Data Overview Sandtown Middle School 2015 - 2016 Lydia Hordges ITEC 7305 Fall 2015

Purpose The intended purpose of this presentation is to give a detailed overview of the Spring 2011-2014 CRCTs in the areas of English Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies for Sandtown Middle School with district and state comparison of such data as well as demographic information. This data and narrative will highlight strengths as well as weaknesses and emphasize key areas in which academic improvement is needed most. The intended audience is the administrative team and faculty of Sandtown Middle School and will be delivered as a Nearpod presentation. The data used to present this overview was acquired from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. http://gosa.georgia.gov/report-card

Enrollment Enrollment continues to rise at Sandtown. With the redistricting of the community, numbers will start to decline for the 2015-2016 school year.

Demographics Sandtown Middle School is located in Southwest Atlanta and was built in 2004. Sandtown is a Title 1 middle school that serves approximately 950 students in grades 6 - 8. Sandtown Middle has a staff of 113 which is made up of 80 interdisciplinary teachers, 12 special education teachers, 10 para professionals, and 11 support staff including school administration. Sandtown is 98% African American, 1% Hispanic, and 1% Bi-Racial.

Economically Disadvantaged The number of students receiving free and reduced lunch is slightly increasing with enrolment but we are still just under 50%.

Content Overview Sandtown’s strengths are in the areas of Reading and Language Arts where we have single digit DNM percentages; however, we struggle in the areas of Science and Social Studies.

Content Overview SWD The areas of strength for Students with Disabilities are Reading and ELA; however, they are considerably lower than the school as a whole in these areas. Weakness are Science and Social Studies as they are with the rest of the students in the school. The number of students who Met and Exceeded in Math dropped dramatically in 2013-2014.

English Language Arts Although Sandtown’s strengths are Reading and ELA, when we compare ourselves with the District and State over the past three years, we fall short of being comparable with the District in Exceeding but remain relatively constant with the State.

Math Sandtown along with the District and State remain below 20% of DNM proficiency with Sandtown being slightly above the District and State. We fall extremely behind the Exceeds proficiency which indicates we need more programs to enhance our mathematics department.

Reading Sandtown has remained below 5% in DNM and has out performed the State the previous two years and scored equally this last year. We are strong in the area of reading but we are out performed in Exceeds proficiency by both the District and State.

Science Science is a weak area for not only Sandtown students but for the District and State as well but we lead them both with DNM percentages. We have remained consistent for the last two years with DNM and a combined Meets and Exceeds percentage.

Social Studies Social Studies is a weak area with all the students at Sandtown, including SWD as well as the District and State. A closer look at the domains which are causing the weakness and examining the curriculum to ensure instruction is aligned with the standards is needed prior to devising an action plan.

Summary According to our most recent Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) results, our school performed well in some areas and struggled in others. Ninety-six percent of our students met and/or exceeded the standard in the area of reading, and 93 percent of our students met and/or exceeded the standard in the area of English Language Arts but we still trail the District. On the other hand, we noticed that students with disabilities were not meeting grade level expectations in areas of science, social studies and math. We also noticed that not enough students were exceeding standards in all content areas

Focus Questions As we move forward in forming and working in our Data Teams, let us be vigilant in our efforts to analyze data and construct action plans that address student-learning problems in our classrooms. Remember to let the data drive your instruction and consider the following questions when designing your lessons. What can we do in the areas of Social Studies and Science to raise student performance? Can our Instructional Coaches assist teachers with acquiring resources and modeling lessons for our students? What programs can we initiate to assist students with Science and Social Studies? Is our instruction aligned with the standards? How can we begin to teach with rigor while still meeting students needs? Will the aid of digital tools increase student achievement and how can we use these tools in the classroom? Will consistent use of personalized learning and adaptive learning programs and software bridge the achievement gap in mathematics?