Birmingham Falls Strategic Plan Narrativeschool.fultonschools.org/es/birminghamfalls/Documents/… · Web viewbirmingham falls elementary. Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – SY 2017/18

BIRMINGHAM FALLS ELEMENTARY | Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – 2017/18

BIRMINGHAM FALLS ELEMENTARY

STRATEGIC PLAN SY 2015/16 – SY 2017/18

APPROVED AUGUST 2015

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SECTION I. Strategic Planning Background and Approach

In May 2012, the Georgia Board of Education voted to make Fulton County Schools the state’s largest charter system. The charter system model offers freedom and flexibility, both at the school level and system wide, to employ research-based methods to improve student achievement, even if such innovations would require exemptions to current state laws and regulations.

Given this framework, individual schools within Fulton County have the ability to work in dramatically new ways. We are asking our communities to help drive change and to get involved in our schools. Our collective vision is that every Fulton County school will have a principal and local School Governance Council equipped to lead effectively in a charter system environment to improve student achievement through innovation and flexibility. Schools will be empowered to consider the best uses of resources at the local level and design innovative practices that align with school needs.

Birmingham Falls Elementary School (BFES), which is a member of the 3rd cohort to adopt a new strategic planning methodology, began the strategic planning process in the spring of 2015. In order to plan our strategic direction forward, we first had to engage with our key stakeholders, which included teachers, parents, and the community. We then identified the sources of student achievement data that we wanted to evaluate to produce performance trends. The goal during this process was to specifically understand our student achievement challenges and consider a path to address them collectively.

The BFES School Governance Council includes a diverse set of expertise and experience and is comprised of the following member types: BFES administration (3), BFES teachers (2), Milton community (2), and parents (3). As a Council, each representative played an integral role in developing, reviewing and approving our approach to collecting the data. Once agreed upon, we initiated a data collection process that included the following:

Teacher Focus Group Community and Parent Survey Community Demographics – American Fact Finder Index Student Achievement: Standardized Tests – CRCT, CCRPI, and ITBS

Our process included five distinct phases: (1) a needs assessment; (2) the identification of priority issues; (3) the establishment of long-term outcomes, focus areas, & short-term goals; (4) the formulation of strategic initiatives; and (5) the development of a monitoring plan. Developed over a period of several months and designed collaboratively with input and guidance from the community, parents, teachers, administration and a thorough and comprehensive examination of key standardized testing data, the strategic plan represents our deliberate approach to shape and guide what BFES is, what we do, and why. Our students deserve the best educational experience we can provide, and this plan sets our vision and direction for making that happen.

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SECTION II. Context for the Strategic Plan: The School’s Needs Assessment

For every school, the strategic planning process must begin with a thorough consideration of the questions “Where are we as a school?” and “With what do we have to work?” By identifying strengths and weaknesses within the school and examining opportunities and challenges within the external environment, schools lay the foundation for building a strategic plan that builds on their positive attributes while overcoming any weaknesses or areas for improvement.

BFES began the strategic planning process by conducting a comprehensive needs assessment. Through a close analysis of the internal and external environments, we sought to identify stakeholders’ perceptions of our school and enhance our understanding of the political, socio-economic, and demographic environment in which the school operates. By analyzing a comprehensive set of school data, the leaders of BFES clarified performance trends and identified the school’s most critical areas for improvement.

Needs Assessment – Process

External Environment: Parents and Community Members as Stakeholders

Our School Governance Council began the assessment by surveying the parents of the school and community members working in senior roles for the Town of Milton. The survey consisted of six scaled based questions and three open-ended questions asking for BFES impressions, strengths, and opportunities for improvement. We received 100 responses, which provided to be rich data in helping shape our plan.

The overall impression of the school by both parents and community members is high with 83.5% of the respondents providing an 8 or above on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the poorest and 10 being the highest.

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Math, Science, ELA and Technology were rated as the top “Curricular Attributes” receiving the most “Very Important” votes in the survey while Athletics, Social Studies, Foreign Language and Visual and Performing Arts were less important, but important. Notably, 37 respondents felt that introducing a Foregin Language program was “Somewhat” or “Of Little” importance.

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The overall impression of BFES in the reputation of teacher, curriculum rigor, student performance (as measured by standardized tests” and overall offering of student enrichment and after school programs was extremely high. While not statistically significant, 10 respondents gave a “Fair” rating on the overall curriculum rigor and 13 respondents gave a “Fair” or “Poor” rating on the overall offering of student enrichment and after school programs.

The survey verbatim while overwhelmingly positive provided some additional data for evaluation, including the need to focus on STEM strategies, continued investment in technology, and development of teachers.

“Offer advanced / accelerated science and social studies classes.” “What we can do at home to reinforce topics taught at school?” “Incorporate more technology into daily teaching.” “Have a consistent approach and rigor from teacher to teacher within a grade and from one grade to the

next.” “Integrate technology wherever possible. Put the latest technology into students’ hands.”

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Internal Environment: Teachers as Stakeholders

The Council also conducted a Focus Group with the entire teaching staff and asked the following open-ended questions.

What impressions do you have of BFES? What does BFES do well? How can BFES improve?

The Focus Group data was collected and we counted the number of times a certain category was mentioned.

Adminisrative LeadershipBuilding Aesthetics

Community EngagementDedicated Staff

Positive Parent RelationshipsSafety

High Curriculum StandardsInvestment

Open CommunicationPositive Working Environment

ResourcesTeamwork

Technology

0 5 10 15 20 25

54

14

145

101

822

513

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Teacher Focus Group – What We Do Well

The three categories receiving the most mentions in “What We Do Well” were Positive Working Environment, Positive Parent Relationships, and Teamwork.

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Compensation

Curriculum

Discpline Culture

Overall Strategy

Parent / Teacher Engagement

Program Management & Execution

Resource Needs

Technology Needs

Training & Execution

Trust & Independence

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Teacher Focus Group – Improvement Oppor-tunities

The three categories receiving the most mentions in “Improvement Opportunities” were Program Management and Execution, Resource Needs, and Training and Execution. The teachers cited challenges with the number of new programs introduced during a school year and the limited opportunity to master them. This indicated to the Council that there was a clear need we may need to address in our strategic recommendation.

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Internal Environment: Students as Stakeholders

Student achievement was assessed using past and current data from the CRCT, CCRPI, and ITBS. Overall, the academic performance of BFES was outstanding in 2013-2014 for the 5th grade CRCT, ITBS and Georgia Writing assessment scores.

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BFES exceeded Fulton County, the State, and the Nation in all categories. Therefore, the council made a concerted effort at mining the data deeper, to evaluate potential trends and risks. We identified the following data as areas of focus:

G5WA – Proficiency Summary by Performance Level:

2012-2013 2013-20140.0%5.0%

10.0%15.0%20.0%25.0%30.0%35.0%40.0% 35.8%

26.1%

G5WA WritingExceeds

The number of students “Exceeding” expectations dropped from 35.8% in 2012-2013 to 26.1% in 2013-2014, a 9.7% decrease.

2012 -2013 2013-20140.00%

1.00%

2.00%

3.00%

4.00%

5.00%

3.7%

5.00%

G5WA WritingDoes Not Meet

In the same report, the “Does Not Meet” increased from 3.7% in 2012-2013 to 5.0% in 2013-2014, a 1.3% increase.

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Fall 2014 – Grade 3 ITBS

Reading Math Language Social Studies Science707274767880828486

82 83

76

84

79

8284

79

82

85

Fall 2014 - Grade 3 ITBS

2013 2014

Math, Language Arts, Science and Reading all increased from 2013. Social Studies decreased by 2 points - We identified this as an area of focus for our strategic plan.

Fall 2014 – Grade 5 ITBS

Reading Math Language Social Studies Science72747678808284

80

8381 81

83

7981

76

81

84Fall 2014 - Grade 5 ITBS

2013 2014

Science increase by 1 point from 2013 Math, Reading, and Language all decreased from 2013 – We identified this as an area of focus for

our strategic plan.

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Needs Assessment – Summary of Findings

The Council was very diligent in its approach at evaluating the internal and external environment stakeholder feedback. The first step in our prioritization process was to identify our top 3 findings from the Community / Parent Survey, Teacher Focus Group, Standardized Test Data, and Demographic Data (American Fact Finder Index). Each Council member was allocated 3 votes and the items receiving the most votes in each category were determined to be our top priorities. We agreed to 12 total (3 from each of the 4 categories).

After that step was completed, we rated (High, Medium, Low) each prioritized finding based on the seriousness, urgency, and growth. We reviewed and debated the collective results until we concluded our grouped areas of focus. We then used the grouped themes from our top priorities and drafted our Long Term Outcomes.

The next step in our assessment process involved breaking the Council into two groups and we used Focus Area Worksheets to determine root causes for our prioritized findings. Each group identified a spokesperson and root causes were reported and discussed among the group. After this exercise was done we had our proposed Focus Areas complete.

We concluded our analysis by using all of the data collected thus far and discussed how we wanted to measure our success in order to fulfill our Long-Term Goals. This brainstorming session led us to our Short-Term Goals.

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SECTION III. Long-term Outcomes

This section should define the school’s three-five long-term outcomes, and, for each long-term outcome, provide a brief rationale that explains the rationale for prioritizing the outcome. Additionally, each long-term outcome should have one or more associated measures and annual targets by which the success of the outcome will be assessed.

LONG-TERM OUTCOME 1. Increase student engagement in academics

The rational for this long-term outcome is to increase student engagement in academics through the use of real word learning opportunities. (Innovative instructional practices, collaborative / project based learning opportunities, technology in the classroom, and the use of critical thinking skills)

We will measure our progress on this outcome by:

The number of Collaborative / Project based learning activities implemented The number of weekly visits to a Collaborative Learning Environment (Discovery Zone, STEM Lab,

Outdoor classroom) or an open learning environment classroom. Technology project based instruction (typing, computer familiarization, and basic software

familiarization)

LONG-TERM OUTCOME 2. Increase critical thinking skills among all students.

The rationale for this long-term outcome is to provide ongoing professional development for instructional staff. (Provide TAG instructional strategies for all content areas, improve teacher proficiency in the writing curriculum, and improve the effectiveness of the Professional Learning Community). We will measure our progress on this outcome by:

Increasing Post Assessment scores within the Lucy Calkins 3 Units of Study The number of TAG strategies used in General education classroom setting STEM Days

LONG-TERM OUTCOME 3. Increase writing proficiency among all students

The rationale for this long-term outcome is to increase academic achievement in all content areas. A continued focus on student performing at highest levels. We will measure our progress on this outcome by the following data:

Georgia Milestone (3-5) All Content Areas Lucy Calking Units of Study Pre & Post Assessments PLC Agenda / Minutes including data form

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BIRMINGHAM FALLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – 2017/18

SECTION IV. Focus Areas, Short-Term Goals, and Strategic Initiatives

FOCUS AREA 1. Engaging Instructional Practices

BFES will increase the use of engaging instructional practices by providing advanced learning experiences with the use of technology and real world learning practices.

As measures of progress, we will:1. Increase innovative instructional practices in the classroom.2. Expand the use of critical thinking skills within the classroom.3. Increase the implementation of technology in the classroom.4. Increase the opportunity for real world learning

Summary of strategic initiatives:

Implement project based learning Create flexible/collaborative learning environment

FOCUS AREA 2. Professional Development

BFES will maximize the development, collaboration and training opportunities for teachers to maintain an academically challenging environment for students.

As measures of progress, we will:1. Increase implementation of TAG strategies.2. Increase teacher proficiency in writing curriculum.3. Increase the effectiveness of our professional learning communities.4. Increase teacher collaboration time (5th day of Specials)


Implement TAG strategy training program (SY 2016 – 17) Implement writer’s workshop training (SY 2015-2016) Implement feeder pattern collaboration program

FOCUS AREA 3. Effective Use of Assessments

Deploy learning practices, procedures, and discipline to access, manage, and use data to drive student achievement in writing.

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BIRMINGHAM FALLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – 2017/18

As measures of progress, we will:1. Increase the effective use of pre-assessments.2. Increase the use of ongoing formative assessments.3. Increase the effectiveness of data utilization to inform instructional practice.4. Increase student accountability on performance.


Create implementation and documentation protocols for data collaboration/data talks Create common formative assessments in ELA (2015-2016), Social Studies and Science Implement student driven data analysis through student created learning goals

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[INSERT SCHOOL NAME HERE] | Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – 2017/18

SECTION V. Next Steps

The metrics in the strategic plan are identified in the table below, including an owner that will monitor the status of initiatives on a quarterly basis and updates will be shared in the monthly School Governance Council Meeting.

Metric Owner Target Completion Date Status Long Term Outcome

Project Based Learning - # of Activities Implemented

BFES Admin Team & Teachers

Training in 15/16Implementation:15-16 Goal: 2 STEM lessons a Year – 1 per semester 16-17 Goal: 2 STEM lessons a Year – 1 per semester (1 project based)

In Progress Increase Student Engagement in Academics

Technology Project Based Instruction

BFES Admin Team & Ms. Carr

15-16 Year – students will create a grade level appropriate product

In Progress Increase Student Engagement in Academics

Create flexible Collaborative Learning Environment

BFES Admin Team

8/10/15 Complete Increase Student Engagement in Academics

TKES Student Survey Data Implementation

BFES Admin Team

Year end 2016/17 Goal: Increase in student survey results (compare years)

In Progress Increase Critical Thinking Skills Among Students

Lucy Calkins Implementation


Year End 2015/16 Goal: Level of comfort with Lucy Calkins in Summary Survey


Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Implementation


Common Formative Assessments (CFAs)- one content area (ELA) will be created 15-16 and Science / Social Studies will be added 16-17.


Georgia Milestone Improvement

BFES Admin Team

To be updated when initial results received

In Progress Increase Writing Proficiency Among All Students

Implement NWLC Collaboration

BFES Admin Team

Goal: November

Future clarification needed on this goal


Create iPad / Keyboard Special

BFES Admin Team

8/10/15 Complete Increase Critical Thinking Skills Among Students

Implement Student Driven Analysis using student created learning goals

BFES Admin Teachers

Goal: April 2017 In Progress Increase Critical Thinking Skills Among Students

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[INSERT SCHOOL NAME HERE] | Strategic Plan SY 2015/16 – 2017/18

The strategic plan will be communicated the following ways:

Communication Type Frequency Parents Teachers CommunityPlan posted on school website

Ongoing

Reviewed monthly in SCG meetings and minutes will be posted on school website

Monthly

Achieved metrics will be posted via the monthly school newsletter

Monthly

High impact achieved metrics will be posted on the school Facebook page

Quarterly

Internal Administration leadership communications to teachers

On Demand; at least

quarterly

If necessary, at least one open forum session will be held at the school

1 per year; if necessary

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