teacher Contract: Contract year for teachers may be extended to include additional mandatory professional development days prior to the start and/or end of the school year. Teachers will be compensated for additional days via stipend that is determined based on the average rate of pay. Determination of the extended year will be made by the school administration in conjunction with the school leadership team.


Agreements

14.10 Miscellaneous

provision under

Article 14

Personnel Appraisal System

Article Summary

The use of audio/video recording equipment to document the delivery of instruction for the purpose of a collaborative performance conversation shall be subject to mutual agreement between the evaluator and teacher.

School’s

Replacement Policy

Videotaping of lessons will take place during Observation Feedback Cycles and Culture Walkthroughs. Video footage may be viewed by the teacher, administrator and/or Coach and will take place for the purpose of growth and development. Video footage will not be shared with any additional people without permission from the teacher.


Agreements

Appendix C:

Co-curricular Salary

Schedule,

Department Chair

and Leadership

Co-Curricular Salary Schedule

Article Summary

Compensation for performing co-curricular and leadership responsibilities.

School’s

Replacement Policy

Budget - In order to sustain the expanded day and enrichment program, THE will waive the way Appendix C distributes funds. This will allow leadership, co-curricular and grade level chair money to be lumped together so that money can be distributed for student Enrichment opportunities and compensate teachers for leadership duties performed.

Leadership/Co-curricular funds will be distributed to certified and classified staff first. If there is additional co-curricular money available after funding clubs and enrichment, those funds would be used for additional leadership positions. The distribution of money will be determined by school leadership team.

Thornton Elementary School’s Innovation Plan Practices

THE School Practice

Observation/Feedback will be conducted by administration, instructional coaches and teacher leaders: Support and training will be provided to teacher leaders, including a class required by the state. This will be outlined in the Teacher Leadership Pathway information and staff handbook.


THE School

Practice

Building Orientation Team will work with the District Induction Coordinator to develop a side by side program to meet the needs of teachers and to limit the time they are pulled from instruction due to our expanded day. In conjunction with the District Induction Coordinator, THE may choose to opt out of District mandatory Professional Development and will replace those trainings at the school level. The school will determine the value of all staff training, workshops, and conferences as it relates to the school’s mission and vision. All of the school’s professional development shall be approved by the school’s principal and the leadership team.


THE School

Practice

Additional Compensation: In conjunction with the Human Resources department develop a plan to provide additional compensation based on school specific school roles and responsibilities. Present information to Strategic Compensation Committee for school funding.


THE School

Practice

Science and Social Studies: THE will Develop a rationale to determine the scheduling of units and daily instruction for Science and Social Studies. This will be communicated with Learning Services and a pacing calendar will be shared with the Curriculum Coordinator and CAO.

Appendix: Evidence of Majority Support from Administrators, Teaching Staff, and the School Accountability Committee

Applicants are required to provide:

1. Evidence that the majority of administrators consent to designation as an innovation school

and the waivers sought through this innovation plan (i.e. letter from school leader indicating

admin support)

2. Evidence that the majority of teachers consent to designation as an innovation school and the

waivers sought through this innovation plan (i.e. letter from teachers indicating current

teacher support AND the date that the CBA 60% teacher vote will take place).

● The majority (60%) CBA waiver vote can take place after the state approves innovation

status. Please provide the anticipated date the vote will be held if not before

submission of the innovation plan.

3. Evidence that the majority of SAC members consent to designation as an innovation school

and the waivers sought through this innovation plan (i.e. letter from SAC president indicating

committee support)

Two votes were submitted electronically for Innovation approval. The following is a summary of

information. Blue=approved

Vote #1 Expanded Day & Professional Development Option 1 - Keep the school day the same

Option 2 - Reduce the day by 10 minutes, do not extend the number of school days

Option 3 - Reduce the day by 10 minutes, add 2-3 days to the school year

PD-Overall Approval of PD plan

Results:

DTEA Members (17) Total Votes (29)

Option 1 65% 62%

Option 2 88% 86.%

Option 3 47% 52%

PD Approval 82% 83%

Vote #2 Waivers & Approval of Overall Plan

DTEA Members (18) Total Votes (31)

22-32-109 School Calendar: 100% 97%

Article 12 In-Building Transfers (MA) 100% 97%

22-63-201 Teacher Employment Act: Licensure 100% 100%

Article 1 Definitions School Year (MA) 100% 97%

Observation/Feedback 100% 97%

Building Orientation Team-Induction 100% 97%

14.10 Miscellaneous Provision (MA): Videotaping of

lessons 89% 87%

Appendix C (MA) Budget: leadership, co-curricular and

grade level chair money lumped together 100% 94%

Additional Compensation 100% 97%

Science and Social Studies: Rationale to determine the

scheduling of units and daily instruction 100% 97%

Overall-approval of Innovation Plan 100% 100%

Appendix: Evidence of Support from Additional School Community Stakeholders

1. Applicants are required to provide a statement of the level of support for designation as an

innovation school demonstrated by other persons employed at the school, students and

parents of students enrolled in the school, and the community surrounding the school. Note:

This does not require majority evidence.

2. Applicants may also include any available evidence of support from students,

parents/guardians, community members/groups.

3. Applicants may also include any evidence of support from identified community partners,

organizations, agencies, consultants, or other stakeholder groups.

Signature/Firma

/Nombre de Estudiante(s)

Thornton Elementary School Parent Support

As a parent, family member or friend of Thornton Elementary School, I enthusiastically support the work Thornton is doing and I look forward to the opportunities that are included in the Thornton Innovation Plan:

• Increased Literacy Instruction • Expanded Day/ Extended Year • Enrichment Opportunities • Boettcher Teacher Program • Multi-classroom Leader

The plan was developed with the input of families, teachers, and staff. I understand that in order to succeed and ensure

that all students learn, grow, and thrive, the Thornton Family must work together.

Apoyo a los Padres de la Escuela Primaria Thornton

Como padre, miembro de la familia o amigo de la Escuela Primaria Thornton, apoyo con entusiasmo el trabajo que Thornton esta hacienda y espero las oportunidades que estan incluidas en el Plan de Innovaci6n de Thornton:

• Aumento de la instrucci6n de alfabetizaci6n • Dia/Ano Extendido • Oportunidades de Enriquecimiento • Programa de Maestros de Boettcher • Uder de varias clases

El plan fue desarrollado con la opinion de las familias, maestros y personal. Entiendo que para tener exito y asegurar que

todos los estudiantes a rendan, crezcan ros eren, las familias de Thornton deben traba"ar ·untos.

Signature/Firma

/Nombre de Estudiante(s) Date/Fecha

Thornton Elementary School Parent Support

As a parent, family member or friend of Thornton Elementary School, I enthusiastically support the work Thornton is doing and I look forward to the opportunities that are included in the Thornton Innovation Plan:

• Increased Literacy Instruction • Expanded Day/ Extended Year • Enrichment Opportunities • Boettcher Teacher Program • Multi-classroom Leader

The plan was developed with the input of families, teachers, and staff. I understand that in order to succeed and ensure

that all students learn, grow, and thrive, the Thornton Family must work together.

Apoyo a los Padres de la Escuela Primaria Thornton

Como padre, miembro de la fomilia o amigo de la Escuela Primaria Thornton, apoyo con entusiasmo el trabajo que Thornton esta hacienda y espero las oportunidades que estan incluidas en el Plan de Innovaci6n de Thornton:

• Aumento de la instrucci6n de alfabetizaci6n • Dia/Ano Extendido • Oportunidades de Enriquecimiento • Programa de Maestros de Boettcher • Lider de varias closes

El plan fue desarrollado con la opinion de las familias, maestros y personal. Entiendo que para tener exito y asegurar que

todos los estudiantes a rendan, crezcan ros eren, las familias de Thornton deben traba"ar ·untos.

Thornton Elementary School Accountability Committee

As a member of Thornton Elementary SAC, I enthusiastically support the work Thornton is doing and I look

forward to the opportunities that are included in the Thornton Innovation Plan:

• Increased Literacy Instruction

• Expanded Day/Extended Year

• Enrichment Opportunities

• Boettcher Teacher Program

• Multi-classroom Leader

The plan was developed with the input of families, teachers, and staff. I understand that in order to succeed

and ensure that all students learn, grow, and thrive, the Thornton Family must work together.

2/1 /17

Appendix : Unified Improvement Plan (UIP)

All applicants should attach a copy of their most recent/current Unified Improvement Plan (UIP).

Page 52

THORNTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UIP District: ADAMS 12 FIVE STAR SCHOOLS

| Org ID: 0020

| School ID: 8842 |

2016-17 Framework: Performance Plan | Draft UIP

Colorado's Unified Improvement Plan for School (2016-2017)

Table of Contents

Executive Summary Improvement Plan Information Narrative on Data Analysis and Root Cause Identification Action Plans Addenda

Executive Summary

How are students performing? Where will the school focus attention?

Priority Performance Challenges: Specific statements about the school's performance challenges (not budgeting, staffing curriculum, instruction, etc.), with at least one priority identified for each performance indicator (Achievement, Growth, PWR), where the School did not meet federal, state and/or local expectations.

Why is the education system continuing to have these challenges?

Root Causes: Statements describing the deepest underlying cause, or causes, or performance challenges, that, if dissolved, would result in elimination, or substantial reduction of the performance challenge(s).

Major Improvement Strategies

Major Improvement Strategies: Identify the major improvement strategy(s) that will address the root causes determined in the data narrative.

Name: Writing

Description: For the past four years, writing achievement data has been low and flat across all grade levels.

Name: Reading

Description: For the past four years, reading achievement data has been low and flat across all grade levels.

Name: Math

Description: For the past four years, math achievement data has been low and flat across all grade levels.

Name: Instructional Model and MTSS

Description: Lack of articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy. Lack of articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth. Lack of systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership. Lack of alignment between school needs and district systems around use of time, budget flexibility, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

Name: Writing

Description: 80% of students in each grade level will show growth on end of unit assessments from 1st semester to 2nd semester in the areas of: Opinion Writing, Informative Writing, Narrative Writing. 100% of teachers are explicitly modeling writing skills based on THE expectations. 100% of grade levels will have lessons that contain 1-3 instructional moves to support students meeting the learning target and will lead to the focus standards for the week. (or outlined time period) Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.

Name: Reading

Description: 100% of teachers will implement an explicit model during the literacy portion of the lesson, lessons will identify the 1-3 highest leverage instructional moves and differentiate for student needs. By May of 2017 90% of teachers report that their instructional leader and observation feedback cylces helped them be more effective educators. Student Outcome: Increase the number of student K-5 meeting the PALS summed score benchmark by 15%. Increase number of students meeting end of year proficiency on Reading MAP by 15%. Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.

Access the School Performance Framework here:http://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/performance

Name: Data Driven Culture

Description: Student Outcome: Increase the number of students K-5 meeting the PALS summed score benchmark by 15%. 100% of classroom teachers will utilize bi-weekly Data Meetings to unpack standards, identify proficiency levels and appropiate exemplars, identify gaps, and plan and practice instructional moves to increase student achievement and growth. 100% of 3-5 students will know their reading goals based on assessment results from NWEA MAP Reading and/or PALS/PALS Plus. Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.

Name: Innovation Planning

Description: Completed and approved Innovation Plan document. Please see THE Innovation Plan for action steps - expected draft completed by January, 2017

http://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/performance

Improvement Plan Information

Additional Information about the school

Comprehensive Review and Selected Grant History

Related Grant Awards

Has the school received a grant that supports school improvement efforts? When was the grant awarded?

The school participates in CDE's Turnaround Network and received grant funding through the network.

School Support Team or Expedited Review

Has (or will) the school participated in an SST or Expedited Review? If so, when?

SST Review 2015 and 2016. Recommendation for Innovation Status

External Evaluator

Has the school partnered with an external evaluator to provide comprehensive evaluation? Indicate the year and the name of the provider/tool used.

The school/district is submitting this improvement plan to satisfy requirements for (check all that apply):

State Accreditation

Title I Focus School

Tiered Intervention Grant (TIG)

Colorado Graduation Pathways Program (CGP)

School Improvement Support Grant

Improvement Plan Information

Other

Betsy Miller Principal 991 Eppinger Blvd. Thornton CO 80229 Phone: (720) 972-5663 Email: [email protected]

Tracie Stauffer Assistant Principal 991 Eppinger Blvd. Thornton CO 80229 Phone: (720) 972-5664 Email: [email protected]

Narrative on Data Analysis and Root Cause Identification

Description of school Setting and Process for Data Analysis

Provide a brief description of the school to set the context for readers. Include the general process for developing the UIP and participants (e.g., SAC involvement). The description may include demographics and local context, such as location, performance status, notable recent events or changes, stakeholders involved in writing the UIP, and an overview of the general process.

Thornton Elementary receives Federal Title 1 funding for a school wide program. In order to meet federal guidelines, and ensure our students have the best instruction we require all staff meet the standards to be considered highly qualified. Thornton Elementary experienced over 50% turnover in personnel for the 2013-14 school year and again experienced a significant staff turnover (46%) for the 2014-15 school year. Staff turnover did decrease to 20% for the 15-16 school year. THE reduced the staff turnover rate to 18% for the 2016-17 school year. Of all the teachers that were hired using our new recruitment and interviewing process, 100% of those staff members were retained. Additionally, 3/5 teachers that did not return to THE were released based on performance.

Thornton Elementary became officially authorized International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school in the Spring of 2015. Teachers

School Contact Information



participated in weekly professional development regarding the tenants of PYP and implemented those practices into the classroom in the social studies and science content areas, as well as through the social-emotional development and progress through the learner profile traits. During the 2015-16 school year, THE focused heavily on Literacy best practices, having highly targeted professional development to create a level set for all staff both in reading and writing. Thornton implemented gradual release instructional model in Literacy. THE adopted Mondo Bookshop as a resource and had targeted professional development for all staff during the implementation beginning in January of 2016. This will continue in the the 2016-17 school year as well. While we will still be using the tenets of PYP, Literacy instruction will continue to be our primary focus at THE for the 2016-17 school year.

Because our school population is 77% Free and Reduced Lunch and 43% of our school population has second language needs (ELL), and a 19% mobility rate (which exceed the state and district average) it is our goal to provide the most successful, research based approach to learning. We know it is critical to implement systemic change that accelerates student learning and school wide improvement within the next few years. Our Priority Improvement Plan type has remained in place since 2010. As year 5 Priority Improvement two extensive reviews were conducted at THE in the spring of 2015. The first evaluation was a Colorado Turnaround Network School Readiness Assessment conducted by Mass Insight Education. The results of that report were shared in late May and synthesized with staff for understanding and to determine priorities for the UIP. The school also had a state review panel evaluation conducted by School Works that was shared with staff in late September.

Vision for the School:

Social-Emotional Articulate a clear multitiered behavioral system with clear school-wide expectations and routines at the universal level and targeted interventions for students who demonstrate a need. There will be a full time counselor who will use a research based program (Second Step) to teach all students social skills and support students with more intense social/emotional needs. In addition, a structured recess program (Playworks) will support students on positive playground behavior. An overall school wide PBIS through STAR behavior will be implemented and monitored on a daily basis.

Academic Align instructional practices across and among grade levels in order to provide research based first best instruction. Implement a research based instructional model in reading using MONDO program as the school wide resource. Utilize district writing units of study across all grade levels and classrooms to align instructional practices and grade level expectations in writing. Continue to implement Everyday Math and begin to study the shifts in the mathematical practices and standards.

Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Growth Leverage a strong, consistent system for observation and feedback based that aligns with the identified instructional practices and behavioral expectations. Administrators will observe in classrooms and throughout the school site regularly to monitor classroom instructional and behavioral practices and provide specific, actionable feedback to promote professional growth of all teachers. Additional coaching and ongoing support for the implementation of the instructional programs will be provided through district and building resources.

Parent Engagement Thornton Elementary has a small but might Parent Teacher Organization that support teachers and parents to ensure continued growth and achievement for students. Their partnership with Thornton staff has supported the development of our school Innovation Plan as well as

expansion of our school day. Parents also are working to build their outreach to other parents in the community to increase membership and participation in school events and/or building parent skills to support students at home.

Innovation Status Research and Planning During the 15-16 and 16-17 school years, we will assess and evaluate the barriers that currently exist, utilize building, district and outside experts in researching alternative and innovative approaches to ensure high levels of academic achievement and social emotional success for all students. This includes an audit of the use of time, instructional programming, length of school year, structures of grade level teacher teams, alternative staffing structures, strategic compensation for staff, waivers to the district’s negotiated agreement, and flexibility in hiring and strategic retention of staff.

Participation in Colorado Turnaround Network Participate in ongoing performance management facilitated by CDE Turnaround Support Managers, participation by both administrators in the RELAY Graduate School of Education for Turnaround Leadership Development, ongoing network support in key turnaround strategies such as Talent Management, Creating a Culture of Performance, Implementation of Academic Systems, District Support and Operations that align to school level goals. The school also received a diagnostic review focused on high leverage systems to support school turnaround which has informed the work during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years and will continue to guide next steps.

Gathering and Organizing Data: A summary of the findings, detailed in our root cause analysis, focus on four conditions for schools to develop and sustain a rigorous

improvement plan that leverages four research-based conditions; Culture of Performance, Academic Systems, Talent Management,

Operations and District Support, to improve school performance and student achievement. Significant findings included the following:

Lack of a comprehensive and aligned curriculum grounded in the Common Core State Standards and other relevant benchmarks.

Inconsistent high leverage reading and writing instruction and practices provided in grades Kindergarten through 5th.

Inconsistent set of research-based, non-negotiable instructional practices shared across all classrooms. Limited implementation of a robust MTSS (RtI) system to support both students in need of intervention and those ready for acceleration. Inconsistent and deliberate differentiation of instructional activities, resources, and flexible student groupings to meet the needs of all students. Limited social-emotional supports that allow teachers to reach all of their students effectively. Limited intervention time for students with significant needs Inconsistent use of data to drive continuous improvement in all areas, both instructional and non-instructional. Lack of focus with leadership team to maximize student achievement through ongoing monitoring of improvement strategies. Lack of clear defined roles and responsibilities within committees aligned to the school improvement strategies

Based on these findings THE identified four high level root causes: Lack of articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy. Lack of articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth. Lack of systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership.

Lack of alignment between school needs and district systems around use of time, budget flexibility, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

We will address root causes outlined through investment in the following areas: Articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy. Articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth. Design and implement systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership. Development of an Innovation Plan that aligns school needs and district systems around use of time, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

In 2015, Thornton Elementary school administrators attended Relay Graduate School Summer Intensive that provided training in four researched-based Levers of Data Driven Instruction, Observation and Feedback, Student Culture, Professional Development. These levers align directly and support improvement in the conditions outlined above. The results of those evaluations will drive our work by supporting a targeted focus for 2015-16 school year which will be outlined in this document. Grade levels analyzed beginning of the year Aimsweb and Map reading data. They used this information to set mid and end of year benchmark targets.

The three years prior to 2014, our percent of points had improved from 37.6 % of points on the 2010 SPF to 44.6% of points on the 2013 SPF. Our greatest increase in percentage of points had occurred in Academic Achievement and that continues to be the Performance Indicator needing the most accelerated improvement. In the 2014 Performance Framework Thornton Elementary demonstrated an increase in Academic Growth but did decrease in the areas of Academic Achievement and Academic Growth Gaps. This resulted in a slight decrease overall.

THE students will see a significant improvement in student achievement based on the clear and focused plan outlined through our Major Improvement Strategies with the use of specific data analysis, observation/feedback cycles and implementation of best practices.

In the Spring of 2016, Thornton Elementary had a second State Review Panel evaluation. The state evaluation team noted significant changes and improvement in both the academic and social emotional systems and structures implemented at THE. The State Review Panel (SRP) recommended Innovation Status for Thornton Elementary. Thornton Elementary also had significant growth in both ELA and Math, as noted on the 2016 SPF, reaching an overall point rating of 57.1 moving the school into a PERFORMANCE rating!! It is the belief of the SRP team, school and district staff, that with continued implementation of the items outlined above and in the UIP, that Thornton will continue to make significant academic growth and achievement.

Prior Year Targets

Consider the previous year's progress toward the school targets. Identify the overall magnitude of the school performance challenges.

Performance Indicator: Academic Achievement (Status)

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students meeting Math projected proficiency NWEA Spring 2016: 2nd: 38% , 3rd: 55%, 4th: 52%, 5th: 41%, Overall: 47%

Performance: Percentage of students meeting Math proficiency NWEA Spring 2016: K: 38%, 1st: 10% 2nd: 28%, 3rd: 32%, 4th: 39%, 5th: 23%, Overall: 28%

Prior Year Target: Reading NWEA - Percentage of students will be at or above Spring RIT score K: 85% 1: 61% 2: 47% 3: 61% 4: 45% 5: 58%

Performance: Reading NWEA - Percentage of students at or above Spring RIT score K: 39% 1: 22% 2: 25% 3: 35% 4: 33% 5: 25%

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students on READ plans will decrease by 50% in each grade level: Fall: K: 31%, 1: 39%, 2: 50%, 3: 39%, Overall: 40%

Performance: Percentage of students on READ plans Spring 2016: K: 10% 1: 54% 2: 47% 3: 27% Overall 35%

Our achievement targets were not met on NWEA or PALS measurements. Although our percentage of students meeting expectations increased overall, our targets were not met.

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students meeting Math growth projection goal NWEA Spring 2016. 2nd: 53%, 3rd: 68%, 4th: 78%, 5th: 91% Performance: Percentage of students meeting Math growth projection goal NWEA Spring 2016: 1st: 22% 2nd: 50%, 3rd: 44%, 4th: 58%, 5th:

63%

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students meeting Reading NWEA Growth projection Spring 2016 2nd: 45%, 3rd: 65%, 4th: 65%, 5th: 81%

Performance: Percentage of students that met Reading NWEA Growth projection Spring 2016. 1st: 22% 2nd: 50%, 3rd: 44%, 4th: 58%, 5th: 63%

Academic Achievement (Status) Reflection

Performance Indicator: Academic Growth

Academic Growth Reflection

Performance Indicator: English Language Development and Attainment

THE met academic growth expectations per our SPF report, but we did not meet the specific NWEA growth targets set for each grade level. However, second grade exceeded the Reading NWEA growth projection by 5%.

Prior Year Target: 2015 PARCC Math % of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 3, 4, 5: ELL: 4, 3, 0%, FRL: 0, 3, 9%, IEP: 0, 10,13%, Minority: 3, 3, 8%

Performance: 2016 PARCC Math % of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 3, 4, 5: ELL: 7, 4, 7%, FRL: 12, 11, 9%, IEP: no info, Minority: 2, 12, 5%

Prior Year Target: 2015 PARCC ELA % of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 3, 4, 5: ELL: 15, 10, 6%, FRL: 11, 14, 13%, IEP: no info, Minority: 8,12,13%

Performance: 2016 PARCC ELA % of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 3, 4, 5: ELL: 7, 4, 0%, FRL: 16, 16, 11%, IEP: 0, 10,13%, Minority: 12, 12, 5%

Achievement on state testing falls below state averages.

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students meeting Math growth target Spring 2016: All: 82%, Min.: 81%, ELL: 77%, FRL: 82%, IEP: 68%

Performance: Results: All: 55.0, Min.:56.0, ELL: 58.0, FRL: 50.0, and IEP: blank (less than 15 students).

Prior Year Target: Percentage of students meeting Reading growth target Spring 2016: All: 75%, Min.: 73%, ELL: 75%, FRL: 74%, IEP: 57%

Performance: Results: All: 53.0, Min.: 49.5, ELL: 48.5, FRL: 50.5, and IEP: blank (less than 15 students).

We did not meet Math and Reading disaggregated growth targets for Spring 2016.

Performance Indicator: Disaggregated Achievement

Disaggregated Achievement Reflection

Performance Indicator: Disaggregated Growth

Disaggregated Growth Reflection

Student Behavior Reflection

Prior Year Target: Median Growth Percentile results for 2015: 1st: 52, 2nd: 45, 3rd: 52, 4th: 55, 5th: 53

Performance: Median Growth Percentile results for 2016: 1st: 45, 2nd: 24, 3rd: 66, 4th: 68, 5th: 74

THE generally shows good growth with ELL students. Grades 3,4,5 exceeded state MGP.

Prior Year Target: Decreased Office Discipline Referrals by 30% by May, 2016

Performance: Decreased Office Discipline Referrals by 30%.

Prior Year Target: Decrease Out of School Suspensions a total of 25% by May, 2016

Performance: Decreased Out of School Suspensions a total of 36%.

Prior Year Target: Decrease In School Suspensions a total of 25% by May, 2016

Performance: Decreased In School Suspensions a total of 69%.

Other Reflection

Performance Indicator: Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness

Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness Reflection

English Language Development and Attainment Reflection

Performance Indicator: Other

Performance Indicator: Student Behavior

The systems and structures implemented to support Student Behavior have resulted in significant reduction in behavior incidents.

Prior Year Target: 95% daily attendance, 26% chronic attendance

Performance: 92% daily attendance, 12% chronic attendance

Chronic attendance dropped and met our goal. Daily attendance did not meet our goal.

Current Performance

Provide a description of the trend analysis that includes at least three years of data (state and local data). Trend statements should be provided in the four performance indicator areas and by disaggregated groups. Trend statements should include the direction of the trend and a comparison (e.g. state expectations, state average) to indicate why the trend is notable.

In 2016, Thornton Elementary showed a 13.8% increase in percent of points on the school's SPF. The three years prior to 2016, our school percent of points were 43% and 44%. In 2016 we improved to 57.1% of points. For 2016, our greatest increase in percentage of points had occurred in Academic Growth, earning. Academic Achievement continues to be the Performance Indicator needing the most accelerated improvement.

PARCC and TCAP proficiency in all grade levels and content areas is significantly below state and district averages from 2012-2016. ELA is also a significant challenge with only 15% of student scoring proficient in 2015 and 19% of students scoring proficient in 2016 on the PARCC ELA assessment.

Performance Indicator: Student Engagement

Student Engagement Reflection

PARCC 2015 - 2016 Academic Achievement Data

2016 PARCC Academic Achievement Data by Grade Level for ELA and MATH

PARCC Academic Achievement Data Overall there was a 3.71% increase in academic achievement for ELA from 2015 (15.10%) to 2016 (18.72%). Students showed low academic achievement on the PARCC ELA assessment for both the 2015 and 2016 assessment years. Overall there was a 6.12% increase in academic achievement for MATH from 2015 (7.81%) to 2016 (13.93%) Students showed low academic achievement on the PARCC MATH assessment for both the 2015 and 2016 assessments years.

PARCC Growth Data

Both 4th and 5th grade met the state expectations for academic growth in ELA. 4th had 51% academic growth and 5th had 53.5% growth. In Math, 4th grade exceeded the state's growth expectations with 61% academic growth. However, 5th grade did not meet the state expectations and had 49.50% academic growth.

NWEA 2014-2016 Whole School Performance Data for Reading

NWEA/MAP Reading Data: Analysis of achievement data using local NWEA assessment data indicates low achievement over the past 4 years. Each year scores have been in the 20-30 percentile of students meeting the grade level benchmark. In fall of 2016-2017 school year, 25% of

students met the grade level RIT benchmark for reading. 64% of students scored below the 40% on the NWEA reading assessment RIT benchmark score. The data also shows there has been minimal growth in the RIT benchmark scores from the fall terms of the 2015-2016 school year (66% below) and the 2014-2015 school year (69% below). For the past three years, Reading proficiency across all grade levels is flat or

declining and well below state and district averages.

PALS Performance Data

2014-2016 PALS Benchmark Data Consistently, there has been a decrease in the percent of students on a read plan from the fall to the spring in all grade levels K-3, with the

exception of 1st grade in 2015 and 2016 school years. In the fall of 2016, 42% of K-3 students scored below the PALS grade level benchmark. This is consistent with the 42% of average of students not meeting the benchmark from 2014-2017. We expect this historical data to change and the percent of students on a read plan in the fall to decrease as a result of the K-2 phonics intervention we have implemented in the 2016-2017 school year.

K-3 Reading achievement is low and inconsistent across grade levels over the past three years. The most recent data is provided above. There is an increase in the percentage of students meeting the PALS benchmark from fall to spring in grades K, 2, and 3 and a decrease in the number of students meeting the benchmark from fall to spring in 1st grade. In K, 2nd, and 3rd, the number of students at benchmark declined between spring, 2015 and fall, 2015. In grades K-3 between 35% - 60% of students were on a READ plan in the fall, 2014 and 31% - 50% of students were on a READ plan in the fall, 2015.

ACCESS Growth Data

For 2016, grades 3-5 exceeded state expectations and made over 50% growth. 3rd grade = 66% growth 4th grade = 68% growth 5th grade = 73.5% growth

For 2016, 1st grade made 45 % growth and 2nd grade made 24% growth

Science and Social Studies scores are flat and well below district and state average on CMAS.

All grade levels are exceeding their MAGP on ACCESS testing. All grade levels, except 2nd grade, are above the 50% for growth.

Behavior Data Analysis: The majority of behavior incidences occur in 4th and 5th grades. The majority of incidences are: bullying, dangerous, disruptive,or disrespectful behavior, or fighting. Behaviors escalate during the spring months.

A significant number of students, especially in 4th and 5th grade are not accessing the academic programming due to behavioral incidents and time out of the classroom.

The chart ''Percent of Students with Course Participation Data'' on the District report within CEDAR identifies that out of the total enrolled as of the October Count, 58% of students had course participation data available. Given that course participation data is available for less than 85% of students in the district there is not a lot of confidence in this data. We are relying solely on this data for our analysis of course participation and at this time no further analysis of this data would be beneficial.

Trend Analysis

Review the DPF and local data. Document any areas where the school did not at least meet state/federal expectations.

Overall there was a 3.71% increase in academic achievement for ELA from 2015 (15.10%) to 2016 (18.72%). This is a notable trend because students showed low academic achievement on the PARCC ELA assessment for both the 2015 and 2016 assessment years.

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Academic Achievement (Status)

Overall there was a 6.12% increase in academic achievement for MATH from 2015 (7.81%) to 2016 (13.93%) This is a notable trend because students showed low academic achievement on the PARCC MATH assessment for both the 2015 and 2016 assessments years.

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Academic Achievement (Status)

Both 4th and 5th grade met the state expectations for academic growth in ELA. 4th had 51% academic growth and 5th had 53.5% growth.

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Academic Growth

In Math, 4th grade exceeded the state's growth expectations with 61% academic growth. However, 5th grade did not meet the state expectations and had 49.50% academic growth. This is a notable trend because 5th grade had low achievement in math and low growth

in math.

Trend Direction: Decreasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Academic Growth

Analysis of achievement data using local NWEA assessment data indicates low achievement over the past 4 years. Each year, scores have been in the 20-30 percentile for students meeting the grade level RIT benchmark. In fall of 2016-2017 school year, 25% of students met the grade level RIT benchmark for reading. 64% of students scored below the 40% on the NWEA reading assessment RIT benchmark score. This is a notable trend because over the past three years, reading proficiency across all grade levels is flat or declining and well below state and district averages.

Trend Direction: Stable - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Academic Achievement (Status)

On the PARCC 2016 assessment we did not meet state expectations in any of the sub categories. For ELA, all subgroups earned .25 points out of 1 point possible. For Math, all subgroups earned .25 points out of 1 point possible. For science, all subgroups earned .5 points out of 1 point possible.

Trend Direction: Decreasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Disaggregated Achievement

On the PARCC 2016 assessment, all but 2 of the subgroups met the state's expectation for growth. In ELA, ELL and minority students received an Approaching rating. Both of these subgroups earned .5 points out of 1 point possible.

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Disaggregated Growth

For 2016, grades 3-5 exceeded state expectations and made over 50% growth. 3rd grade = 66% growth 4th grade = 68% growth 5th grade = 73.5% growth

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: English Language Development and Attainment

For 2016, 1st grade made 45 % growth and 2nd grade made 24% growth.

Trend Direction: Decreasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: English Language Development and Attainment

Additional Trend Information:

Priority Performance Challenges and Root Cause Analysis

Review the DPF and local data. Document any areas where the school did not at least meet state/federal expectations. Priority Performance Challenges and Root Cause Analysis Priority Performance Challenges: Identify notable trends (or a combination of trends) that are the highest priority to address (priority performance challenges). No more than 3-5 are recommended. Provide a rationale for why these challenges have been selected and address the magnitude of the school's overall performance challenges. Root Cause: Identify at least one root cause for every priority performance challenge. Root causes should address adult actions, be under the control of the school, and address the priority performance challenge(s). Provide evidence that the root cause was verified through the use of additional data. A description of the selection process for the corresponding major improvement strategies is recommended.

Relationship of UIP Elements

Priority Performance Challenges Root Cause

Office Discipline Referrals, In School Suspension and Out of School Suspensions have all decreased significantly.

Trend Direction: Increasing - Notable Trend: Yes - Performance Indicator Target: Student Behavior

Writing

Instructional Model and MTSS

Reading


Math


Provide a rationale for why these challenges have been selected and address the magnitude of the overall performance challenges:

Provide a rationale for how these Root Causes were selected and verified:

While Thornton Elementary showed great academic growth for the 15-16 school year, several years of historically data shows that achievement data has been consistently low and flat across all grade levels in every content area. We selected this challenges because we know that this impacts 80% of our students at THE. We know that student academic growth is not enough. We must get our students to academic proficiency. Thornton will continue to focus on Literacy - reading and writing as our two of our major improvement strategies knowing that when students gain proficiency in those areas, they will also see gains in math and science.

School Conditions Reflection (Strengths and challenges within the school system in each of the four conditions)

Culture of Performance

Inconsistent and deliberate differentiation of instructional activities, resources, and flexible student groupings to meet the needs of all students. Limited social-emotional supports that allow teachers to reach all of their students effectively.

Academic Systems

Lack of a comprehensive and aligned curriculum grounded in the Common Core State Standards and other relevant benchmarks.

Inconsistent high leverage reading and writing instruction and practices provided in grades Kindergarten through 5th.

Inconsistent set of research-based, non-negotiable instructional practices shared across all classrooms. Limited intervention time for students with significant needs. Inconsistent, intentional use of data to drive continuous improvement in all areas, both instructional and non-instructional.

Talent Management

Operations

Lack of focus with leadership team to maximize student achievement through ongoing monitoring of improvement strategies. Lack of clear defined roles and responsibilities within committees aligned to the school improvement strategies

Additional Narrative / Conclusion

Root Causes

Lack of articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy.

Lack of articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth.

Lack of systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership.

Lack of alignment between school needs and district systems around use of time, budget flexibility, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

Section IV: Target Setting, Major Improvement Strategies and Action Plans

Target Setting

Directions: Schools are expected to set their own annual targets for academic achievement, academic growth, and postsecondary and workforce readiness. At a minimum, schools should set targets for each of the performance indicators where state expectations are not met; targets should also be connected to prioritized performance challenges. For each annual performance target, identify interim measures that will be used to monitor progress toward the annual targets at least quarterly during the school year.

Priority Performance Challenge : Writing


Measures / Metrics:

Annual

Performance

Targets

2016-2017: 80% of students in each grade level will show growth on end of unit assessments from 1st semester to 2nd semester in the areas of: Opinion Writing, Informative Writing, Narrative Writing.

2017-2018: 90% of students in each grade level will show growth on end of unit assessments from 1st semester to 2nd semester in the areas of: Opinion Writing, Informative Writing, Narrative Writing.

Interim Measures for 2016-2017: 80% of students will show growth on identified assessments after completing the DDI cycle, (Initial assessment - reteach - 2nd assessment) as tracked through teacher collaboration DDI protocal.

Priority Performance Challenge : Reading


Measures / Metrics: R

Annual

Performance Targets

2016-2017: NWEA: Percent of students that will meet the benchmark RIT score in Spring 2017 (Analyzed Fall MAP data to determine student in the 30%-49% that should close the gap and reach benchmark. Kinder - 48% (Fall 28%+20%) 1st - 39% (Fall 30% + 9%) 2nd - 30% (Fall 20% + 10%) 3rd - 40% (Fall 27% + 13%) 4th - 37% (Fall 27% + 10%) 5th - 38% (Fall 28% + 10%)

2017-2018: NWEA: Percent of students that will meet the benchmark RIT score in Spring 2018 will increase by a minimum of 15% at each grade level.

Interim Measures for 2016-2017: NWEA: Mid-year assessment Kinder - 38% 1st - 34% 2nd - 25% 3rd - 33% 4th - 32% 5th - 33%


Measures / Metrics: R

Annual

Performance

Targets

2016-2017: Increase the number of students K-5 meeting the PALS summed score benchmark by 15%.

2017-2018: Increase the number of students K-5 meeting the PALS summed score benchmark by 25%.

Interim Measures for 2016-2017: Midyear PALS assessment: Increase the number of students K-5 meeting the estimated PALS summed score benchmark by 8%. (Benchmark score is a moving target so we want to see increase in students moving at mid-year.

Priority Performance Challenge : Math


Measures / Metrics: M

Annual

Performance Targets

2016-2017: NWEA: Fall '16- Spring '17: 50% of students in each class will meet or exceed their projected growth in Math.

2017-2018: NWEA: Fall '17- Spring '18: 55% of students in each class will meet or exceed their projected growth in Math.

Interim Measures for 2016-2017: NWEA Midyear: 50% of students in each class will meet or exceed their projected growth in Math.

Planning Form

Associated Root Causes:

Instructional Model and MTSS: Lack of articulated instructional model, aligned resources and consistent delivery of instruction in Literacy. Lack of articulated data-driven MTSS/RtI system that addresses both academic and social/emotional needs in order to accelerate student growth. Lack of systems to monitor continuous improvement and foster distributive leadership. Lack of alignment between school needs and district systems around use of time, budget flexibility, curriculum, talent management and data systems.

Action Steps Associated with MIS

Name Description Start/End Date Resource Key Personnel Status School Year

Implementation Benchmark Associated with MIS

Action Step

Name

(Association)

IB Name

Description

Start/End/Repeats

Key Personnel

Status

School Year

Major Improvement Strategy

Name: Writing


Description:

80% of students in each grade level will show growth on end of unit assessments from 1st semester to 2nd semester in the areas of: Opinion Writing, Informative Writing, Narrative Writing. 100% of teachers are explicitly modeling writing skills based on THE expectations. 100% of grade levels will have lessons that contain 1-3 instructional moves to support students meeting the learning target and will lead to the focus standards for the week. (or outlined time period) Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.


Name: Reading


Description:

100% of teachers will implement an explicit model during the literacy portion of the lesson, lessons will identify the 1-3 highest leverage instructional moves and differentiate for student needs. By May of 2017 90% of teachers report that their instructional leader and observation feedback cylces helped them be more effective educators. Student Outcome: Increase the number of student K-5 meeting the PALS summed score benchmark by 15%. Increase number of students meeting end of year proficiency on Reading MAP by 15%. Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.






Action Step

Name

(Association)

IB Name

Description

Start/End/Repeats

Key Personnel

Status

School Year


Data Driven Culture

Name:

Student Outcome: Increase the number of students K-5 meeting the PALS summed score


Description:

benchmark by 15%. 100% of classroom teachers will utilize bi-weekly Data Meetings to unpack standards, identify proficiency levels and appropiate exemplars, identify gaps, and plan and practice instructional moves to increase student achievement and growth. 100% of 3-5 students will know their reading goals based on assessment results from NWEA MAP Reading and/or PALS/PALS Plus. Please see Thornton PM Tool Attachment.






Action Step

Name

(Association)

IB Name

Description

Start/End/Repeats

Key Personnel

Status

School Year



Name: Innovation Planning


Description:

Completed and approved Innovation Plan document. Please see THE Innovation Plan for action steps - expected draft completed by January, 2017





Action Step

Name

(Association)

IB Name

Description

Start/End/Repeats

Key Personnel

Status

School Year

Addenda

Attachments List

Thornton Elementary 16-17 PM, Tool Nov. 16 - 11/29/2016 1:52 PM.pdf

UIPParentInvolvementcommunication2016-17 - 12/1/2016 12:45 PM.pdf

Waivers Overview

Innovation Area

DRAFT 2-15-17 Conditions for Innovation - School Flexibilities and

Autonomies Waivers have been voted on and approved by THE Staff 2-1-17 * Draft still must be approved by District Leadership and Legal

Type of

Waiver

Di

str

ict

Sta

te

Ma

ster

Agr

ee

me

nt

Time

22-32-109A and B:

School Schedule/

Calendar

State Policy

School Calendar: In accordance with the innovation plan, the school shall determine the length of time the school will be in session during the following year. To ensure that the school calendar is shared with the Adams 12 Board, school employees, and parents in a timely manner, school leadership in collaboration with the ILT and any delegated staff leadership committee, will determine the following year’s school calendar by May 1st each year. The school year calendar adopted by the school will meet or exceed minimum district and state determinations for the length of time during which schools shall be in session during the next school year. The actual hours of teacher-pupil instruction and teacher-pupil contact shall meet or exceed the minimum hours set by the district and state for public instruction.

X X

People

22-63-201: Teacher

Employment Act-

Compensation &

Dismissal

Act-Requirement

to hold a

certificate

Licensure: The school will employ highly qualified and licensed teachers for teaching of core content pursuant to the federal ESSA Act. Teachers in all necessary areas will be highly qualified. The school may employ non-licensed personnel for supplemental and enrichment instruction as necessary to implement the innovation plan. Any non-licensed staff will be hired under the established hiring process at the innovation school.

X X

Article 12:

In-building

Transfers

Teacher Assignment: In order for THE to meet the building programming needs, student needs, and staff leadership opportunities we will use an in-building interview process that includes Administration and School Leadership Team with the support of Appendix E as needed to determine teacher reassignment within the building.

X

Article 1:

Definitions:

1.7 School Year

Article 27:

Non-Teaching

Duties: 27.17

Teacher Contract: Contract year for teachers may be extended to include additional mandatory professional development days prior to the start and/or end of the school year. Teachers will be compensated for additional days via stipend that is determined based on the average rate of pay.

X

14.10 Miscellaneous

provision under

Article 14

(Personnel

Appraisal System)

Videotaping of lessons will take place during Observation Feedback Cycles and Culture Walkthroughs. Video footage may be viewed by the teacher, administrator and/or Coach and will take place for the purpose of growth and development. Video footage will not be shared with any additional people without permission from the teacher.

X

THE School Practice

Observation/Feedback will be conducted by administration, instructional coaches and teacher leaders Support and training will be provided to teacher leaders, including a class required by the state. This will be outlined in the Teacher Leadership Pathway information and staff handbook.

THE School Practice

Building Orientation Team will work with the District Induction Coordinator to develop a side by side program to meet the needs of teachers and to limit the time they are pulled from instruction due to our expanded day. In conjunction with the District Induction Coordinator, THE may choose to opt out of District mandatory Professional Development and will replace those trainings at the school level. The school will determine the value of all staff training, workshops, and conferences as it relates to the school’s mission and vision. All of the school’s professional development shall be approved by the school’s principal and the leadership team.

Money Appendix C:

Co-curricular

Salary Schedule,

Department Chair

and Leadership

Budget - In order to sustain the expanded day and enrichment program, THE will waive the way Appendix C distributes funds. This will allow leadership, co-curricular and grade level chair money to be lumped together so that money can be distributed for student Enrichment opportunities and compensate teachers for leadership duties performed. Leadership/Co-curricular funds will be distributed to certified and classified

X

staff first. If there is additional co-curricular money available after funding clubs and enrichment, those funds would be used for additional leadership positions. The distribution of money will be determined by school leadership team.

THE School Practice

Additional Compensation: In conjunction with the Human Resources department develop a plan to provide additional compensation based on school specific school roles and responsibilities. Present information to Strategic Compensation Committee for school funding.

Progra

mming

THE School Practice

Science and Social Studies: THE will Develop a rationale to determine the scheduling of units and daily instruction for Science and Social Studies. This will be communicated with Learning Services and a pacing calendar will be shared with the Curriculum Coordinator and CAO.

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