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School Improvement Plan

What is a School Improvement Plan?

A School Improvement Plan (SIP) is a strategic blueprint that schools use to enhance student learning and improve educational practices. It outlines specific goals for improvement, actions to achieve those goals, and methods for measuring progress.

Key Points of a SIP:

  • Goals: Clear objectives the school aims to achieve to enhance student outcomes.
  • Actions: Steps and strategies the school will implement to reach its goals, based on research and effective practices.
  • Monitoring: Regular review of progress with adjustments made to ensure the school stays on track toward its improvement objectives.
     

The purpose of a SIP is to provide a clear roadmap for schools to improve educational outcomes for all students, particularly focusing on eliminating disparities and ensuring equitable opportunities for every student.

Every school in Washington State is required to have a School Improvement Plan.
 

Monitoring and Adjusting:

A SIP is not set in stone. It's reviewed regularly, with progress monitored against the set goals and activities adjusted as needed to stay on track toward improvement.

Visit the Issaquah School District SIP website to learn more about SIPs.

District - School Improvement Plans

 

Front of Newcastle Elementary School

Achievement Goals

  1. By the spring of 2024, Newcastle students meeting proficiency on the SBA Reading Assessment will increase from our current 70% to 80%.
     
  2. Students receiving MLL and Special Education services will demonstrate gap-closing growth each year of this SIP as indicated by 60% of identified students being on track to meet or exceed stretch growth on i-Ready Reading.

Guiding Questions

Reflecting on previous action plans

Backed by Data

Schools use multiple data sources to inform their planning. Progress toward school improvement in overall achievement and disproportionality is monitored using state and district measures using a common School Improvement Data Dashboard.

Data Workbook for Elementary School

School-Based Action Plan

Action Implementation Impact: Evidence/Monitoring
Professional Development Support for Reading Instruction

Coordination and delivery of professional development alongside i-Ready representatives to support teachers in use of i-Ready tools to not only identify appropriate student placement for small group instruction, but also strategies for addressing the specific skills requiring support.

Use of small groups in classrooms in response to i-Ready data and monitoring ongoing performance of students through i-Ready diagnostics, including both Typical and Stretch Growth.
Use of My Path for i-Ready Reading

Students are provided opportunities throughout the school day to access My Path for i-Ready reading.

Monitoring ongoing performance of students through i-Ready diagnostics, including both Typical and Stretch Growth.

Reading Small Groups Designed in response to i-Ready Reading data.

Teachers will use i-Ready data and guidance to inform their small group placement and instruction.

Monitoring ongoing performance of students through i-Ready diagnostics, including both Typical and Stretch Growth.
Kindergarten Participation in Fall i-Ready Diagnostic
  • Reading/Phonics Groups in response to i-Ready results.
  • Paraprofessional support for pull-out groups designed in response to this data.
  • WaKIDS Data

  • RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming)

  • Ongoing i-Ready Data

  • Fountas & Pinnell Scores

  • Teacher Conferring Notes

Build on PBSES Previous Systems to Support Transition
  • Review building-wide expectations with staff and students at start of school year and following extended breaks.

  • Review use of SWIS data system.

  • Provide monthly assemblies in alignment with building expectations and SEL focus for the month.

  • Engage in and review CR-TFI with staff.

  • Monitoring ongoing academic performance of students through i-Ready, Fountas & Pinnell, and SBA (in response to successful behavioral supports).

  • Monitoring ongoing changes present in our SWIS data throughout the year.

Goal Setting by Teachers in Alignment with SIP

Classroom teachers will set Student Growth Goals in alignment with our reading goals for the 22-23 school year using i-Ready, Fountas and Pinnell, and additional data of each teacher’s choosing.

Monitoring student progress in each of these assessments/diagnostics across the school year.
Intentional and Coordinated Literacy Intervention

Through use of our Title/LAP teacher, classroom teachers, and Success Blocks, we will provide a coordinated building-wide intervention program for students.

Monitoring student progress through i-Ready, Really Great Reading, and Fountas and Pinnell assessments throughout the school year.
Use of Technology and Accessibility Features

At multiple grade levels, teachers are accessing core technology tools and their accessibility features such as Microsoft Reading Progress (similar to a digital F&P that is available on an ongoing basis) and provides a read-aloud feature for striving students as well as our MLL students as needed.

  • Ongoing Data gathered from Microsoft Reading Progress

  • Monthly Fluency checks using this same data

Use of a Variety of Technology Tools to Support Individualized Reading

Tools such as PebbleGo, TrueFlix, Sora, Learning Ally, Actively Learn, and KCLS access.

  • Tracking systems built into applications
  • Monitoring of levels selected for use by students
Equity Events: Reading Without Walls
  • Annual celebration and focus on diverse book titles and authors

  • Personalized for each student (for example, students get a Bingo Sheet and they can choose how they want to grow as a diverse reader)

  • Challenges students to read beyond their comfort zone

  • Reading List provided to staff and students, in terms of suggested book titles

  • Librarian highlights diverse books through Book Talks and ongoing library shelf-top displays

Students who complete the challenge have their name displayed on a “Reading without Walls” school-wide bulletin board

Hour of Code
  • Brings tech into hands of all students, Grades K-5

  • Non-computer, as well as computer-based activities

  • Students work in teams to solve coding challenges

Students are able to independently, or with a partner, solve future coding challenges on their own

Optional additional explanation/rationale/research

While we would like to acknowledge that we have continued work to do in the area of literacy, which has been our SIP focus for the last 3-plus years, we have strategies and practices in place that align our academic practices in this area with our MTSS structure. We feel confident with the Tier 1 practices (diagnostic assessments, progress monitoring, Success Blocks) we have in place and that when we are then looking at students for potential Tier 2 support through our Tier 2 Team, we have multiple pieces of data and strategies that help inform our thinking in terms of “next steps”. We feel that with these structures and strategies in place, our literacy scores will continue to increase over time, including real progress for our students with gap-closing goals.

When looking at math, we do not have these same structures and strategies in place, hence the shift of focus to math for this SIP cycle. We currently use a whole class lesson instructional model and do not have a consistent practice of small group and additional interventions in place. We have i-Ready that helps to inform our instruction. The i-Ready Math assessment is given three times a year but unlike reading/literacy, we do not use the data in the same way and in alignment with our MTSS structure. When we look at students who struggle in math, we do not have as many data points nor do we have as many strategies and built-in structures of support.

Our district scores indicate that our students, as a cohort, have lost more ground in math than in any other academic, post-pandemic.

Results for students who took the test in spring 2022—the first main National Assessment of Educational Progress administration for these grades since the pandemic began—show the biggest drop in math performance in 4th and 8th grades since the testing program began in 1990. (Education Weekly, 10/24/22)

“The results show the profound toll on student learning during the pandemic, as the size and scope of the declines are the largest ever in mathematics,” said National Center for Education Statistics commissioner Peggy G. Carr in a press release announcing the report.

The steepest declines were found in 8th grade math, both nationally and in the Northwest. In Washington, students scored 10 points lower. (U.S. Department of Education, Nation’s Report Card)

Rationale to change our SIP focus from literacy to math would be that we currently have district-mandated practices in place for literacy (dyslexia law, SLPs, LAP, Success Blocks, newly adopted Benchmark Phonics at the Kindergarten Level, Really Great Reading and the data-driven process to qualify, Words Their Way, etc.) as well as robust interventions for Tier 2 and anticipate an increase in our SBA Literacy scores due to these adopted practices. We currently lack this depth of practice, as well as student-centered strategies for our struggling mathematicians and would advocate that with increased focus on strong instructional practice and MTSS-aligned strategies, we can work to close the gap for our most struggling students and increase math scores for all students.

SIP Team & Final Review

  • Principal: Tom Wood
  • Site Council/PTSA Review Date: January 20, 2023
  • Supervisor Review: Melinda Reynvaan
  • School Board Review Date: February 15, 2023

Leadership Team:  

  • Emily Beckford, Kindergarten Teacher

  • Katie Afman, First Grade Teacher

  • Tonya Johnson, Second Grade Teacher

  • Jessica Burnham, Third Grade Teacher

  • Julie Howard, Fourth Grade Teacher

  • Madi Herr, Fifth Grade Teacher

  • Priscilla Hooke, TLAP Teacher

  • Taryn Day, LRC1 Teacher

  • Edith Delgado, MLL Teacher

  • Chad Porter, Dean of Students

Checklist