A newsletter for employees in the Enrichment Region

For past issues, click here.

Spring 2010

In this issue, you will find:

• A message from the superintendent
• A message from the executive director
• PBS Progress
• Mock EOG in the ER
• Enrichment Region Achievement Model – A New Vision for Academic Excellence
• Technology Desk

From the Superintendent

One of the key strategies developed from my entry plan activities included “school talks.” At each school, I meet with staff, students and parents to obtain feedback on how to strengthen school outcomes. All of the “school talks” will be completed this month. Each school receives a report from the visit that will be compiled into a final report drawing common themes. For example, two common themes so far have been discussions around our assessment model and Standard Mode of Dress (SMOD).

To continue to foster expectations for excellence, the following five key strategies have been established to raise student achievement, increase parent and community involvement and improve district service:

• The regional superintendent will conduct “school talks” at each school to meet with staff, students and parents to obtain feedback on how to strengthen school outcomes (Launch Date: January 2010)
• Each feeder pattern cohort will host at least two collective community summits to connect the communities that share the same feeder pattern and enhance community relations. (Launch Date: September 2010)
• An employee recognition program will be developed to highlight and affirm employee accomplishments. (Launch Date: August 2010)
• Each school will implement a school-wide positive behavior structure (PBS) with a strong emphasis on clear routines and procedures with frequent affirmations of positive behavior. (Launch Date: September 2010 )
• Each school will employ a comprehensive collaborative assessment for learning model designed to measure and report student mastery to inform instructional practice. (Launch Date: January 2010)

From the Executive Director

For the past few months, staff members from Andrews, Dudley and Smith high schools have been diligently working to ensure the successful completion of North Carolina Exit Standards for all 12th-grade students so they are able to graduate from high school. Principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, graduation coaches and teachers have created plans for any senior who has yet to pass one or more of what has become known as the “Big 5” courses. These courses are Algebra I, English I, Biology, Civics and Economics and United States History. In order to meet the graduation exit standards, students must not only pass the course, they must also pass the End-of-Course test associated with the course and counts for 25 percent of their final grade.

In order to do this, educators have been working to ensure all senior students who lack one or more of the “Big 5” courses are in fact registered to be in the appropriate course(s). Each school has identified the number of students who are in need of these courses, and those numbers are as follows:

• Andrews: 44 seniors
• Dudley: 55 seniors
• Smith: 69 seniors

Staff developed plans to monitor the progress of each student and monitoring will continue throughout the remainder of this school year. Some of the strategies schools are using are as follows:

• Odyssey courses- an online computer program that allows students to work on individual objectives in each of the Big 5 content areas. Students can use this program to earn credit for courses they failed in the past, or as a tutorial for objectives they are having difficulty mastering.
• Grade recovery- students who have failed courses in the third quarter have been given the opportunity to recover/replace assignments that they failed or were incomplete. This can be done through teacher-made assignment packets or by using Odyssey. Times are set aside before and after school to allow students an opportunity to finish these assignments.
• Parent, teacher/student conferences- each of the students who have not met one or more of the Big 5 exit standards is being “academically tracked.” School personnel, including counselors, graduation coaches, teachers and administrators, are tracking the grades and attendance of each of these students. When there are concerns, the school will contact parents/guardians to set plans in place for the student(s) to be successful.

There are other strategies that have been established and are currently in place, but these are a few of the highlights. It is our goal to get as many of these students, if not all, to successfully complete each course as well as pass the End-of-Course test needed to graduate from high school. For more information, please contact Dr. John Eldridge at eldridj@gcsnc.com or 370-2360.

PBS Progress

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a key approach in the Enrichment Region. PBS is a school-wide initiative with a strong emphasis on clear routines and procedures, and also with frequent affirmations of positive behavior. Affirmations include recognition of positive student-to-student, student-to-adult, adult-to-student and adult-to-adult interactions. Each school in the Enrichment Region has a PBS team at their site to facilitate implementation of the model.

This spring, all schools were evaluated on their implementation using the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET). The SET is a measure of specific features of PBS implementation at the Universal (primary prevention) level and is administered each spring in the district. For an overview of SET, click here. Implementing PBS is a process. Therefore, there is no expected timeline for achieving certain scores. Our goal is for our schools to strive each year to implement the practices and systems of PBS with fidelity. Our PBS coaches work with schools to guide and assist them through this process. While there is room for improvement, many of our schools scored high on the SET standards.

Click here for SET scores for eight of nine schools in the Enrichment Region for spring 2010. One school, Jackson Middle, did not have a SET conducted this year given that they met the criteria to move to a different assessment in 2009. Click here for SET scores from 2009 for the five schools in the Enrichment Region that were implementing PBS last school year.

If you have questions, please contact Dr. Ferebee at 433-7192.

Mock EOG in the ER

The week of April 12 was a very exciting time in the Enrichment Region. The three elementary and three middle schools administered a mock End-of-Grade (EOG) test in Reading and Math. The mock EOG test allowed the schools to simulate the EOG testing experience. This test encompassed the many skills students will be assessed on when they take the actual EOG test. Schools will be using the mock data to create an EOG Review plan to outline the objectives for review during the last three weeks prior to the EOG. The Enrichment Region math and reading coaches will use the review plans to determine what instructional support to provide to schools as they prepare for the EOG test, which will be administered during the week of May 11. For more information, contact Rita Elliot, formative assessment coach, at 433-7195.

Enrichment Region Achievement Model – A New Vision for Academic Excellence

During the spring of 2005, Judge Howard Manning presiding over the Leandro school finance suit mandated that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) provide assistance teams to high schools with an academic performance composite below 55 percent. This mandate led NCDPI to identify 44 high schools as low performing because of 2005 performance scores below 60 percent, three of which were Enrichment Region schools—Dudley High School, Andrews High School, and Smith High School. These schools were required by Judge Manning to adopt and implement a researched based reform model to address:

• quality classroom instruction,
• competent leadership and
• resources in each school so that students who are not proficient in reading and other subjects will have equal opportunity to obtain a sound basic education as required by the North Carolina Constitution and the ruling of Leandro.

Our three high schools selected the John Hopkins Talent Development Model (TDM). The TDM is a whole school reform approach designed to improve student achievement in urban schools. Through implementation of this model, our schools yielded improvement in the areas of graduation and student retention. Unfortunately, due to budget restraints and mixed student achievement results, we are no longer able to sustain our partnership with TDM.

In order to continue our plight in providing a sound basic education for all students, the enrichment region has elected to pull our district resources together and develop our own achievement model. The outline for the development of this model is listed below :

Upon feedback from each Site Based Advisory Team, the Project Team began developing our new achievement model. Our goal is to implement the model in phases as the team and schools have an opportunity to work effectively together to plan and build the support and resources for each component. At this present date, we have confirmed that the following components will be integrated in the 2010 – 2011 school year:

The Enrichment Region is very excited about the opportunity to build our own framework for action to address the academic needs of our students. We feel confident that through the efforts of what we’ve learned from our implementation of TDM, research of other effective reform programs, and the research of schools who have implemented effective strategies and achieved significant increases in student achievement, we will be able to create an achievement model that will produce positive results in all of our high schools. As we continue to build on this new model, we will continue our partnership with all school community stakeholders. It is through the efforts of all working together that the Enrichment Region Schools will achieve excellence. For more information regarding this article, please contact Mrs. Charlos Smith Banks, student services administrator, at (336) 433-7192.

Technology Desk

“A Journey of Discovery . . . New Adventures Every Day”

For those of you who may not be familiar with the NCTIES conference, it is the North Carolina Technology in Education Society conference held annually the first week in March. This year’s theme was “A Journey of Discovery . . . New Adventures Every Day!” It is an educational technology conference for educators looking for strategies to collaborate, best practices and resources to integrate 21 century skills. The conference is held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

This year’s session focused on a variety of topics including open source software, collaboration and hardware. Gail Holmes, technology coach for the Enrichment Region, presented on strategies for moving to a paperless classroom using a variety of tools and resources to motivate and promote inquiry learning. The move to a paperless classroom can be challenging for students as well as teachers. Teachers must use creative strategies for grading so that documents can be returned in a timely manner. For example, macros could be created to provide comments; open source documents could be used for team collaborating, e-mail addresses must be assigned, etc. Students must learn how to multi-task practice internet etiquette and be responsible computer users.

Because it is important that teachers provide students with activating strategies to encourage active participation in the lesson, resources were provided to assist teachers in creating culturally reflective activities. Websites for building vocabulary were shared to help develop a base of knowledge for mastering the lesson. Tools for collaborating and outreach served as a basis for seeking best practices and building a network for continual growth. Online video sites were provided to develop the cognitive domain and provide analysis of lessons learned over an expanse of time. Begin your journey of discovery by exploring the website, http://nctiesonline.pbworks.com , and take the challenge to integrate one of the 21 st century strategies, tools and resources into your classroom. For more information, contact Gail Holmes at 370-2347.