CARE Model Analysis & Recommendation Summary for Campus Improvement Plan

Week Three Assignment, Part 1 – CARE Model Analysis of District/Campus Improvement Initiatives or Action Research Plans

Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1. Average attendance rates are too low, truancy rate too high.
2. Need for on-line learning opportunities.
3. Increase involvement/productivity in our current PLC’s.

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1. Continued specified meetings are indicated in order to promote success and collaboration.
2. The plan expresses the necessity for full-time or part-time on-line classes called “E-High” with support and resources systems.
3. The plan is specific in nature while involving all stakeholders.

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1. The campuses, not the district office, oversee the daily actions/letters mailed home regarding truant/possible truant students.
2. Quarterly meetings among all 3 high schools must exist in order to implement collaborative ideas and address concerns for the newly implemented “E-High.”
3. Collaboration among the athletic department must exist in order for all coaches to participate every time in PLC’s.

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1. Review percentage of truant students compared to how many students were actually filed truancy on by school administrators.  This data will be compared to last year in order to see if improvements were made and what adjustments are still needed.
2. Reviewing weekly meetings with the campus E-High staff, counselors, intervention coordinators, and campus administrations to review productivity and improvement needs.  This information will then be used in regards to my recommendation of quarterly E-High meetings with all 3 high schools.
3. Review PLC’s teacher worksheets and then compare to what we actually see happening in the classroom during walkthroughs and formal observations.  Re-teaching should be occurring as well as teaching alignment with the district curriculum as well as engaging lessons being taught.

Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the Comprehensive Final Report

Recommendations and Lessons Learned Through Campus Improvement Plans

Like most schools, our District Improvement Plan consisted of strategies trying to raise Math and Science scores, particularly of our lower socio-economic students.  Therefore, I decided to focus more on the Campus Improvement Plan for our largest 5-A high school in the district, McKinney Boyd High School.  In doing so, I wanted to focus on improvements other than Math and Science state assessment scores.

At McKinney Boyd H.S., we are focusing greatly on other areas that help establish a greater diversity of school culture academically as well as in the general academic preparation in itself.  With this in mind, I decided to concentrate on getting students to class in regards to lowering our truancy numbers.  No matter how well designed the curriculum plan or how engaging the lesson is, if a student is not in class, they will have missed out on a learning opportunity.  In addition, that is money the school will lose in accordance with WADA.  Therefore, McKinney Boyd H.S., in accordance with a district initiative, has placed measures for successfully combating this issue.  This year, the district office has decided to track the number of unexcused absences while each campus will track loss-of-credit due to excessive absences.  The head principal will then be given reports of truant students as well as those who have been filed truancy on or attended our Truancy Intervention Program through the Boys and Girls Club.  In addition, each assistant principal will work closely with the student’s academic counselor, the intervention coordinator, and of course the parent of the student.  Although we did not see a great drop the first semester, the repeat offenders fell dramatically the 2^nd semester so they would not have truancy charges filed on them again.

The second area I concentrated on for the Campus Improvement Plan was the need for greater on-line courses within each high school campus.  Although a computer program called APEX already existed that allowed a student to take an on-line class for credit recovery while attending their other regular classes, the need still existed for students to enter a separate program where they could work on all or virtually all their classes via APEX while still being on a recommended plan.  Thus a new program established on all 3 district high school campuses was created called, “E-High”.  This program is based on need, not desire.  It is strictly for the non-traditional student (perhaps someone who is pregnant or has been ill a lot and trying to catch up) or a student who is desperately needing to recover credits due to lack of academic progress their first year or two of high school.  In the E-High class, a student is monitored by two full-time teachers as well as a floating academic teacher each period.  This will provide students an opportunity to accelerate their credits through a rigorous on-line program.  But since E-High is brand new and not modeled after any surrounding school district, there are many questions, concerns, and needs for improvement.

The third aspect of the Campus Improvement Plan I focused on was our existing PLC that was established a couple years ago.  In order to implement this collaborative idea in improving the academic structure, each department core subject within a department was to be given a common-planning conference period.  During this period, teachers were instructed to meet once a week among with the teachers who also taught the subject.  Professional Development was given in modeling how this was to look.  The problem was, it does not necessarily include coaches because of their rotating coaching schedule each semester.  Since some subject areas, particularly Social Studies that are made up of 75% coaches, this has proven to cause some discontent among teachers.

I suggested some strategies in my assignment that I hope to have implemented.  In all three aspects I concentrated on (Lower truancy, provide full-time on-line course program, refocus on proper PLC outcomes), COLLABORATION was the key element for success!!  By making sure each aspect is measurable and simplicity in nature, then by collaborating with stakeholders in order to make necessary adjustments will lead to success in our overall initiatives, our current goals, and ultimately successful students.