1. Understanding Your School’s Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) Division of Performance Improvement

2. Starter Reflection: Think of a time... Think of a time when you set and achieved a particular goal in order to meet a stated desire or need. – Maybe your goal was to save money for a special purpose, make a certain number of sales in one month, or run 5 miles under a certain time. What steps did you set in place in order to be successful in reaching your goal?

3. Our Speakers Tonight Chris Domino DAC Member Emerita CCSD District Accountability Committee (DAC) Member for over 20 years and a former DAC chair, Chair of the Process Subcommittee, Lead Trainer for Colorado School Accountability Network (CSAN), and co-author of CDE’s parent-oriented Accountability Handbook with Senator Evie Hudak and Jhon Penn, CDE Field Services Executive Director. Dr. Elliott Asp Assistant Superintendent for Performance Improvement This office provides support, guidance, and leadership to the departments that make up the Performance Improvement Team: Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum and Instruction, Professional Learning, Excellence and Equity, English Language Acquisition, Gifted and Talented Education, and the Funded Projects and Grants Office. Dr. Connie Zumpf Director of Assessment and Evaluation The Office of Assessment and Evaluation is a support organization; our work serves a variety of stakeholders and decision makers in Cherry Creek Schools. We provide quality data, processes, and tools necessary to inform decisions about students, schools, and programs. We promote an assessment and data use culture that is collegial and professional, and in which data is viewed as a springboard for continuous improvement.

4. Purpose of This Session: Understand the cycle of the Unified Improvement Planning (UIP) process in Cherry Creek Schools. Understand the relationship between the district vision, mission, goals, and improvement strategies and the plans that a school will create. Be knowledgeable about the different sections of the school UIP template, and know key terms that characterize each section. Practice critical reading of portions of the UIP with the aid of the district UIP Quality Criteria Checklist. Know where to access a variety of resources to help support your School’s Accountability Committee in the UIP process.

5. Process for Tonight As a large group we will go through some sections of a sample UIP from last year in order to illustrate sections of the template. We will have time for structured “table talk” throughout the process.

6. UNIFIED DISTRICT AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING (UIP) INTRODUCTION & CONTEXT

7. Plan APlan B Why Plan? Why not just say what we will do then do it?

8. Plan B Priority Challenge = Relieve Knee Pain Root Cause = overweight, inactivity Goal Target = lose 25 pounds by June 1 Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Based Major Improvement Strategy = Program of healthy diet and exercise Research-based Action Steps & Implementation Benchmarks Restrict calories to 1800 per day Track food intake with Lose It app Increase aerobic exercise Attendance at exercise class Daily weight tracking Use of Fitbit & smart scale Monitor/Assess/Reflect/Course Correct = Join Weight Watchers if not on track by 3/15/13

9. Why Engage in the UIP Process? “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” Create understanding of performance and growth for school leadership, staff, and community. Monitor progress on prior year’s school goals in order to evaluate impact of program, curriculum, instruction. Evaluate performance and growth trends in order to discern next steps. Provide context for understanding the results for classrooms and students and plan actions going forward. Required for accountability committees by law since 1971

10. How do we plan in Cherry Creek? For years, our guiding mission and goals have been Excellence, Equity, and Post-Secondary Success:

11. Our Guiding Mission and Goals Reflected in State Accountability Indicators

12. Our Guiding Mission & Goals in Public Accountability Documents District Performance Plan (DPP) Based on our values DAC-sponsored Community Forums in 2009-10 Easy to read, “Reader’s Digest” version of our district’s priority challenges, goals, improvement strategies, and action steps

13. Reflect & Discuss (see pp 4-5 of the DPP) District Vision and Your School’s Plan In what ways do your school’s goals reflect the district goals? Do you see the same kind of major improvement strategies? Discuss with your table — If you don’t know your school’s goals, what’s your next step? How can work with your School Accountability Committee (SAC) and with your principal to inform your community about your school’s goals?

14. How does CCSD do UIP work? Unified Improvement Planning is a process, not an event in Cherry Creek The Data Analysis Process has been in use in CCSD for years. The UIP template comes from CDE and is uniform statewide. – We have added a few adaptations in order to reflect our district mission and process – A Quality Criteria Checklist can help to ensure that UIP sections are completed correctly Quality Criteria Checklist helps to guide UIP template completion

15. Unified Improvement Planning is a process, not an event in CCSD The UIP Planning Calendar

16. Data Analysis Process To inspire every student to think to learn to achieve to care Step 1: Activate and Engage Step 2: Explore and Observe Step 3: Explain and Target Step 4: Take Action and Follow Up Gather & Organize Data Narrative of Data Analysis Target Setting & Action Plans Priority Performance Challenge and Root Cause Identification Monitor & Evaluate Significant Trends, Data Summary

17. UIP Template The UIP template comes from CDE and is uniform statewide. – We have added a few adaptations in order to reflect our district mission and process

18. Quality Criteria Checklist as a Guiding Resource

19. UNIFIED DISTRICT AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING (UIP) SAMPLE UIP

20. CDE’s UIP Sections (We will go over portions of red sections tonight)

21. CDE’s UIP Sections (We will go over red sections tonight)

22. School annual performance targets for last year – What data sources will be/were used to evaluate goal targets? Actual data addressing the target Observations for each target – Were goal targets met? – If yes: Is this a celebration? Is this a continued priority for current year? – If no: Should this be a priority for the current year? Progress Monitoring of Prior Year’s Performance Targets Worksheet

23. Progress Monitoring of Prior Year’s Performance Targets Worksheet (sample p 1) ___) Create context by examining performance on prior year’s goal targets. (1) State the target. (2) State the results. (3) Provide an observation.

24. Reflect & Discuss Use the Quality Criteria Checklist Read and comment on the Progress Monitoring of Prior Year’s Performance Targets Worksheet Discuss with your table — – Does the narrative in the worksheet meet the quality criteria? – What suggestions might you have, reading this as a community member?

25. CDE’s UIP Sections (We will go over portions of red sections tonight)

26. Data Narrative for the School: This is the story about your school as suggested by your data analysis. 1.Introduction to the School and the Data Inquiry Process 2.Descriptions of data from external accountability index (SPF) 3.Descriptions of TCAP, and (if applicable) Explore/Plan/ACT performance and growth, organized around our District Excellence, Equity, and Post-Secondary Readiness themes 4.Summary of Priority Performance Challenges and Root Causes Readers should be able to read this narrative in about 10- 15 minutes and understand: 1.The most important trends for the school 2.The priority needs indicated by the data, and 3.A reflection about why results look as they do.

27. Data Narrative for the School: Introduction (sample p. 8) Principal’s Message/Background about the School Information about the Data Inquiry Process – The following team participated in the data inquiry process in order to identify priority needs, goal focus areas, and root causes: – We examined the following results reports in our analysis:

28. Reflect & Discuss Use the Quality Criteria Checklist Read and comment on the Introduction portion of the Data Narrative Discuss with your table — – Does the narrative in the sample give the reader a good overview description of the school, the UIP process, and the people involved?

29. CDE’s UIP Sections (We will go over portions of red sections tonight)

30. Data Narrative for the School: Data Inquiry (sample p. 3) SCHOOL PERFORMANCE FRAMEWORK (SPF) PLAN ASSIGNMENT AND STATE EXPECTATIONS ON SPF INDICATORS School Performance Frameworks(SPF) from CDE Overall percent of SPF points earned was 75%, resulting in the following plan assignment from CDE (Check one): __X__ Performance Plan _____ Improvement Plan _____ Priority Improvement Plan _____ Turnaround Plan ABC Elementary met all SPF Indicators.

31. Trends It’s best to include at least three years of data, TCAP, TCAP Growth, ACT, Plan, Explore, Early Literacy,… Include positive and negative performance trends Identify where the school did not at least meet state expectations on the School Performance Framework (SPF)

32. Trends Could be:

33. Examples of Trend Statements The percent of 4th grade students who scored proficient or advanced on math TCAP/CSAP declined from 70% to 55% to 48% between 2010 and 2012. The median growth percentile of English Language learners in writing increased from 28 to 35 to 45 between 2010 and 2012. Our dropout rate has been stable (15, 14, 16) but much higher than the state average between 2010 and 2012.

34. Data Narrative for the School: Data Inquiry and Analysis (sample p. 3-7) Trend Statements and Data EXCELLENCE: CSAP Performance Median growth percentiles (MGPs) have increased from 2008 to 2011 in all areas, and dropped somewhat from 2009-10 to 2010-11, as shown in the table below. In Reading and Writing, MGPs increased from 41 to 48 and 35 to 54 between 2007-08 and 2010-11 school years. Reading decreased notably from 61 to 48 in the past two school years. In Math, MGPs increased from 35 to 54 between 2007-08 and 2010-11 school years and dropped three percentile ranks from 56 to 53 in the past two years. Median Growth Percentiles on CSAP/TCAP Historical Grades 3-4 and 4-5 Collapsed School year2007-20082008-20092009-20102010-1011 MGP Math43585653 MGP Reading41396148 MGP Writing35445854

35. Reflect & Discuss Use the Quality Criteria Checklist Read and comment on the Data Inquiry portion of the sample UIP (school performance on SPF indicators and Excellence, Equity, and Post-Secondary Readiness Data Trends) Discuss with your table — – Does the narrative and data present an easy to understand picture of performance trends in this building? – What suggestions might you have, reading this as a community member?

36. CDE’s UIP Sections (We will go over portions of red sections tonight)

37. Prioritize Performance Challenges The most strategic and important Performance Challenges that will form the basis for your school goal targets School communities must do a Root Cause Analysis for each selected Priority Performance Challenge

38. Performance Challenges Performance challenges are... Specific statements about performance Strategic focus for the improvement efforts About the students’ needs Performance challenges are NOT What caused the performance challenge Action steps that need to be taken Concerns about budget, staffing, curriculum, or instruction About what the adults need to do

39. What is a Root Cause? Statements describing the deepest underlying cause or causes of performance challenges. Causes that, if dissolved, would result in elimination or substantial reduction of the performance challenge(s). Root Causes ARE... About adult actions or behaviors, or orientations that caused the performance challenge (e.g., staffing, master schedule, curriculum, instruction) Strategic focus/foci for improvement efforts Root Causes are NOT About student actions, behaviors, or orientations Specific statements about student performance Goals Action steps that need to be taken

40. Summary of Priority Performance Challenges & Root Causes (sample p. 8-9) Verification of Root Cause: Data driven dialogue and analysis of data with teaching staff in staff meetings. In staff meetings and grade level team meetings, we identified several areas of priority need based on an exploration of our achievement data. We then used Thinking Map activities to arrive at related root causes.

41. Reflect & Discuss Use the Quality Criteria Checklist Read and comment on the Priority Performance Challenges and Root Cause portion of the sample UIP Discuss with your table — – Do the PPCs seem reasonable given the school data? – What suggestions might you have, reading this as a community member?

42. Data Analysis Process To inspire every student to think to learn to achieve to care Step 1: Activate and Engage Step 2: Explore and Observe Step 3: Explain and Target Step 4: Take Action and Follow Up Gather & Organize Data Narrative of Data Analysis Target Setting & Action Plans Priority Performance Challenge and Root Cause Identification Monitor & Evaluate Significant Trends, Data Summary

43. How Do We Support This Process? What can you do in your building to support your principal and staff in data inquiry and school improvement efforts? What could you do better or different? Debrief. Reflect & Discuss

44. Take Away Share this information. Share the best practices we’ve discussed. Make sure that you communicate your improvement efforts with your public.