Hickory Public Schools

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School District Improvement Planning

• Hickory Public Schools
• June 16, 2009

DO NOT REMOVE
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Objectives for Session

• Become acquainted with Hickorys process for
  school and district improvement.
• Learn more about some of the tools and strategies
  used to identify needs and establish priorities
  at your school.

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Activity 1 Your School Improvement Experience

• Reflect on
• What process did you use for school improvement
  planning?
• How did you establish goals and select strategies
  to meet your goals?
• How do you determine whether these strategies
  were successful in your school(s)?

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District Context School Improvement Model

• Previous system was template based
• Schools included everything they were doing
• School Board annually reviewed plans
• No formal monitoring of implementation existed to
  assist schools
• Most schools used test scores as the primary
  source of data
• Schools selected the strategies they believed
  would address needs

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Driving Forces for Change

• No Child Left Behind
• Individuals with Disability Education Act
• State Board Priorities
• DPIs Redesigned Framework for Assistance
• Organizational assessment of HPS (The Education
  Alliance)

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DPIs New SIP Guidance

• Published in spring 2009
• Based on DPIs discussions with various
  districts, including HPS
• DPI SIP and HPS SIP are aligned
• No mandate
• HPS will continue with current system

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HPS SIP system

• Uses data and a needs assessment process to
  facilitate the critical examination of gaps
• Requires schools to implement evidence-based
  strategies that specifically address those gaps
• Holds both the district and schools accountable
  for all students to succeed
• Supports and monitors the schools throughout the
  process

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To address Improvement

• Established
• a collaborative partnership between The
  Education Alliance Hickory Public Schools
• With a goal of
• developing a multi-level system of school
  improvement that holds both the district and
  schools accountable for student success
• Resulting in
• data-based decision making leading to the
  implementation of evidence-based strategies for
  increased student success

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What does the Research say?

• According to Elmore (2000), improvement is
• change with direction, sustained over time, that
  moves entire systems, raising the average level
  of quality and performance while at the same time
  decreasing the variation among units, and
  engaging people in analysis and understanding of
  why some actions seem to work and others dont

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School Improvement

• A collaborative process through which staff
  members identify strengths and weaknesses of the
  entire school operation and use that information
  as a basis for making positive changes in
  deliberate, cohesive, observable, and measurable
  student outcomes.

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Domains of School Improvement

• Comprehensive needs assessment
• Curriculum, instruction assessment for student
  outcomes
• Research-based improvement strategies
• Professional development
• Leadership
• Parent community involvement
• Coordination of resources
• Qualified staff
• School governance and management
• Evaluation

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Continuous School Improvement Framework
Gather school and student-level data, including
evaluation results of previous improvement efforts
Evaluate results in comparison to school goals
and performance targets
Analyze data to determine areas for improvement
Implement your plan

Research and select appropriate
strategies/interventions
Identify and prioritize needs
Determine/refine school goals, objectives and
performance targets
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School Improvement System Annual Timeline

• August School Improvement Needs Assessment and
  Planning
• September SIPs submitted to District for review,
  schools begin implementation
• October Submission to the Board
• December April Interim Progress Reports
• June Annual Evaluation Report
• (Due Last Teacher Work Day)
• Ongoing Support Conversations between district
  and schools regarding planning, implementation,
  evaluation, success

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HPS SIP Guidance

• Lets look at
• SIP template

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Needs Assessment

• Systematic review of information collected from a
  variety of sources, analyzed to determine
  strengths and weaknesses, and prioritized for
  action.

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Key Elements of aNeeds Assessment

• A needs assessment
• Uses school-level and student-level data from
  multiple sources
• Provides specific details about school needs and
  strengths
• Prioritizes school needs and assets
• Considers resources

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Why do a Needs Assessment?

• A needs assessment provides schools with
  information to
• match school needs with potential actions,
  strategies and/or interventions
• help integrate current initiatives with new
  initiatives
• help formulate a plan that considers NC goals and
  domains of school improvement
• structure and identify baseline data for ongoing
  evaluation of school improvement efforts

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Think about establishing a diverse SI team

• Convene a diverse school team to analyze data and
  prioritize needs
• Engage diverse stakeholders and community members
  in conversations to gain varied perspectives on
  school needs and priorities, school and
  community-based resources, and required action
  steps
• Follow North Carolinas Guidelines when forming
  your School Improvement Team (G.S. 115C-105.27)
• Rossi et al. (2004)

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Focus on data

• Data gathering and analysis is the cornerstone of
  any needs assessment process.

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Data can help us

• Replace hunches and hypotheses with facts
  concerning what changes are needed
• Identify underlying causes of the issues, not
  just effects that are visible on the surface
• Assess needs to target our improvement efforts

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Always keep in mind
without data, youre just another person with
an opinion.
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Determining the usefulness of your data

• In collecting data, the objective should not be
  to collect as much data as possible, but rather,
  to collect the data that will tell school staff
  what they need to know.

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To identify data sources, consider these
questions

• What data will help us
• clarify our mission and goal(s)?
• measure performance?
• measure the effectiveness of our processes?
• evaluate current activities?
• evaluate current resource usage?
• determine the impacts on our school?

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Data Types and Sources

• Different Types of Data
• Student demographics, mobility, attitudes,
  behavior
• Academic performance
• Curriculum and assessment
• Classroom management
• School management
• Family/community involvement

• Different Sources of Data
• Surveys
• Focus groups
• School district records
• State local assessments
• Lesson plans, student work
• Curriculum assessment materials
• Observation reports
• Documents e.g. faculty PTO meeting minutes,
  school plans, budget

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Rigorous Data Analysis

• Even the highest quality data are of little value
  unless analyzed thoughtfully and carefully.

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Activity 2 Digging In

• The Scenario
• Hunches, Data, Analysis

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Perceived Needs Data Analysis Tool
Perceived needs potential causes Data supporting/ challenging your perceptions Additional Data required Causes of need Priority 1 2 3 4 5 Low to high

• List your hunches about what the example school
  needs
• Brainstorm potential causes
• Analyze the data available
• Determine whether additional data is needed
• Identify underlying cause
• Prioritize needs

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Share your analysis
Perceived needs potential causes Data supporting/ challenging your perceptions Additional Data required Causes of need Priority 1 2 3 4 5 Low to high

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Data Analysis Summary

• Summary of main points
• Any questions or comments?

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Logic Modeling Another Helpful Tool
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Logic Model Definition
A tool used to clarify your thinking about how a
program or an organization (such as a school) is
supposed to work and what it is intended to
achieve.
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A Logic Model

• Can be thought of as a recipe
• A description of the entrée to be produced
• A list of the specific ingredients according to
  specific measures
• Specific steps for combining the ingredients.

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Logic Model
Similar to a flowchart, it visually lays out
activities and outcomes using boxes, and using
arrows to connect the boxes, shows how the
activities and outcomes connect with one another.
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Basic Logic Model

• Unpack your plan

PROGRAM ELEMENTS (Inputs/Resources) The
ingredients you need to implement your program
based on your goals
ASSUMPTIONS (Activities Strategies) What you do
to achieve your goals
OUTCOMES (Results) What happens as a result of
your efforts (short, intermediate long term)
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What to include

• Contextual issues - factors that may or may not
  be under your control, but that could impact your
  programs implementation and/or the achievement
  of your outcomes.
• Key Elements - Major, recurring items in plan
  rather than one-time items.

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Logic Model (Worksheet 3)

• What were the needs being addressed? (Context)
• Who participated in or was influenced by the
  program? (Context)
• What services and activities were provided?
  (Elements)
• How will services and activities lead to expected
  outcomes? If-Then statements. (Outcomes)

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Logic Model (Worksheet 3)

• What more immediate changes
• were expected?
• (Intermediate Outcomes)
• What changes would the
• program ultimately create?
• (Long-Term Impact)

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Benefits of Logic Modeling

• Builds a common understanding among staff
• Focuses attention on the most important
  connections between actions and results.
• Communicates the performance story of your reform
  efforts
• Helps with evaluation
• - Taken from a Presentation by John McLaughlin,
  AEA Conference 2005

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Logic Modeling Summary

• Summary of key points
• Any questions or comments?

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An Ongoing Process
School Improvement Planning
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Keeping the Plan Alive

• Discuss the plan and your progress often
• Before starting a new program or activities, ask
  yourself, Will this program/activity help us
  meet our measurable goals/objectives?
• Consider postponing new initiatives that do not
  address your priorities
• Before purchasing new materials, equipment,
  and/or services, ask yourself, Will this
  program/activity help us meet our measurable
  objectives?

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Growth is Never Done

• Working with data is not a one-time event.
• It is an ongoing, continuous process that
  requires frequent check-ins and numerous
  stakeholders to accurately interpret the results
  and determine effective action.
• Your work here today is the beginning of a way of
  going about school improvement planning and
  implementation.

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Remember

• School improvement is a way of operating rather
  than paper monitoring
• You need to analyze data to discover the whole
  picture
• You need to create opportunities for deep
  discussion and planning
• You should capitalize on multiple areas of
  expertise by reviewing plans as a team

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Continue to

• Seek out Critical Friends
• Carefully examine what is not working and refocus
  your energy
• Provide staff with frequent reminders of Why we
  are doing this
• Seek out support from the district office when
  you have a question

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Questions?
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Contact Information
Hickory Public Schools 828.322.2855 The Education Alliance 800.521.9550
Timothy Sims simsti_at_hickoryschools.net Ivana Zuliani ivana_zuliani_at_brown.edu
Ann Stalnaker stalnakeran_at_hickoryschools.net Beth-Ann Tek beth-ann_tek_at_brown.edu