Evaluation of a School-wide Program



Evaluation of a School-wide Program

a. Overview

a. Fairfield Middle School (FMS), is a part of the Henrico County School District in historic Henrico County Virginia. It is located in the heart Henrico County’s east-end in the town of Highland Springs. According to School Digger, Fairfield Middle is ranked 380th of 405 Virginia Middle Schools. Fairfield Middle consists of grades 6-8th. There are approximately 997 students. FMS is 86% Black, 7% White, 3% Hispanic, 3% Two or more races and 1% Asian. Based on this information one can conclude that FMS is not diverse. There are over 73 certified teachers and over 50 support staff.

i. Fairfield Middle School offers the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP), Bliss Program, Extended Day and Intellectually Disabled Program (ID). It also offers two foreign languages, strings, band, chorus, technology, visual arts, computer sciences mindfulness and a wide variety of extracurricular activities for students to participate.

b. I am a 6th grade English Teacher at Fairfield Middle School. I teach general English 6 and Advanced English 6. I am also the 6th Grade Team Leader and the 6th Grade English Content Leader. As an English teacher, I create lesson plans, differentiate lessons, track student progress, schedule conferences with parents and present information, create test, reinforce classroom rules and prepare students for their Standards of Learning (SOL) assessment. As the 6th Grade Team leader, I host meetings for the grade level, come up with strategies to help new teachers, plan incentives and award ceremonies and meet with the PACT team monthly to evaluate school data.

b. Personnel

a. Interview with the Literacy Coach: Rebecca Hodell

i. Literacy Coach Responsibilities

a. Helping teachers with finding resources, planning, implementation of best practices; tracking books, attending planning meetings, lead teachers to consider different elements, observe classrooms and instruction and help as needed. Also, attending meetings with administrators, school – county trainings, provide documentation to the VDOE.

ii. Goals and content of Instruction

a. Determine instruction based on district and school goals, specific teacher needs, balance the two; county first, then teachers, then LC needs based on best practices.

iii. Helpful Assessment Instruments for diagnosing student needs

a. QRI diagnostic tool, running record, developmental spelling inventory- individual kids; school wide- NWEA not familiar enough, Gates-McGinnity (timed test- 1 hr. vocabulary and comprehension standardized test)

iv. How are assessment results used?

a. In the classroom to differentiate instruction for accessible text for certain skills; organizing small groups, developing schedules. School wide to measure growth over time; more intensive interventions, used as indicators of who will pass the test (not necessarily true)

v. Coaching Responsibilities and serving as a resource for teachers

a. Serve as a resource to teachers in three schools. Fairfield is her primary hub for evaluations and providing resources. Partners with Henrico High School and Highland Springs High School. High school primary responsibilities; HSHS support coaching 10th grade teachers on writing ½, ¾ day per week, emailing, not as much direct observation; proactive in implementing the ACT program (10th and 11th grade set, 9/12 grade set)

vi. Developing your own assessment program

a. Program timed test very accessible and followed with second level of assessment for at-risk for scores and teacher concerns, opportunities for individual assessments, second level- decoding, fluency and comprehension for better establishment of the underlying program; response of effective instruction

vii. Major difficulties experienced by students in your school

a. high level of poverty, students not reading on grade level; high turnover rate hard for training and development; lack of experienced teachers, behavior problems self and others (students); out of district students

viii. Major issues you face as a literacy coach

a. time responsibility balance, people who need a wide range of needs, observations, time management and needs management; working with the teachers; buffering teachers from VDOE requirements; change agent for teachers

b. The following people are a part of the FMS literacy program.

i. Arthur Raymond- Principal of Fairfield Middle School- Promotes school-wide literacy. Provides teachers with instructional materials, evaluates instructors and gives feedback. Reading contest, using budget funds to purchase books, hiring quality faculty. Alison Walden- English Administrator- Partners with English teachers to promote school-wide literacy, provides resources to English teachers, attends meetings and conferences, evaluates teachers and gives corrective criticism.

ii. Jan Collins- School Improvement Literacy K-12 Specialist: Organizer of the A.C.T.NOW! Reading and Writing Workshop (Access, Choice, and Time with Text)

iii. Erica Basnight-Johnson- Henrico County English Specialist- Provides teachers with countywide professional development, implements new reading and writing strategies, creates benchmark assessments and analyzes reading and writing data county wide.

iv. Leah Segar- English Department Chair- Provides teachers with resources, liaison between the teachers and English Specialist.

v. Rebecca Hodell- Literacy Coach- Promotes the A.C.T. Now! Reading and Writing Workshop. Dictates what teachers should and shouldn’t be teaching. Works directly with teachers, assist with lesson planning, content meetings and annotation data.

vi. English 6 Teachers- Assist students on interpreting literature and poetry, teach students about the structure and content of the English language including but not limited to proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, implementing the ACT NOW reading program; plan, prepare, differentiate and deliver instructional activities; and monitor student progress throughout the school year; manage student behavior in the classroom.

1. Faye Harris- Special Education Self-Contained

2. Clifton Neal – Collaborative English Teacher

3. QuiNeick Newsom- Collaborative Special Education Teacher

4. Quantina Jackson- General English/ Advanced English Teacher

5. LaShawn Johnson- General English

6. Rebecca Zuckerman- General English/IBMYP Teachers

vii. English 7 Teachers- Assist students on interpreting literature and poetry, teach students about the structure and content of the English language including but not limited to proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, implementing the ACT NOW reading program; plan, prepare, differentiate and deliver instructional activities; and monitor student progress throughout the school year; manage student behavior in the classroom.

1. Chelsea McCoy-Bryant- Special Education/ Self-Contained

2. David Ingraham- General English/Advanced English

3. Jacqueline Knox- Collaborative English

a. Ashley Williams- Paraprofessional

4. Jade Miller- General English

5. Shaila Richmond- General English/ IBMYP Teacher

viii. English 8 Teachers- Assist students on interpreting literature and poetry, teach students about the structure and content of the English language including but not limited to proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, implementing the ACT NOW reading program; plan, prepare, differentiate and deliver instructional activities; and monitor student progress throughout the school year; manage student behavior in the classroom.

1. Chelsea McCoy-Bryant- Special Education/Self-Contained

2. Jennifer Castro- Collaborative Special Education Teacher

3. Nichole Gross- Collaborative English Teacher

4. Julie Poole- General English/IBMYP

5. Leah Segar- General English/Advanced English

6. Leah Wiedenhoft- General English/IBMYP

ix. Paraprofessionals- assist teachers and differentiates material for students with learning disabilities.

c. Recommendations for improvement in this area.

a. The role of the principals and administrators in the literacy program should be clearly defined.

b. The literacy coach should be able to evaluate and assist students with reading difficulties. Schools that are unaccredited in English should have certified reading specialists.

c. Materials

c. The reading material in grades 6th and 7th range from a 4th – 8th grade reading level. In the collaborative and self-contained classrooms, the reading material ranges from a 2nd – 6th grade reading level. In 8th grade the material ranges from a 6th -12th grade level. Every language arts teacher also has their own personal classroom libraries. Reading libraries range from a 4th grade to high school level material. Classroom libraries include books of all genres and a school library.

The technology based materials vary based on grades and Lexile ranges within each classroom. The Lexile levels range from 450-1050. Technology that is available to students is: computers, activ-boards, iPads, websites such as Brain-Pop, NEWSELA, , , , scholastic and .

d. To perform readability calculations on reading materials. I read the first 100 words of each novel and then I used the following sites to determine the readability level: and

i. 6th Grade: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander: Grades 5-9 Lexile Measure 750L

a. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level- 3.9

b. Average Grade level 3.9

ii. 7th Grade Outsiders by S.E. Hinton: Grades 8-12 Lexile Measure 750L

a. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 2.2

b. Gunning-Fog Score Grade Level 4.4

c. Coleman-Liau Index Grade Level 6.4

d. SMOG Index 4.8

e. Automated Readability Index 1.5

f. Average Grade level 3.9

iii. 8th Grade: The Giver by Lois Lowery: Grades 5-8 Lexile Measure 760L

c. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 7.4

d. Gunning-Fog Score Grade Level 9.5

e. Coleman-Liau Index Grade Level 9.6

f. SMOG Index 9.4

g. Automated Readability Index 7.2

h. Average Grade level 8.6

e. Recommendations for improvement in this area.

i. Differentiated classroom libraries in each grade level

ii. Nonfiction Resources: Magazines, websites, articles. We currently only have subscriptions to story-works and scope magazine

d. Assessments

a. Assessment materials used at the school are: NWEA, Teacher formative assessment, Monthly Annotation Assessments and Woodcock Johnson-III, Virginia Standards of Learning, Countywide Benchmarks (Reading & Writing).

b. Evaluation of Assessments: Virginia Standards of Learning

i. Virginia Standards of Learning

a. Pro- Secure test that allows students’ progress to be tracked over the years. Students data is passed along from year to year. Teachers are able to see what skills were mastered from year to year starting in 3rd grade. (Reading SOL Grade 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 10)

b. Pro- Standardized tests are reliable and objective measures of student achievement.

c. Con- teachers are teaching to the test and are placing limitations on student learning due to the state-wide pacing guide.

d. Con- Assessments are not released yearly. The Virginia SOL is released every 5-7 years (2010, 2015) Teachers are using old sample test in order to prepare students for the new assessment.

ii. NWEA/MAP Assessment

a. Pro- The NWEA Measures of Academic Progress assessment is an individualized computer- adaptive test. It has between 42 and 52 questions. When a student answers a question correctly, their next question will become harder and when a student answers a question incorrectly their next question will become easier.

b. Pro- Classroom reports can streamline teaching strategies and assist teachers with providing differentiated instruction and flexible grouping.

c. Con- It takes 24 hours to retrieve testing data

d. Con- Students are expected to move up 2 or more RIT scores, which can be difficult for students that score 10-20 points higher than their grade level RIT score

c. Analyze data from one assessment for one grade level. Explain what you learned from analyzing the data, such as areas of strength and areas to provide instructional support.

i. The 6th grade English SOL: 68.18% of the students at Fairfield Middle passed the 6th Grade Reading SOL. The cut score for VA SOL is 75% to be considered accredited. At the state level only 77.2% of 6th graders passed the assessment, as a division only 73.48% of 6th graders in Henrico county passed the Reading SOL.

ii. The Student Performance by Question (SPBQ) reports for the 2015-2016 school year have not been released. According, to 2014-2015 data student’s area of strength was fact & opinion, organizational patterns, and figurative language. Areas of weakness were word choice, and main idea and supporting details.

d. Recommendations for improvement in this area.

i. Student’s data should be released in the summer prior to school starting so that teachers can be prepared in September

ii. The state of Virginia needs to reanalyze the 6th grade reading SOL. If the requirement for accreditation is 75% and at the state level only 77% of the students passed the assessment, maybe the assessment is too difficult or teachers are not being provided with the best resources to meet the cut.

e. Organization of the Reading Program

a. Description of the literacy/language arts block and time schedules.

i. The literacy language block is a 90 minutes block in grades 6th, 7th & 8th. General Education and Collaborative students have English every day for 90 minutes. IBMYP and Advanced students have English every other day for 90 minutes. The Special Education Self-Contained classes also use a computer based reading program called Language Live. Language Live is used in lieu of the independent practice and guided application every other day. The English language blocks follow the A.C.T. NOW Reading and Writing Workshop Model. The IBMYP courses infuse the IB curriculum with the A.C.T. NOW Reading and Writing Workshop. A.C.T. NOW! focuses on giving students choice in their reading. The Workshop is in its progressive state and includes an un-pacing guide and learning continuum in correlation with the Virginia Standards of Learning pacing guide.

6th and 7th grade General Education and Collaborative are organized in the following format:

• 30 minutes: Independent Reading- students read their own independent novel silently and the teacher holds weekly reading conferences, tracks their pages and gives students a skill based reader’s response.

• 15-20minutes: Mini Lesson: This lesson is skill based. For example, the teacher may introduce or review a skill such as main idea, predictions, summarizing or organizational patterns

• 15-20 Minutes- Guided Application the teacher models a skill using a mentor text. The mentor text can be fiction or nonfiction. Generally, this is a whole group activity.

• 20-25 Minutes- Independent Practice: The student applies the skill using a handout, independent novel, or internet source.

• 5 minutes- Exit Slip: The exit slip is skill based and can be completed via computer or paper.

6th & 7th Grade Advanced and IBMYP are organized in the following format:

• 20 minutes: Independent Reading- students read their own independent novel silently or reads their assigned literature circle text.

• 15-20 minutes: Mini Lesson: This lesson is skill based. For example, the teacher may introduce or review a skill such as main idea, predictions, summarizing or organizational patterns

• 10-15 Minutes- Guided Application the teacher models a skill using a mentor text. The mentor text can be fiction or nonfiction. Generally, students work in literature circles and applies skills to a group or paired activity.

• 30-35 Minutes- Independent Practice: The student applies the skill using a handout, independent novel, or internet source. The student also creates a weekly or monthly project to be assessed based on a culmination of skills.

• 5 minutes- Exit Slip: The exit slip is skill based and can be completed via computer or paper.

8th Grade General Education and Collaborative classes

• 30 minutes: Independent Reading- students read their own independent novel silently and the teacher holds weekly reading conferences, tracks their pages and gives students a skill based reader’s response.

• 15-20 minutes: Mini Lesson:  In English 8 the primary focus is writing and grammar from September - March. The mini lesson generally focuses on grammar, usage, mechanics and expository essays. March -May the lessons are reading skill based for example, the teacher may introduce or review a skill such as main idea, predictions, summarizing or organizational patterns.8th grade reading skills are a review of 6th and 7th grade.

• 15-20 Minutes- Guided Application the teacher models a skill using a mentor text. The mentor text can be fiction or nonfiction. Generally, this is a whole group activity.

• 20-25 Minutes- Independent Practice: The student applies the skill using a handout, independent novel, or internet source.

• 5 minutes- Exit Slip: The exit slip is skill based and can be completed via computer or paper.

8th Grade Advanced and IBMYP classes

• 20 minutes: Independent Reading- students read their own independent novel silently or reads their assigned literature circle text.

• 15-20 minutes: Mini Lesson: This lesson is skill based. For example, the teacher may introduce or review a skill such as main idea, predictions, summarizing or organizational patterns

• 10-15 Minutes- Guided Application the teacher models a skill using a mentor text. The mentor text can be fiction or nonfiction. Generally, students work in literature circles and applies skills to a group or paired activity.

• 30-35 Minutes- Independent Practice: The student applies the skill using a handout, independent novel, or internet source. The student also creates a weekly or monthly project to be assessed based on a culmination of skills.

• 5 minutes- Exit Slip: The exit slip is skill based and can be completed via computer or paper.

b. Descriptions of Intervention

i. Currently, intervention is only being done for annotation data. The interventions can be done during the independent reading time or struggling students are being pulled from their P.E. classes. Skill based interventions are not prioritized.

Recommendations for improvement in the literacy block, with a particular focus on the instruction that is provided during the literacy block.

ii. During the literacy block in general education and collaborative courses, teachers should be able to rotate mini lessons daily. Alternating mini lessons on reading and writing skills every other da. There is not enough writing taking place in the English blocks due to the A.C.T NOW Program.

iii. Teachers should also reduce the independent reading time to 20 minutes to allot extra time for the mini lesson and guided application. Teachers are instructed to teach to mastery and are spending 3-4 weeks on one skill due to the time constraint of the mini lesson.

c. Recommendation for improvement in the literacy block schedules.

i. During the literacy block there should be a time allotted for writing 10-15 minutes a day. The Independent reading time can be reduced in Quarter 3 & 4 and students should be given a chance to write narratives, expository and persuasive essays.

d. Recommendation for improvement in how intervention is provided.

i. Intervention should be provided for students with comprehension, fluency and decoding issues. Students should be assessed in September and all students that are not on reading level should receive a weekly intervention during their independent reading time.

f. Professional Development

a. School-wide Professional development is planned by the Principal. There are no details on how he chooses the school-wide Professional Development (PD). The past three years, Professional Development has focused on differentiating classroom management using Feet-work to Seatwork by Ron Nash and Teach Like a Champion 2.0 by Doug Lemov. Due to Fairfield being in School-Improvement our English Department PD is orchestrated by the county. Currently, we are focusing on annotating fiction and nonfiction material. Recently, the English department was given a Professional Development by our literacy coach, it was not data driven nor was it SOL skill based. She modeled annotating and gave us an excerpt on close reading to read in our free time.

b. Recommendation for improvement in professional development at the school.

i. Professional Development should be data driven and teachers should be provided information that can be used to better assist their students. Using the Student Performance by Question Reports teachers should receive staff development based on the skills their students struggled with.

c. Experience with Coaching a Teacher

i. Serving in the role as a coach, I chose a teacher who was new to Fairfield Middle School, but a veteran in the world of education. Recently, Miss Knox retired from being a traveling military teacher. During my experience with Knox I realized how overwhelming it can be for a new teacher in an unaccredited school. I also realized that less is more and that as a coach we should be a bridge in which teachers cross when necessary. Teachers should not be mandated to meet with the literacy coach weekly and coaches should be there to aide and assist teachers with resources when requested and help with preventing burn-out. Miss Knox’s struggle was not with instruction but with implementing the new A.C.T. NOW! Reading and Writing Worksheet, teaching all collaborative classes without a special education teacher, dealing with classroom behaviors and fusing the gaps between the past and the present. Her delivery methods for instruction and transitions could use some work. She shouldn’t have allotted 15- 20 minutes on locating a clock buddy. That time could have been used to write a summary or make inferences about their jumping off book. She should have also provided the students with a graphic organizer or sticky notes to use to write down their thoughts while reading. Miss Knox did not use any technology in her classroom. Another tip was using ADOBE and having the computer read to the students. Our pre-conference observation did not match the actual observation. Also, I had a difficult time coercing her into doing a Post-observation conference. Being in an unaccredited school she was burnt out from all the walk-throughs, formal and informal observations.

a. Pre- Observation Conference

i. Clarifying goals for student learning and context for the lesson: Annotating nonfiction (review), Students will be able to annotate and make inferences, Annotation as a reading strategy and reinforce and review for annotation mastery.

ii. Determine evidence of success and student achievement: working in partners with whiteboards, self- reflections, annotation rubric and question quality summaries.

iii. Explore planning, including teaching strategies and decisions made: Read 30 minutes, Mini Lesson 15-20 minutes, Application 30-45 minutes.

iv. Identify a focus for data collection: Sticky notes, Annotations, Student engagement. Making inferences

b. Observation

i. 9:08-9:29am The teacher is reading and discussing annotation while reading. All the students have a novel and they are currently on page 144 of “A Piece of Sky”. The teacher is applying questioning by having students to lookback in the text to find information about a character name Chauncey. The students are engaged, and while looking back in the text Amari becomes extremely passionate about her connections to the text. Miss Knox’s primary focus is on questioning, drawing conclusions and making inferences about the text. When a student speaks out of turn she reminds them, “When you speak, you speak to be heard and understood.”

ii. 9:29-9:40 Students are filling in a “Clock Buddies graphic organizer to establish meeting times. Miss Knox and her assistant Miss Williams are monitoring the students and helping them to locate their clock buddy.

c. Post-Observation

i. What is working: Reading Aloud in her collaborative class. The teacher is modeling reading and teaching the students to think aloud while they are reading. I recommended a “Predictions, Summary, Questioning, Connections (PSQC) Chart”, for students to use while reading, so that they are reading and writing on a daily basis. The chart also allows them to annotate while they are reading and can be used as a formative assessment.

ii. Challenges or concerns: The main challenge in Miss Knox’s class is that her class is collaborative and she has an instructional assistant in lieu of a special education teacher. The class has approximately 11 students and out of the 11 only one student is on reading level. The class consist of 7 students with learning disabilities, 3 students that are eligible for RTI services and 1 student that is on reading level.

iii. Teacher’s Next Steps: Miss Knox’s next step is to request a special education teacher for her class, work with school counseling to fix her scheduling concerns and to differentiate lessons so that all students are being serviced.

iv. Literacy Coach’s Next Steps: My next step is to support Miss Knox’s decision to work with school counseling and her grade level administrator to fix scheduling concerns. It is also to provide Miss Knox with a wide range of material for each reading strategy skill.

d. recommendation for the school in terms of coaching.

i. Teachers should be able to sign-up for coaching on a need-by-need basis. Teachers should not be forced to co-teach lessons with the literacy coach. It is overwhelming to meet the demands of the school, district and state, while being subjected to 4-5 evaluations a week.

g. Communication with Parents and Community

a. FMS provides communication with parents by posting messages on the school website, mailing publications and sending text messages and voicemails via robot call. To promote literacy throughout the community Fairfield pushes notices through the schools Twitter and Facebook page.

b. Recommendations for improving parent and community communication.

i. To communicate with parents and the community about literacy the school can host a fall, winter and spring literacy night. The literacy night should be held from 5-8pm and the school should offer incentives to both students and parents.

ii. To communicate with parents and the community about literacy it would be helpful if the school could post information in local businesses such as banks, hair salons, churches, grocery stores and gas stations.

h. Share Evaluation with the Administrator

a. During the meeting with Mr. Raymond, we discussed his role in literacy, professional development and recommendations for the school. Mr. Raymond was asked to define his role in literacy at Fairfield Middle School, “I Meet with Literacy coach on daily basis to evaluate plans, best practices for norming of evaluative instruments, evaluate data to drive instruction and formulate remediation plans, liaison between schools and central office, make decisions based on school-specific needs and personnel needs, communicate with school librarians about needs and purchasing decisions.”

I also discussed the decision making process for implementing professional development, He explained that his P.D. decisions start at the district level. “what does the district want? What are the needs of ACT?” This year we started with Teach Like a Champion 2.0 for professional development and the past two months he has steered away from Teach Like a Champion and has now mandated school-wide annotation professional development for English, Social Studies, Science, Health & P.E.

My primary focus during our discussion was to convince him to hire a reading specialist. I discussed the benefits of having 1-2 reading specialist for our struggling readers, since we currently don’t have anything in place to help our students that are wavering below the “bubble.”

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