Standard 2
As you review the responses to the indicators and rubrics, what major trends, themes, areas of focus, or goals emerge that cut across this standard?
How will you use the insights gained from this self-assessment to inform and enhance your improvement efforts related to this standard?
Our school board and administration ensure that our district complies with all policies at local, state, and federal levels. School board meetings are run according to the open meetings laws and have a designated time at which the public may choose to address the board with concerns. Administrators bring policies that may need revision to the attention of the board. Any policy changes must be read twice before approval. Some board policies are reviewed on an annual basis, and the district contracts with Nebraska Association of School Boards to assist in the review and update of policies each year.
Included in those board policies are a Special Education Policy, a High Ability Learner Policy, and a policy that guides high school students into one of three options to meet graduation requirements. Within the past few years, we have implemented a preschool program, followed by a junior kindergarten program, that involved developing new policy that was brought before the board for approval.
We have also worked extensively towards the implementation of a 1:1 laptop initiative. This is an excellent example of how we have incorporated all stakeholders into the decision-making process and given both teachers and students opportunities to lead. As we began to look at this type of program, we took teacher leaders, school board members, and administrators to a briefing with Apple in Chicago. We then created a group including students and community members to visit area schools who already have a 1:1 program. Those students then surveyed the student body and created a presentation to address questions and concerns. Teachers worked together to create videos supporting the 1:1 initiative and explaining how the technology would be used. These videos were shown at parent-teacher conferences. Parents were also asked to complete a brief survey to gather information about the availability of technology in the students’ homes. We also held community meetings that gave students, teachers, and community members an opportunity to address the board with questions and concerns. Regular articles were published in our local newspaper to help communicate with the public.
The 1:1 initiative is not the only area where our teachers and students have the opportunity to lead. Students in our FCCLA program recently surveyed the community and then wrote a grant to place baby changing stations in our school restrooms as well as the restrooms at the public swimming pool and parks. Our FCCLA officers trained our teachers on the new dating violence policy and shared their excitement about this experience with the school board. Our student council has written a letter to the administration with recommendations for improvements to be made to the school with a willingness to volunteer time to make those projects a reality. We also have had a Pirate Leadership Academy and a Sportsmanship Team that have given students opportunities to lead. Further evidence of student leadership exists in the fact that one of our National Honor Society members serves as secretary for the Plainview Community Club.
Students are also provided numerous opportunities to get involved through a variety of extracurricular activities. Our school website showcases many of these opportunities. Within our district, ethnicity is not an issue. Poverty is sometimes a concern but we do have policy in place to ensure activities are open to all. All students are encouraged to participate in activities. We feel that for a school our size, we offer a wide range of activities that provide opportunities for students.
Teachers have opportunities to provide feedback on a regular basis through email and surveys. We have established an LtoJ pilot program this year. The learning community that this has created has allowed teachers to share ideas, successes, and challenges. After collecting and analyzing the data, we decided that it would be beneficial to implement the program schoolwide in order to help us attain our goal in reading. We will rely on those teacher leaders from the pilot team to make the implementation successful. Teachers are encouraged to attend professional development opportunities that address school improvement needs as well as their own areas of interest. Our paraeducators also attend professional development along with the classroom teachers.
Yet another learning community that was recently created involved our two first-year teachers. They were both assigned to a mentor teacher, and then the four of them met before the school year began as well as regularly throughout the year. This provided a support system to help our new teachers be successful.
One area where there is opportunity for growth is in the collection of data. We have formed a data team that is going to be trained in how to utilize our new assessment (MAP and NeSA) to help drive decision making in the area of instruction. This team will then serve as leaders in bringing the rest of our staff up to date on using the data.
Evaluation policies for all staff including paraeducators, custodial staff, kitchen staff, secretaries, teachers, and administrators are in place. Principals utilize a Google Docs form to complete walk-through evaluations on a regular basis. This practice provides timely feedback to classroom teachers and allows the administration to gather and analyze data regarding classroom practices.