How To Write An Executive Summary Of Health, Wellness And Environmental Studies

Transcription

1 Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies Magnet School Jonesboro School District Ms. Cynthia Wright, Principal 1001 Rosemond Jonesboro, AR Document Generated On December 18, 2013

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

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

4 Description of the School Describe the school'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 serves? has approximately 614 students enrolled in a building located in the southwestern part of Jonesboro School District. This building has seen a great deal of change in the past five years, with the restructuring of five grades 1-5 elementary buildings and a sixth grade center into five 1-6 magnet schools. This move involved changes of administrators, personnel, and students in all six buildings. As a result of creating magnet schools, Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies has seen growth in the number of students enrolled, structural remodeling and/or the building of additional classrooms. Currently the demographic brake down of students is 232 (37.8%) Caucasian, 259 (42.2%) African American, 80 (13%) Hispanic, 1 (.5%) Native American Indian, 1 (.5%) Asian and 41 (6%) Multi-racial. With the economic downturn in the Delta region of Northeast Arkansas the last five years has seen a large influx of families into the Jonesboro area looking for work. The number of economically disadvantaged students has increased with this influx. Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies' breakdown of the economical status of students is 76.1% free, 10.3% reduced lunch students and 13.6% non-free or reduced lunch students. Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies has a certified staff of 40, many which have earned more advanced degrees. This year 40% teachers hold Bachelor's degrees and 60% Master's degrees. In addition 3 of the staff are National Board Certified. To further assist students, 2 non-certified staff members serve as instructional interventionist or as tutors. All certified teachers and interventionists hare Highly Qualified. Along with a building administrator and assistant principal, Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies has a full time counselor, instructional facilitator, gifted facilitator, media specialist, nurse, and social worker. Over the last three years Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies has worked to implement Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in the building. Each grade level works in PLCs developing curriculum, dis-aggregating date for instructional decision making and developing assessments. At the building level a Leadership PLC and an I Team/Family Services PLC have been implemented. The Leadership Team is comprised of certified and administrative staff that looks at the building instructional direction based on data. The I Team/Family Service is comprised of certified staff, administrative staff, counselor, school nurse, and social worker whose role is to address issues that are having a negative impact on a student's achievement. Both PLCs (Leadership & I Team /Family Services) play a major role in identifying and placing students in Tier II & Tier III interventions of RTI (Response to Intervention) process. Page 2

5 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. Purpose/Belief Statement: Providing the needed support, we believe all students are capable of learning at high levels. Vision: HWES promotes a challenging learning environment that encourages high expectations for success through creative instruction. Having emphasis on social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of each child, we support individual differences and learning styles. Our school establishes a safe, orderly, caring, and supportive environment where all students and staff members are respected. We strive to have our parents, teachers, and community members actively involved in our students learning. Mission: HWES promoting inquiring minds, healthy bodies, and environmentally responsible citizens. Our students are given opportunities for learning through integrated lessons in many different settings. Students work in student gardens, a nutrition lab, a bio-lab, and a computer lab. In addition to these areas mobile computer carts are available for use in the classrooms. These resources allow multiple opportunities for hand-on as well as cooperative learning projects. Many of these areas, especially the gardens, nutrition, and bio lab open doors for inviting parents and other community members into work closely with our students. We also host an after school program, Kids Saving the Earth. Students study various ways to recycle and host an annual electronics recycling drive sponsored by Suddenlink. Page 3

6 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. HWES has had notable achievements in many areas in the last three years. A Leadership Team which consists of administration, counselor, academic facilitators, and teachers from all grade levels has been created. The Leadership Team meets at least once a month. A schedule for our bio-lab has been created to ensure that all students have the opportunity to utilize those materials. We received the SPARK grant allowing us to improve our physical education program. We have interventionists in grades 1-2 and math and literacy tutors in grades 3-6 to help address the needs of our struggling learners. Master Gardners have partnered with HWES and now spend many hours in our gardens working with our students. We also have a few areas for improvement. We are striving to improve in these areas. One of these is to get out of focus school status. One way we plan to do this is by requiring PLC's to focus on the data of Tier 2 and Tier 3 students during Professional Learning Communities twice a month. Our special education population did not do well on the benchmark exam. In order to address this we are placing all resource students in tier 2 interventions to ensure that they are getting interventions above and beyond what is taking place in the resource classroom. Hopefully these adjustments will improve our scores and remove us from focus school status. Another area that we are focusing on is a change in teacher and leader practice. We are currently working on data to determine where changes need to be made. Currently the principal, assistant principal, and academic facilitators are conducting focus walks to see what the teachers are doing in classrooms, what the students are doing, whether or not students are using technology, and also how the students respond to the question, "What are you learning?". Each member of the team is conducting 3-5 focus walks a day, and will continue to do this through the end of the first semester. At that point the data will be shared with the school's leadership team who will decide what area we need to focus on as well as a next step. Another change that has taken place this year is the implementation of the TESS as a teacher evaluation tool. This year we are evaluating approximately 1/3 of the staff using this tool. It has already opened the lines of communication between administration and teachers. We hope that this will lead to a change in teacher and leader practice as well as guide our staff development. 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 have had a change of administration this year. In October our principal accepted a position as the district school improvement specialist, and a new principal, Mrs. Cynthia Wright, was hired. The transition was a very smooth one, but such a change mid year will possibly lead to changes in the current plan as the year progresses and the new principal discovers areas she would like to focus on or highlight. Page 5