1. Principal’s Meeting: SCEP Planning Part II
March 28, 2019

2. Understanding School Improvement Planning
All RCSD CSI and TSI schools must develop an annual School Comprehensive Education Plan (SCEP). Good Standing Schools will do a school improvement plan as well.
TSI schools will submit their plans to the district for approval
CSI schools will submit their plans to the district and then to NYSED for approval
Current recipients of a 1003(g) School Improvement Grant (SIG) or a School Innovation Fund (SIF) grant or schools in Receivership will have the specific action plan or continuation plan they have developed to serve as their SCEP

3. School Improvement Planning Process
The SCEP must:
Be developed in collaboration with stakeholders
Be based on data from the school, including the results of the comprehensive needs assessment
Identify initiatives that will be implemented to positively affect student learning
Include at least one evidence-based intervention

4. School Improvement Planning Process
The School Improvement Planning process involves multiple steps:
Step 1: Identifying the team and scheduling the process for developing the SCEP: SBPT
Step 2: Reviewing multiple sources of feedback to identify needs and consider root causes
Step 3: Determining priorities and goals based on needs identified

5. School Improvement Planning Process
The School Improvement Planning process involves multiple steps:
Step 4: Identifying an evidence-based intervention
Step 5: Scheduling activities to occur during the year to reach these goals and priorities, and identifying benchmarks for the goals identified
Step 6: Identifying a plan to communicate the priorities with different stakeholders

6. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 2: Reviewing multiple sources of feedback to identify needs and consider root causes

7. Understanding the Needs Facing the School
To develop an improvement plan that addresses school-specific challenges, schools must first consider the needs facing the school.
Schools shall review multiple sources of information that fall into three categories:
Data
Practices
Resources

8. Broader Needs Assessment
Identify Priorities for SCEP
Review of Data
Interim Assessment Data
Survey Data
Achievement Data
Attendance/Behavior Data
Review of Practices
DTSDE Report
Social-Emotional Inventory
Family Engagement Inventory
PD Inventory
Review of Resources
PD Inventory
Feedback on Impact of PD
DTSDE Self-Reflection

9. Identifying Needs Review of Data Interim Assessment Data Survey Data
Achievement Data
Attendance/Behavior Data

10. Identifying Needs Review of Practices DTSDE Report
Social-Emotional Inventory
Family Engagement Inventory
PD Inventory

11. Identifying Needs Review of Resources PD Inventory
Feedback on Impact of PD
DTSDE Self-Reflection

12. Determining Root Causes
As the SCEP Development Team is identifying its areas of need, the Team should be asking why those causes exist. Teams may find it helpful to distinguish between two types of root causes: human causes and organizational causes.
Human Causes: Causes that can be attributed to individuals. For example, a possible cause for the poor implementation of the PD on higher-order questioning could be that principals did not conduct informal walkthroughs consistently.
Organizational Causes: Causes that can be attributed to systems that were faulty or did not work as designed. For example, a possible cause for the poor implementation of the PD on higher-order questioning could be that the informal walkthrough tool was too broad and considered too many things other than higher-order questioning.
Distinguishing between Human root causes and Organizational root causes can assist the school in determining how to address these root causes moving forward. 15

13. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 3: Determining priorities and goals based on needs identified

14. Determining Priorities and Goals
Once the school has identified its areas of need and considered the potential root causes(s) that may be responsible, the school should determine what it would like to prioritize in the upcoming year.
All SCEPs will have five goals that schools organize their work toward for the upcoming school year. 17

15. Determining Priorities and Goals
For all schools, at least one of the goals must be related to the results from the most recent school survey.
For the remaining four goals, schools can decide to pursue one of two options:
ESSA Indicator Option (RCSD)
Effective Practices Option 18

16. Determining Priorities and Goals
ESSA Indicator Option:
The school will work toward quantifiable goals connected to the ESSA indicators that the school received a score of “Level 1” for the “all students” subgroup. 19

17. ESSA Indicator Option ESSA Indicator Option
Schools selecting this option will have five goals as follows:
Grades 3-8
ELA goal (either Performance or Growth)
Math goal (either Performance or Growth)
Survey goal
English Language Proficiency (ELP) goal or school-selected quantifiable goal*
Chronic Absenteeism Goal or school-selected quantifiable goal*
Grades 9-12
Graduation Rate (or Composite Performance Achievement if GR is >67%)
College and Career Readiness or school-selected quantifiable goal*
ELP or school-selected quantifiable goal*
Chronic Absenteeism or school-selected quantifiable goal*
*The school-selected goals are only an option for schools that did not receive level 1 for the indicator identified. 20

18. ESSA Indicator Option ESSA Indicator Option
NYSED will provide to schools pursuing this option quantitative goals for the performance indicators for which the school received a level 1.
The schools will write a plan designed achieving each of these goals.
The schools have the ability to identify actions best suited for their school to reach these goals. 21

19. ESSA Indicator Option ESSA Indicator Option
NYSED will offer two types of goals for schools pursuing this option:
Level 2 goal: The result that the school would have needed to have gotten to have been level 2
Progress toward Level 2 goal: The result that the school would need to achieve to be on pace to reach the Level 2 cutpoint when the next ESSA indicators are calculated. 22

20. ESSA Indicator Option
Both options result in the school reaching the cutpoint when the next ESSA CSI list is calculated.
Example:
BASELINE
Level 2 Graduation Rate
Goal
Progress Toward Level 2
GR Goal
18-19
19-20
20-21
School A
46%
67%
53%
60%
School B
64%
65%
66%
The stakeholders developing the SCEP can determine if the school should aim for the Level 2 goal or the Progress toward Level 2 goal 23

21. ESSA Indicator Option School-Identified Goals
Schools pursuing the ESSA Indicator Option can substitute school-identified goals for College and Career Readiness, ELP, and/or Chronic Absenteeism if the school received a Level 2 or higher for that indicator. 24

22. ESSA Indicator Option School-Identified Goals
School-Identified Goals must be quantitative goals for which the school has existing baseline data. Some examples are:
Survey-related goal(s)
Student attendance
Out-of-School student suspension rate
Teacher attendance
Science Performance Goal
Social Studies Performance Goal
Additional quantifiable goal approved by NYSED
Schools will identify the baseline data and identify the specific target for where the school would like to be at the end of next year. 25

23. Survey Goal
All schools will have at least one of their five goals devoted toward improving the result of question asked on its most recent parent, staff, or student survey.
The school will review the results from staff, parent, and student surveys and identify question from any of the three surveys for which it would like to have better results next year.
The school will then identify its goal for the same question on next year’s survey.
The school would then develop a series of actions around reaching that goal.

24. TSI Schools
Similar to CSI schools, TSI schools may also pursue either the ESSA Indicator Option or the Effective Practices Option.
If the school pursues the ESSA indicator option, the goals will be specific to the subgroup(s) identified, since the school has already met the criteria to avoid identification as a CSI school.

25. TSI Schools
TSI schools will have some additional flexibility to determine how they will meet the needs of the identified subgroup(s).
The SCEP actions could primarily focus on the identified subgroup.
The SCEP actions could also be general school improvement initiatives intended to improve educational outcomes for both the identified subgroup(s) and in any subgroup(s) not identified. This could make the most sense at schools where the identified subgroup is the vast majority of the student population or in schools that have multiple identified subgroups.
The District, which will approve TSI SCEPs, will need to determine if the goals and strategies provide a strategic approach toward addressing the identified subgroup(s).

26. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 4: Identifying an evidence-based intervention

27. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 5: Scheduling activities to occur during the year to reach these goals and priorities, and identifying benchmarks for the goals identified

28. Planning Actions to Meet the Goals
After determining the goals the school will focus its work toward, the school will then identify the progressive series of actions it will undertake to reach those goals.
These actions will outline how the school will look to improve from where it is currently by identifying things it is not currently doing.
The actions should build off each other so that the school continues to make progress toward its goal throughout the year.

29. Planning Actions to Meet the Goals
Schools should be consider other actions currently in development to make sure that the school is not pursuing too many initiatives.
Schools should also consider what the multiple sources of information reviewed as part of the Needs Assessment process identified about what the school is able to accomplish as a next step.

30. Planning Actions to Meet the Goals
The actions will be broken into two sections:
August to January -- the steps the school will take in the first half of the school year to meet the identified goals .
January to June -- the actions the school would take if it is on track with its plan and meets its mid-year benchmark.

31. Mid-Year Benchmark
After identifying the August to January actions, schools will identify a Mid-Year Benchmark for each goal.
The school will identify what it would expect to see in January to know it is on track to reach its goal.
While this can be descriptive, schools should use quantifiable data when applicable.

32. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 6: Identifying a plan to communicate the priorities with different stakeholders

33. School Improvement Planning Process
Step 6: Identifying a plan to communicate the priorities with different stakeholders

34. SCEP Communication
NYSED will ask schools to identify how they will communicate the SCEP goals to stakeholders at the beginning of the school year.
The ESSA Indicator path option schools to focus toward the indicators that led to identification.
For example: “Our goal is to reduce the percent of students chronically absent from 21% to 15%”
Once the data is finalized, schools would be able to know if it made that goal.
The Effective Practices option allows schools to focus toward specific practices.
For example: “Our priority this year is to increase student discussion.”

35. SCEP Communication
Both the ESSA Indicator option and the Effective Practices option are intended to be things that can be communicated and emphasized to stakeholders throughout the year.
“As you know, one of our priorities this year is to reduce the number of students who are chronically absent...”
“As you know, one of our priorities this year is to increase student discussion...”

36. Stakeholder Engagement
Under the New York State ESSA plan, there will be some new requirements for SCEP stakeholder involvement.
NYSED will return CSI plans that do not demonstrate that stakeholders have meaningfully participated in the development of the plan.
Students will be involved in the Secondary School SCEPs
In addition, TSI SCEPs, which are approved by the district, will need to demonstrate that stakeholders connected to the identified subgroup(s) have been consulted.

37. Stakeholder Engagement
The document “SCEP Requirements for Meaningful Stakeholder Participation” outlines NYSED’s definition of Meaningful Participation.
There are three components:
Ensuring that the participating stakeholders are fully representative of the school
Ensuring the stakeholders are involved in meaningful and significant work related to improvement planning
Ensuring that the final plan accounts for the perspectives of the stakeholders involved in the process

38. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 1: Identifying the team
All SCEPs should be developed by a team representing multiple constituencies within the school.
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) shall use current local agreements concerning shared-decision making to determine participation on each team.

39. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 1: Identifying the team
Schools can determine the size of the team, including the minimum and maximum numbers, that will develop the SCEP; however, certain constituencies shall be involved in the development of the SCEP:
School leaders
Teachers
Parents/Persons in Parental Relation
Students (in secondary schools)

40. Stakeholder Engagement
Team Meetings
All team meetings should have a majority of the members of the team present for that meeting and at least one parent, student, and teacher representative present for each meeting.
In instances in which the district’s shared-decision making plan does not include representation from each of the required stakeholders, the district must involve the stakeholders not represented by including them in the SCEP development meetings as non-voting members and providing them opportunities to share their perspectives during these meetings.

41. Stakeholder Engagement
Team Meetings
Meetings should be scheduled at times and locations accessible for team members.
Meetings may incorporate child care and translation services when applicable. Title I 1003 BASIC funds can be used for this purpose.

42. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 2: Developing the Plan
All SCEP Development Teams must meet to engage in five different processes that are part of developing an SCEP:
Reviewing multiple sources of feedback to identify needs and root causes
Determining priorities and goals based on the needs identified
Identifying an evidence-based intervention
Scheduling activities to occur during the year to reach these goals and priorities, and identifying benchmarks for the goals identified
Identifying a plan to communicate the priorities with different stakeholders

43. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 2: Developing the Plan
Though there is not a minimum number of SCEP Development Meetings that teams must conduct, teams should plan to meet several times to cover the different steps involved in the planning process.

44. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 3: Finalizing the Plan
As part of the SCEP template, schools will include the following information:
The names and titles/roles of the individuals serving as part of the SCEP Development Team
The meeting dates when these individuals met to develop the SCEP
The meeting dates when each of the following five processes were covered by the team developing the SCEP:
Reviewing multiple sources of feedback to identify needs and consider root causes
Determining priorities and goals based on needs identified
Identifying an evidence-based intervention
Scheduling activities to occur during the year to reach these goals and priorities, and identifying benchmarks for the goals identified
Identifying a plan to communicate the priorities with different stakeholders

45. Stakeholder Engagement
Step 3: Finalizing the Plan
As part of the SCEP template, schools will also include the following information:
The ideas that were discussed but not ultimately pursued for each of the five processes identified above.
The signatures from SCEP Development Team members, including non-voting constituent representatives.
Any objections or concerns from SCEP Development Team members.

46. Stakeholder Engagement
TSI and Good Standing
TSI-Specific Guidance
TSI schools are expected to follow a process similar to CSI schools and ensure that stakeholders meaningfully participate in the development of the SCEP.
In addition, TSI schools must have a means of incorporating the perspectives of the identified subgroup(s).

47. Questions