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Principal: Dave Searcy
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School Growth Plan (2010-11)
Summerland Context
·
·
Student
population - 527 students.
·
Staff
- 35 teachers, 13 teacher
assistants, 1 child care worker, 1 Family Support Worker, 4 custodians, 1
library assistant, 3 secretaries.
·
Special
Programs – Alternate
program, French Immersion Program at Grade 9, 10 and 11, Adult Learning Centre,
·
Course
Offerings- wide variety of
course offerings in the Sciences, Humanities, Fine Arts and Skills areas, all
government exam courses are offered, over 10 Board approved courses are added
to the course selection list, including FDTV 11, and Computer Animation 10-12.
·
Parents- Summerland parents are very interested in
their students’ success and participate in school decisions through the PAC,
the
Inquiry Question(s)
|
If we have a school-wide focus on increasing
personalized learning skills for our students, will students become more
engaged in their classes and will academic achievement improve? |
RATIONALE: What evidence compelled us to ask this question?
- Our staff developed and implemented a character
rubric just over two years ago in response to concerns raised regarding
the skills our graduates were leaving our school with
- Reflecting on the results from the rubric scores in
2009-10 it was evident that the area of personalized learning was where
students were lowest and where students not completing school were most
likely to score very low - Of the 17 students who left
o
8 students who
withdrew scored below 8 on the Personalized Learning Rubric
o
5 students who
transferred to other schools moved from Summerland
o
2 students
(that scored high in personalized learning) transferred to other schools as
they didn’t feel they were being engaged in their program here at
o
1 student (who
scored high in personalized learning) withdrew as they were not engaging in
regular or alternate classes
o
1 student (who
scored high in personalized learning) withdrew due to issues within home and
community
Action Plan
OBJECTIVES: Specific Steps to
answer our question OR More specific questions?
1.
The question was
developed in May 2010. We have been
working at the development of the Character Rubric and have used the assessment
in a school wide reporting four times.
2.
We have begun to
brainstorm a list of methods we can follow to improve student scores in the
Personalized Learning section of the Character Rubric.
Please
See Student Character Rubric – (Our
Character Rubric – Linked under School Growth Plan)
Third
Section on Personalized Learning –
o
Areas Identified
so far include:
§
Structure of
classes -
§
Instructional and
assessment practices
§
Grade wide
opportunities and events
3.
Each Department
will develop a method (s) to move students in the area of focus under
Personalized Learning they identify.
STRUCTURES
1.
We use the rubric
when discussing with students our expectations in regards to behavior in our
classrooms and our school
2.
We will teach what
each aspect of the rubric means and would look like as a behavior
3.
We will strive to
use learning strategies that will both develop, and allow practice in, the
areas focused on in the Personalized Learning Rubric
4.
When choosing or
developing learning strategies we will take into account the different learning
styles that our students prefer (as we have found through our Learning Styles
Survey)
ASSESSMENT PROCESS & TOOLS:
What will we use to measure our success?
·
We will continue
to report out using the
·
We will track a
group of at-risk students to see if there is improvement in their scores
·
We will track
those same at-risk students course grades to see if there is improvement
·
We will continue
to track students by grade and gender in both the character rubric and course
grades
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: How will we
increase our capacity and collaboration?
·
The identification
of learning strategies that increase students abilities in the areas of
Personalized Learning (as per the
·
Staff will
continue to pursue differentiation of instruction
·
Once identified
the learning strategies will be reviewed on the School Improvement Day and
again during Staff Meetings throughout the year
·
The Department Head
Structure will be used to follow-up on strategies and their relative success
within each department
·
Flex Funds and
Department Head Days will be used to support staff development in these areas
·
Staff are working
at developing a system of Collaboration –
a.
A staff team is
working with staff to define collaboration and create a system to allow for
that collaboration
RESOURCES: What do we currently
have and what do we need?
·
Instructional
Strategies currently practiced at
·
Team of staff went
to
·
Differentiated
Instruction Conference – April 2010 in
·
Shared expertise
from within
a.
District
Presentations and other opportunities (Smart Learning)
PARENT INVOLVEMENT: How parents
will become partners in our efforts?
·
The School
Planning Council went through the same process as staff in 2009-10 and came to
the same conclusion/focus as the staff
·
The School
Planning Council in 2010-11 supports the continued focus on Personalized
Learning and feels the next step for the school will be having direct
instruction focused on the Character Rubric
·
We will continue
to report out to parents regarding the
Evidence
·
The overall
average scores for boys and girls in each grade improved in each of three areas
reported on in the Character Rubric (From Nov 2009 to Nov 2010)
·
Of the three areas
reported on the Character Rubric (People Skills, Acceptance of Self and Others,
and Personalized Learning) Personalized Learning scores continued to be the
lowest for students overall
·
The number of
students who scored (on average) higher than 10 on the survey increased
significantly in each grade cohort
·
Students who
scored below 7 in each grade cohort consistently increased their scores –
o
Very few students
dropped from average scores above 7 in 2009 to scores below in 2010
o
In the few
circumstances where students had drops that were significant they had already
been identified as students at risk and were receiving counseling support
·
On a learning
styles survey that was taken by both staff (89% surveyed) and students (76%
surveyed) it was found that:
o
most staff (52% of those surveyed) fell into
the category of ‘Sensing and Judging’ only 19% of students surveyed fell into
that same category
o
38% of students
actually fell in the category of ‘Sensing and Perceiving’ while only 2% of
staff found themselves in this same category
o
most staff felt
they were visual learners (54%) while most students were in the multisensory
category (58%)
§
Our preferred
learning styles and strengths are not the same as those students in our classes
thus lessons we feel would work for ourselves are not necessarily suited to
those students we are working with
NARRATIVE: What successes and/or
challenges are not reflected in the data?
·
We have focused on
School Completion for four years previous to the development of the present
Inquiry Question and many of our efforts have been in the development of
programs that have supported those students most at-risk of not graduating – We
have successfully implemented a number of programs and structural changes to
the school and have had a direct impact on our Grade-Grade Transition Rates and
thus our Graduation Rates
o
Gr. 11 to 12 transition rate 10% higher than
the Provincial Rate!
o
17 students this
year have started (or will soon be starting) in apprenticeships – including a
number of students who were seen to be at-risk of not completing school
·
We have created an
assessment tool that allows us to dig deeper into how all students approach
their learning and have used it four times over the past two school years
·
While these
efforts have been successful we would like to see a positive change in all
students (not just those who were most at-risk)
– Our challenge now is to effect
change in our everyday classroom practices that impacts on how all of our
students approach learning
·
We now have data
showing some positive trends – However we cannot be sure of the reasons for
these improvements
o
Were they caused
by the fact that by reporting on these areas students are more focused on them?
o
Does maturity
factor into the improvements within the cohorts?
o
Were our efforts
with the rubric in the classrooms/admin offices/assemblies successful in
helping students improve?
o
Is a one year
trend really a trend?
Reflection
REFLECTIONS: What did we learn?
How did it make a difference?
·
We need to better
define the terms in our question and possibly narrow it
FUTURE PLANNING: Where do we go
from here?
·
Create a more
specific question with clearer definitions
·
Ensure students
are more aware of the importance of the rubric and the reasons we are using it
(assemblies/guest speakers/Planning Classes)
·
Have a system of
collaboration for teachers so they can share strategies that help students
improve in these areas
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School Planning Council:
Name (Principal):
Name (Parent):
Name (Parent):
Name (Parent):