A Workshop for Richland One School District Setting a Course for Improvement

Identifying SIC Area(s) of Focus Review goals and strategies in current school improvement plan. Identify other school priorities not listed in the school improvement plan. Other areas identified by principal/ teachers/staff/SIC members Review SIC areas of interest from prior year. 4. Review other data of interest. E.g. school report card, school climate survey results, etc. Narrow down your list to one or two areas of focus. Steps to developing an SIC “Area of Focus.” The area of focus can be fairly broad, e.g. family engagement, attendance, student achievement in a particular subject, etc. I generally suggest that SICs make a list of the topics they are interested in working on as they work through each of these steps. Once they have a comprehensive, list, they can use strategies like letting everyone vote for their top three, and continuing to narrow the list in that way until they identify one or two areas of focus that everyone can live with. Fort Mill uses slightly different terms for these areas: Teaching and Learning Continuous Improvement Leadership and Communication Safe, Supportive, Inviting Schools

Where do we find school improvement goals? School Renewal Plan Focused on Three (3) Broad Areas: Student Achievement Teacher/Administrator Quality School Climate School Reading Plan required by Read to Succeed is also incorporated into the School Renewal Plan

Key Components of School Improvement Plan Assesses school needs in each of the 3 performance goal areas. Sets long and short term goals in each area. Includes strategies and action plans for each goal. Identifies measure of yearly progress for each goal.

Interim Performance Goals Performance Goal Area: School Climate Performance Goal (desired result of student learning) The percentage of students, teachers, and parents satisfied with the learning environment, physical environment, and home-school relations as measured by the Annual Report Card will increase to 100% by 2020-21. Interim Performance Goals See interim performance goals below Data Sources Surveys from School Report Cards, Parent Contact and Visits, Parent Nights and Workshops, Attendance Records, Leadership Team Evaluation Overall Measures Measure Average Baseline 2016-17 2017-18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 Learning Environment Interim Goal 87% 90% 57.0% 62.4% 67.8% 73.2% Actual 88% Social and Physical Environment Interim Goal 78.2% 80.4% 84.0% 84.8% 87.0% 89.2% 82% Home-School Relations Interim Goal 75.6% 78.0% 82.8% 85.2% 87.6% 65% Use this as an example to explain what school improvement goals look like and what the different items mean.

Action Plan Strategy #1: Create a comprehensive framework to address students’ physical, emotional, and mental health including strategies to promote positive behaviors. Action Step (List the processes to fully implement the strategy. Include professional development, scientifically based research, innovation initiatives, etc.) Timeline People Responsible Estimated Cost Funding Source Indicators of Implementation 1. Continue to implement effective Bullying Prevention Programs in each of the schools including anonymous reporting. August 2016-July 2021 Principals, Guidance Counselors N/A Decreased discipline referrals, schoolwide policies and practices. 2. Implement a Character Education program at each school including Bullying Prevention Mechanisms and Dress Code adherence. $1,500 Local Funds My Learning Plan attendance records, class schedules, and lesson plans. 3. Implement Positive Behavior Intervention incentives August 2016 - July 2021 Principals, Director of Special Services $3,000 Decrease in discipline referrals, visible positive incentives, student participation in recognition programs. 4. Annually administer parent satisfaction survey to obtain satisfaction results and to better guide decision making process. August 2016 – July 2021 Director of Instruction, Technology Coach Survey results, plans adjusted with feedback. 5. Provide suicide prevention training to all certified staff before next certification renewal. August 2016- July 2021 Director of Special Services Jason Flack Suicide Prevention training certificates. 6. Strengthen the Advisor/Advisee curriculum in grades 6-12 for a minimum of 30 minutes per week. Director of Special Services, Principals Lesson plans, observations, decreased referrals/ 7. Utilize community agencies to address student needs Guidance, Principal, AXIS 1, counselor, mental health State Referral forms 8. Address aging facilities (20-50 years old) to ensure student safety as well as educational appropriateness and utilization of technology for next 15-20 years. Superintendent, Principals, Bd. of Ed, Community, Facilities task force. New facilities Use this example to show what an action plan might look like and what information to look for.

SIC Exercise Break into your individual SIC groups and review the list of goals, strategies, and action plans on the handout. 1. Look at the Action Steps under Strategy #2, #4 and #5. Find some actions steps that an SIC might be able to help with. 2. Look at Strategy #3 and Strategy #7. Can you think of some action steps in addition to the ones already listed that an SIC could take? SICs can adopt goals, strategies and actions directly from their school improvement plan. This exercise is intended to help SIC members learn how to do that.

SIC Exercise Break into your individual SIC groups and review the list of goals, strategies, and action plans on the handout. 1. Look at the Action Steps under Strategy #1. Find some actions additional steps that an SIC might be able to help with. SICs can adopt goals, strategies and actions directly from their school improvement plan. This exercise is intended to help SIC members learn how to do that.

Once your SIC has an area of focus, ask the following questions: Needs: What information or data do you already have about the area you want to improve? Which students should you target with your activity? What additional information would help you understand the problem better? How might your SIC collect this information? Who might the SIC consult? Use a concrete example such as an SIC that wants to focus on improving attendance. The bottom line is that you want SICs to try and identify what the cause or causes of their particular attendance problem is before they set goals and plan activities. They may be able to find out through existing data, or they may need to collect some data. They may also need to ask someone with expertise on this issue or look at a website like “Attendance Works” to get some sound guidance on how to approach this issue. The more that they understand the problem, the better able they will be to choose an action that will be effective in achieving improvement.

Goals and Objectives: Actions: Goals are broad statements of the results your SIC wants to achieve. Objectives identify what needs to change in order to achieve your SIC’s goal and how you will measure that change. Actions: Programs or activities that the SIC will implement to achieve its goals and objectives. E.g. Goal: To improve student attendance at our school; Objective: Student absences in grade 2 will decrease by 5% by the end of this school year as measured by classroom attendance records. An action might be to create an incentive program for good attendance.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

SC School Improvement Council Center for Educational Partnerships USC College of Education Columbia, SC 29208 803-777-7658 or 800-868-2232 Email: sic@mailbox.sc.edu Visit us on the web at sic.sc.gov