School Data Analysis and Instructional Leadership Meeting Notes

School Grading and Enrollment Trends

• Enrollment Statistics: Enrollment has undergone a steady decline, losing approximately $60$ students per year. Recent data indicates specific losses of $-60$, $-57$, and $-76$ students across consecutive years.

• School Grades: Significant progress has been made in school grading points:

  • $2024$: Earned $65\%$ of points.
  • $2025$: Earned $70\%$ of points.
  • $2026$: Earned $71\%$ of points.

• ESSA Subgroups: No category within the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) subgroups falls below the $41\%$ threshold. Subgroups include:

  • Black
  • Hispanic
  • White
  • Students with Disabilities (SWD)
  • Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL)
  • English Language Learners (ELL)

Literacy Department Restructuring

• Conceptual Shift: A new Literacy Department was created this year to address literacy as a collective responsibility across all subject areas, including Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Electives. It is no longer viewed solely as the responsibility of reading teachers.

• Composition: The Literacy Department is currently the largest department in the school. It integrates:

  • Language Arts teachers
  • Reading teachers
  • The Research teacher
  • The Speech and Debate teacher

• Rationale: The merge was prompted by decreasing enrollment and a shift in student proficiency. With over $70\%$ of high school students now proficient (Level $3$ and above), there are fewer students enrolled in traditional reading courses.

Detailed Academic Performance Data

English Language Arts (ELA)

• Proficiency By Grade Level ($2025$ to $2026$):

  • Sixth Grade: Maintained performance levels.
  • Seventh Grade: Experienced a decrease in proficiency.
  • Eighth Grade: Showed a significant increase in proficiency.

• Learning Gains: Overall school learning gains in reading decreased. While eighth grade saw a slight increase, the general trend was downward when combining all students from Level $1$ through Level $5$.

• Bottom Quartile (BQ): Performance in the bottom quartile (Levels $1$ and $2$) varied. Sixth and seventh grades saw a decrease in BQ performance, whereas eighth grade saw a positive increase, which was the primary driver for point gains in this category.

Mathematics

• Overall Proficiency: Maintained at $74\%$.

• Performance by Grade Level:

  • Eighth Grade (Pre-Algebra): Scored exceptionally well, driving most of the school's math data increases.
  • Sixth and Seventh Grade: Both grade levels experienced a decline in proficiency and learning gains.

• Course Specifics:

  • FAST Math: Followed the grade-level trends mentioned above.
  • Algebra: Remained "in the green," with no negative performance shifts reported.
  • Geometry: Achieved $100\%$ proficiency.
  • Learning Gains Performance: One specific math teacher achieved a $100\%$ learning gain rate.

• Impact of Department Size: The math department has shrunk from $12$ to $15$ teachers in past years to only $9$ currently. With approximately $3$ teachers per grade level, each teacher's individual impact on school data is significantly higher—each carrying roughly one-third of the weight for their grade level.

Science and Social Studies

• Science:

  • Seventh Grade (GEARS): Consistently high performance, reaching $98\%$ in the previous year.
  • Eighth Grade (Regular + Biology): Percentage stood at $59\%$, though on a consistent upward trend.
  • Biology: Miss Hughes achieved $100\%$ proficiency.

• Social Studies (Civics):

  • Seventh Grade: Experienced a decrease in performance.
  • Eighth Grade (Make-up Students): Performed significantly better than the previous year's cohort.

Curriculum and Instruction (CARE Cycle)

• Pacing Guides: Departments must finalize pacing guides organized by quarters. Pacing must account for all known interruptions, including:

  • Planning days and early release days.
  • FAST testing days (two days per cycle where no instruction occurs).
  • School events (e.g., Picture Day, Discipline Assemblies).

• Instructional Timeline: The goal is to complete all new curriculum instruction by the end of March or early April. This allows for several weeks of "spiral review" before the final PM3 assessment.

• Common Assessments: Every subject area must have common assessments (e.g., end-of-chapter or end-of-unit tests). These must be uniform across every teacher in the same grade level and content area.

• Data Analysis and Trackers:

  • Data Chats: Departments must conduct data analysis after every common assessment. This includes using teacher reflection forms to look at data by class period.
  • Data Trackers: Shared trackers (e.g., on SharePoint) will be used to monitor class averages. APs are responsible for cleaning these templates before use. Trackers ensure teachers remain on schedule and prevent instructional delays (e.g., one teacher being two months behind others).

Resource Selection and AI Usage

• Hierarchy of Resources:

  1. District-adopted curriculum (primary).
  2. District-approved supplementary curriculum (e.g., iReady, Teacher Toolbox, Savvas Learning).

• Materials to Avoid: Teachers must strictly avoid unapproved internet resources like Pinterest or TeachersPayTeachers. District visitors can easily identify these materials by their aesthetics, and school leadership has received "slaps on the wrist" for their use.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI):

  • Liaison: Miss Garcia is the designated AI liaison.
  • Usage Guidance: AI should be used strategically for "bite-sized" improvements or to create engaging activities based on existing curriculum. For example, a teacher could input a Savvas assignment into AI to generate a more exciting classroom activity.
  • Caution: AI is not a replacement for effective planning. Teachers should not jump "feet first" into AI at the expense of traditional resources.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Administrative Expectations

• Lesson Studies: Year two of implementation. Departments should aim for one deep-dive lesson study per quarter. This involves planning, breaking down the standard, teaching, reflecting on gaps, revising, and reteaching.

• Standard Analysis: A core component of PLCs this year is examining clusters of weak standards based on $2026$ data. Teachers should focus on at least one weak standard per month to ensure classroom tasks align with "look-fors" in state documents.

• Logistics and Punctuality:

  • Time: PLCs occur every Wednesday from $08:30$ to $09:15$.
  • Attendance: Professional expectations require all staff to be in the room by $08:30$. Punctuality has been a recurring issue that will be tightened this year.
  • Planning Time: Staff with planning during the first period or sixth period are still required to be on campus for their full hours ($08:30$ to $04:00$).
  • Flexible Schedules: Staff participating in before-care, after-care, or sixth-period supplements (tutoring) must make up their planning time before or after their regular work hours.

Student Interventions and Course Recovery

• Course Recovery Success: The school successfully reduced the course recovery list by $50\%$ last year. The target for the upcoming year is an additional $50\%$ reduction.

• Intervention for Fragile Students: Administrators and support facilitators must address teachers who have a track record of failing high numbers of ELL, EZE, and Level $1$ or $2$ students.

  • IEP Awareness: Teachers must be aware of and implement IEP accommodations. Lack of awareness is a "teacher issue," not a "student issue."
  • IEP-at-a-Glance: Support facilitators will meet with teachers (especially for unknown sixth graders) to review student IEP folders and identify needs early.
  • RTI Meetings: Response to Intervention (RTI) meetings will occur monthly to monitor students who are failing multiple quarters.

Logistics and School Opening

• Textbooks: Seven pallets of textbooks are currently in receiving. Disbursement will begin once floor work is completed, ideally by the upcoming Wednesday.

• iReady Testing: The school will begin iReady testing during the first week of school to help "clean up" and verify enrollment numbers.

• Professional Development (PD): District PD days are scheduled for Wednesdays. Teachers wishing to attend must notify Miss Bryant and the principal, provide a TDA, and attach the PD flyer.

Questions & Discussion

• Question: What is the expectation for teacher reflection forms—do we create them or is there a vision provided?

• Response: The forms used last year should be the starting point. If they need to be tweaked for a specific curriculum area, they should be shared after modification to ensure everyone is on the same page.

• Question: In years past, we only did one lesson study. What is the expectation now?

• Response: The goal is to do one per quarter. This will be difficult due to budget cuts in sub coverage, but deeper analysis is needed.

• Question: What if a teacher says they do not need the PLC points and refuses to attend?

• Response: Attendance is not about points; it is part of the professional work schedule. Every teacher is expected to be present and participating.

• Question: Will IXL be provided by the district?

• Response: There have been no "whispers" about IXL; the school is moving forward with iReady as the primary tool. If teachers are teaching FAST math, they must use iReady.

• Question: How should I-Ready work for teachers who do before-care?

• Response: Previously, we were on the honor system. We may look into recording time through Microsoft Teams log-ins, but we will develop a formal plan for those affected.