School improvement plan

Our Goal

Implement systematic student response opportunities in all classrooms, resulting in all teachers using varying levels and modalities to increase student engagement and academic achievement.

Success will be evident when:

1. 100% of teachers will eliminate questions that permit only one student to respond and, instead, ask questions that encourage all students to think critically and take action in some manner, as measured by classroom observations and self-report surveys.
2. There are statistically significant increases from the baseline data that we collected during classroom walk-throughs, showing an increase in either overall student response opportunities and/or an increase in student response opportunities at levels two through four.
3. Students demonstrate measurable academic growth, as evidenced by increased scores on formative and summative assessments, with particular attention to pre- and post-assessment gain in targeted content areas.

Enhancing Student Engagement

Student Impact

• The impact on students will create more opportunities for them to engage in inquiry, answer questions, and perform tasks at varying levels of complexity and across different modalities, ultimately leading to higher levels of student engagement.

ATP Connection

• The goal of increasing student response opportunities is to further enhance student growth and advance their readiness for college and careers, which are the two key indicators in our Academic Transformation Plan. The teams will use the teach-measure-learn cycle to assess how successful student response opportunities are in improving student learning based on assessment data.

Personal Connection

• Enhancing student engagement by increasing student response opportunities allows every student to participate in the classroom. No student can hide from the opportunity to answer questions or engage in work, as this comes from the belief that if a question is worth asking, it is worth every student answering. This belief also stems from the idea that every student is capable of attempting the work assigned to them, and that through scaffolding, gradual release of responsibility practices, and prompting, all students can achieve success.

Enhancing Student Engagement

Skill Development

• We will begin by developing an understanding of the levels of student responses across each subject area. Once our understanding of varying levels of questioning is firm, we will begin planning a lesson within the Teach-Measure-Learn cycle, embedding questions, tasks, and activities that will solicit a variety of intended student responses.
• We will use the book Now That’s a Good Question! as a reference.

Knowledge Sharing

• Staff will bring evidence to impact team meetings for each Teach, Learn Cycle to show the varying levels of student responses that were planned during the prior impact team meeting.
• Staff will have open, honest discussions about the impact that our instruction is having on student learning.

System Alignment

• This focus is in alignment within the Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework, along with a focus on using formative assessment for purposeful planning as questions are strategically selected to solicit student responses.