Archdiocese Of Chicago Mr. David Wood, Principal 432 S. Mitchell Ave. Arlington Heights, IL 60005-1894 Document Generated On March 12, 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5 Additional Information 6
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. 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
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? (OLW), a school I the Archdiocese of Chicago, has served the Catholic community of Arlington Heights since the mid 1900s. Named after a fifth century painting of the Blessed Mother, the church was officially founded in 1952. By May of 1953, construction began on the parish school. Over a year later the new school was ready for seven lay teachers, four Dominican Sisters and three hundred students to begin the task of learning. Today continues to provide a strong preschool through eighth grade Catholic education for over 500 students and is staffed by 36 teachers and 7 aides. The history of has been and continues to be a positive reflection of the Gospel of Jesus. Daily prayer, liturgy, works of charity and community outreach are always being enhanced and improved to help make Wayside students authentic and effective disciples of Christ. OLW provides a strong Catholic environment where students will come to realize a religious faith and lifelong value system. Peace, justice and concern for others are valued over personal status or material comfort. The introduction of a weekly Catholic Virtues class further supports the mission to nourish within students positive self-esteem, an acceptance of others, and the selfconfidence to resist social pressure. A strong cooperation between the school leadership and the religious Sisters that led the Religious Education Program for the Parish has created a strong, collaborative religion program for all of the children of the Parish. A commitment to academic achievement begins with the early childhood preschool and kindergarten programs. In the past two years, OLW has increased its preschool offerings, including an All-Day Preschool program, which has helped increase our number of preschool students to around 100 the past two years. Our preschool and kindergarten programs lay a foundation for education that will lead to a child's love of learning. These programs offer an atmosphere in which each child can begin to develop his or her own identity and have many opportunities to succeed. Academic programs built on Best Practice ensure the development of a well-rounded child. It is this foundation upon which all members of our community build as we pursue academic excellence and develop our students into leaders. The teaching staff is composed of professional individuals who are guided by their Catholic faith. All classroom teachers hold an Illinois Professional Educators License. The largely veteran teaching staff has seen a great deal of change and new collaboration with the recent addition of six new teachers in the past two years. The teachers are highly dedicated as many have served the school for 20-30 years. Many of their own children are graduates of OLW. The teachers, along with parents and alumni, sponsor numerous extra-curricular opportunities to foster student growth outside the daily curriculum. Students are offered opportunities to participate in Student Council, Technology Club, Writing Club (publishes a literary magazine three times a year), Scholastic Bowl, Trivia Club, and Yearbook. Over 100 students participate in the Beginning, Honor, and Concert bands. The Family School Association (FSA) also provides additional enrichment opportunities through the C.O.R.E program (Continued Opportunities for Reinforcement and Enrichment). This after school program offers a number of six week enrichment classes twice a year. C.O.R.E classes include opportunities for enrichment in subjects such as chess, pottery, drama, literary clubs, science exploration, dance, and speed and agility. The parent Booster organization works with the school athletic directors to provide competitive sports programs. Athletics are available to students in grades five through eight and include cross-country, track and field, volleyball, basketball, cheerleading, and girls' softball. Page 2
Fundraising efforts of the Family School Association provide not only opportunities for building community among school families but provide much needed funds that enrich the schools programming. In recent years the FSA's efforts have allowed the school to add new technology such as Smart Boards, lap tops, tablet devices, projectors, and a wireless network. They have also added thousands of books to the school library, provided funds for a part-time school social worker, and much more. Page 3
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. The mission of is to provide a vital Catholic environment. Christian values, mutual respect and trust are emphasized for students, teachers and families in all programs and activities. We encourage each student to recognize, develop, and share his or her God-given talents and gifts. Each student is taught to understand and live the Gospel message of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our instructional programs give students the highest quality education while motivating them to pursue academic excellence. We prepare students to meet the challenges of our world and lay the groundwork to develop into our future leaders. Fulfilling our mission takes a great deal of collaboration. Teachers participate in regular professional development meetings on Wednesdays after school. These meetings are organized by the teachers that serve on the Balanced Literacy Team, the school's curriculum coordinator, and the school administration. Teachers also participate in workshops with coaches from Roosevelt University that visit OLW on a weekly basis. The Balanced Literacy Team has led a number of book clubs with the teachers. The most recent book club focused on Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman. The Balanced Literacy Team provided teachers with study guides to focus the teachers as they read. They also facilitated discussions with the teachers about the readings. Teachers work in small groups to summarize what they read and provide examples for how it can transfer to the classroom setting. The curriculum coordinator has worked closely with reading teachers to model how to conduct purposeful Read Alouds, create activities for using Word Walls, and implement Guided Reading and Close Reading in the classroom. The curriculum coordinator has also assisted in the implementation of the new writing programs as OLW works to show the important role that writing plays in every classroom. Regular meetings are also held with individual teachers and teams to help develop units and assessments. The administration encourages teachers to use the professional development dollars allotted to each teacher as part of their contract. Each teacher is given $1200 to use in their own professional development. The workshops teachers attend help them in their implementation of Common Core, differentiation, using technology, and other important educational topics. Teachers are encouraged to share what they learn with their grade level teams and other members of the faculty. The coaches from Roosevelt University that visit OLW work with the teachers to help them improve their instructional practices and increase focus on student achievement. They collect samples of OLW's progress to share with other schools and bring artifacts from other schools to share with OLW's staff. Performance on the EXPLORE score from 2009 to 2012 showed a slow decline in performance from 18.2-17.9. While these scores remained significantly above the national average and showed higher performance than local public schools that were scoring from 16.3 to 18, it became apparent that work was needed to end the slow decline and increase performance, especially in math. Through the efforts of the teachers and changes in curriculum, OLW has seen our overall scores increase to 19.9 and math scores increase from 16.5 to 18.7. Page 4
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. Over the past two years has established a partnership with Roosevelt University as a participant in their Balanced Literacy Grant. During our first year (2012-13) we focused on Improving Teacher Quality and establishing OLW as a Balanced Literacy School. During that school year the teachers of Our Lady of the Wayside participated in a number of workshops with teachers from other grant schools. At those workshops teachers learned a number of elements that make up a Balanced Literacy School: Read Alouds, Word Walls, Guided Reading, and the importance of classroom libraries and other libraries throughout the school environment. Teachers modeled lessons and viewed pictured from other classroom settings. This school year OLW is currently focused on Building Collaborative in a Balanced Literacy School. Once again OLW is participating in regular workshops and meetings with the other schools participating in this grant. In this year's workshops Coaches from Roosevelt University have made presentations using examples from their observations in each of the grant schools. Topics have included Close Reading, What does Common Core look like in a Balanced Literacy School?, and how to develop a Professional Learning Community within a school. There has also been a great deal of focus on how to help teachers focus more on student achievement. Through these meetings OLW has been able to reevaluate how its teachers use their time at grade level meetings. This year there has been a greater focus on student achievement. A tool was created to help teachers focus their meetings so that they could identify how they measure student achievement and what actions they will take for those students have already mastered concepts or need additional support. The administrators from the different schools have also been able to collaborate. They have shared the various methods they have used to promote building collaboration as well as discuss their current efforts to improve instruction within schools. Page 5
Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. Through the generous donations of families through the Family School Association, OLW has worked diligently in recent years to improve our use of technology to enhance instruction. Technology is utilized in a variety of ways to support instruction, both at school and home. SMART Boards have been installed in grades Preschool - third with additional boards in fifth grade and middle school. New boards are added each year with the hope for every classroom to have one by 2016. The addition of the SMART Boards has provided the teachers and students an opportunity to expand their knowledge into areas of digital learning. Laptop utilization in fourth grade through eighth grade optimizes the world of technology while students learn the necessary methods needed to apply their understanding to a variety of digital projects. The lower grades visit the computer lab for research projects and a variety of games, which further their learning concepts. Technology also supports instruction through the home connection. Each teacher uses a school webpage to communicate pertinent class information with the parents. Teachers in grades four through eight use an online grading program called PowerSchool. Students in first through fifth grade have access at home to Mathletics, an online math website to fine-tune and practice their math skills. In Kindergarten and first grade, students receive access to RazKids, an online leveled reading program. The teachers are able to personalize each student's online book room to best meet their needs as readers. The School Advisory Board has been working closely with school staff to help develop a technology plan as part of our school's overall Strategic Plan. The installing of wireless internet in all of our buildings and the purchase of new tablet devices are early steps in our plans to put individual devices into the hands of all our middle school students as well as give elementary students more access to computer devices in the classroom. Page 6