School Improvement Planning Assessing Student Learning Needs October 6, 2010 Robert Dunn Superintendent of Education York Region District School Board

Agenda for the Day 1.Develop the capacity to do a needs assessment and analyze your data. 2.From the data analysis, understand how to develop few SMART learning and achievement goals 3.Develop an understanding of how to monitor the SMART goals established 4.Build the capacity to identify critical School Effectiveness Framework indicators and have a process to develop the targeted evidence.

Helen Timperley, “Using assessment data for improving, teaching practice”, University of Auckland, New Zealand

What has been the impact to date of our improvement focus?

8 “The only way to increase student achievement is to change classroom practice.” “Principal leadership is second only to classroom practice on impacting student achievement.”

What Educational Outcomes are valued for our Students and How are our Students doing in relation to these outcomes? “With the emergence of our knowledge economy, the proportion of the labour force requiring some form of education or training beyond high school will increase dramatically.” by 2031 we will need 77% of our workforce to have post- secondary credentials (apprenticeship, university, college, industry, professional). Currently, about 60%, with our younger population (25 to 34 years of age) at just over 66% have post-secondary credentials. Rick Miner, “People Without Jobs - Jobs Without People”, February jobs-without-people-final.pdf

“Students decide in low grades whether to attend university or college, so targeting attitudes early is seen as critical”. “It was always the thing that we mentioned in my family. …Its an expectation that you end up going to university.” “What’s needed … is a strategy built into the elementary and middle-school years that encourages adolescents and teens to start choosing career paths with the possibility of attending college or university.” “If you want to bring under-represented groups into postsecondary education and give them the opportunity (provided by those qualifications) policies are going to have to start much earlier than they do now.” higher-education-earlier-than-thought-study-shows/article /

Assessing Student Learning Needs 1.Needs Assessment and Analysis of the Data 2.SMART Goal 3.Monitoring of the Achievement of the SMART Goal.

Questions of the Data Display the data – Elementary - by class and grade and division What data catches your eye? Is there anything in the data that you do not understand? If so, what would you like clarified? Is there anything about the data that you find surprising? What concerns you most about the data? How many of the students in each class/student focused data type are performing: (a) to the standard; (b) at level 2; (c) at level 1; (d) at the standard and moving to level 4? Enter each student on the following VENN for the class Focusing on the students at-risk (below the standard) and the students who are underachieving (working at level 3, could work at level 4), what are the area of strength and of greatest student learning need that will serve as the identification of the overarching student learning needs?

Video of planning process Step 3

CURRENT Level of Student Achievement at the Classroom Level ALL students in the school are included Level 1Level 2 Level 3Level 4 Teachers will enter each student in the Venn For combined grades, the names of students in the top grade are placed at the top of the Venn and the bottom grade at the bottom of the Venn (i.e. in a 1/2 combined class, the 1’s are at the top and the 2’s are at the bottom) NOTE: For exceptional students, each student’s achievement is in relation to the grade appropriate subject expectations with or without accommodations as reflected in the IEP. Place each student on the Venn circle relative to the achievement of grade appropriate levels not those that have been modified as set out I the IEP. Students with Alternative Expectations are placed to the left of the level 1 Venn circle Students at High Level 1, Low Level 2 Students at High Level 2, Low Level 3 Students at High Level 3, Low Level 4 Alternate Expectations

CURRENT Level of Student Achievement at the Grade Level ALL students in the school are included Level 1Level 2 Level 3Level 4 Each class will then aggregate this information at the grade level. Students at High Level 1, Low Level 2 Students at High Level 2, Low Level 3 Students at High Level 3, Low Level 4 Alternate Expectations

ABC Public School Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 Reading Teacher ___________ Grade _____________ Hillary Justin Lorne Kyle Shilo Mitchell Jessica Shelby James Samantha Justin Kaitlyn Colton Amanda Gage Justin W Dawson Logan Ana Dustin Jaden Austin Low 2 High 1 Liz Emily Paul Rob High 2 Low 3 Kira Taylor Chris High 3 Low 4 Thinking about the students at-risk related to their assessed strengths, needs and interests, what skills and knowledge do they need to learn and be able to demonstrate in order to bring them to standard? Thinking about the students who are underachieving and the role of students in the Instructional Core, what thinking tasks (or opportunities for thinking) do they need to allow them to work at Level 4.

Identifying our Student Learning Needs Using an analysis of the student level data, what are the identified learning needs which are the focus for school improvement?

ABC Public School Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 Reading Teacher ___________ Grade _____________ Hillary Justin Lorne Kyle Shilo Mitchell Jessica Shelby James Samantha Justin Kaitlyn Colton Amanda Gage Justin W Dawson Logan Ana Dustin Jaden Austin Low 2 High 1 Liz Emily Paul Rob High 2 Low 3 Kira Taylor Chris High 3 Low 4 Learning Needs /Strategies Learning Needs/Strategies Learning Needs/Strategies

Reflections Through the Equity Lens Equity matters – ALL students have a right to equal access to impactful education. The Equity strategy and the First Nations, Inuit and Métis strategy have as their focus improved student achievement. These strategies provide a lens which can support our deepening our understanding of the unique needs of some of our students. – What are the assets that will support their achievement? – What are our biases which impede our ability to set high expectations and meet these needs. We aggregate our response at both a school level and an individual level.

Aboriginal Students Assets Aboriginal students have demonstrated the capacity to learn at the same rate as non-aboriginal students in a study of oral language acquisition (Hill/Crevola – OLA Project) Volunteerism is a strong part of on-reserve life (70% of adults volunteered compared to 46% of adult Canadians). Elders play a significant role in supporting learning about culture and traditions Challenges In 2006, 40% of Aboriginal people aged 20 – 24 did not have a high school diploma, compared to 13% of non-Aboriginal Canadians In 2006, 41% of aboriginal people aged 25 – 64 had completed a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree (compared to 56% of non-aboriginal Canadians). However, only 8% had completed a university degree compared to 23% of non- aboriginal Canadians₁ Research has demonstrated a different pattern of high school diploma acquisition, with more breaks and a longer period of time for completion ₁

Background Labour Market Trends The Ontario Ministry of Education (2005) concluded that 81% of the new jobs created in the province between 1996 AND 2001 required management training, apprenticeship training or college or university diploma or degree. “Unless we take effective action to increase the proportion of skilled labour in our economy, we face a future with large numbers of unskilled workers looking for jobs that require skills that they do not possess”. Aboriginal participation in the workforce is significantly lower than for the rest of the population, from eight to 11 percentage points lower, depending on the age group compared.

/Challenges

Assets/Attributes/Challenges Assets/ Attributes: – Getting B’s in other areas of curriculum than language arts – Positive and hard working – Strong command of her first language (attends Saturday School for Cantonese) – Confident in math skills – Self-advocates regardless of subject or situation – Goes to temple every week – Takes piano and badminton each week. – Grandma and grandpa live with them Challenges Struggling in language arts, especially in reading fluency and comprehension No one at home to support with reading in English Parents work shirt work and are not always available to assist No one at home fluent in English In very focused on getting things right resulting in her unwillingness to take risks in reading

Responses/Interventions Class Level: Have her assist students who may be weak in the area of math Daily focus on reading Draw on strengths to find reading material that interests her. Reading buddies With the aid of an interpreter, arrange a meeting with the parents Encourage parents or grand parents to read to her in her mother tongue and provide translated questions to support comprehension Dual language books for parents School Provide scaffolded questions or translated questions based on Bloom and PD to help parents understand how to question their children in natural conversation Provide information about adult ELL classes in the community Consider hosting adult ELL classes at the school. Case management to monitor achievement Community Establish parent groups in different languages and engage parents in these groups. Community support for literacy instruction in English and their first language Board Support translation resources Engage community settlement workers to build parent groups to support language acquisition Seek funding to support more locally based adult ELL classes and find space for these classes as a priority. Build data set that supports schools to identify the racialized communities in individual schools and build leadership capacity to better understand the assets and challenges of these groups within an Equity framework.

Student Learning Need “Students will integrate the reading strategies when responding to reading comprehension tasks and use higher order/ critical thinking skills.” Creating the SMART Goal

Setting Targets for Improvement In , what was the percent of students at standard in reading in: Grade 3 Grade 6 This is your BASELINE. In a model of continuous improvement, we would expect the results for this year to improve from this baseline.

Target setting Examine the Venn for each grade which you completed In relation to the data for grade 3 and grade 6, how many students will need to be at standard to have the same result as last years EQAO? Which students will have to move to standard in order to achieve the same baseline as last year? In the context of continuous improvement, which students could move with effective classroom instruction between now and May? Identify the number of students who will be at standard by May, What percent does this represent of the students in grade 3, grade 6? (Remember, in a grade 3 class, moving 2 students represents an improvement target of 10%) THIS IS YOUR TARGET FOR IMPROVEMENT. Thinking about each student, the target for improvement applies across the entire grade. Which students in addition to than those moving to standard do you expect to move by May? Highlight these in yellow.

Target setting Grade 3 % of Students at standard on EQAO LAST year _____ Grade 6 % of Students at standard on EQAO LAST year _____ Current Enrolment ___ Number at Standard to match last years achievement _____ Who are they (highlight on Venn) Who are the additional students who can move to the Standard? (Highlight on Venn) Percent Above Last years results? (This is your improvement Target for Grades 1 - 4)* Current Enrolment ___ Number at Standard to match last years achievement _____ Who are they (highlight on Venn) Who are the additional students who can move to the Standard? (Highlight on Venn) Percent Above Last years results? (This is your improvement Target for Grades 5 - 8)*

ABC Public School Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 Reading Teacher ___________ Grade _____________ Hillary Justin Lorne Kyle Shilo Mitchell Jessica Shelby James Samantha Justin Kaitlyn Colton Amanda Gage Justin W Dawson Logan Ana Dustin Jaden Austin Low 2 High 1 Liz Emily Paul Rob High 2 Low 3 Kira Taylor Chris High 3 Low 4

Continuous Monitoring What are the practices which will support a continuous monitoring process?

Helen Timperley, “Using assessment data for improving, teaching practice”, University of Auckland, New Zealand What has been the impact to date of our improvement focus?

Identifying our Student Learning Needs Assessing School Impact What does our examination of school level data tell us about eh overall impact that the school is having in on current student achievement? Using an analysis of the student level data, what are the identified learning needs which are the focus for school improvement?