Lower Macungie Middle School

Targeted Support & Improvement Plan

June 2023
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LMMS TSI Team
● Heather Herman - Reading Seminar
● Lori Schaeffer - Science
● Brian Scholl - Computer/Business
● Justin Miller - Special Education
● Hebat El-Turky - Counseling
● Peter Slay - Psychologist
● Tiffany Shimmel - EPSD Coach
● Brandi Blose - ELA
● Justin Dahlquist - Math
● Virginia Hanna - Social Studies
● Jessica Thacher - Office of Teaching and Learning
● Dennine Leschinsky - Instructional Support
● Sallie Yencho - Principal

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Lower Macungie Middle School Targeted Support & Improvement

● Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to annually designate schools for
Targeted Support and Improvement

● In February of 2023, the district was notified that LMMS was in TSI

● A school-level TSI designation occurs when a subgroup of students (20 or more students)
meets a specific two-step criteria.
○ The subgroup of students who qualified at LMMS for this designation are our
economically disadvantaged

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LMMS Targeted Support & Improvement
LMMS is designated as a TSI school because the economically disadvantaged subgroup did not
meet the standards established using the two-step system described below:

Step One: A student group:

● Exhibits achievement at or below the statewide average achievement rate of 36.23% on the
Math and ELA PSSA exams and

● Falls within a specific state-level proficiency-growth profile that includes both achievement
and growth values as measured by PVAAS, the Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment
System

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LMMS Targeted Support & Improvement
Step Two: (A student group meeting Step 1 criteria) also performed below the state averages for
either the ESSA-required indicators or both state-selected indicators.

ESSA-required indicators:
● Adjusted cohort graduation rate for high schools
● Progress in moving English Learners (EL) to proficiency

State-Selected indicators:
● Regular attendance
● Career standards benchmark

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Indicator #1: Achievement & Growth in ELA & Math (21-22)
Economically Disadvantaged Students:

Achievement at or below the statewide average achievement rate of 36.23% on Math and
ELA PSSA exams

● LMMS achievement for Math and ELA Combined was a proficiency rate of 30.42%
● The PVAAS growth rate for students was less than 10 (-5.34), which indicates
significant evidence of not meeting the growth standard.

Goal:

● Develop and enhance quality educational/instructional programs in Math and ELA to

improve the performance of all students
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Indicator #1: Action Steps
● Tier 2 and Tier 3 Targeted Reading and Math Research-Based Interventions
● Tier 1 Data Meetings with all individual teachers to review teaching strategies and best practices to improve student
achievement and growth using data from:
○ Fastbridge
○ iReady
○ PSSA
○ PVAAS
● Movement of certified/highly-qualified math teacher to math standards
● Weekly MTSS academic/behavioral meetings with all 10 teams
● Weekly Core Meetings
○ Review attendance, academic, and behavioral supports
● Monthly Special Education Meetings with the Middle Level Supervisor
● iReady time built into the daily schedule for all students
● Increased content team planning time and allowed for learning walks
○ 2023-2024 - 3 days of department planning time to focus on instructional practices
○ 2023-2024 - Required monthly learning walks for all faculty
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Indicator #1: Action Steps
● Child Study Meetings with staff, students, and families
● All staff members required to evaluate their curriculum to find ways to support learning standards in each grade level
○ Ex: 6th Grade Understanding Ratio Concepts (part to part and part to whole)
■ Area of Need (55% proficient)
● FCS - Review fractions when cooking
● Music - Time signatures and note lengths
● Tech Ed - Designing a scaled-down floor plan for a house
● Art - Mixing paint, enlarging photos, grid drawings, and clay shrinkage (how to make a lid fit a
pot)
● Realignment of Math and ELA priorities
● SEL Supports for Students
○ SAP, MARS, CIS, LVHN, BCBA, Dean, Student Advisor, STEP Program, CICO, SWPBIS
■ As we all know - we can’t learn until our basic needs are met
● Maslow before Bloom
○ Teachers did a deep dive into Panorama SEL data to discover continued areas of student need and to create
goals for moving into next year 8
Indicator #2: Attendance Rate (21-22)
Chronic Absenteeism is calculated based on the number of students who have missed more
than 10 percent of enrolled school days across the academic year; this represents 18 days in
a 180-day school year. It includes students who are absent regardless of whether absences
are excused or unexcused.

● LMMS attendance for the economically disadvantaged subgroup was 72.40%

● Target is 72.51%

Goal:

● Improve the regular attendance rate for all students

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Indicator #2: Attendance Rate (21-22)
Action Steps Include:
● Core Meetings
○ Review attendance on a bi-weekly basis
● Child Study Meetings with staff, students, and families
● SAP Meetings (monthly)
● STEP Room Teacher reaching out to chronically absent students to engage in conversations about utilizing the STEP
room as a way to encourage students back into the building during challenging times
● Provision of resources and services such as:
○ Regular attendance monitoring by school staff including case managers, administrators, and counselors
○ Schedule and/or program adjustments
○ Truancy Prevention Plans & Truancy Court
● Interventions & Supports provided through partnership with Communities in Schools for participating students and
their families
● K&S/MST - Outside agency to help wrap-around families with truancy
● EPSD Social Worker - Communicate and provides additional support
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○ McKinney Vento Families
Indicator #3: Career Standards Benchmark (21-22)
Effective 2023-2024 and beyond, all students by May of their 8th grade year must have 6
pieces of evidence in their career portfolio

2021-2022 LMMS students Meeting Career Standards Benchmark for economically

disadvantaged group was 59.13%
● The target is above 75.87%

Goal
● Increase the percentage of students at LMMS who complete all 6 pieces of evidence for
their career portfolios

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Indicator #3: Career Standards Benchmark (21-22)
Action Steps Include:

● Continued career awareness activities as part of K-12 Counseling Plan

● Embed career portfolio assignments into course curriculum as part of students existing required coursework
- including exploratories
○ Teachers are sharing the responsibility for supporting students in completing career standard artifacts
■ Ex:
● Application to NASA & Reflection (Science)
● Resume on famous figures in history (Social Studies)
● Million Dollar Project (Math)
● Minimum Wage Research and Young Adult Employment (FCS)

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 LMMS Growth - PSSA Early Reporting Results
ELA PSSA Proficiency

Grade 2022 2023 Cohort Growth

6 61.88% 69%

7 59.12% 66% 6th-7th 4%

8 60.50% 65% 7th-8th 6%

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 LMMS Growth - PSSA Early Reporting Results
Math PSSA Proficiency

Grade 2022 2023 Cohort Growth

6 29.83% 42%

7 19.89% 44% 6th-7th 14%

8 17.45% 32% 7th-8th 12%

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 LMMS Career Readiness Benchmarks
Preliminary Data:

Grade 2022 2023 Growth

8th 78% 95%+ 17%

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Timeline/Process
February 2023 - Notification of TSI Status

March - May: LMMS TSI Team engaged in:

■ Collaborative analysis of data/indicators

■ Discussion of priorities & current work
■ Development of improvement plan

June 12th - Presentation of Plan to Board of School Directors

March 2023 through 2024 - Implementation of action steps outlined in plan

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