MD6AssignCCornwell
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The document discusses how Newsome High School created an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) to help support teachers' use of data-driven instruction and literacy standards. It describes how the ILT collects data from departments to identify areas for improvement. The goal is for teachers to evaluate the assessments they use to identify useful data for monitoring student progress in order to better target instruction. At professional development sessions, teachers will learn how to report the appropriate assessment data from their PLCs to the ILT to facilitate campus-wide improvements in literacy.
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MD6AssignCCornwell
- 1. Peer Learning Communities and Data Collection: A Better Understanding of How to Use Existing Data to Drive Instruction Chad D. Cornwell November 22, 2014 Walden University
- 2. As Hillsborough County Schools (SDHC) prepares the transition from FCAT 2.0 (Floridas Comprehensive Assessment Test) to the FSA (Florida Standardized Assessment) test and with newly implemented literacy standards that reach across curriculum, including history, math, and science; teachers are in greater need of peer support with regards to data-driven instruction and assessment. Starting in the 14-15 school year Newsome High School created the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) whose purpose is to support and monitor faculty data specifically addressing student improvements in student literacy. Newsome High School serves students in a predominantly upper-middle class in a rural area of Hillsborough County. Reading comprehension test scores for the past three years are above the district average, falling second to only one school for the percentage of students who pass the FCAT reading comprehension test. Newsome collects data about four individual early warning indicators (Newsome High School, 2014): attendance, suspensions, ELA/Math course failure, and level 1 achievement on state-mandaterd tests. A total of 197 students in grades 9-12 demonstrated at least two indicators. The first goal established in the School Improvement Plan (SIP) is student achievement will increase when students work with rigorous curriculums which prepare them to successfully meet content area standards and state standardized test (FSA) pass rates (Newsome High Shool, 2014). Foci are on achievement rates in math and English/language arts (ELA) on the new FSA test beginning in March 2015. Goals were set for 82% for math and 77% for ELA tests. Barriers to achieving these goals, defined in the SIP are department needs for consistent PLC (peer learning community) meetings, a lack of time committed to successful PLC meetings, and the lack of a steering committee whose responsibility is to monitor and help departments use PLC time successfully.
- 3. Combining the School Leadership Team (SLT) and Literacy Leadership Team (LLT) into one Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) answers the need for a steering committee whose responsibility is to provide direction and accountability for faculty. In 2014 the ILT was created, meeting monthly and charged with collecting data from departments in areas of literacy and campus climate needs. The ILT is comprised of teacher representatives from each department, school counseling, and administration and is jointly chaired by one member of administration and Newsomes reading coach. Development of the new ILT was priority number one in creating a new approach to PLCs at Newsome. This goal addresses the needs of barrier 1 linked to goal number 1. A newly redesigned PLC form was reviewed by faculty and edited throughout the first quarter to ensure that faculty felt confident in its use. The new PLC form addresses the priority, supporting collaboration about curriculum that includes lessons, pacing, and assessment and uses students work samples so that adjustments can be made to ensure rigor is a focus of instruction. One complaint that continues to come from PLC meetings is the reporting of data to the ILT. ILT discussion centers on the facultys view that this is additional responsibility and adds to their workload, and that faculty are unsure of what data the ILT is requesting. A new learning opportunity exists for faculty to collaboratively identify assessments they use regularly in their classroom and to compare those assessments throughout the department and across the school campus. Each assessment provides data for instruction and each teacher should be able to speak to the individual needs of each student on their roster. Teacher evaluation of those assessments that they currently use within their classroom instruction, and recognition of the data that already exists for Newsome students helps to generate buy-in for the data required for PLCs that is reported to the ILT.
- 4. Because the ILT has existed for almost one semester and has been working with the new PLC logs the focus must be on how teachers use assessments and data on the PLC logs so that ILT can best use data to drive instruction campus-wide. The objectives are for faculty to strategically evaluate assessments that are used in the classroom, within individual departments, and school-wide. Focus will be on assessments that provide data that can be used to monitor students in the lower quartile based on state-wide assessments, students who are evaluated for attendance and discipline needs, and those assessments that can be used across the curriculum so that teachers are speaking the same language. Evaluating assessments used in each classroom and comparing those within departments and synthesizing those assessments that can be used across departments promotes collaboration among teachers and eases the stress regarding data brought to PLCs and submitted to the ILT. As a school Newsome should identify a singular PLC focus across the campus and allow each department to interpret how they teach and assess that focus from month to month. With the new demands of the FSA test and the newly incorporated Florida State Standards the focus has been placed on student literacy. At the conclusion of the professional learning session each teacher, PLC leader, and department head should have a clear understanding of the assessment data that will be included on PLC logs and reported to the ILT monthly. ILT members from each department will assess how data is reported every month and monitor students in the lower quartile for growth and improvement on classroom, department, and state-mandated assessments. Working jointly with the Response to Intervention (RtI) team a data-driven and cross-curricular approach to student learning can be implemented for students in need, supported by the entire faculty and every teacher who interacts with those students.
- 5. Professional Learning Communities Making PLCs work for you Newsome High School 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 REFERENCES Newsome HighShool.(2014). 2014-2015 SchoolImprovementPlan Draft. Lithia:FloridaDepartmentof Education.