Robert A. Taft Middle School 2018-2019 School Board Report Assistant Principal — Joshua Graegin
Robert A. Taft Middle School — Mission Statement The mission of Robert A. Taft Middle School is empowering and enabling our students in being prepared for the next level of education and development with a long-term focus toward college and career readiness.
School Quality Factor — Impact of Instruction “The capacity of every teacher to purposefully and intentionally create an environment that empowers all students to be successful in their learning and reach expected levels of achievement including readiness to transition to the next level of learning or career pathway.”
School Quality Factor — Fidelity of Implementation “The ability of a school to execute, with consistency, actions designed to improve organizational and instructional effectiveness.”
The staff at Taft Middle School works collaboratively with all stakeholder groups to take a data driven approach in order to ensure the success of every student through a variety of initiatives. Transitional year with new leadership The foundations of Taft are strong, with ISTEP English/Language Arts scores averaging an 80% pass rate across all grade levels; over 70% of our students are involved in extra and co-curricular activities; and surveys showing that students and staff believe that there is a positive learning environment and engaging connection to the curriculum…but there is always room for improvement!
State vs. Federal Accountability Grades State Grade — A Federal Grade — B Primarily based on state test scores Includes: and growth School attendance rates Language proficiency of English Language Learners Breakdown (weight): Breakdown (weight): Performance Points: 75.9 (.5) Academic Achievement: 75.9 (.475) Growth Points: 106.3 (.5) Academic Progress: 100 (.475) Overall Points: 91.1 Addressing Chronic Absenteeism: 74.6 (.05) Overall Points: 87.3
Our Students Come First
SLC’s weekly Small Learning Communities — Grade Level Teams Communication and collaboration to support all of our students Rotated visits from leadership team Student focused discussions — How can we best help our kids? Weekly grade reports Building relationships Google doc tracking Standard 2.7 — Instruction is monitored and adjusted to meet individual learners’ needs and the institution’s learning expectations.
P LC’s weekly Professional Learning Communities — Grade Level/Content Based Communication and collaboration Review of summative and formative assessment data to review and revise instructional practices Focus on increasing instructional effectiveness Regular visits from leadership team Google doc tracking Standard 2.11 — Educators gather, analyze, and use formative and summative data that lead to demonstrable improvement of student learning.
Teachers regularly discuss multiple data points to assess instructional effectiveness. Formative and summative assessments ACT ACT — Academic Behaviors I AM ILEARN Star Math Star Reading WIDA Standard 2.10 — Learning progress is reliably assessed and consistently and clearly communicated.
We recognize that communication and collaboration with all stakeholders is an integral part of our students success. We understand that the middle school years are some of the most influential on the development of our students success and focus on our students starting off strong coming in as elementary school children and carrying that success on as they leave our building as high school students. Incoming 6 th grade parent nights (2x a year — streamlined the process for consistent messaging. Bulldog Rush Elementary School Visits — 6 th grade teachers, counselors, administrator Teacher recommendation communication (6 th and 7 th grade students) Collaboration with Crown Point High School to support our 8 th grade students moving into the high school. Standard 1.2 — Stakeholders collectively demonstrate actions to ensure the achievement of the institution’s purpose and desired outcomes for learners.
The School/Home Relationship is Critical
Shift in our parent-teacher conference model Move towards consistent communication throughout the school year rather than a one time meeting in the middle of the year. Strong relationship with the PTO to ensure we are meeting the needs of all of our students. Other various methods of communication to ensure all stakeholder groups are working together to support our students: up to date school webpage, weekly recorded phone calls, school Twitter, quarterly newsletters, BUZZ, student surveys Standard 1.2 — Stakeholders collectively demonstrate actions to ensure the achievement of the institution’s purpose and desired outcomes for learners.
Our Staff Makes It Happen
Regularly scheduled discussions to continually shape and assess programing Weekly Leadership Team Meetings Monthly inclusion of additional staff (custodial/cafeteria) Staff Meetings Safety Team Meetings MTSS Meetings School Improvement Team AdvancED Accreditation Professional Development Open Door Policy Standard 2.12 — The institution implements a process to continuously assess its programs and organizational conditions to improve student learning.
Wednesday Morning Professional Development Conducted by a variety of staff Over 20 staff members have contributed to Wednesday morning professional development, including administration, school counselors, teachers, PBIS paraprofessionals, and even some students! Teachers that attend an outside professional development opportunity come back and prepare and share with the staff. Some of the topics covered this year included: Rethinking Grading Love & Logic Technology Usage in the Classroom PLC Development Exceptional Learners Strategies Challenge Education Standard 3.1 — The institution plans and delivers professional learning to improve the learning environment, and the institution’s effectiveness.
iObservation Regular classroom visits utilizing the Marzano model New iObservation cadre group Mentoring 5 new teachers in the building mentored by experienced teachers Scheduled meetings with new teachers Standard 1.6 — Leaders implement staff supervision and evaluation processes to improve professional practice and organizational effectiveness.
How do we know this is working? Robert A. Taft Middle school is a 4 Star designated school and was rated an A by the Indiana Department of Education in 2017-2018
Data shows multiple areas of growth. Most notable to the continuous improvement at Taft can be seen in the class of 2022 cohort where the total number of students Ready or Exceeding the ACT benchmark grew from 64.1% to 76.7%.
One takeaway from ACT Math results can be seen with our largest percentage of students rated Not Close to ready according to ACT standards is 11.1% compared with the 20.7% that can be seen in 2016-2017. Somewhat stagnant math results were a key factor considered when the schedule was revised to add more time to math courses.
ISTEP+ Trends ISTEP+ trends provide evidence of slightly increasing Pass and Pass+ rates from 2016-2018. The new ILEARN exam administered this year will provide additional data to be utilized to effectively shape instruction in the future. ISTEP+ English Language Arts ISTEP+ Mathematics
How do our students feel? The results of a student survey completed will all Taft students in January of 2019 shows some more positive data points: 84.8% of our students feel respected by teachers 90.6% of our students feel that our teachers put a great deal of effort into their classes Over 86% of our students feel comfortable approaching our teachers with questions or concerns Over 94% of our students feel that class time is used effectively in class.
Areas of Focus for Improvement
Our new administrative leadership team has been spending time all year assessing and evaluating our processes and procedures, and have been working collaboratively to build upon the strong foundations of Robert A. Taft Middle School. As we work together at Taft through the occasional bumps in the road, a few of the initiatives we plan to continue to work on: shape, develop, and evaluate operational processes and procedures. (Standard 1.7) build and shape the Multi-Tiered System of Support program in the building to ensure wrap around services are maximized. shape, develop, and evaluate disciplinary policies. Specific tailoring of In School Suspension program to increase the value and function of the program within the school for our students. shape a building-wide view of what assessing student learning.
Thank you for your support!
Recommend
More recommend
