Embedded Files
We are indebted to the thoughtful and talented people who served on the Task Force and/or participated in the development of our plan. Roughly sixty individuals initially served on the Task Force; 60% of those serving were parents, students, or community members and the remaining members were district teachers or administrators. The initial membership included thirty people who are African American and thirty who are white. While attendance numbers varied over the nine meetings, the commitment and resolve of those at the meetings did not waver.
Initial meetings took place at Keysor Elementary School, with later meetings held at the KSD Administrative Service Center. The first seven meetings, noted to the right, were prescheduled for conversations, brainstorming, and plan development. While meetings were slated for 90 minutes, most went longer than that as participants were into conversations and did not want to leave. Several groups met off-site at various times to complete tasks.
Initial meetings with the Task Force encouraged dialogue, honest communication, and the open generation of ideas. Ideas were generated on large sheets of paper using a rotation protocol. Task Force members were then asked to review and prioritize ideas by “spending” colored dots. We centered early conversations on three topics:
- Our Task Force will have been successful if…
- Questions and data needs
- Rapid brainstorming – ideas to get us moving
Results of our initial work can be found in the window below. Ideas collected may be useful going forward.
Photo Credit: Julianna Ribble
TF AppendixA.pdf
Photo Credit: Abby Boras
The group struggled early on to define our purpose and set measureable goals for improvement. While “eliminating the achievement gap” was our charge, most felt there were additional challenges that needed to be addressed, including but not limited to:
- Increasing diversity among staff in all buildings (teachers and administrators)
- Ensuring adequate representation of African American students in gifted programs and AP/Honors courses
- Addressing disproportionate numbers of African American students who are identified for special education services or pulled out of classrooms for other reasons
- Addressing disproportionate numbers of African American students who are suspended due to disciplinary reasons (in or out of school)
- Identifying multiple measures of academic achievement, beyond MAP/EOC scores, that may more accurately assess student learning (without the bias of standardized tests).
Documentation of our initial attempts to establish goals can be found in the the window below. Rather than getting hung up on these issues, we ultimately decided to adhere to our charge and use MAP/EOC scores as our primarily measurement – knowing that others will ultimately use these assessments to hold us accountable. The issues above remain important to us, however, and are wrapped into action steps toward addressing gaps.
TF Possible Goals.pdfOnce we settled on our goal – raising African American achievement in all areas without lowering the bar for others, the Task Force used a systemic planning process to identify objectives and actions steps. Lens groups were identified to examine the goal from many angles, generating possible action steps by looking at the goal only through their lens of focus. All members participated in one of seven lens groups, noted to the right.
Members met in lens groups at two official meetings, with some choosing to meet additionally off-site. All ideas generated by the seven groups were then compiled and examined for themes, overlaps, and omissions. The resulting first draft of ideas can be found in the window below.
Systemic Planning - Lens Groups
- Community Engagement
- Curriculum & Instruction
- Leadership
- Professional Development
- Resources
- Staffing/Personnel
- Systems, Structures, & Policies
TF Initial Draft of Action Items.pdfGroup members had additional opportunities to review and refine drafts, first at the final scheduled meeting in October and again during follow-up/feedback meetings in the spring. Three community engagement forums were held in early 2016 to engage members of the community in our work and seek feedback about the plan. One forum was held as part of the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. The other two forums, held at the Kirkwood Community Center and the KSD Administrative Service Center, were publicized via email, social media, and the Webster-Kirkwood Times. All forums were well attended and signaled the need for additional, regularly scheduled meetings within the community. Feedback from these meetings can found in the Appendix (Pages 51-52).
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