Professional Learning Communities and Response to Intervention Yorktown High School Action Plan

Focused thinking… Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. ---Henry Ford

The beginning… High School history Leadership roles Faculty and staff roles Student roles Parent roles Community roles How do we inspire students, parents and staff to strive together for excellence? and

Joining Yorktown High School Summer of 2009 Personal and professional history with YCSD Development of entry plan focusing on culture, faculty, staff, and students Goal setting Elementary educator leading a high school Development of trust Relationship building

YHS Goals and Objectives Build a professional learning community which focuses on collaboration, use of data, and progress monitoring Educate faculty and staff about Response to Intervention Increase student achievement under the RTI lens Create a positive teaching and learning environment for all under the PBIS lens

Creation of RTI Team Surveying of faculty and staff --- seed dropping Creation of RTI team Immersion into latest research What is RTI Why RTI How RTI can benefit YHS Training with Jim Wright Solidify the team

RTI Consultant Erin Ax—district funded Guidance Department Teacher Coordinators Learning Center Staff Administrators RTI team Focusing on: What is RTI Role and impact at the secondary level

Team Decision Formally present Response to Intervention to the faculty and staff What is RTI RTI common terms Tiered model Why RTI What can RTI do for YHS Future Steps Introduction of RTI team

Motivation Discussion buzz about how RTI will impact our work at YHS How do we help students to succeed when so many aren’t motivated Creation of a schoolwide definition of motivation

MOTIVATION What it means at YHS Motivation is a self-driven pursuit of an intrinsic or extrinsic goal.

Year One Reflection Reflections and Next Steps Goal setting for school year Targeting grade 9 Restructuring of Learning Center Restructuring of Study Hall Curriculum Development Summer work YHS Goals Professional Learning Communities Creation of YHS’s first Study Group for 2010 – 2011 school year focusing on teaching of literacy Teacher Coordinator Study Group—PLC’s

Summer Work Collaboration with middle school to review incoming ninth grade data Creation of an English Skills and Special Education English Skills classes for grade 9 Meeting with Teacher Coordinators Meeting with Guidance Department Restructuring of Learning Center Restructuring of Study Hall along with curriculum development focusing on topics such as study skills and organization and progress monitoring targeting students Progress monitoring document Creation of English 11 collaborative class

YHS Plan Sharing Presentation of RTI goals to: Building and district administrators Faculty and staff Parents Targeted students Presentation

Professional Learning Communities Study Group Introduction of Professional Learning Communities to Teacher Coordinators Bi-weekly meetings with Teacher Coordinators to discuss curriculum updates focusing on RTI and PBIS DuFour’s book distributed and monthly discussions of text Still a work in progress Newest text purchased and will be distributed this month

Buildingwide Study Group We’re all teachers of literacy Teacher volunteers Meet twice monthly Do I Really Have To Teach Reading? I Read It, But I Don’t Get It Sample chapter summary

Maintaining Momentum… Erin Ax visiting YHS consistently… Meeting with Teacher Coordinators Meeting with Guidance Department Meeting with RTI team Meeting with Learning Center staff Meeting with Study Hall Staff Meeting with Administrators

RTI Team Recommendation Erin Ax formally addresses entire YHS Learning Community

RTI Team Reflections Team debriefs focusing on… Next steps Continually meeting RTI goals Essential question: How do we ensure, work collaboratively to meet the individual needs of each learner?

RTI Team Next Steps… Run progress report and/or report data of grade 9 students receiving a “D” or “F”

RTI Team Data Review Collaboratively review data Discuss data What do we do with data

RTI Team Recommendation Creation of “Student Review Data” document Document purpose: Before we can make recommendations to support students, we must engage in intimate conversations with classroom teachers.

Student Data Review Document

What do we do with this information? We need to dig deeper! Creation of Student Intervention Plan Document Student Intervention Plan Document

Building Trends Closer and deeper look at building trends What are we collectively recognizing Students are struggling in specific areas: Homework Motivation Extra help

RTI Team Framework Continued immersion into latest research Development of YHS RTI Framework Tiered Interventions at YHS

Framework Presentation Present to RTI team Present to Erin Ax Reflect and revise with RTI team

RTI Team Decisions Review of building trends focusing on: Extra help Motivation Homework Team collectively decides to target EXTRA HELP as an intervention.

Next steps Survey entire YHS Community… “How do you motivate students to come for extra help?”

Extra Help Intervention Continue present practice of making students aware of extra help sessions by posting within classroom, department offices, website and/or verbally discussing Creation of “Extra Help” bulletin board Extra Help sign in sheet Provide Teacher Coordinators and Guidance Counselors with list of targeted students Free Template from

Simultaneously Happening… PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Supports) Team was formed consisting of teachers, social worker, guidance counselor, and an administrator Attending training and meeting buildingwide to process new learning

How do we ensure YHS Community support? RTI changes happening PBIS changes happening Brief overview of PBIS to faculty and staff Share that we will survey entire YHS learning community

What are your schoolwide expectations for positive behavior?

RESPECT

RTI Team Next Steps Extra help focus How do we begin to collect data on the effectiveness of extra help? How do we share our new learnings with our YHS community? Team decides to present at next faculty meeting

Faculty Meeting Update RTI and PBIS update presentation

Next Steps… Continued work with Erin Ax Data analysis RTI and PBIS teams joint goal setting Reflection and review of work Sharing of best practices at faculty meetings Communication and collaboration with YHS community

Action Plan Document Action Plan

Reflection Be the change you wish to see in the world. ---Gandhi