FISHER SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2016-2017
Fisher School School Council Membership 2015-2016 Bunny Balabanis Patricia Connell Lisa Grasso Jennifer Noble Jackson Julie Martin Susan Porter Lisa Van der Linden Colleen Duggan Community Representative Kindergarten Teacher Grade Three Teacher Parent School Counselor Parent Parent Principal
FISHER SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT Fisher School honors all children while building a foundation for lifelong learning. Core Values We are a respectful and inclusive community. We provide a safe environment where responsibility and honesty are expectations. We engage students with a challenging and rigorous curriculum. We believe learning is a partnership between school, family, and community. We are dedicated to continuous improvement. With effective effort and perseverance, students will achieve successes. We encourage risk taking, as mistakes are an integral part of learning. We foster the development of confident learners who can contribute to their community and find success in a diverse and evolving global society. Based upon our progress this year, the updates to the district Strategic Plan, our assessment data, and the results of the Fisher School survey, our goals for the 2016-2017 school year are as follows: Goal 1- To expand opportunities for all students to maximize individual achievement Provide all students and staff with a learning environment that promotes safety, well-being, and diversity -Continued work with our staff regarding our security plan and proactive approach towards safety -Safety Care renewal for staff -Instructional Support Team continue to implement strategies of the FAIR plan outlined in Behavior Code Companion as a framework to work with students with general anxiety or behavior challenges. Continue to help students at the point of difficulty through our Response to Intervention -In an effort to become culturally proficient, we will examine who we are from the inside out, taking a look at ourselves and how best to welcome and learn more from our diverse population Goal 2- To ensure balanced and rigorous curricula measured by authentic assessment which informs instruction and demonstrates student growth - Emphasize the mastery of Power Words in Mathematics for K-5 - Implementation of new Science Standards K-5 - Use of DDMs to inform our instruction- challenge students who meet the benchmark and support students with intervention strategies
-Writing across the curriculum pilot common writing prompts and rubrics administered in Sept. Jan. and May for K-5, establish benchmarks per grade level Goal 3- To build family and community support and engagement through effective communication with multiple opportunities for involvement in the school and town programs -Share Homework guidelines per grade level with parents -Re-examine student- led conferences (second one of the year) -Network parents to promote increased involvement in children s education Goal 4- To maximize opportunities provided by technology to enhance teaching and learning and efficient operations - Continued and integrate the use of Typing Agent in grades 2-5 into writing across the curriculum - Investigate the environment of Blended Learning and how to upgrade our curriculum units. Goal 5- To identify, secure and responsibly manage school resources to support educational objectives of the school. - Completion of Basketball court - Investigate the repurposing of the computer lab into a multi- purpose creative space, i.e. maker space, project base learning projects involving blended learning Our grade three through five students took the ELA and Mathematics computer-based Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, PARCC this spring. Our fifth grade took the MCAS Science Technology and Engineering Assessment. At this date, these results are not available. Our District Determined Measures of DIBELS, DRA and Study Island data follows:. DIBELS and DRA scores- Grade 1-8 students on roster for Reading Specialists support / 6 students receiving Sped support for reading DIBELS and DRA scores- Grade 2-15 students on roster for Reading Specialists support / 3 students receiving Sped Support for reading
DRA scores- Grade 3-5 students on roster for Reading Specialists support/ 10 students receiving Sped support for reading DRA scores/ Study Island scores - Grade 4-7 students on roster for Reading Specialists support / 3 students receiving Sped support for reading Study Island scores- Grade 5-13 students on roster for Reading Specialists support / 2 students receiving Sped support for reading Grade 3- ELA Total Proficient- Reading Literature [12] Reading Informational Text [12] Vocabulary Interpretation and Use [6] Total 70.3% 68.9% 84.9% 72.6% P Grade 3- Math- Total Proficient Sub-Claim A: Major Content [18] Sub-Claim B: Additional and Supporting Content [8] Sub-Claim E: Fluency [4] Total Total [30] 75.4% 66% 87.6% 74.6% P
Grade 4 ELA- Total- Proficient Reading Literature [12] Reading Informational Text [12] Vocabulary Interpretation and Use [6] Total 69.7% 73.1% 68.7% 70.9% P Grade 4 Math Total- Proficient Sub-Claim A: Major Content [18] Sub-Claim B: Additional and Supporting Content [8] Sub-Claim E: Fluency [4] Total 70.3% 78.8% 95.1% 75.9% P Grade 5- ELA- Total Needs Improvement Reading Literature [12] Reading Informational Text [12] Vocabulary Interpretation and Use [6] Total 73.5% 67.4% 65.6% 69.5% N
Grade 5- Math Total Needs Improvement Sub-Claim A: Major Content [18] Sub-Claim B: Additional and Supporting Content [8] Sub-Claim E: Fluency [4] Total 66.8% 68.3% 83.2% 69.4% N The MCAS results of Advanced (ADV) and Proficient (P) per grade level are as follows: MCAS 2015 Results Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 89% P or Adv. - ELA 79% P or Adv. ELA 85% P or Adv. - ELA 92% P or Adv. Math 81% P or Adv. - Math 82% P or Adv. Math 83% P or Adv. - Science MCAS 2014 Results Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 72% P or Adv. - Reading 75% P or Adv. - ELA 86% P or Adv. ELA 83% P or Adv. - Math 65% P or Adv. - Math 77% P or Adv. - Math 81% P or Adv. Science MCAS 2013 Results Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 76% P or Adv. Reading 63% P or Adv. ELA 93% P or Adv. ELA 83% P or Adv. - Math 64% P or Adv. Math 83% P or Adv. - Math 94% P or Adv. - Science
MCAS 2012 Results Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 73% P or Adv. Reading 80% P or Adv. - ELA 86% P or Adv. ELA 73% P or Adv. Math 80% P or Adv. - Math 77% P or Adv. Math 88% P or Adv. Science MCAS 2011 Results Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 80% P or P+ Reading 73% P or Adv- ELA 85 % P or Adv. ELA 84% P or P+ Mathematics 65% P or Adv. Mathematics 79 % P or Adv. -Mathematics 76 % P or Adv. Science. We will analyze the data from the 2016 PARCC and evaluate this baseline data in reading comprehension, writing open responses, and mathematics. We will analyze the scores from our fifth grade MCAS Science, Technology and Engineering and build upon our strengths and continue to remediate our weaknesses. Alternate specialized curriculum tools and programs, Wilson Reading, Project Read Story Form, Project Read Phonics and Project Read Written Expression, ST Math, and Number Worlds will be used with students with significant challenges. All Kindergarten through Grade 5 teachers worked closely this past school year with a math consultant, Christine Moynihan, focusing on incorporating the Standards of Mathematical Practice (SMPs) into our daily lessons and unit design. Reflective conversations emerged about differentiation instruction, use of wait time, classroom discourse, use of non-routine problems, and small group guided math instruction that targets students learning on deep understanding of our base ten number system. We need to teach for transfer. The development of problem solving strategies i.e. make a list, guess and check, draw a picture, use logic, work backwards was a goal for our grade 3 and 4 teams. We introduced Battle of the Books to our school community this year in an effort to create and sustain conversations among students about good books, appealing authors, or intriguing book series throughout the months of Feb. through May. We had 114
grade 3-5 students participate. Several teachers and aides coached teams weekly. We will have a fall battle starting in October 2016. We have published a book selection for our students this summer on our website of the thirteen books for the battle. We are in the seventh year of implementing the Empowering Writers program and students have benefitted from the explicit instruction to improve students writing in Grades two through five using the Essential Guides to Writing. Ready to Write is the Kindergarten and grade one component of Empowering Writers and this program has enabled students to express their ideas in complete sentences through explicit instruction and guided practice. This year we will host an author in residency program with Gregory Mone. Greg is a children s author and science writer. He will work with our students K-5 on expository / persuasive writing pieces using the expository writing pillar from Empowering Writers. PLC work will continue with teams focusing on students engagement with the curriculum answering the four questions: What do we want all students to know and understand? How will we assess their learning? How will we respond when students do not learn? (Interventions) and How will we respond when they already know it? (Enrichment) The work will include building curriculum units following the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework. Our work will be creating units of mathematics instruction on the critical areas outlined in the frameworks. We will continue our work integrating the eight Standards of Mathematical Practice in our instruction to develop a strong sense of number for our students. With our goal of preparing students for college and careers, we will use the units by design framework (UbD) to engage students to develop enduring and transferable understandings in mathematics. In ELA the students will build knowledge through reading fiction and content-rich informational texts. Our focus will be close reading of complex texts. Through modeling, think alouds, scaffolded questions and prompts, and interactive shared reading, teachers will guide students to read like detectives and write like reporters. Our questions will ask students to read, and reread text, annotate text, and uncover meaning. Each reading assignment will be viewed as a pre-writing assignment to reinforce the strong connection between reading and writing. Students will have an opportunity to write narrative, expository, and opinion pieces. In Science Technology and Engineering our teams will collaborate to design authentic common assessments and rubrics to measure a students proficiency towards the standards. We will implement the Massachusetts Science Technology and Engineering Standards as they focus on the following three elements in the strands of Earth and Space, Life Science, Physical Science and Engineering and Technology: Relevance: Using knowledge and skills to analyze and explain natural phenomena and designed systems Rigor: Purposeful engagement with practices and concepts Coherence: Building a coherent storyline over time toward more sophisticated scientific and technical models
We will implement the new science standards and review the model curriculum units posted on the DESE website as we prepare our lesson and units with the frameworks. Our school counselor, Mrs. Julie Martin, and her elementary colleagues continue to create UbD curriculum units incorporating the social thinking curriculum with specific grade level objectives for classroom guidance curriculum that are aligned to the MA Health Standards. A database continues to be created with lesson plans for each unit. Many teachers continue to take courses and attend conferences to improve and extend their knowledge of curriculum planning and pedagogy. Teachers are taking courses throughout the summer on guided mathematics, responsive classroom, blended learning and Units by Design. Fisher s PAC continues to be very supportive of the educational process. PAC has purchased chrome book cart and chrome books, a water filtration system and contributed to classroom enrichment projects, the garden and basketball court. Parents volunteer their time and their work has provided valuable learning experiences for the students through presentations, Docent, Reading Incentive and Family STEM nights. We continue to write grants for our school garden and plan fundraisers for the completion of our basketball court.
Fisher School Action Plan Form I. To expand opportunities for all students to maximize individual achievement Objective # 1: Provide all students and staff with a learning environment that promotes safety, well-being, and diversity Action Steps 1. Continued work with our Crisis Team, security plan and proactive approach towards safety Person(s) Responsible Principal, Crisis Team Begin August 2016 Completion Projected Expenses 2. Continue with programs that promote health and wellbeing. (BOKS, After- school Enrichment, Student Council, Fitness Month, MARC) 3. Safety Care certification renewal for staff Principal, School Counselor, PE Teacher, Teachers, parents Principal, Classroom Teachers, School Counselor, teachers Sept. 2016 4. Use of the FAIR plan (outlined in Behavior Code Companion) as a framework to work with students IST Team members, Principal Sept 2016 5. Use of faculty meeting and or early release for professional development on the topic of the culturally proficient school community Principal and Fisher staff Sept. 2016 Indicators of Accomplishment: IST data, schedule teachers for Safety Care renewal, parent, student, and teacher survey results, Behavior Code and Behavior Code Companion read by IST members and interested staff
Fisher School Action Plan Form Goal 2. To ensure balanced and rigorous curricula measured by authentic assessment which inform instruction and demonstrate student growth Objective #2.1: Using a backward design approach, design units of instruction with measurable outcomes and challenging tasks requiring higher order thinking skills that enable students to learn the knowledge and skills defined in the state and federal standards for mathematics. Action Steps 1. Teachers will use the components of Understanding by Design to design units of instruction including essential understanding, assessments, rubrics, activities, etc. Person(s) Responsible Principal, Classroom teachers, MSNs, Begin Completion Projected Expenses Cost of Substitutes 2. Continue to use the STMath.com with our students in the DLP classes and students with ELL needs to promote math concepts in the classroom 3. Emphasis on writing in response to readingexpository and opinion writing- use of grade level common prompts and rubrics. Author in residency- March 2017- Gregory Mone Principal, Classroom teachers, DLP teachers, MSNs, ESPs Principal, classroom teachers $5000 $3800 4. Emphasis on grade level mathematic vocabulary. District wide lists created and students use of power words to internalize and use appropriate vocabulary during discourse and problem solving. 5. Implementation of 2016 Science Technology and Principal, Math Consultant, Teachers Principal, teachers, ESPs September 2017
Engineering Framework Indicators of Accomplishment: 1. High degree of correlation between students proficiency on SBRC and state mandated testing. 2. Student achievement as indicated by DDMs, formative and benchmark assessments, term grades, common assessments, Study Island, PARCC and the Growth Model. 3. Data analysis to determine domains that may need additional time and support 4. Science assessments and rubrics
Fisher School Action Plan Form Goal 3: To build family and community support and engagement through effective communication with multiple opportunities for involvement in the school and town programs. Action Steps Person(s) Responsible Begin Completion Projected Expenses 1. Communicate Homework Guidelines Principal, teachers July 2017 2. Re-examine student- led conferences Principal, staff Sept. 2016 3. Network new families with school resources, PAC events, programs, after-school enrichments 4. Encourage students and families participation in town/district programming- i.e. Children s Chorus Principal, staff Principal, staff Sept. 2016 Sept. 2016 Indicators of Accomplishment: Increased participation at school events and PAC meetings, survey results
Fisher School Action Plan Form Goal 4: To maximize opportunities provided by technology to enhance teaching and learning and efficient operations Use of Google Applications Action Steps Person(s) Responsible Principal, Teachers Begin Sept. 2016 Completion Projected Expenses Use of Baseline Edge for the formative and summative evaluations and storage of artifacts for the Educator s Evaluation Principal, PLC teams Use of Typing Agent Principal, PLC teams Ongoing Blended Learning Principal, TSS, teachers Sept. 2016 Ongoing TBD Indicators of Accomplishment: 1. Streamline observation feedback and timely conferences with teachers 2. Three times a year students will complete the universal screening Study Island and DDM -receive timely score and useful feedback in terms of next steps for instruction. 3. Blended Learning Task Force
Fisher School Action Plan Form Goal 5: To identify, secure and responsibly manage school resources to support educational objectives of the school. Action Steps Work with Building Maintenance for classroom preparation for 2016-2017 school year. (Kids carpet for playground, carpets cleaned, replace pulley system for stage curtain ) Person(s) Responsible Principal, teachers, PAC Begin July 2016 Completion November 2016 Projected Expenses Projects supported by PAC and budget (basketball court) Principal, teachers November 2016 Adjustments to Projectors Repurpose computer lab- look at a multi- purpose creative space, i.e. maker space, project base learning projects involving blended learning Principal, Building Maintenance Principal, TSS, Technology Director, teachers August 2016 January 2017 TBD Indicators of Accomplishment: Completion of jobs