School Improvement Planning 2011-2012

by Tom Mulligan

Riverton School District Sets Strategic Targets for the 2011-2012 School Year

School Improvement Process

The Riverton school district has again started its’ annual school improvement process. This process is designed to lead the district staff in analyzing the district's unique challenges and strengths and participating in a planning process that allows for continuous improvement each year. The district has four main long-term strategic objectives with supporting measures and targets. These measures and targets allow the district to monitor progress and determine ways to improve programs that will lead to increased performance for each individual student in the district.

Click on the link below to access more information on the school improvement process:

School Improvement Process 2011-2012

Strategic Objectives for 2011-2012

There are four main areas of focus for the strategic objectives for the 2011-2012 school year, which means there will also be measures and targets in those areas as well. Those areas include:

Improving . . . .

Reading and Math Achievement
Student Discipline Achievement
Student Engagement
Teacher Skills and Engagement

There are two references to engagement in the strategic objectives. “Engagement” is defined for students as the “extent of commitment to achieving” and for teachers it is the “extent of commitment to accomplishing the district strategic objectives.”

Looking at Information

The first step in the planning process includes a SWOT analysis. This analysis includes a review of information (data) about the school district and the community. This information includes demographic data, such as trends in enrollment, mobility, attendance, poverty, financial information, special education population, community characteristics, etc. The staff also reviews student discipline data and student achievement data from a variety of sources. Those sources include all state assessments, including the ISAT test for grades 3-8 and the PSAE test for grade 11; MAP Assessment results that is used 3 times a year for all students in the district; DIBELs assessments; etc. The analysis also includes a review of the district's performance on the district balanced scorecard from the 2010-2011 school year. Some of the major findings from the review of last year's scorecard include:

The Middle School and Elementary School received the coveted “Fully Implementing” designation from the PBIS Network and the high school received a designation of “Emerging,” which is the leading score for any high school in the State of Illinois.
A substantial reduction in high school major discipline referrals and out of school suspensions.
The district met 7 of the 8 district targets for student discipline.
An overall increase the percentage of high school students meeting College Readiness Standards on the EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT assessments.
An overall reduction in the number of students at the elementary school considered at-risk on the DIBELs assessment.
The elementary school had over 90% of the non special education students meet and/or exceed on the state assessment and had 97% meeting in math. These are the highest numbers in seven years of ISAT testing.
The district met over 60% of the scorecard targets for reading.
Both the middle school and the high school saw an increase in the percentage of students participating in extra-curricular activities
The district met 8 out of 9 of the teacher quality targets
95% of the district teachers stated they were satisfied with the school district, which is an extremely high percentage.

For more results and detailed information from the SWOT analysis, click on the link below to access the power point.

Data Analysis

Planning for Improvement

Once all of the information is analyzed, the team determines strategic challenges, which are the most significant factors that the district must overcome in order for all students to achieve. The team (board and administrators) then revise the strategic objectives (those should directly address the challenges identified earlier) and sets the district scorecard targets. This was completed at the August school board meeting.

Each building then takes the district scorecard targets and develops building targets and action plans, which represents each building's school improvement plan. These action plans include step-by-step activities that will be done in each building to accomplish targets.

Each building is working on an action plan for Reading, Math, Discipline (PBIS), Student Engagement (with a huge focus on real world problem solving using technology and increased involvement in extra-curricular participation), and Teacher Improvement/Engagement. Once all of the action plans are completed, the board will approve the plans in September and each building will work to accomplish the action plans and meet targets.

Click on the link below to view the district's scorecard targets

Scorecard Targets

Main Strategic/Activities Being Employed

Some of the main strategies being employed throughout the district in an attempt to meet the district scorecard targets are:

Continuation with the focus on reading comprehension strategy instruction at all levels
Focus on non-narrative, non-fiction text at all levels (this is heavily called upon in the new state of Illinois Academic Standards – Common Core Standards)
Implementation of the recommendations for improvement from the district–wide Math Program Review completed a year ago
Expansion of the concept of “Release of Responsibility” for students and for differentiation for teachers to meet the needs of all learners, including high achieving students.
Continued focus on building and principals used individual student assessment data to drive instruction for individual students
Focus on increasing student engagement through the use project based learning, using technology to solve authentic real world problems
Increased academic and behavior intervention services for students at all grade levels
Continued implementation of the PBIS Framework for student discipline