Executive Summary. South Redford School District. Mr. Brian Galdes, Superintendent Schoolcraft Redford, MI

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1 Mr. Brian Galdes, Superintendent Schoolcraft Redford, MI Document Generated On June 23, 2015

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School System 2 System's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 4 Additional Information 5

3 Introduction Every school system has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school system makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school system stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school system, and the kinds of programs and services that a school system implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school system with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the community will have a more complete picture of how the school system perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school system to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School System Describe the school system's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school system serves? The is located in the community of Redford, in southeastern Michigan, bordered by Detroit, Dearborn, Southfield, and Livonia. There are two school districts in Redford, although the entire township is situated within square miles. South Redford School District is comprised of 4 elementary schools, one middle school, one new online academy (just opened this academic year), and one high school. The district has developed some strong community partnerships to include parent groups, the township government, Redford Public Library, Botsford Hospital (with a clinic open to the public located in our middle school), Daimler Detroit Diesel (with volunteers who support our teachers in 3rd and 5th grade co-teaching physics principles using curriculum aligned with state standards). Both Daimler Detroit Diesel and Western Golf and Country Club have provided volunteers and financial backing for a new First Robotics Team at our high school. Local mental health clinics support both our families and students, with one clinic providing an on site therapist to provide therapy for families and students. We have strong early childhood programs, partnering with Wayne Metro to provide Head Start and partnering with Wayne RESA to provide a GSRPprogram. Our district provides the only district-run, free preschool in the county. The preschool students in our community have a broad range of opportunities for early learning experiences. The ethnic diversity among our students remains about 72% African American, 23% Caucasian, and 4% Hispanic. Parent participation and support for student learning is a valued asset in this community. Our participation in Parent/Teacher Conferences is about 100% at the elementary level. We are pleased that our enrollment has remained fairly steady with about 3000 students enrolled in our K-12 schools for the past 4 years. These are not always the same students. We do have an increasingly transient population. The impact of poverty is felt by the community and is a challenge in the schools. We have increasing numbers of families who qualify for McKinney-Vento services. At this point in time, , about 61% of our student population qualifies for Free and Reduced lunches. Our district recruits and retains highly qualified staff to support student achievement, working as administrators, teachers, and support staff. The district is supported by a School Board that creates policies based on best practices and is focused on increasing student achievement. Financially, our district is in a relatively good place, with long term planning and monitoring of the funds to make best use of the resources available to support student learning and maintain our infrastructure. The community passed a sinking fund proposal and the funding will be used to update our infrastructure and increase security. Page 2

5 System's Purpose Provide the school system's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school system embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. District Vision: We will prepare leaders to compete globally through rigorous preparation and recognition of the unique gifts of each student. Mission: Our impassioned, dedicated community will guarantee a challenging, aligned curriculum and safe environment to ensure each student will be college and career ready. Goals: 1. All students will annually demonstrate continuous academic growth, in four core content areas, as measured by national, state, and local assessments. 2. All instructional staff will engage every student in high quality, rigorous, and aligned instruction in every school, every classroom, every day. 3. Support service will ensure that each unique area of support provides high quality service that is timely and effective to enhance the learning environment and maximize instruction to achieve continuous student learning. The district uses the strategic plan as a filter for making decisions regarding program offerings and expectations for students. A data team has been created, made up of instructional staff knowledgeable in the use of data, to support data-driven decision making using common quarterly assessments. A Response to Intervention model is in place to identify the needs of students early and provide targeted support for continuous learning. Opportunities are available to access the core curriculum and learning is also supported through access to art, music, and physical education at every level of a student's school experience. The district trains and implements a Baldrige model that aligns with the NCA District Improvement model for continuous improvement of the system. Using the Baldrige systems check is part of our practice for monitoring the need for improvement in our system to support student learning, in addition to using the AdvancED criteria for District Accreditation. There is evidence of students monitoring their progress at the student level to engage in continuous improvement and we encourage continued work in the area. Page 3

6 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school system's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school system is striving to achieve in the next three years. In the past three years some of our notable achievements as a school system include the following: We have developed a Data Team, with members being trained over time to develop quality assessment practices. The elementary members of the Data Team have developed "I Can" statements in student friendly language for ELA and Math, aligned with the Common Core State Standards and shared with elementary teaching staff for use with students as clear learning targets. Quarterly assessments have been developed in ELA and Math at the elementary level, entered into our county supported electronic data system, and quarters 1 and 2 have been administered. The middle school is making initial progress in moving in this same direction. The high school has been in the process of alignment of courses with the Common Core State Standards in ELA and Math and staff are developing common quarterly assessments and entering them into our county system and implementing the assessments and using the results for improvement purposes. Data Team members at the high school and middle school are supporting staff in the implementation of test development and implementation. The county data system can provide reports that disaggregate the data by subgroups for improvement purposes at all levels of the system. Administrators have been training over time, using Teachscape based on the work of Charlotte Danielson, for evaluation and improvement of teaching practices. The group has worked both collaboratively and individually and is applying their new knowledge to their observation and feedback related to their observations and evaluations. We are proud of the levels of achievement for our subgroups that include our African American students and our economically disadvantaged students. These are subgroups we have targeted for improvement, had professional development experiences over time at the district and building levels. We believe our aligned data system will inform our practices in a more timely manner for continuous improvement. Areas for improvement in the system for the next 3 years would be to focus our improvement efforts on alignment of science and social studies in addition to maintaining and improving our math and ELA practices to effectively match the needs of our students. We must improve our student achievement for all students. One of our areas of concern is our special education population. Their performance on state assessments is not at a level that is acceptable to our district. As a district we are changing our model of delivery of service from a "pull out" model to a model of "inclusion". There are challenges in changing the relationship between general education and special education teachers and there is a need for professional development and support of best practices to make this a part of our system. Page 4

7 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. We highly value our partnerships with our community and our parents. We solicit their feedback for improvement of the services we provide and their engagement in relationships of support for student achievement for all students attending our schools. These can be challenging times for our families, our staff, and community at large. Using a systemic and systematic approach to improvement that includes all stakeholders in the process can lead to continuous improvement that is based on relevant data and fidelity of implementation. Page 5