School Improvement Monitoring/Analysis ED 691 March 7, 2013 Deidre Jenson Background: This year, Naukati School was in level

3 school improvement for graduation rate. There are only about 15 students in the school, so one drop out has a huge impact on graduation rate. At in-service this fall, the lead teacher of Naukati, there are only two teachers there total, was just about in tears over this issue. She took it very personal. She has been the teacher there for two years and was upset because she felt it reflected on her and the other teacher. She pointed out that this student dropped out before she and the other teacher even got there and it wasnt even our fault. This created tension in the development of the SIP, simply because the lead teacher didnt really see the need for a plan. She felt there were no kids there that were in danger of dropping out. I felt differently, although I never really voiced that specifically. I tried to turn the focus on what really can be accomplished with these funds. I tried to point out that what we could write in this plan is already what she is trying to do with her Personal Social Responsibility program that she is already running. Eventually she bought in and we created a plan that was designed to promote and improve planning skills in the high school kids and even the middle school kids. The goal was to empower them and encourage them to envision possibilities and then plan for it to make it happen. There was contact with the states school improvement manager and she saw what we wanted to accomplish and said, Go for it. We thought the process of planning a trip, budgeting for a trip, raising money for a trip, choosing activities that they thought would promote personal and social responsibility (they would have to provide support for the activities) and present their plans and learned outcomes to the school board and other organizations that helped with funding would be enough to justify a school trip. Also, last year, the school got their hand slapped because they misappropriated funds. They used school improvement money to buy a coffee maker. How does that help with graduation rate? I dont know and maybe that also contributed to the tension with the lead teacher in the creation of this plan. Follow up: November, December, and January, came and went and we still hadnt heard that the plan was approved. I finally called the state and asked them when they would be approving the school improvement plans, as we needed to get going on them. They informed me that it will happen soon, because they have a new school improvement manager that replaced the previous one. The SIP manager finally replied with a checklist or rubric, of sorts, to make sure that the plan meets the needed criteria. There were a few things that we were missing that needed to be sent in. I wonder why the state doesnt send that checklist with the school improvement forms to begin with, but they dont and I had not seen this before, even though we completed the exact forms last summer. (It would be a useful addition to our class.) The state also has a budget template that they want used, not

just a word document, so I sent in the missing pieces quickly. Another week later, the manager calls me, and says that she too sees the vision and what we are working toward in the plan, but because it is a trip we probably wont get it passed because of previously misused funds in other districts regarding trips, but she will try. A few days later, she called again and said that we have to rework the plan. Really frustrating because the year is now half over! Back to the drawing board: Unfortunately, the lead teacher began working on trip plans with the students, when we had decided that we werent going to tell the kids about the trip, until it was approved for sure. That was a big let down to the kids. She also talked to the kids about travelling to Hydaburg to do some mentoring and personal and social responsibility activities with the Hydaburg students. The Naukati students have done this before with other schools, but they didnt want to go to Hydaburg because it has a very negative reputation. So a few things needed to be addressed and I felt like I needed to diffuse and encourage and built a shared vision with the students and staff, so I got a sub and planned a personal visit to the school. Trip to Naukati school: I was pleased with what was accomplished in this trip. A discussion about why we couldnt do a trip was held. It actually accomplished part of what we were trying to teach through the planning of the trip and personal and social responsibility; how other peoples negative behavior (other schools misuse of funds), have negative consequences that affect all other citizens. A comparison with others crimes negatively affect our pocket books, even though we didnt commit the crime. (I will use this analogy later as well, when setting our personal goals.) They accepted that answer and accepted the challenge of a new vision. The new plan included a public speaker to come and visit. The kids got excited about this. Then I addressed the view of Hydaburg. I used to teach in Naukati and I told them that before we moved there, all kinds of people asked us, Why would you want to go live in Naukati? I explained to them that Naukatis reputation is changing and that is in part because of what they, as students, have accomplished through previous PSR activities. Hydaburg has that same reputation and there is a group of students that want to change it, but someone has to be willing to give them the chance, like the students of Naukati were given. They caught the vision and now they are making comments like, the more kids we include, the more people to pass the torch on to. They are now willing to work with the Hydaburg kids, even though there is some fear, we came up with a plan that would help reduce some of that fear. There were also some frustrating things with this trip. One of them being the discussion of the funds and paying the after school activities coordinator and tutor. There is a sense of entitlement and vicitimization that is difficult to work with. Naukati always gets left out, Thorne Bay gets everything attitude. I believe it comes from the leadership and is having a negative affect. It is perpetuating the problem that our school improvement plan wants to address graduation rate. Graduation rate only improves when people are empowered to accomplish things

and can feel successful, regardless of what life or other entities deal them. I have been mulling this over in my head, about how to address this, and plan on addressing it while making self-determination plans with the students (A part of the SIP). While it was discouraging to begin again, these good things came of it. Another good thing were some budgeting issues that needed to be addressed. I have learned a lot regarding monitoring and budgeting. You cant assume really anything if you are putting your name to something. You can just expect that someone else does their part and knows what they are doing. Budgets were made including the tutoring pay. In the original SIP, it was budgeted to pay the aid $4500, but then the position wasnt really advertised appropriately. That was a huge pay increase in comparison to other tutors in other schools for the number of hours they would be putting in, so wording it correctly was important. Another assumption that was made was the letter sent out to parents. I asked if a letter had been sent out and I was told yes. I went to send that in with the final plan and could only find the letter that was sent out last year. So, another letter had to be drafted, and was by our grant coordinator (her first year). The lead teacher sent the letter out last year and when the parents got this years letter, they were quite upset that they were just notified about this. This is also what happens when you have too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Tasks need to be delineated out clearly and those overseeing it need to over see it. It gets a little muddy when we have a principal, thats not on site, a grant coordinator that in the past had written all the plans, but this coordinator is her first year, a lead teacher, who tends to do things with out following protocol and really has no administrative experience, and then you throw me into the mix, who is trying to be helpful, but learning at the same time. This is one reason why we are going to put together a lead teacher handbook for my mentor/cohort project to make some of these tasks a little more spelled out. More Follow up: 1. I spent some time scheduling some dates with the school counselor, Thorne Bay students, Hydaburg students, and the public speakers that are coming to visit. March 28th, Thorne Bay students will visit Naukati to participate in personal responsibility activities and planning for the Hydaburg visit. Naukati has a schedule of activities already planned for the Thorne Bay kids to participate in on this scheduled day. April 23rd, Hydaburg and Naukati will visit Thorne Bay and Thorne Bay will lead the personal responsibility activities for Hydaburg with the assistance of Naukati school. A report has been built with Hydaburg and Thorne Bay already. They have both made visits to each others school to work on some other things together, so this was the bridge that was made for Naukati to help Hydaburg, in a risk free environment. May 16th + 17th motivational speaker coming to visit Naukati and community engagement activities scheduled for this time as well in the evening.

2. Banners and plaques: As I was sitting in a restaurant in Craig, writing this assignment, Naukati students came in to town for pizza and came and sat down with me. We talked about them putting together an order for flags, banners, and window clings for honor roll students. I will help them with that, on my next visit out there. They are also compiling a list of graduates from Naukati to order a plaque with all graduates engraved on the plaque. 3. Materials have been ordered (Curriculum for developing personal and social responsibility.) Some have been received and brought out to Naukati School. 4. Students have done some work on AKCIS to investigate career options. School counselor is planning a presentation regarding this as well. 5. After school tutoring/activities have begun. Attendance records are being kept. 6. Students were surveyed in order to order materials for the activities portion for after school program and materials are being ordered or purchased. 7. Journals: kids have been writing self-reflections, poems, and hopes in their journals during PSR class. 8. Professional Development: Differentiation class is almost complete. All teachers have taken part in this class and read the textbook. Both Naukati teachers are taking it for credit and their final projects are due April 15th at inservice. 9. Second trip to Naukati school: March 5th I made a trip to Naukati to work on self-determination plans and goal setting with the high school students. I covered SMART goals with them and we developed these goals from a list of things that they would like to accomplish in their lives. This was one of the parts of the school improvement plan and it is built into their careers class. They have begun working on pathways plan and another community member has been in to present to them on this topic as well. We also discussed the order for the flags, banners etc. Curriculum materials were received and perused with teachers. **Discussion with one student at Naukati, that is seen as at risk for dropping out, was held. He listed things that he wants to do in life and from that list developed two smart goals. While we were getting set up to start the lesson about smart goals, he commented to me about how he had to do something else. The voice in my head is oh boy here comes the attitude about how this is stupid. I used to teach him Algebra as well as my husband quite a few years ago and Math was his worst subject. We have seen improvements, but know there is still difficulties. I bit my tongue and gently questioned what he had to do. He continued to explain that he had to go fax in his assignment for Geometry before we start because is getting 100% right now and doesnt want to lose that! Something in this personal and social responsibility plan is working that is for sure! Future follow up to happen: 1. Field trip to Naukati with Thorne Bay students. 2. Field trip to Thorne bay with Hydaburg students. 3. Public speaker still to come. 4. Successful completion of Carreers and Portfolios classes.

5. Pathway plans/self-determination plans to be completed (which is a part of the careers class. 6. List of graduated need to be gathered in order to order the plaques. 7. Survey for Thorne Bay and Hydaburg students need to be made by teachers and completed by students.