TEACHING, LEARNING, AND SERVING DOMAIN
(IV) Tenet - Educator Effectiveness
This Tenet - Each student is engaged by effective educators throughout their learning experiences, such that schools and districts develop effective teachers and school leaders who establish a culture of success.
With the hiring of a new superintendent in 2017, Gibbon Public Schools began the journey to become a professional learning community. A professional learning community is “an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.”
There are three guiding principles of a professional learning community:
A Focus on Learning - We assess every policy, practice and procedure on its impact on learning.
Collaborative Culture - Every member of our FAMILY is expected to work as part of a collaborative team.
A Results Orientation - We seek timely, relevant information - evidence of student learning - that confirms the practices that increase student learning and which actions do not increase student learning.
The building block of a professional learning community is a collaborative team. Collaborative teams utilize a systematic process in which we work together interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice to improve individual and collective results. Collaborative teams incorporate the concepts of holding each other accountable (mutual accountability, working together (interdependence), and taking a collective responsibility to ensure all students learn at higher levels of learning.
Teams of teachers work in collaboration with a focus on four guiding questions; 1) What do we expect students to know and be able to do? 2) How will we know when they have learned it? 3) What will we do when they haven't learned it? and 4) What will we do to extend the learning for those who already know it?
Systematic Process
Four Guiding Questions:
Guiding Question #1. What do we want all students to know and be able to do? Areas of emphasis include - Collaborative teams, priority standards, learning targets and S.M.A.R.T Goals.
Guiding Question #2. How will we know when they have learned it? Areas of emphasis include - collaborative teams, proficiency scales, bell-ringers, checks for understanding, formal and informal assessments, practice and S.M.A.R.T Goals.
Guiding Question #3. What will we do when they haven’t learned it? Areas of emphasis include Collaborative teams, proficiency scales, Win Time, SAT, and MTSS.
Guiding Question #4. What will we do to extend the learning for those who already know it? Areas of emphasis include collaborative teams, Win Time, and MTSS.
Structure
Collaborative teams meet each Monday from 2:45 - 4:00. Dates are identified as building, district or technology.
District Teams - District teams identify priority standards, create proficiency scales, build pacing guides, and develop informal/formal assessments. District teams are expected to have one S.M.A.R.T goal. The S.M.A.R.T goal focuses on skills students struggle with as they move through their educational experience. Teams identify a goal, select a strategy, and determine the body of evidence needed to illustrate proficiency.
Building Teams - Building teams review and analyze data, work through the four guiding questions, and develop unit plans. Building teams are expected to have one S.M.A.R.T goal. The S.M.A.R.T goal focuses on skills students struggle with as they move through their educational experience. Teams identify a goal, select a strategy, and determine the body of evidence needed to illustrate proficiency.
Technology - Tech focuses on the effective use of technology to promote and nurture learning.
Key Indicators of Educator Effectiveness
Professional Learning Community
Collaborative teams
Structure for collaborative teams, professional development, and S.M.A.R.T Goals
S.M.A.R.T Goals
Professional Development & Building Capacity - PLC Institutes (3), PLC Live Institute (2)
Calendar to promote and support professional development
PLC Schedule
PD Schedule
Yearly Calendar
(V) Tenet - Student Growth and Achievement
This tenet - A balanced assessment system that includes results from multiple sources is used to measure student growth and achievement towards Nebraska’s content area standards. A balanced assessment system is a necessary component of the instructional process to improve learning and growth for each student.
Gibbon Public Schools has implemented a balanced assessment system that focuses on identifying student growth and achievement through state level, district level and classroom assessments. Over the past six years our district has been implementing priority standards and proficiency scales with the assistance of Jan Hoegh from Marzano Research Laboratories. Through the use of proficiency scales we have been able to identify individual student needs within each curricular area. In addition, with the use of our proficiency scales along with the NWEA Map assessment, NSCAS (Nebraska’s State Assessment), ACT, Dibels/Acadience we have been able to develop specific district level, building level, classroom level, and individual student goals. These goals are developed during our yearly district level data retreat and monthly building level data meetings.
Key Indicators of Student Growth and Achievement
Balanced Assessments
Proficiency Scales
Learning Targets
MAP Assessment
NSCAS Assessment
Teacher developed classroom assessments
DIBELS/Acadience
ACT
(VI) Tenet - Postsecondary, Career, and Civic Readiness
This tenet - Each student, upon graduation, is prepared for success in postsecondary education, career, and life pursuits.
When looking at this tenet the CCR (College and Career Readiness) subcommittee initially made a Employability Rubric to be completed 3 times a year with students and their teachers from 3 different classes. The advisory teachers would then discuss with students the teacher’s scoring. The CTE PLC has since taken over the Employability Rubric and their plan is to edit it again and then place it in the student’s Schoology Portfolio once it has been implemented so students, parents, and teachers will have access.
Personal Learning Plans are being developed by a subgroup of the CCR committee made up of the high school and elementary counselors. The plans will include the student’s course plan, pathways of study, career and/or post secondary education plans.
For the first time beginning with the 2023-24 school year Gibbon High School will introduce an agricultural program with the hiring of a full time agriculture instructor/FFA sponsor. Using ESSER funding we have also invested in a greenhouse to be used by the agriculture and natural resources department which will be open to any other department/class/school organization as it is intended to be cross-curricular.
CTE labs create a space where students can explore various career tools and materials. There is a CTE lab in each building. The elementary lab provides materials from Legos to 3D printing to robotics. The high school lab tries to focus on gaps in our curriculum so that students can be exposed to a variety of careers. Since ESSER funding is a short term program the funds and the timelines were short we purchased materials/equipment that are more enduring. Some of the ESSER funding was used to purchase CTE equipment to go into the Industrial Tech area with the eventual addition of AutoCAD.
Key Indicators of Postsecondary, Career and Civic Readiness
Pathways of Study - CTE Program
Work-Based Learning
Pathways class-scholarship
Use of ESSER II/III
Agriculture Program (Agriculture, Foods, and Natural Resources)
Industrial Tech (Skilled and Technical Sciences)
CTE Labs