Whitman-Hanson Regional School District School Improvement Plan HANSON MIDDLE SCHOOL 111 Liberty Street Hanson, MA 02341

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1 Whitman-Hanson Regional School District School Improvement Plan HANSON MIDDLE SCHOOL 111 Liberty Street Hanson, MA To Do the Best We Can in Everything We Do Each and Every Day

2 Hanson Middle School Council Members Name Title Address F. Joshua Belvis Teacher Jackie Brett Parent Diane Brown Parent Barbara Burke Parent Beth Donahue Smith Parent Cheryl Damon Parent Doreen Dow Parent Martin R. Geoghegan Principal Claire MacDonald Adjustment Counselor Helen Mastico Library/Media Specialist Marie McDonald Teacher Carol O Kane Parent jkokane129@comcast.net Maureen O Neil Parent maureen335@comcast.net Tina Siereveld Faculty tina.siereveld@whrsd.org Donna Vitello Community Member fnd.vitello@comcast.net Russell Young Teacher russell.young@whrsd.org Council Meeting Dates: September 24, 2010 February 15, 2011 October 26, 2010 March 22, 2011 November 30, 2010 April 26, 2011 December 21, 2010 May 24, 2011 January 25, 2011 June 14, 2011 Location: All meetings are held at the Hanson Middle School Library from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. 2

3 Hanson Middle School School Improvement Plan Hanson Middle School s Vision Hanson Middle School students are the future of our communities. Middle schools provide environments that address diverse academic, social, cultural, and emotional needs. Students, faculty, and administration continually meet new educational challenges and work to enhance each student s self-esteem. Students will be actively involved in their academic, personal, and ethical development. In addition, students will be encouraged to become responsible citizens of their community, country, and world. A climate of safety and security is essential to the teaching process. In order to maintain a safe and nurturing environment, all members of the school community will practice consideration for others, self-discipline, and self-respect. Hanson Middle School Mission Hanson Middle School is committed to providing a safe, respectful environment where all students will learn through a challenging, high quality education that fosters positive self-esteem, encourages individual achievement, responsibility, creativity, critical thinking, and effective communication skills that will produce responsible citizens and life-long learners. Guiding Beliefs We believe the Middle Schools in the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District: Value the importance of a safe and secure environment for all. Respect the dignity of the individual and promote personal interactions that value differences, diversity, and ethical behavior, affirm similarities and demonstrate openness and flexibility. Set high standards and expectations of and have respect for each student, teacher, parent, and community member as essential in a teaching and learning environment. Provide each student equally with challenging instructional opportunities to fully reach his/her potential. Are student-centered learning environments where initiative, innovation, and individual development are prized and where daily successes and mistakes are seen as part of the learning process. Encourage and support staff innovation, initiative, and professional development. Recognize the importance of broad-based communication and encourage the involvement of parents, community members, colleges, businesses and nonprofit organizations are integral to our communities, and our communities are integral to our schools. 3

4 School Descriptive Data Hanson Middle School serves approximately 500 students in grades 6 through 8. Our teachers strive to provide our students with rigorous and relevant learning experiences that will prepare them well for their academic career in high school and the future. Our school is designed in a team structure with two teams per grade level. Each grade level has currently 6 or 7 teachers with a team of three teachers and a team of four. On most of the teams of three, teachers share the teaching duties of Social Studies. Core academic subject teachers of math, science, language arts, and social studies meet daily to discuss curriculum and instruction, individual student needs, and team planning. We have a rich practical and fine arts program where students are encouraged to explore their interests in art, music, physical education, health, DARE, Spanish, and Technology Integration. Six periods on a five-day cycle are dedicated to these courses with the goal of providing students opportunities to investigate where their interests and talents may lie in different arenas. Our alternating schedule increases the consistency value for the specific courses per trimester. Within our schedule, we have an Extension period, where students go back to an academic teacher they had earlier in the day for enrichment, remediation, extra help, or special projects. These Extensions meet four days out of the five-day cycle. Hanson Middle School offers an array of co-curricular activities to support our students interests. We have an After School Program (ASP) for interested students. The ASP has a great selection of activities such as Basketball, Arts and Crafts, Cooking, Soccer, Guitar, Drama, and MCAS Prep to name a few. Our drama program produces a play every year, and any interested student may be part of the cast and crew. We have a rich performance music program, which includes such school groups of Mixed Chorus, The Guys Chorus, and Select Ensemble to Jazz Band and Concert Band. There is a variety of clubs ranging from our school newspaper and Yearbook to the Builders club and Student Council, which sponsors social events and activities for the different grade levels and the whole school. The building of relationships is fundamental to our mission at Hanson Middle School. Our staff has a clear understanding of the connection between a positive learning environment and student academic success. Our mission speaks to providing support and guidance as our students transition from childhood to adolescence. Teachers and support staff work diligently to cultivate a healthy and safe school where students are valued and respected. The three core concepts of our school are respect, responsibility, and reputation. At Hanson Middle School we are committed to work in partnership with parents to insure the very best for our students. We have a Hanson Middle School Council and a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) for the three schools in Hanson which meet monthly, as well as many other chances for parents to volunteer in a variety of other capacities throughout the year. In relation to our mission, we ask the students each and every day during the morning announcements for them to Do the best you can in everything you do today. If they do their part in doing their best, and we as a school do our best, only great things can and will happen. 4

5 Demographics Enrollment Data 5

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9 Assessment Data Hanson Middle School made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) for the first time in five years this past testing period (Spring 2010), but we know as a school that we must continue to improve in all tested areas for not only our own AYP status but for overall student achievement. For most of the past five years, we have had similar scoring trends for our students in an upward trajectory. The scores we look at most closely, besides students in Needs Improvement or those in Warning, is our percentage of students scoring in the Advanced and Proficient ranges. We keep looking to improve those percentages, and we always try to see how we rank according to how the rest of the state has scored. We want to always be above the state average for students scoring in the Advanced and Proficient ranges. We feel as though if we can keep ourselves above the state s averages then we are keeping up with the difficulty of the tests overall. We also want to continue to push our scores and percentages more positively. For example, in 2010, we had 65% of our 8 th Grade Math students score in the Advanced and Proficient (A/P) areas, compared to 63% in In comparison to the state overall, we scored 14 percentage points higher than the state in this category (65 to 51 percent). This is what we want; we want to continue to grow but also make sure we are keeping up with the trends of all eighth students across the state. Whereas in English Language Arts (ELA), we had a drop of 2%, as we scored 87% this year in A/P compared to 89% in 2009, but compared to the state, we were still nine percentage points above their average (87 to 78 percent). But inherent in these scores are facts that can be deceiving as well. For ELA, we have continually scored Very High for our Performance Rating, which is our ranking in the state and how all middle school students scored. So even though we are searching for ways to continually improve, the state and the NCLB requirements keep reporting 9

10 ideas that might leave someone to be confused. This past year was the first year we made AYP for we were finally able to get our subgroup of Special Education students to make the performance standard asked of us in Mathematics. By all accounts through DESE reports, we were one of only a select number of middle schools to make AYP out of the schools that have not in the past. But we are still labeled as a school with Corrective Action needed, for we have to score this way for two years in a row in order to qualify. This is one of our major goals again this year, but we acknowledge that as a school we are moving in the right direction and hope to continue on this path. MCAS Tests of Spring 2010 Percent of Students at Each Performance Level for Hanson Middle School * NOTE: Performance level percentages are not calculated if student group less than 10. Data Last Updated on September 14,

11 Hanson Middle School Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Data 11

12 MCAS Annual Comparisons * NOTE: Performance level percentages are not calculated if student group less than 10. Data Last Updated on September 14,

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15 Administrative Summary This School Improvement Plan serves as a blueprint of the actions and processes needed to produce school improvement for Hanson Middle School. It has been prepared with the School Council, staff of Hanson Middle School (HMS), and the. As a collaborative team, we have worked on this plan to help us in identifying what we need to improve on. We incorporated parts of the district s Strategic Plan to align it with the direction of the district as a whole. This plan will focus resource allocation, staff development, instructional content and practice, and assessment on the goals that have been established by the team. HMS will then focus many areas of staff meetings, staff in-service, staff recognition, and staff monitoring around the School Improvement Plan objectives. Since we have invested time in the development of a thoughtful, focused plan, we know this will pay dividends to our school over time. Hanson Middle School s School Improvement Plan s Goals are: To increase the Proficiency rate of all Hanson Middle School s population, specifically students with special needs, in all measurable MCAS tests: English/Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science and Technology by 1%; To continue to have more enrichment opportunities for the whole community at HMS by continuing the instruction of the foreign language of Spanish at the middle school level; and continued use and advancement of the Extension period times for enrichment activities; and To continue to educate our student body for the 21 st Century. These skills include but are not exclusive to: expansive understanding of major academic subject areas, global and environmental awareness, civics, health and wellness, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, informational literacy, media literacy, technological skills, flexibility, adaptability, initiative, self-direction, social skills, leadership, and responsibility; these proficiencies will be imbedded in all curriculum areas to help students in their future endeavors and the global world around them. 15

16 MCAS Improvement Goal Implementation and Action Plan Goal #1: To increase the number of students, specifically students with special needs, scoring proficiently in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science and Technology by 1%. Strategy Targeted Students Person(s) Responsible Resources Evidence of Implementation Timeline 1. Use IXL (web-based MCAS Prep program) concentrating on the Math subject test, but also teaching MCAS Test Prep strategies, numeracy, and testing vocabulary. All students in Grades 6-8 Special Education students MCAS subject area Teachers: Math, Language Arts, and Science Department Leaders Data Warehouse IXL Site License for all students MCAS Scores Student work IXL Teacher Reports on individual students and whole classes and grade levels August 2011 June 2012 Classroom Walkthroughs 2. Continue to utilize more technology in the classroom to gain greater engagement from students in their own learning, such as interactive Promethean white boards, CPS (clickers), netbooks, and other technological advancements. Same as above Teaching Staff Technology Department. Interactive Promethean white boards CPS (Clickers) Netbooks Aegom Interactive Software MCAS Scores Student work Trimester Exams Classroom Walkthroughs August 2011 June Track student use and performance on MCAS, IXL, and through Trimester Exams in Teacher PLCs (Professional Learning Community times). Same as above MCAS subject area Teachers Department Leaders Guidance Staff Data Warehouse IXL Data Trimester Exams Documentation of IXL records Trimester Exams August 2011 June Continue to incorporate MCAS Prep strategies in classroom activities and assessments, as well as utilizing Extension periods. Same as above Teachers Department Leaders Curriculum Maps DESE Website Data Warehouse Classroom Walkthroughs Teacher PLCs August 2011 June 2012

17 Enrichment Goal Implementation and Action Plan Goal #2: To continue to have more enrichment opportunities for the whole community at HMS. Continue the foreign language strand and completion of Spanish I at the middle school level (Grades 7 and 8). Continued utilization and advancement of Extension periods for Enrichment activities. Strategy Targeted Students Person(s) Responsible Resources Evidence of Implementation Timeline 1. Continue to offer and complete the Spanish 1 course at the middle school level (Part 1 of 2 in Grade 7 and Part 2 of 2 in Grade 8) and have Introduction to World Cultures for Grade 6 students. Grade 7 2 sections meeting 3 times a cycle (52 students) Grade 8 2 classes meeting 3 times a cycle (52 students) Grade 6 World Cultures meeting during Related course (all 6 th graders) Spanish teacher Budget Classes scheduled for two grade levels of Spanish to complete Spanish I and a Grade 6 World Cultures class for all August 2011 June Use Extension time for more enrichment activities. All Students Department Leaders Teachers Lego Robotics Kits Professional Development Teacher PLCs PLC Minutes Review by through observations and PLCs. August 2011 June Continue to offer After-School Enrichment Activities in our After- School Program. Available to All Students After-School Teachers After-School Program Review by after year of programming August 2011 June

18 21 st Century Learning Goal Implementation and Action Plan Goal #3: To increase our integration of 21 st Century Learning into our day-to-day instruction. 21 st Century skills include but are not exclusive to: expansive understanding of major academic subject areas, global and environmental awareness, civics, health and wellness, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, informational literacy, media literacy, technological skills, flexibility, adaptability, initiative, self-direction, social skills, leadership, and responsibility; these proficiencies will be imbedded in all curriculum areas to help students in their future endeavors and the global world around them. Strategy Targeted Students Person(s) Responsible Resources Evidence of Implementation Timeline 1. Incorporate more 21 st Century skills into all of our classes. All Students Teachers Department Leaders Technology Dept. Curricula Technology Integration class Technology Dept. Curriculum Guides Student Work Administrative Walkthroughs August 2011 June Continue utilizing Related Arts classes (Technology Integration) to help implement more technology within regular academic curriculum. All Students Teachers Department Leaders Tech Integration Teacher Curricula Technology Integration class Technology Department Curriculum Guides Student Work Administrative Walkthroughs August 2011 June Incorporate more collaborative group learning into curricula and into After-School Program. All Students Teachers Department Leaders After-School Program Director Curricula Professional Development Curriculum Guides Student Work Administrative Walkthroughs August 2011 June Continue integrating more social skill work in the students everyday school day activities: critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. All Students Teachers Department Leaders Technology Teacher Curricula Technology Integration class Technology Dept. WMS Curriculum Guides Student Work Student Projects August 2011 June