Professional Documents
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Disaggregateddata
Disaggregateddata
Trace Crossings
Tarrant Intermediate
Reading Scores
(State Average: 38%)
2014: 51%
2015: 51%
2014: 18%
2015: 11%
Math Scores
(State Average: 48%)
2014: 54%
2015: 53%
2014: 32%
2015: 33%
Subgroup Scores
Hispanic
Reading: 10%
Math: 17%
Black
Reading: 30%
Math: 43%
Male
Reading: 46%
Math: 59%
Poverty
Reading: 23%
Math: 27%
Hispanic
Reading:15%
Math: 44%
Black
Reading: 11%
Math: 25%
Male
Reading: 5%
Math: 23%
Poverty
Reading: 11%
Math: 33%
Observations of Strategies,
PD, and other resources
used to teach these areas.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Improvement Plan
Parent Involvement
Accountability Resources
In order to improve students reading and math scores, the school can purchase practice
testing materials. The materials can provide the students with test tips, as well as get them
familiar with the format and demand of the standardized test format. This can help to prepare the
students for the test and result in better testing scores. These practice materials can be reviewed
bi-weekly or monthly by the classroom teacher and done in whole class, cooperative groups, or
individually. Through this practice, students can prepare for the end of the year test and yield
better scores.
In order to improve test scores, students must become more present in the classroom.
There are several ways that teachers and staff can assist the students in becoming more present at
school. For example, it is important that a parent or guardian is contacted and met with when
attendance begins to become a problem. Once this problem occurs, it must be addressed
immediately before it becomes a serious issue. Once the parents or guardians are aware of the
attendance issue, it is important to follow up with them when the student is absent from school.
This means that parents or guardians should be contacted by phone and/or email after each
school day that a student has missed. Although this will leave a reminder to the parents about
how important this issue is, it will also serve as a security method for their child. A third way to
assist students in attending school more regularly is by giving each student a mentor. The
mentors for these students will be an older student at the school who is well-rounded and has a
high attendance record. This student will be able to assist the younger student with transitioning
from schools or grade levels, giving them a support system while being at school, and holding
them as an accountability partner.
Parental involvement is an important part of a students life. If a parent is involved with
the student, some of these issues will not occur as frequently, such as low school attendance
numbers. However, parents can also become involved with their student in other ways. For
example, help is often needed in the classroom, and teachers greatly appreciate parental
involvement. Some parents want to be able to help the school to grow and develop, but they are
unaware of how they can go about assisting in this area. Another way that parents can be
involved is by providing their child with extra academic assistance in areas that they may be
struggling. To solve this problem, the district instructional coach and school literacy specialists
will develop a plan to conduct parent literacy nights. These nights will help the parents and
teachers to build a home to school connection, as well as provide multiple at-home reading
strategies for parents. These strategies will help parents through supporting and enhancing the
reading learning process for their children. While at these meetings, parents will also have an
opportunity to talk one-on-one with school staff about other ways to get involved with the school
and community, if they are interested.
By following this improvement plan, Trace Crossings Elementary will use these
strategies to benefit their school, as well as community. Through these steps, this school will
continue to strive towards improving math and reading scores, teacher effectiveness, school
attendance, and parental involvement.
Resources
Communicating Achievement Test Results with Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2016, from
http://pdp.acsi.org/PDP/images/contentpageimages/TN Fall 2013
Information/CSE16.3_CommunicatingAchievementTestResults.pdf
Trace Crossings Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved May 07, 2016, from
http://www.greatschools.org/alabama/hoover/27-Trace-Crossings-ElementarySchool/details/#Students
2015 Aspire Results for Systems and Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved May 07, 2016, from
http://parcalabama.org/2015-aspire-results-for-systems-and-schools/
http://elementaryschools.org/directory/al/cities/hoover/trace-crossings-elementaryschool/10000700091/
order to create a broad level of expectations that will be consistent throughout the school. Each teacher
will send a letter to both parents and students communicating both academic and behavioral expectations.
These expectations will also be posted in each classroom throughout the entire year. When expectations
are expressed both verbally and in writing, students will be more likely to meet these expectations.
Parent involvement is extremely important to any school, but especially to schools in poverty.
Tarrant Intermediate has 96.5% of its students on free and reduced lunch which places it high above the
states average of 60.8%. This means that Tarrant Intermediate is a Title I school and receives funding
from the government. Parent involvement is essential in the classroom. It has been found that students
with involved parents are more likely to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, graduate, and
attend college no matter their income level or background. Therefore increasing Tarrant Intermediates
parent involvement will also increase student achievement.
In order to increase the parent involvement at Tarrant Intermediate, the school will begin to
provide on-site childcare. One issue that many parents of low socioeconomic status have is the need for
childcare. Often times these parents decide they cannot be involved at the school because they have other
children they need to care for at home or because they would have to pay even more for the child care
they already have. In order to eliminate this problem, childcare will be provided at the school during the
season of parent teacher conference. This will lead to an increased parent attendance to the conferences
which will help the parents be more aware of what is going on with their child at school and how they can
help their child read his/her potential. As this is going on, the parents will not need to worry about their
younger children and will not need to feel guilty about attending the conference.
Finally, to help students receive the support they need, Tarrant Intermediate will improve the
consistency of their support staff. Currently Tarrant Intermediate has a math and reading coach, as well as
a gifted teacher who pull students out for assistance. However these teachers are very inconsistent with
their pulling of students. The math and reading coach were supposed to pull the students every day,
however they tend to only come every 2 or 3 days instead. Additionally, the gifted students were supposed
to be pulled from the classroom once a week, however the teachers were unsure as to whether or not that
teacher would show up each week. Part of the problem is that some of these support staff personnel are
shared with the elementary school and are then too busy doing other things to get to the kids at Tarrant
Intermediate. In order to improve upon this, the support staff will be assigned to Tarrant Intermediate
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and they will be with Tarrant Elementary on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. This will eliminate the issue of these teachers having to wrap up things with the other school
rather than assisting the kids at Tarrant Intermediate. This will increase the consistency that that students
receive which will positively impact their level of academic achievement.
In conclusion, Tarrant Intermediate will see improvements in their students academic
achievement by making these improvements to their school. The school will create teams to create
consistently high expectations across the school, provide child care to increase parent involvement, and
change the schedules of their support personnel to consistently meet their needs of their students. With all
of these adjustments, the students at Tarrant Elementary will have an increased rate of success which will
improve their schools overall achievement.
References
Back to school: How parent involvement affects student achievement (full report). (n.d.). Retrieved May
07, 2016, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/ParentInvolvement/Parent-Involvement.html
Ten Strategies for Creating a Classroom Culture of High ... (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2016, from
http://publications.sreb.org/2004/04V03_Ten_Strategies.pdf
The Power of High Expectations: Closing the Gap in Your ... (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2016, from
http://teachingasleadership.org/sites/default/files/Related-Readings/DCA_Ch2_2011.pdf
What Can Schools Do to Address Poverty? (2015). Retrieved May 07, 2016, from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-can-schools-do-to-address-poverty-william-parrett-kathleenbudge