Week+7


 * Facilitator: Leslie**
 * Coach: Barb**
 * Reporter: Shannon**
 * Resource Manager: Beth**
 * Floater: Brooke**

Here is Week 7's Team Work:



** Looking at Data (Team) **
A school’s vision and mission should weave through every step of the school improvement planning process. A few weeks back, you looked at the development of a school vision and mission and identified which stakeholders should be involved in the process. When planning for school improvement, the same stakeholder groups should give input to planning the goals and implementing changes.

As one of the steps in school improvement, you will look at a school’s data to develop a preliminary plan. In this activity, you will work with your team to review data from a fictitious school in Maryland, and identify two to three school improvement goals for the upcoming year. The data may point to several areas for improvement, however the school leader needs to prioritize the top few. More than two or three major goals will overwhelm staff, students, and families and decrease their ability to help implement all strategies effectively.

Once you have identified the goals, you will then consider the steps necessary to achieve them, and identify who will be responsible for ensuring that the goals are met.


 * Team Challenge

The Calm Waters Middle School staff is in the midst of re-evaluating its mission, vision, and goals. As a member of this working group, you are charged with developing a first draft of the school improvement goals for the upcoming year.

Based on the information you have been given, develop goals, benchmarks, responsibilities, and measures for success for the next school year.

Pay special attention to how technology might be fully integrated into instruction and the school improvement process and how technology can help meet the needs of special education students. //Feel free to make assumptions if you feel like you need more data. Just be sure to include those assumptions when providing your response.// ||

**Directions** >> >> > >> >> Use the [|Data Driven Strengths] and [|Data Driven Areas of Concern] worksheet to help guide your thinking. >> > >> >  The purpose of this activity is to provide you with some experience in the initial school improvement process. Each team may possibly choose different goals. The instructor wants to see how you prioritize goals and consider technology integration and the needs of the students based on the data. S/he will look at all of the charts and provide feedback to the class as a summary thread in the [|Week 7 Completed Goals Chart] discussion forum. Be sure to check out the summary to gain insight by seeing the similarities and differences in thinking across teams.
 * 1) Download and review the following school data and other information for ** Calm Waters Middle School: **
 * [|Job Survey Data]
 * [|Calm Waters MS Assessment Data Reading]
 * [|Calm Waters MS Assessment Data Mathematics]
 * [|Calm Waters MS Summary Report]
 * [|Calm Waters MS Demographic Information]
 * [|Calm Waters MS General School Information]
 * 1) For the initial discussion, this week's team facilitator should create a new forum titled ** Week 7: Looking at Data ** in the [|Team Space] . For ease of collaboration, the team facilitator should also re-create the [|Goals for School Improvement Chart] in Google Docs (simply upload it) or another online collaborative tool. Share with your teammates and instructor.
 * 1)  With your team, discuss the school’s data. Think about:
 * //What gaps do you see in student performance, particularly when looking at subgroups?//
 * //What needs do the teachers report?//
 * //What are the technology uses and needs within the school?//
 * //Which needs are of greatest concern?//
 * 1) Work with your team to develop the top three realistic and measureable goals based on the data. Remember: the data may indicate several needs, but you must prioritize in order to ensure success.
 * 1) Complete the chart following the critical steps to planning for school improvement:
 * **Responsibilities:** Who is the person(s) responsible for making sure the steps to reach the goal are completed?
 * **Steps:** What broad steps are needed to reach the goals? What has to happen? What will teachers do? When identifying steps for achieving a goal, remember that the overall steps should either have a direct impact on students or be an important step in preparing to have impact, such as ongoing professional development and instructional preparations.
 * **Benchmarks:** How will you check implementation of each step towards meeting the goal? This can be accomplished in many ways, from teachers’ submitting implementation check sheets to school administrators doing walk through observations to verify progress toward the goal.
 * **Desired outcomes:** What are your reasonable and measurable outcome(s) for the goal? In other words, how will you evaluate the effectiveness of your actions? The obvious answer is through improved student performance as evidenced by increased test scores. Remember, while the steps to reach a goal involve what teachers will do, the effectiveness of those actions emerges in changes in student performance.
 * 1) The team reporter should post the completed chart with a direct link to the Google Docs (public URL) in the [|Week 7: Completed Goals Chart] discussion forum by Monday (sooner, if possible). Post as a new thread and include your team's name in the title of the thread. Note, it is very important to provide the public URL (link). To do this, be sure to "share" the Google Docs as "public" so that everyone can view the chart.
 * 1) Individually, review the other teams' charts and consider the similarities and differences across teams. //Note, you are not required to make any posts, however, feel free to do so if you have any questions or comments.//