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Critical Elements and Data Sources According to the state of North Carolina, The principal of each school, representatives

of the assistant principals, instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and teacher assistants assigned to the school building, and parents of children enrolled in the school shall constitute a school improvement team to develop a school improvement plan to improve student performance. Parents serving on school improvement teams shall reflect the racial and socioeconomic composition of the students enrolled in that school and shall not be members of the building-level staff. (Instruction, 2013) There should also be school information on the schools strengths, what the weaknesses are so they can be improved on, what information is missing, how you will gain this data, and the top priorities or goals that need to be implemented. Once they have this information they use it to create their goals for the school. According to the state, schools should start with their goal that is the highest priority. They must specify what the area of improvement is and the data that supports the need for the improvement. The report must also include what the target in the goal is, such as reaching a specific percentage in fluency level for kindergarten students, how you will know when this has been accomplished and when the school will have this goal accomplished or target date. Following this, the school provides the strategy that they will implement to meet the goal and the action steps that make up that strategy. (Instruction, 2013) The state suggests that the schools have professional development to help implement the strategies the school will use to meet the goals. This section includes what staff or individuals will go through the professional development, the name of the courses, workshops or events that they will need to attend, who is teaching the professional development, and when it is to be completed. Once the first goal has been laid out the school needs to do the same for all of the following goals. (Instruction, 2013) The state of North Carolina has provided a number of data sources that they suggest when developing a School Improvement Plan. A number of the key data sources are available on the NC Public Schools website. On this site you can find the EOG (End of Grade), EOC (End of Course), the schools demographic data that involve student discipline (Instruction, 2013) as well as demographic data that involve drop out and graduation rate. The state also recommends using data from the HQT (Highly Qualified Teachers), the schools report card, the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey results, North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey: Guide to School Improvement, local data such as grade-level assessments, Career and Technical Education Local Plan, other school demographic information not listed earlier, School Perception Information, Title III AMAO School Process Information, Ready

Schools Inventory/Ready Schools Plan, Special Education Continuous Improvement Plan, Title I AM Reports, and the Healthy Active Children Initiative. (Instruction, 2013) Analysis The first page of Patriots Elementary Schools SIP (School Improvement Plan) states the schools vision, Mission statement, and belief statements as well as the county the school is in and the year that the SIP is intended to be used. On the next page the SIP describes the schools demographic that includes, the racial breakdown of the student population, percentage of students on free and reduced lunches, and how many students are at the school this year compared to last year, and the intended number of students that will be attending the following year. The school has included a chart that shows the key requirements laid out by the state and an indication that they had been accomplished, followed by the Principals and SIT Chairpersons digital signature per the requirements set out by the state. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014, pp. 2-3) The critical elements of a SIP are present in my schools SIP. Following the signatures there is a list of the people that are part of the School Improvement Team members with their positions next to their names. The school has followed the requirements of having an assistant principals, instructional personnel which they have the AP Instruction person for, they have one teacher from every grade, and two teacher assistants as members. They also have five parents listed, but I am not aware of the parents demographical information at this time, so I am not sure if they fit that part of the state criteria. When I talked to my CT about the SIP, she said that the team members volunteer and have a two year commitment that they must finish with in the team. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014, p. 3) Before the goal is listed they have listed the target, data that supports the strategy, strengths, opportunities for improvement, and information/ data that you do not have (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014, pp. 4-5) which are all required components of a SIP by the state. In the provided data they include the rankings for Patriots Elementary, Cabarrus County, and North Carolina. The schools SIP also includes the goals, the target start and date of completion, how the goal will be met, the data that will be collected, the action steps, and the person who is responsible for the action step. They do this for all of the following goals as well, keeping within the requirements from the state. School Needs and Goals The following are the needs and goals that have been set for this year by the SIP team members. SMART Impact Goal (3-year projection): By June 2014, Patriots Elementary students will increase math fluency from 65.8% to 76.2%, as measured by Goal 1 of the

NCEOG. SMART Fidelity Goal (3-Year Projection) By June 2014, Patriots Elementary students will increase math fluency from 65.8% to 76.2% as measured by Goal 1 of the NCEOG. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014) Discovery Education Winter Benchmarks reports that were done in February of 2013 the school ranked higher than the county, but was still under 66% proficient in math fluency for third to fifth graders. The goal has been set to the percentage that it has been to make it an attainable goal. With the action plan that has been put into place the school should be able to raise the math fluency 5%-10% higher than it is currently. SMART Impact Goal (3-year projection): By 2015, students in kindergarten through 2nd grade will be 90% proficient in reading based on running record data and the percentage of students in grades 3-5 that are proficient in reading by will increase 6.7% from 73.3% to 80% as measured by the NCEOG. SMART Fidelity Goal (3-Year Projection): By 2015, students in kindergarten through 2nd grade will be 90% proficient in reading based on running record data and the percentage of students in grades 3-5 that are proficient in reading will increase by 6.7% from 73.3% to 80% as measured by the NCEOG. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014) According to the reading EOG results, Spring 2013 Discovery Education Benchmark Data and the Springs AIMS Web Data, the schools highest percentage in any given grade is 83%. This percentage ranks close to the counties percentage, and higher than the states percentage, but drops down to 48.7% in some areas. SMART Impact Goal (3-year projection) Math Fluency (School Improvement Plan Goal 1) By June 2014, Patriots Elementary 3rd 5th grade students will increase math fluency from 65.8% to 76.2%, as measured by Goal 1 of the NCEOG. Reading Fluency (School Improvement Plan Goal 2) By 2015 students in kindergarten through 2nd grade will be 90% proficient in reading based on running record data and will increase the percentage of students in grades 35 that are proficient in reading by 6.7% from 73.3% to 80% SMART Fidelity Goal: By June 2016, Patriots Elementary will be at the prepared level for 50% of the overall attributes on the Elementary School STEM Attribute Implementation Rubric. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014) The school is a currently in its first year as a partial STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) The SIP states, Currently, we have self-assessed ourselves at an early level according to the NC STEM Attribute Implementation Rubric. (Elementary, Patriots STEM Elementary, 2014, p. 23) The steps that will be taken to strengthen the STEM program will also help when the school becomes a full STEM school next fall. The school will be changing to a PBL format

this year to align the different aspects of the STEM program, which in turn will help prepare teachers for next Fall. As in the other goals that have been set the school is ahead of the county and state in many areas and close to them in other areas. The new PBL format will help improve the schools percentage through the action steps that will be implemented this year. Professional Development One of the professional development opportunities this year will be a workshop teaching the Investigations Math Program to teachers. In this workshop taught by Persons will instruct teachers on how to use the online resources and games within Investigations. (Elementary, Elementary PD February and March, 2014, p. 2) This will help with the math fluency goals that the school has in their SIP by giving the teachers other resources then the book to use in their lessons. There are a few workshops that are scheduled to help the school meet their reading fluency goals as well. There will be different workshops based on the grade level the teacher teaches to help target the specific grades that are in need of assistance. One of the workshops that are specifically for third grade teachers is the Read to Achieve for 3rd Grade workshop. This workshop is designed to instruct the teachers on Read to Achieve legislation. One of the other trainings will be Reading and Responding to Text. This training session is to help teachers in ratcheting up their students stamina, text complexity, and written responses across the school year. Additionally, it will explore ways to incorporate technology. (Elementary, Elementary PD February and March, 2014, p. 3) The technology integration will help with the STEM goal and the students being able to read with more stamina, text complexity, and the ability to give written responses will help with the reading fluency goals in all grade levels. Bibliography Elementary, P. S. (2014, January). Elementary PD February and March. Retrieved Febuary 18, 2014, from Patriots STEM Elementary: http://www.cabarrus.k12.nc.us Elementary, P. S. (2014, January 15). Patriots STEM Elementary. Retrieved Feb. 18, 2014, from School Improvement Plan: http://www.cabarrus.k12.nc.us/domain/1106 Instruction, D. o. (2013, October 8). School Improvement Planning Guide and Template. Retrieved January 31, 2014, from Department of Public Instruction: http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/councils/lea/previous/templates/

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