Steering Committee Minutes Dr. Hoesing handed out draft copies of the External Team Visitation Report from April 20, 2006. The purpose of today’s meeting was to review and address information within this report. A discussion followed of what needs to be done next. Goals for the school improvement process will need to be set. It was reported that the ILCD survey results are posted on the web site, and they will need to be looked at to address/explain any low scores. In addition, the inquiries of the ILCD process will need to be completed. General discussion followed. It was stated that clarification of the on-line assessments for Science in 2006-2007 is needed. The School Profile on page 8 of the report was discussed. The issue of displaying data and making it easy to read was brought up in this discussion also. A question was raised about the School Mission Evaluation, found on page 14 of the report. Dr. Hoesing will ask the External Team Chair, Mike Sieh, for clarification on letter “f” of this evaluation, where we lost one point. The next section of the report which was discussed was on the “Report of the Student Performance Goal I” on page 10. Dr. Hoesing stated that we will have better data with the on-line assessments than we had with the CMS assessments. He also reported that some schools are including information about how students do in class--grades, etc. In addition, it was discussed that scaled scores may be a better way to see growth, as these should go up every year. Following a group of students through school was also discussed as a possibility. It will be important for us to figure out how to manage and use the data, and a statistics software program should be helpful for this also. The Steering Committee next discussed the “Questions for Thought/Recommendations” concerning Assessments, also found on page 10 of the External Team’s report. Dr. Hoesing stated that a new survey is coming out from NCA which we will look at for possible use. In addition, perception data from other surveys, such as the ILCD Parent Surveys, possible Senior Exit surveys, etc. were discussed as ways to gather this information. The “Report of the Student Performance Goal II”, found on page 11 of the report, was discussed next. It was reported that the Wellness Committee wants at least 30 minutes at the beginning of the school year to make staff aware of the Wellness Policy. It was also stated that a contingency plan for a bird flu pandemic will need to be in place. Discussion followed about how to monitor wellness. Suggestions included following absenteeism or the possibility of doing health screenings more than once each year. Notes from the day of the External Team Visit showed that the team members suggested an overall goal might be that “All students will improve in general wellness” and that a rubric could be created which measured body characteristics, cardiovascular health, and life habits (smoking, etc.) The Wellness Committee was told that Lewisville is doing something like this now. Other suggestions were to use the “Enlighten” program in home rooms, or some kind of health competition. Notes from the day of the External Team’s visit regarding ILCD were also reviewed. It was suggested that a goal might be articulation with other programs, such as Title I. In addition, the ILCD goal might be a “program improvement” goal, depending on what the ILCD surveys show. The ILCD Committee was told by the External Team members that they would become a resource to the Instruction/Curriculum Committee, which is where the student improvement goal would probably come from. Regarding Staff Development, as discussed on page 12 of the External Team’s report, it was reported that the “myElearning” training will be in August for staff who are attending that. In addition, the Steering Committee made the following recommendations: 1. Have Response to Intervention (RTI) training for all staff; 2. Attend Todd Whitaker workshop during pre-service days in August; 3. Reconvene the Steering Committee during pre-service days to address comments/concerns raised in the Professional Learning Communities where two books were discussed in the 2005-2006 school year; 4. Have teachers at the elementary level participate in training regarding Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) which is being held at ESU #1 in June. Respectfully submitted, Sharon Boeckenhauer, Recorder |