EDLD 5399 Week Three

            I had the good fortune of being the chairperson for our campus site base committee and the district site base committee.  Both committees were charged with the task of writing and approving the appropriate improvement plan.  Many hours went into both documents and it was a joint effort to write both.  We looked at our available data and made some assessments.  We knew of some new things we were already putting in place this school year to take care of these problems, but we also knew we had to come up with other ideas to address our concerns.  Our committee members helped very minimally with the plan.  I wrote the majority of the campus plan and our Special Programs Director wrote the majority of the district’s plan.  In a perfect world everyone would contribute equally to the discussions and everyone would actively participate in writing the document, but the reality is that it is much easier and more efficient for one person to do the bulk of the legwork.

            I have a few concerns with the way we take care of this process and I think there is room for improvement.  First, I think we need to have better participation and selection of our committee members.  I know of some administrators who tell the parent rep. that they do not have to come to the meetings and they just have to sign the paper.  We also have some parents who serve on committees from elementary on up to high school.  While I appreciate their efforts, we should try to hear other viewpoints too.  Our business representatives are usually parents too.  I think it would be a good idea to get an “outsider’s” perspective on things from time to time.   Another concern I have is with the effectiveness of the plan.  We do not really do anything to gauge the success of our efforts.  Did we implement the right program(s)?  Did we see success with our Math program?  Did the attendance incentives make a difference with our attendance rate?  The final, and greatest, concern I have is with the improvement plans themselves.  They sit on a shelf all year and rarely does anyone take the time to review it or address any new needs that come up.  We need to utilize these plans and readjust as the year goes on. 

            There are some things we are doing well and should continue.  This year we were able to work our schedule to where all core teachers have a common planning period.  This has proven to be invaluable.  Our teachers are sharing with each other, they are discussing data, they plan together, etc.  Our teachers went from doing their own thing to working in a collaborative setting.  Their professional learning communities have been a HUGE success.  Another success we have seen from our improvement plans has been the overall improvement of classroom instruction.  We have begun utilizing CSCOPE.  Our teachers have embraced the change after some slight reluctantcy.  Teachers have seen how a slight change in the way you teach something or the order you teach it in can make a difference to the learning in your classroom.  Students also were a little shell-shocked at first because we have definitely increased the depth and rigor of our instruction.  Our expectations had to rise if we wanted our kiddos to be successful on the STAAR.  Finally, I think another thing that should stick around in our plans is our positive behavior support.  Focusing on the positive behaviors that students exhibit instead of the negative ones has really made a difference on our campus.  We are very intentional with our expectations and our students usually behave to the high standards we set.  

            The experiences of the improvement initiatives proved to be very positive, but there is room for improvement.  I plan to change things by taking the binder out this week and reviewing it with our staff.  The CIP (Campus Improvement Plan) needs to become what it is intended to be - a Continuous Improvement Plan.  Without measurable goals and continuous re-evaluations, the improvement plans are just well intended documents.  They should be something more than a bookend.  The experiences here will be long lasting with me.