1. Nottingham West Elementary School
Providing the Foundation for SUCCESS

2. Goal Setting District Goal (through the Focused Monitoring Process):
By June, the Hudson School District students will demonstrate improved achievement in reading and math through the implementation of a Response to Instruction (RTI) framework including:
Implementation of a universal screening tool in gr. K-10
Provisions of professional development for all Hudson School District staff who work with students in the interpretation and instructional use of data
Differentiation of instruction to meet the needs of disabled students and their non-disabled peers

3. School Goal:
By the end of the school year, students at each grade-level will show high academic growth in the areas of Reading and Math, with 90% of students achieving at or above the 69th%ile (predictor for SBAC, high achievement) in Math and 85% of students achieving at or above the 49th%ile in Reading on the spring STAR assessment.

4. Nottingham West: Grade-level data (goal:90%), using cut scores of 40th%ile
5th Grade:
Math – (‘15)143/156 = 92%, (‘16)151/172 = 88%
Reading – (‘15)129/155 = 83%, (‘16)135/173 = 78% 4th Grade:
Math – (‘15)152/167 = 91%, (‘16)139/153 = 91%
Reading – (‘15)142/170 = 84%, (‘16)127/151 = 84% 3rd Grade:
Math – (‘15)135/147 = 92%, (‘16)112/133 = 84%
Reading – (‘15)112/149 = 75%, (‘16)101/134 = 75% 2nd Grade:
Math – (‘15)122/134 = 92%, (‘16)119/151 = 79%
Reading – (‘15)110/138 = 80%, (‘16)106/149 = 71%

5. Steps to Success/Focus School
State the problem of practice your team will be focusing on? The problem of practice identified through our end of year assessment data is that student achievement/growth in Reading is not where we set our goal and is lagging behind our achievement in Math.
Throughout our innovation plan, we will outline several changes in practice to support our goal of increasing student achievement in Reading, including shifting our intervention service model from a pull-out model to a push-in model and redesigning our ELA instructional block to focus more on individualized instruction. We also feel by making the switch to push-in support, students that would have normally been pulled for special education services or additional intervention services will be receiving their individualized instruction in the classroom where they are still part of the core curriculum while reducing unnecessary transitions. However, decisions on push-in vs. pull-out will be based on student need.

6. Problems of Practice [PoP] Results
PoP1: Lack of continuity between core instruction and pull-out support services, including special education (achievement gap).
PoP2: For Reading, limited amount of teaching and learning using each student's individualized, independent Reading level to support Reading growth (continuing to be our focus).

7. The principal participates actively in the school teams.
Principal Leadership
The principal participates actively in the school teams.
Teachers are organized into grade-level, grade-level cluster, or subject-area instructional teams.
Teachers will meet throughout each month in PLC teams, including special education case managers to discuss curriculum, interventions, and alignment to best support students.
The principal provides timely, clear constructive feedback to teachers.
The principal will conduct walk-throughs on a daily basis and provide feedback to staff on classroom environment, instructional pedagogy, and effectiveness of intervention, push-in services. Each teacher will receive at least one observation throughout the course of the school year to ensure formal feedback to staff.
The school's leadership team regularly looks at school performance data and aggregate classroom observation data and uses that data to make decisions about school improvement and professional development needs.
Progress Monitoring of all students occurs 3 times per year, while students that are identified as struggling are progress monitored every week, up to every 6 weeks, depending on the child. Focus team will meet monthly to discuss the impact of interventions and student progress. We also hold "Data Catch" meeting where administration, reading specialist, special education department head, classroom teacher, guidance counselor, and support staff meet to discuss the progress of each child. We also discuss how effective interventions are and whether or not they need to be changed. Star tools will be examined to create subgroups.

8. Educator Effectiveness
All teachers use open-ended questioning and expect higher order thinking.
Students will have more opportunities to be exposed to and practice higher level thinking questions in all areas of school (paired texts, etc.). Teachers will have a variety of open-ended questions for each subject. Teachers will use the response to literature questions that are designed by each grade for reading and align to Common Core State Standards. Teachers can use these questions as whole group instruction, center work or independently. The use of performance assessments in math can be used for students to practice higher order thinking in math. We are also looking to incorporate more performance tasks in reading and math to increase higher order thinking as well as foster perseverance in our students.
All teachers engage all students (e.g., encourage silent students to participate).
Student are using critical thinking skills, collaborating with peers, cooperative learning, responding to teacher and peers (written or orally), peer editing –The teachers are using proximity control, facilitating discussions, posing questions, checking in with individuals and students - The administrators are observing classrooms and providing feedback.

9. Extended Learning Time
The school provides all students with academic supports (e.g. tutoring, cocurricular activities, tiered interventions) to keep them on track for graduation.
Through a universal screening tool STAR, we identify students that are in need of additional academic supports and implement them. We will also progress monitor students throughout the school year to make adjustments to these support/enrichment services as needed.
‘Block’ scheduling has given us more efficient use of our instructional time by providing uninterrupted blocks of whole/small group instruction in the areas of Reading and Math, and of our service provider pull out / push in times. Interventionists, case managers, and Title 1 tutors can service students around students' whole group instruction and small group differentiated instruction. Our intervention blocks for Reading and Math also allow teachers to meet with students and address individual needs within the classroom.
Bimonthly PLC meeting agendas are teacher created. Each team submits meeting notes to administrators for review and response to any questions, comments, or concerns the team needed addressed. This has been very helpful in keeping lines of communication open between staff, specialists, administration, and other grade level PLC teams.
Enhancing communication has aligned student instruction across the classroom and services which has led to increased performance. However, this school year, we are shifting our intervention model to more of a push-in model, so the communication between service provider and teacher will continue to be enhanced.

10. Use of Effective and Evidence-based Instructional Strategies
The school provides all students with academic supports (e.g. tutoring, cocurricular activities, tiered interventions) to keep them on track for graduation.
Through a universal screening tool STAR, we identify students that are in need of additional academic supports and implement them. We will also progress monitor students throughout the school year to make adjustments to these support/enrichment services as needed.
Teachers individualize instruction based on pre-test results to provide support for some students and enhanced learning opportunities for others.
Based on assessment results, teachers create support and/or enrichment groups based on need, providing individualized instruction.
Our most recent data shows an increase in student achievement in both Reading and Math compared to our historical data. However, we are seeing a larger spike of growth in Math, which has reversed the trend we have been seeing over the past 5 years. We started to see a increase in Math achievement when we, as a district, moved from a cyclical model of math instruction to a more concrete, mastery method of instruction. We are also working to increase the use of performance tasks to continue to increase higher-order thinking opportunities. In Reading, we are continuing to move to provide students instruction at their own instructional level, which is researched, best practice. However, this will continue into next year, where we hope to see a significant increase in student achievement in Reading. We are also moving to a push-in model for support services in an effort to decrease transitions for needy students and ensure core curriculum exposure and learning.

11. School and Community Culture and Climate
All teachers acquire an understanding of each student’s background and interests and use a variety of strategies to increase motivation to learn.
In our on-going effort to increase student achievement, understanding our student’s background and interests are key to providing meaningful activities to increase motivation. Each teacher will take time at the beginning of the school year to gain an insight into their students through a variety of activities.
All teachers will address social and emotional objectives in their teaching and model/reinforce social emotional competencies.
All teachers and staff are invested and reinforce the school wide behavior plan (PAWS). Students will receive direct instruction of expected behaviors as well as social, emotional and executive skills. Each month, our school counselors will create a YouTube video that focuses on the 'word of the month‘ (Respect, Responsibility, etc.) and will be played for students in each classroom. Teacher will discuss and expand on these social topics as appropriate.

12. Family and Community Engagement The school’s website has parent (family) section that includes information on home support for learning, announcements, and parent activities/resources. Providing ongoing mechanisms for family and community engagement. Maintain an up-to-date website that contains all information related to school, including teacher webpages as a way to increase parent/community engagement at the individual classroom level. The school provides all students with academic support (e.g. supplemental services) when needed. All students will receive academic and/or behavioral support if and when identified as a need through observation and various assessments. These supports include feedback and partnerships with our parents and students. PTO events, curriculum night/open house, concerts, community outreach, volunteers in the school, etc.

13. What do we want to accomplish as a TEAM of educators THIS year?

14. We are in this together and will only reach our goal together