February 2012 School Improvement and Professional Development Newsletter
School Improvement and Professional Development Report
February 2012
Word of the Month: Intervention- Directive, building-wide support for students focused on specific academic and social emotional skills/needs. The effectiveness of the intervention is assessed and adapted based on student academic and social emotional skills/needs.
Revisions to Training for 2012-2013
In light of some concerns expressed by individuals in our educational community regarding the loss of instructional time for training, the following list of revisions was sent to our Board of Education, which was created as a result of dialogue at the District Leadership Team meeting and will be dispersed through our building leadership teams. While our district continues to support on-going professional development as a critical piece to improving student achievement, some revisions were necessary and attempt to strike a balance between training needs and class time.
Reductions to Substitute Leave Usage and Training for the 2012-2013 School Year
Recently, the District Leadership Team met to discuss the number of days being utilized for training and the substitute cost associated with these trainings. After significant discussion, the following points were developed and will be shared with building leadership teams throughout our school district:
· As presented to the board at the beginning of the stimulus fund period several years ago, our local stimulus funds would be used for professional development, which includes not only the cost of training, but also the cost of substitutes to cover classes.
· Stimulus funds are officially spent and the district will resume a more traditional approach to training in the upcoming school year.
· The cost of leave for illness is a cost the district must monitor closely.
· The number of days for the Missouri Reading Initiative will be reduced from 12 days to 6 days for the middle and high school.
· The number of days for co-teaching will be reduced from 8 days to 2 days for the district. All other training will occur internally.
· Instructional support days will be reduced from 4 days in the current school year to 1 day in the spring of the 2012-2013 school year.
· Vertical teams will meet 2 times in the upcoming year versus the traditional 4 days in previous years.
· Due to the anticipated completion of locally developed common assessment, assessment training will be discontinued and work will be done on an as needed basis.
· Differentiation/Intervention training for middle and high school will be conducted at the building site and during professional development days.
· Peer observation will be encouraged, which takes approximately two class periods or time slots, and can be covered at the building level. An allotment of funds, yet to be determined, will be distributed to each building for the identification of master teachers, based on the criteria developed by the district Professional Development Committee, and monitoring at the district level will occur to ensure these funds are being spent on the peer observation process.
· A greater emphasis will be placed on collaboration and the professional development that occurs as a result of collaboration, action research, and attempting strategies with proven results. Administrators have recognized the need to emphasize instructional dialogue in the collaborative process, while recognizing this must be focused on power standards and assessment data. Building administrators will be responsible for efficient use of collaborative time and monitoring of collaboration results will continue.
In addition, changes have been requested to the Pulse data collection system, and we will continue to pursue software and other mechanisms to expedite the entry of power standard data.
Professional Development Summary
The district PDC met on Monday, February 27th to continue planning upcoming professional development offerings in the Camdenton R-III School District. As part of the tasks set forth by the committee during our last meeting, team members met with various building level faculty to discuss professional development themes and gain greater insight into the needs of the buildings. The PDC shared the results of these discussions during out meeting, which were as follows:
· Horizons: Horizons would like the opportunity to visit other highly functioning alternative centers and discuss best practices.
· Osage Beach: Crisis prevention, laws and safety were the primary points of interest well as methods of dealing with defiant students. In addition, the Osage Beach faculty expressed an interest to continue training with Rickey Mikelman.
· Middle School: Middle school faculty members expressed the desire to continue with MRI as well as continue building level development of effective intervention structures.
· Hawthorn: Hawthorn faculty expressed an interest in continued reading professional development that can be applied immediately in the classroom and Title I teachers would like to be more involved in these trainings. In addition, the Excellence in Writing program was mentioned as a possible avenue to improve writing skills. Finally, faculty members expressed an interest in Rickey Mikelman’s training.
· Hurricane Deck: Hurricane Deck would like to continue with the 7 Habits training created by Stephen Covey to address the behavioral, social, and emotional needs of their students. Also, continued training in the use of Acuity as well as the creation of a “MAP like” bank of test questions was requested.
· Dogwood: In addition to teaching reading comprehension and increased training for the Common Core State Standards, the faculty requested assistance with reading groups, working with students of low IQ, greater assistance in the Marzano strategies, writing non-fiction (such as Step Up To Writing, and word work for reading groups. A consultant was also mentioned as a possibility to consider for raising state test scores.
· LCTC: Consistent behavioral expectations for students and the development of consistent expectations for behavior was the primary area of interest for LCTC. In addition, the faculty expressed an interest in finding supports to assist students on Compass testing. Some faculty members expressed interest in online professional development at LCTC.
· Oak Ridge: The faculty expressed an interest to continue training with Jan Robinson in mathematics and the creation of more useable materials from communication arts IS. Intervention support was also an area for consideration in the upcoming year.
· High School: Consistent behavioral expectations were discussed by the high school faculty as were intervention support and communication of what happens to students when they reach the next level of interventions. In addition, some teachers expressed interest in online pd with questions regarding when pd would occur and if faculty would be expected to do pd on their own time if it were online.
Overall, the committee expressed an interest in further utilizing our local teaching talent, which can be accommodated through the master teacher peer observation process.
Master Teacher/Peer Observation
Due to fiscal realities and the desire to focus professional development activities on the building level, the committee discussed the possibility of providing a lump sum to each building to identify master teachers and provide for peer observation. To monitor the use of these professional development funds, all master teachers, regardless of the building assignment, would need to meet consistent requirements designed by the PDC. In addition, these requirements would consider student growth and proficiency as key indicators for selection. In upcoming meetings, the PDC will discuss what measures should be utilized to monitor student progress by teacher and by grade level and begin to put together an application for those interested in the process. Buildings will have the flexibility to utilize these funds to facilitate peer observation directed toward a clear building instructional goal.
Mentor and Buddy Teachers
We will need to set a meeting for mentor and buddy teachers in the very near future and discuss the progress we are making with new faculty members.
