2(b). Are based upon effective means of raising student achievement.
Response: Following are examples of the SCIENTIFICALLY BASED RESEARCH supporting our effective methods and instructional practices or strategies Marzano (2000):
Vocabulary. Research indicates that student achievement will increase by 12
percentile points when students are taught 10-12 words a week; 33 percentile
points when vocabulary is focused on specific words important to what students
are learning. Requires specific approaches. (Effect size=0.95 or 32 percentile
points)
Comparing, contrasting, classifying, analogies, and metaphors. These processes
are connected as each requires students to analyze two or more elements in terms
of their similarities and differences in one or more characteristics. This strategy
has the greatest effect size on student learning. Techniques vary by age level.
(Effect size=1.61 or 45 percentile points)
Summarizing and note-taking. To summarize is to fill in missing information and
translate information into a synthesized, brief form. Note-taking is the process of
students’ using notes as a work in progress and/or teachers’ preparing notes to
guide instruction. (Effect size=1.0 or 34 percentile points)
Reinforcing effort and giving praise. Simply teaching many students that added
effort will pay off in terms of achievement actually increases student achievement
more than techniques for time management and comprehension of new material.
Praise, when recognizing students for legitimate achievements, is also effective.
(Effect size=0.8 or 29 percentile points)
Homework and practice. These provide students with opportunities to deepen
their understanding and skills relative to presented content. Effectiveness
depends on quality and frequency of teacher feedback, among other factors.
(Effect size=0.77 or 28 percentile points)
Nonlinguistic representation. Knowledge is generally stored in two forms— linguistic form and imagery. Simple yet powerful non-linguistic instructional
techniques such as graphic organizers, pictures and pictographs, concrete
representations and creating mental images improve learning. (Effect size=0.75 or 27 percentile points)
Cooperative learning. Effective when used right; ineffective when overused.
Students still need time to practice skills and processes independently. (Effect
size=0.74 or 27 percentile points)
Setting objectives and providing feedback. Goal setting is the process of
establishing direction and purpose. Providing frequent and specific feedback
related to learning objectives is one of the most effective strategies to increase
student achievement. (Effect size=0.61 or 23 percentile points)
Generating and testing hypotheses. Involves students directly in applying
knowledge to a specific situation. Deductive thinking (making a prediction about a
future action or event) is more effective than inductive thinking (drawing
conclusions based on information known or presented.) Both are valuable. (Effect
size=0.61 or 23 percentile points)
Cues, questions, and advanced organizers. These strategies help students
retrieve what they already know on a topic. Cues are straight-forward ways of
activating prior knowledge; questions help students to identify missing information;
advanced organizers are organizational frameworks presented in advance of
learning. (Effect size=0.59 or 22 percentile points)
Additionally, teachers will be receiving training in the following areas:
Small group instruction
Flexible grouping
Remediation and enrichment
Building assessment literacy
Develop Common Formative Assessments
Utilize diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment data to inform instruction modifications for individual students
Differentiated Instruction
Inclusion and Co-Teaching
Vertical Teaming
Content Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) – Curriculum Mapping, Lesson/Unit Planning, Data Analysis
Marzano, R. (2000). What Works in Classroom Instruction. Alexandria VA ASCD
2(c). Use effective instructional methods that increase the quality and amount of
learning time.
Response: We will increase the amount and quality of learning time by utilizing the following:
Differentiation of instruction – addressing different learning styles and ability levels, providing choices, and creating contracts as incentives. The strategy also targets students specific needs based on observation and assessment.
Flexible grouping of students-students are grouped together to receive appropriately challenging instruction. Flexible grouping will permit students to move in and out of various grouping patterns, depending on the course content. Grouping can be determined by ability, size and interest.
Real-world connections to motivate and stimulate student interest in learning. This allows the students to construct meaning of standards for master to increase the quality of learning time.
Flexible grouping of students in cooperative learning activities allows students to build on instruction and utilize peers to build ideas and value around standards while being responsive to student changes in readiness, interest, and learning profile.
“Fix it up” strategies for students who do not comprehend what they read. These strategies are used to support students who struggle with comprehension of text. These strategies will help students read unknown words. Teachers will help students decode.
Teaching reading in content areas
Varied hands-on learning activities allow teachers to address students learning styles. This strategy will increase student engagement and allows learns to reach mastery through their individual learning style.
Socratic Questioning supports learners with thinking at a deep level. This strategy will allow teachers to facilitate learning through the analysis level or line of reasoning. In addition, deeply probe student thinking will help students to begin to distinguish what they know or understand from what they do not know or understand.
The Rigor Meter will be utilized to assist teacher in scaffolding the lesson. This will ensure that all students receive access to the curriculum at intended Depth of Knowledge Level coupled with Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Integration of Technology into instructional delivery
Before/after school tutorials will provided to assist students who are struggling in core academic areas that impede them from reaching maximal academic potential.
Summer school will provided to assist students with earning missing academic knowledge needed to be successful in the subsequent course or successful with retaking state summative assessments (i.e. EOCT, GHSGT, and GHSWT).
Saturday school tutorials will be provided to assist students who are struggling in core academic areas that impede them from reaching maximal academic potential who may additional assistance beyond Monday through Friday.
Block scheduling is an academic scheduling in which each student has fewer classes per day. Each class is scheduled longer for a period of time than normal (i.e. 90 minutes). Block scheduling offers more concentrated experiences of subjects with fewer classes daily.
Pull-outs provide an opportunity for students to interact with others who have similar strengths and interests. In addition, it reduces the rand of student needs and allows for individual student needs to be met.
The use of the aforementioned instructional methods will increase the quality and amount of
learning time. The strategies will be implemented through each core department. Observation and assessment data collections will be collected to monitor use and impact on student achievement.
2(d). Address the needs of all children, particularly targeted populations, and address how the school will determine if such needs have been met and
are consistent with improvement plans approved under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).
Response:
Tutorial programs will be implemented after-school and through Saturday Academy for students with deficiencies in all subgroups.
Teachers will utilize Study Island, USA Test Prep, Elevated Learning, possibly Renaissance Learning, and STAR Math to provide additional support of content areas.
Counselors and a parent liaison are available to give one-on-one advisement.
Guidance Counselors work closely with their assigned students to ensure students are receiving proper advisement.
Teachers will offer Credit Repair (multiple opportunities for success) to students who obtain a 66-69 average in a class at the end of each grading period.
We will utilize Credit Recovery to assist students who are in need of credit recovery.
We will utilize summer school to provide additional opportunities for instruction.
Pull-out instruction will be available for students who need additional instruction to prepare for unit assessments and standardized testing.
2(e). Must include documentation to support that any educational field trip used as an
school wide plan and must be connected to the support of assisting students to achieve
proficiency or advanced status in relation to the state academic content standards.
Documentation must be provided during the budget approval process. Required based on
FY12 US ED monitoring finding for Georgia.
Response: Title I funds will not be used for field trips.
*3. Instruction by highly qualified professional staff.
Response: Maynard H. Jackson High School will provide instruction by highly qualified teachers as determined by standards established by the state of Georgia. Currently, all teachers at MJHS are qualified to teach their specified content areas. All certified teachers are Highly Qualified (HiQ) based on Atlanta Public School and state guidelines. This information is updated and reviewed annually by Human Resources and building level administrators. A copy of current teaching certificates is submitted to the principal and maintained in a locked file cabinet in the bookkeeper’s office and at Human Resources. All paraprofessionals have met the state mandated guidelines to work as highly qualified classified employees and either have degrees or have passed the State mandated Paraprofessional Certification Test.
*3(a). Strategies to attract highly qualified teachers to high-needs schools.
Response: We will provide instruction by highly qualified teachers who meet the standards established by the state of Georgia. There are no certification deficiencies for Maynard H. Jackson High School. Maynard H. Jackson High School intends to maintain highly qualified teachers who meet the state of Georgia requirements by using the following strategies:
Offer opportunities for professional learning
Increase opportunities for morale boosting
Improve the methods of communication between the administrators and the staff
Provide instructional support through the instructional coaches and professional learning specialist
Ensure administrators are supportive and encourage teachers to share
Create an environment that encourages collaboration and team building
Ongoing teacher appreciation throughout the school year from administrators, PTSA, and Partners in Education
There are representatives from Maynard H. Jackson High School at recruitment fairs soliciting the most qualified candidates. As a school, we are developing a culture of excellence that attracts candidates who would like to become a part of our team. Additionally, we make efforts to retain quality, highly qualified teachers through an established teacher support program, professional development and assignment of a mentor teacher. Lastly, all paraprofessionals are working under direct supervision of highly qualified teachers.
*4. Professional development for staff to enable all children in the school
Response:
We have included teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals (and if appropriate, pupil services personnel, parents, and other staff in our staff development that addresses the root causes of our identified needs.) For example . . .
Teachers complete a Professional Learning Survey at the beginning and end of each school year to determine areas of needed professional development.
The Maynard Jackson High School Leadership Team and administrators will conduct study groups to promote professional learning in best instructional practices.
Maynard Jackson High School will devote two monthly faculty meeting to professional learning.
Teachers will participate in weekly collaborative planning for professional growth.
Administrators and teachers will attend conferences and workshops to learn school wide reform and instructional strategies that are scientifically researched based on the following:
We have aligned professional development with the State’s academic content and student academic achievement standards to ensure all instructional staff receive research based strategies and effective teaching strategies to help improve instruction and increase student achievement as well as help them meet all TKES evaluation standards. As a Title I school, five percent of the allocated Title I funding has been budgeted for professional learning and will be designed to address the needs of the school and comply with the school district’s instructional priorities.
As a Title I School Improvement School we have allocated 10% of the allocation to professional development. We have devoted sufficient resources to carry out effectively the professional development activities that address the root causes of academic problems. For example . . . (money, time, resources, instructional coaches)
Utilize the instructional coaches for on-site embedded professional learning.
Oversee and monitors the formal and informal educational realms and ensures quality deliverance in professional development is provided.
Monitor the implementation and use of common assessment data (Thinkgate).
Use the analyzing process with various system data and student data to determine trends to ensure the most effective strategies for meeting and exceeding state and national student achievement goals.
Monitor classroom instruction through E-Walk observations (walk throughs) and the TKES process (which consists of walk-throughs, formative observations, and summative observations)
Redelivery of workshop and meeting content information when teachers and administrators attend workshops and presentations that will facilitate the improvement academic achievement.
We have included teachers in professional development activities regarding the use of academic assessments to enable them to provide information on, and to improve, the achievement of individual students and the overall instructional program in the following ways . . .
We have incorporated a professional learning environment that requires teachers to rethink their instructional practices, to construct classroom roles and expectations about student outcomes, and to have the confidence to teach and collaborate in ways they never thought possible before.
Teachers attend formative assessment workshops that have assisted them with better utilizing collaborative time to create common assessments (pre and post).
Teachers attend trainings that teach them strategies to work with at risk students are not performing at grade-level due to the lack of pre-requisite skills.
Teachers attend training to improve their practices when delivering co-teaching strategies to ensure that best practices are used to reach all students in the collaborative classrooms.
*5. Strategies to increase parental involvement.
Response:
We have involved parents in the planning, review, and improvement of the comprehensive school wide program plan by developing a parent compact in collaboration with parents, teachers, students, staff, and administration. The parent compact is updated yearly at the first PTSA meeting, the Annual Title I meeting, and the first Saturday School workshop. The compact is collected from parents and students during homeroom, PTSA meetings, at the Annual Title I meeting, and the school website.
Other school wide activities include:
Parent Communication - Academic Nights, Parent Workshops, Home visits, Newsletters, Student Agendas, teacher websites, Parent Ed-Connect, Multicultural Night, Volunteer Drives
Maintaining a School Council consisting of parents, teachers, and community leaders that meets quarterly
A resource center for parents with quarterly workshops that will focus on parenting skills, healthcare, educational growth, and use of computer technology (Infinite Campus/Gradebook)
Conducting informational sessions and workshops
Conducting Open-House for New Students and Returning Students
Posting our comprehensive school-wide program plan on the school’s website so parents and the public will have access to it
Implementing Ed-Connect (a parent call-out system)
Implementing Parents in Partnership organization
We will update the school parental involvement policy periodically to meet the changing needs of parents and the school and distribute it to the parents of participating children
and make the parental involvement plan available to the local community, by using a variety of communication mediums letters, flyers, school messenger, parent handbook, web-site, and placing the information in the parent center.
We will conduct an annual meeting, at a convenient time, to inform parents about the school’s Title I program, the nature of the Title I program, the parents’ requirements
and the school parental involvement policy, the school wide plan, and the school-parent compact and encourage and invite all parents of participating children to attend by report cards, progress reports, letters, flyers, School Messenger, parent handbook, and the school newsletter.
We will offer a flexible number of meetings, such as meetings in the morning or evening, and may provide, with funds provided under Title I, transportation, child care, or home visits, as such services relate to parental involvement by creating a parent calendar that will provide all the meeting dates, times, and other identified services needed to support parental attendance.
We will provide parents of participating children with timely information about the Title I program, a description and explanation of the curriculum in use at the school, the forms
of academic assessments used to measure student progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet, and provide opportunities for regular meetings, if requested by parents, to formulate suggestions and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to the education of their child, and respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible, by the use of PTSA meetings, email, and other communication mediums.
We will jointly develop with parents of participating children a school-parent compact
that outlines how parents, the entire school staff, and students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership to help children achieve the state’s high standards and encourage home learning supervision, test awareness, high expectations, and daily attendance. Strategies in our compact will include:
Strategies to increase parental involvement (such as family literacy services). We have integrated a computer center in our parent resource center. Rosetta Stone will be provided to parents who would like to utilize the services in the parent resource room. Additionally, the parent liaison and teachers will offer literacy opportunities on academic and behavioral initiatives as well.
A parent involvement plan is created annually in an effort to maintain an on-going line of communication between the home and the school through the use of student report cards, progress reports, letters, flyers, School Messenger, parent handbook, and the school newsletter.
We will provide assistance to parents of participating children, as appropriate, in understanding the state’s academic content standards, the state’s student academic achievement standards, the state and local academic assessments including alternate assessments, the requirements of Title I, Part A, how to monitor their child’s progress, and how to work with educators, by creating a parent involvement plan. Additionally, the parent involvement plan describes how Maynard H. Jackson High School will provide individual student academic assessment results, including an interpretation of those results. Opportunities for parents to receive interpretation of results of all testing and classroom performance throughout the year are located on the Parent Calendar. Additionally, parents are informed in individual parent advisement with counselors twice a year (fall and spring) or on any conference day. Weekly parent conference days are held each Wednesday in the cafeteria and parent resource room upon request. The comprehensive school wide program plan is available to the LEA, parents, and the public on the school web-site, in the parent center, and in the media center.
We will provide materials and training to help parents to work with their child to improve their child’s achievement, such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate,
to foster parental involvement, by providing workshops for the parents identified through their needs survey.
We will provide training to educate the teachers, pupil services personnel, principal,
and other staff in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with parents as equal partners, in the value and utility of contributions of parents, and in how to implement and coordinate parent programs, and build ties between parents and the school, by having the parent liaison conduct a training with the staff on effect strategies and steps to increase and strength the relationship between the school staff and parents.
We will, to the extent feasible and appropriate, coordinate and integrate parental involvement programs and activities with Head Start, Even Start, Home Instruction Programs for Preschool Youngsters, the Parents as Teachers Program, and public preschool and other programs, and conduct other activities, such as parent resource centers, that encourage and support parents in more fully participating in the education
of their children, by having the parent liaison and other school officials speak and visit with the aforementioned programs and activities to support parents with participation.
We will take the following actions to ensure that information related to the school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities, is sent to the parents of participating children in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand, by use of email, flyers, website, letters, School Messenger, parent handbook, and the school newsletter.
We will provide full opportunities, to the extent practicable, for the participation of parents with limited English proficiency, parents with disabilities, and parents of migratory children, including providing information and school reports required under section 1111 of the ESEA in an understandable and uniform format and including alternative formats upon request, and, to the extent practicable, in a language parents understand, by contacting the school’s ESOL teacher to help with translating documents, and providing translators when needed.
The results of the annual survey will be shared with parents at an annual meeting. The evaluation will include identifying barriers to greater participation by parents in parental involvement activities. The school will use its findings of the survey to design strategies for more effective parent involvement.
