1. Westmont High School Opening of 2018-19 School Year
INTRO:
Riverside Brookfield High School: 2001–2009
One of the most improved high schools in Illinois and the nation
Top 100 – America’s Best High Schools – Newsweek
Top Ten Most Improved Advanced Placement Programs – Washington Post Challenge Index
“A+” (highest rating) – School Search, Inc.
“Outperformer” (highest rating) – Standard & Poor’s
99% graduation rate (2004 and 2006)
98% 6-year graduation rate average
100% graduation rate for Hispanic and African American students (represents 20% of population) (2006)
Rated “10 out of 10” – Great Schools
WESTMONT HIGH SCHOOL
Most Improved High School in Illinois ( )
99% Graduation Rate
100% for African-American and Latino students
Only 5 drop outs in last 6 years
Most Improved and Inclusive A.P. Program
Double digit increases in State test scores
The Most Improved High School in Illinois, 2013–2018
One of the Most Improved and Top-Performing High Schools in the nation
Jack Baldermann

2. Outcomes
Supporting New Teachers - Lynn Howard
Westmont as a model

3. Dr. Yasuyuki Oda (Japan) Selects Westmont High School to Study as a Model PLC School
“Even as a stranger, I felt very welcomed at Westmont High School. The culture is one of warmth and intelligence. Westmont is an amazing school. One of the best I have ever seen.” Dr. Yasuyuki Oda.
Dr. Yasuyuki Oda is a professor and researcher at MIE University in Japan. He is one of his country’s leading experts on Professional Learning Communities. Dr. Oda received funding to study effective PLC schools in America. After conducting research on school effectiveness, Dr. Oda selected Westmont High School as one of four schools in Illinois to learn about quality PLC practices. He spent the day talking to administrators, teachers and students to learn about the programs at Westmont High School.

4. Rick and Becky DuFour - leaders in PLCs

5. Books by the DuFours

6. Rick and Becky DuFour

7. Mike Mattos Learning By Doing Taking Action
Simplifying Response to Intervention
It’s About Time
Uniting Academic Behavior Interventions
Pyramid Response to Intervention
Are We a Group or a Team?

8. Anthony Muhammad

9. Chris Jakicic Common Formative Assessment The Collaborative Teacher
The RTI Toolkit
Simplifying Common Assessment
Collaborating for Success with the Common Core
The Principal as Assessment Leader
Assessment Leader Set
The Teacher as Assessment Leader

10. Kim Bailey
Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work
Collaborating for Success with the Common Core
Simplifying Common Assessment
The RTI Toolkit

12. Indicator Weightings 2018-2020

13. WHS S.M.A.R.T Goals 2018-2019 99% Graduation Rate
58% Meets or Exceeds for both Math and English on the SAT/Standardized Exams
451 or more AP Exams taken, with 267 or more passed exams and 50 AP Scholars

14. Why PLCs?
FRM MC:

15. John Hattie’s Work

16. John Hattie
Collective Teacher Efficacy is the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students. With an effect size of d=1.57 Collective Teacher Efficacy is strongly correlated with student achievement.

17. Research-based Support
“Professional communities motivate teachers to take collective responsibility for ensuring all students learn… these changes in culture lead to higher levels of student achievement” (Louis and Wahlstrom, 2011).

18. Research-based Support
“High quality professional development in the context of a supportive professional community and where teachers are oriented toward improvement appears powerfully related to gains in academic productivity” (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Luppescu, & Easton, 2010).

19. Proven Results – Graduation Rate
2018: 100% of students graduated on time, no students dropped out
In the last 6 years, only FIVE students have dropped out
100% of African American and Latino students have graduated on time, five years in a row
Top 1% in Illinois and in the Nation for regular high school graduation rate ~ since PLC implementation in 2013

20. Advanced Placement Performance
Most improved Advanced Placement program in Illinois and top 1% for improvement in the country
Top 1% for inclusion in Illinois and the United States

21. Advanced Placement Performance – Westmont High School
Over a 1000% increase in the number
of passed AP Exams
29 in → in 2018
Advanced Placement Scholar increase
3 in → 65 in 2018
(same enrollment 2013 to 2018 –most inclusive and
most improved)

22. Double digit increases in state testing performance since PLC implementation

23. 2017
2016

24. Start with Norms
Why norms?

25. Do our Norms help to drive action focused on student learning increases?
We will bring “fresh and relevant data” to at least 50% or more of our meetings.
We will bring student performance information in a format that is ready for collaborative analysis.
We will examine data student by student and skill by skill.
We will answer the question “How did this meeting improve student learning”

26. (Adapted from Lippitt, Enterprise Management, Ltd., 1987)

27. Vision
The “why” and “what” we will be doing must be collaboratively developed and passionately agreed to by the team.
Relentless – No excuses and no blame
Meaningful
Focused on learning for all

28. Skills Many to mention - priorities Formative assessment
Relationships with students and teachers
Positive and high expectations

29. Incentives
People working together as a team to accomplish something amazing that will improve the lives of others
Mastery Autonomy Purpose
Dan Pink – Drive
Autonomy Relatedness Competence
Susan Fowler

31. Resources Time to collaborate with colleagues
Time for additional learning for students
Interventions

32. The Power of SMART Goals
What gets measured gets done.
Focus
Mario Andretti / BHAGs
Burn the boats

34. “Replace the voluminous strategic planning process with a few very specific goals.”
—DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many,
Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional
Learning Communities at Work, 2006 (p. 120)

35. Why Goals? The Power of Goals Provides focus
Sense of accomplishment for teachers and students
Pride

36. PLC/Data Team Process Establish collaborative teams.
Create “I Can Statements”
Provide fresh data/student performance information – ideally, from common formative assessments.
Learn from each other.
Implement / Re-teach / Develop interventions.
Measure student learning growth.

37. Westmont High School MATH example of a model data team in action
JUNE 2018

39. STRUGGLES (No excuses – Whatever it Takes)
WE DID NOT TEACH COMMON CLASSES
CCSS-M WERE TOO BROAD TO SHOW STUDENT AND CURRICULUM STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
WE WERE NOT VERTICALLY ALIGNED - THERE WERE GAPS AND WE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT
WE LACKED FRESH AND USEFUL DATA
WE NEEDED TIME OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM FOR STUDENT INTERVENTION
WE NEEDED A STRONGER CURRICULUM

40. SUMMER 2016 and 2017

42. Mastery Connect

43. We transferred MasteryConnect data to Google Spreadsheets to see student by student and target by target data. This is how we made decisions for Wednesday intervention.

44. How did we use the data?
To show students how they were performing individually
To identify weaknesses in curriculum (i.e. system of equation word problems)
To identify students who needed intervention
To identify weaknesses in skills covered in earlier courses

45. Where do we go from here? Creating test-like questions by topic.
Focus on freshman and sophomores
Revisit our intervention schedule

46. WHS Mission and Goals

47. This School Year...
We want you to use your wisdom and expertise to build relationships with our students and to create exciting learning experiences that allow our students to be successful

48. This School Year...
We want you to support the graduation rate goal - wherein 99% of our students complete graduation requirements in 4 years

49. This School Year...
We want you to support the school goal that 59% or more of our students will meet or exceed proficiency on our state exams, with the remaining students showing at least 1 or more years worth of growth

50. This School Year...
Support our AP program with a goal that we have the best Advanced Placement results in Illinois:
Number of exams taken - 451
Number of exams passed - 267
Percentage of Seniors passing - 51
Percentage of Seniors taking - 68
Number of A.P. Scholars - 50
Number of underrepresented passed exams - 61

51. Let’s have a great year!