2. Braintree Public Schools Six Elementary Schools MCAS Improvement Intervention Robert M. Belmont, Jr. Director of Special Services Braintree Public Schools 128 Town Street Braintree, MA 02184 781-848-4000 Ext. 5 or with email rbelmont@braintreema.gov rbelmont@braintreema.gov

3. Problem Statement For school year 2008-2009, the six Braintree Elementary Schools are “underperforming” as defined by DESE in either ELA or math or both ELA and math for the subgroup of students with disabilities in grades 3-5. How will each of the six elementary schools improve the subgroup rating as well as each student in this subgroup from underperforming to performing/proficient by June of 2010?

4. Problem Summary Care: The district concluded that all six elementary schools were DESE MCAS underperforming in ELA and/or math for the subgroup students with disabilities in grades 3-5 for 2008-2009. We must improve! Relate: The stakeholders are the students, parents, elementary-middle- high school staff and administration, Directors, Asst. Supt., Supt., School Committee, SEPAC, and Concerned Citizens. Examine: For school year 2008-2009, the six Braintree Elementary School are underperforming as defined by DESE in either ELA or math or both ELA and math for the subgroup of students with disabilities in grades 3-5. How will each of the six elementary schools improve the subgroup rating as well as each student in this subgroup from underperforming to performing/proficient by June of 2010? Acquire: The district has an educated and trained Asst. Supt., Director of Mathematics and Director of Special Services in Professional Learning Communities. The Director of Mathematics is exemplary in MCAS analysis. The Director of Special Services is highly skilled in facilitating full day workshops. Both the Director of Mathematics and Director of Special Services facilitated 2006-2008 Braintree Middle School workshops that supported staff to move one restructuring middle school to be recognized by the Rennie Center for Outstanding Unanticipated MCAS ELA and math improvement for the subgroup of students with disabilities in grades 6-8. The help we received was full endorsement from the Braintree Supt. of Schools and Asst. Supt. of Schools.

5. Try: What was our intervention strategy?

6. Welcome to our Braintree Elementary School MCAS Workshop

7. Welcome to our Highlands Elementary School Mathematics, ELA, Special Education, & MCAS Workshop Workshop Objectives: To examine MCAS results. To use student profiles in the content areas of mathematics and ELA as defined by MCAS evaluations. To analyze our current use of evaluation, assessments, and accommodations. To mutually agree upon action steps to improve all students’ MCAS performance.

8. Our workshop is intended for you! Workshop Activities for October 20, 2009: []9:00 a.m. Overview of the Day from 9:00 a.m. - 2:50 p.m. []Openings Words of Inspiration from Our Administrators []Analyzing MCAS Questions [] 9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Break []Analyzing Gap Scores [] Analyzing Individual Student Data []11:50 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Lunch []12:30 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Reflection []1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. MCAS and MCAS-Alt [] 1:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Next steps – What should we do for implementation, PLCs, training, $resources to advance each student’s learning to attain ELA, mathematics and science proficiency at Highlands Elementary School?

9. Evaluation/Results: What happened? (Show us your data.) After each elementary school full day workshop, all of the data was recorded by the Director of Special Services in a summary report form and emailed to the six elementary school principals by the next morning to be shared with the staff for their impressions and decisions for grade level and school wide action plans. A copy of each of six elementary school report was also emailed at the same time to the Supt. of Schools, Asst. Supt. of Schools and Director of Mathematics for review and consideration. An executive summary of best practices for all six elementary schools was emailed to each elementary principal, Supt. of Schools, Asst. Supt. of Schools, and Director of Mathematics for review and consideration. On November 10, 2009, a meeting with the Supt. of Schools, Asst. Supt. of Schools, six elementary school principals, two middle schools, high school headmaster, Director of Mathematics, Director of Special Services, Director of Science and Technology, Director of Social Science and Technology. Director of Guidance, Director of Foreign Language, Director of Family Consumer Science and Physical Education, Director of Fine Arts, Director of Music Education and Athletic Director was held at BHS to discuss the success and challenges of the six elementary full day workshops and how all Directors can support the implementation of of each of the six elementary school plan to improve the subgroup of students with disabilities MCAS results in grades 3-5.

10. Extend and Renew: What will you do to keep things going? The Director of Mathematics and Director of Special Services will conduct a series of six school based January 2010 meetings to support each school’s grade level and school action plan. The Supt. and Asst. Supt. will include the topic of data progress for the subgroup at each of their elementary school principal meetings for November – June 2010. The Supt. of Schools and Asst. Supt. of Schools have committed to celebrate in June 2010 the success of the students, parents, staff, and administration to advance all students including students with disabilities to “proficient” for school year 2009-2010.

11. Lessons Learned Learning for a student with a disability improves when, three (3) principles of Inclusion are evident… 1.)There is a strong partnership between general education teachers and special education teachers as well as a strong partnership between general education administrators and special education administrators. 2.) Together, general education teachers and special education teachers, evaluate individual student’s learning and benchmark progress on an on-going basis thru the use of formative assessment with “Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment = CIA” in mind. 3.) Resources are provided to support general education teachers and special education teachers in making sustainable change to improve student learning. Based on the above principals, each six Braintree elementary school has a strong chance to improve their grade 3-5 MCAS results for all students especially the subgroup of students with disabilities by June 2010.