Robert A. Taft Middle School 2018-2019 School Board Report Assistant - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Robert A. Taft Middle School 2018-2019 School Board Report Assistant Principal Joshua Graegin Robert A. Taft Middle School Mission Statement The mission of Robert A. Taft Middle School is empowering and enabling our students in being
Assistant Principal—Joshua Graegin
The mission of Robert A. Taft Middle School is empowering and enabling
development with a long-term focus toward college and career readiness.
“The capacity of every teacher to purposefully and intentionally create an environment that empowers all students to be successful in their learning and reach expected levels of achievement including readiness to transition to the next level of learning or career pathway.”
“The ability of a school to execute, with consistency, actions designed to improve organizational and instructional effectiveness.”
Transitional year with new leadership The foundations of Taft are strong, with ISTEP English/Language Arts
scores averaging an 80% pass rate across all grade levels; over 70% of
surveys showing that students and staff believe that there is a positive learning environment and engaging connection to the curriculum…but there is always room for improvement!
State Grade—A
Primarily based on state test scores
and growth
Breakdown (weight):
Performance Points: 75.9 (.5) Growth Points: 106.3 (.5) Overall Points: 91.1
Federal Grade—B
Includes:
School attendance rates Language proficiency of English Language Learners
Breakdown (weight):
Academic Achievement: 75.9 (.475) Academic Progress: 100 (.475) Addressing Chronic Absenteeism: 74.6 (.05) Overall Points: 87.3
Standard 2.7—Instruction is monitored and adjusted to meet individual learners’ needs and the institution’s learning expectations.
SLC’s weekly
Small Learning Communities—Grade Level Teams Communication and collaboration to support all of our students
Rotated visits from leadership team Student focused discussions—How can we best help our kids?
Weekly grade reports Building relationships
Google doc tracking
Standard 2.11—Educators gather, analyze, and use formative and summative data that lead to demonstrable improvement
PLC’s weekly
Professional Learning Communities—Grade Level/Content Based Communication and collaboration
Review of summative and formative assessment data to review and
revise instructional practices
Focus on increasing instructional effectiveness Regular visits from leadership team Google doc tracking
Standard 2.10—Learning progress is reliably assessed and consistently and clearly communicated.
Teachers regularly discuss multiple data points to assess instructional
effectiveness.
Formative and summative assessments ACT ACT—Academic Behaviors I AM ILEARN Star Math Star Reading WIDA
Standard 1.2—Stakeholders collectively demonstrate actions to ensure the achievement of the institution’s purpose and desired outcomes for learners.
We recognize that communication and collaboration with all stakeholders
is an integral part of our students success. We understand that the middle school years are some of the most influential on the development of our students success and focus on our students starting off strong coming in as elementary school children and carrying that success on as they leave
Incoming 6th grade parent nights (2x a year—streamlined the process for
consistent messaging.
Bulldog Rush Elementary School Visits—6th grade teachers, counselors, administrator Teacher recommendation communication (6th and 7th grade students) Collaboration with Crown Point High School to support our 8th grade students
moving into the high school.
Shift in our parent-teacher conference model
Move towards consistent communication throughout the school year
rather than a one time meeting in the middle of the year.
Strong relationship with the PTO to ensure we are meeting the
needs of all of our students.
Other various methods of communication to ensure all stakeholder
groups are working together to support our students: up to date school webpage, weekly recorded phone calls, school Twitter, quarterly newsletters, BUZZ, student surveys
Standard 1.2—Stakeholders collectively demonstrate actions to ensure the achievement of the institution’s purpose and desired outcomes for learners.
Standard 2.12—The institution implements a process to continuously assess its programs and organizational conditions to improve student learning.
Regularly scheduled discussions to continually shape and assess programing
Weekly Leadership Team Meetings
Monthly inclusion of additional staff (custodial/cafeteria)
Staff Meetings Safety Team Meetings MTSS Meetings School Improvement Team AdvancED Accreditation Professional Development
Open Door Policy
Standard 3.1—The institution plans and delivers professional learning to improve the learning environment, and the institution’s effectiveness.
Wednesday Morning Professional Development
Conducted by a variety of staff
Over 20 staff members have contributed to Wednesday morning professional
development, including administration, school counselors, teachers, PBIS paraprofessionals, and even some students!
Teachers that attend an outside professional development opportunity come
back and prepare and share with the staff. Some of the topics covered this year included:
Rethinking Grading Love & Logic Technology Usage in the Classroom PLC Development Exceptional Learners Strategies Challenge Education
Standard 1.6—Leaders implement staff supervision and evaluation processes to improve professional practice and
iObservation
Regular classroom visits utilizing the Marzano model New iObservation cadre group Mentoring
5 new teachers in the building mentored by experienced teachers Scheduled meetings with new teachers
Robert A. Taft Middle school is a 4 Star designated school and was rated an A by the Indiana Department of Education in 2017-2018
Data shows multiple areas of growth. Most notable to the continuous improvement at Taft can be seen in the class of 2022 cohort where the total number of students Ready or Exceeding the ACT benchmark grew from 64.1% to 76.7%.
One takeaway from ACT Math results can be seen with our largest percentage of students rated Not Close to ready according to ACT standards is 11.1% compared with the 20.7% that can be seen in 2016-2017. Somewhat stagnant math results were a key factor considered when the schedule was revised to add more time to math courses.
ISTEP+ English Language Arts ISTEP+ Mathematics ISTEP+ trends provide evidence of slightly increasing Pass and Pass+ rates from 2016-2018. The new ILEARN exam administered this year will provide additional data to be utilized to effectively shape instruction in the future.
The results of a student survey completed will all Taft students in January of
2019 shows some more positive data points:
84.8% of our students feel respected by teachers 90.6% of our students feel that our teachers put a great deal of effort into their
classes
Over 86% of our students feel comfortable approaching our teachers with questions
Over 94% of our students feel that class time is used effectively in class.
Our new administrative leadership team has been spending time all year
assessing and evaluating our processes and procedures, and have been working collaboratively to build upon the strong foundations of Robert A. Taft Middle School. As we work together at Taft through the occasional bumps in the road, a few of the initiatives we plan to continue to work on:
shape, develop, and evaluate operational processes and procedures.
(Standard 1.7)
build and shape the Multi-Tiered System of Support program in the
building to ensure wrap around services are maximized.
shape, develop, and evaluate disciplinary policies.
Specific tailoring of In School Suspension program to increase the value and
function of the program within the school for our students.
shape a building-wide view of what assessing student learning.