2. Purpose
• Snapshot of our school’s Accountability Plan
focus on English Language Arts
(ELA), Assessment Literacy and Compelling
Conversations
• Five-year ELA trend data
– Instructional Strategies which have changed
– Mid-Year Performance Data
– Second semester plans to move forward
3. Five-Year English Language Arts (ELA)
Trend Data
100.0
Walker 80.0
3rd Grade 60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12
State 40.9 41.0 43.9 44.5 46.0
School 45.3 42.4 61.5 60.0 58.0
4. Five-Year English Language Arts (ELA)
Trend Data
100.0
Walker 80.0
4th Grade 60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12
State 45.6 47.0 51.7 52.7 52.8
School 68.9 44.1 50.9 56.4 46.0
5. Five-Year English Language Arts (ELA)
Trend Data
100.0
Walker 80.0
5th Grade 60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12
State 48.6 49.4 51.8 52.1 52.6
School 44.8 65.6 43.5 36.2 50.0
6. Instructional Practices –
ELA, Assessment Literacy and
Compelling Conversations
What daily teacher What daily principal
strategies have changed? strategies have changed?
1. Planning for higher level 1. Descriptive Feedback
questions on Walkthroughs
2. Student-friendly 2. Close monitoring of
learning targets students receiving
3. Self-Assessment & Goal Tier 2 and/or Tier 3
Setting levels of support
8. Second Semester Plans –
Moving Forward
• Increase the frequency of Assessment Literacy
Strategies
• Continued focus on high level questioning and
supporting answers with evidence
• Hone in on rigorous instructional activities
– High levels of thinking
– Interdisciplinary Lessons
– Real-World Applications
In the following slides, I will share with you a snapshot of Walker’s Accountability Plan, focusing on English Language Arts, Assessment Literacy, and Compelling Conversations. In addition, we will look at our five-year trend data, instructional strategies, and plans to move forward.
While our students’ average proficiency rate decreased 2 percent in third grade, we still had 12% more students score proficient or advanced than the state average. Our entire 3rd grade team is applying assessment literacy strategies to daily instruction.
Walker’s 4th grade scores decreased by 10.4% last year in English Language Arts. To address this, our 4th grade teachers are digging deeper into Assessment Literacy strategies with our students. All 4th grade students are setting goals and keeping portfolios of their learning. We also rearranged our teaching team and the sections that each teacher instructs. 4th grade students take advantage of a daily intervention time where struggling readers learn research-based strategies. Our 4th grade eValuate scores in reading have been steadily increasing each month this year. In December, 67% of our 4th graders scored proficient or above.
Walker’s 5th graders had almost 14% more students scoring proficient or advanced this past year than the previous year. We attribute this to using Mike Schmoker’s Authentic Literacy template to guide our reading instruction. Students are taught to take notes as they read in order to answer higher level questions about chapter books. Our 5th graders are analyzing and debating the merits of various characters, characters’ decisions, reading themes, and literary symbolism. Students are required to make inferences and justify their inferences with evidence from the story. At the end of each book, students write an essay responding to a focus question over the entire book. Our 5th grade teachers also continue to implement Assessment Literacy strategies into their daily instruction.
Teachers are spending more time planning for higher level questions in each lesson. More specifically, they are trying to ask questions which require students to think at higher levels and justify their answers. These questions include language with the words: why, how, in what ways, imagine, suppose, predict, how might, defend, justify, or judge. With 100% participation in Assessment Literacy, Walker teachers are focusing on using student-friendly learning targets with students and helping students self-assess and set their own learning goals.As principal, I am providing written descriptive feedback on all walkthroughs focusing on Assessment Literacy strategies and levels of rigor. In addition, I am meeting weekly with Walker’s reading teacher to monitor students responding and not responding to Tier 2 and/or Tier 3 levels of support. I am making sure that we are adding interventions and/or changing approaches to those students not responding to interventions. In addition, we are analyzing these students’ classroom performance to ensure that they are making improvements throughout their learning.
During the first week of school, I met with all teachers to discuss prior progress and collaboratively set rigorous reading goals for each student with the expectation that every child will make at least 1 year’s growth in reading. At the end of each quarter, I meet again with every teacher to review each student’s progress, check in on where each student is with relation to the goals we set, and adjust any goals as necessary. Due to the implementation of Assessment Literacy strategies this year, many of our older students have started to set their own reading goals which the teachers brought to our compelling conversations meeting. At these meetings, we review students’ progress on multiple reading assessments. Iam happy to share with you that as of the end of December, 76% of Walker’s students were reading on or above grade level as shown by the graph on the left. In addition, 17% of our students are on track to make more than 1 year’s growth in reading this year. We refer to these students as Invisible Excellence students. The graph on the right shows the grade level break down of these 58 students.
As we move forward into 2nd semester, we plan to increase the frequency of our implementation of Assessment Literacy strategies. We will continue to focus on high level questioning and supporting answers with evidence. In addition, we will hone in on rigorous instructional activities. We are defining rigor as learning activities which require: High levels of thinking according to Bloom’s Taxonomy or Webb’s Depth of Knowledge;More than 1 school subject involved; andStudents to apply learning in the same way as adults do with similar standards of performance and similar time frames as adultsWe believe that these rigorous instructional activities will help us help our students be successful with the Common Core State Standards and become lifelong learners, productive citizens, and responsible leaders in our ever-evolving society.
At this time, I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
