Thursday, October 27, 2022 Volume 17 Issue 7
Goals for the 2022-2023 School Year
Each year, every teacher at our school sets goals for how their students will grow. Mrs. Davidheiser and I also set goals for the growth we expect to see in our students. We base these goals on the spring and fall assessment data we have for our students, always with the goal of growth for all students and closing the gap between students who are above grade level and those who are not yet at grade level standard. The first step to setting our goals is to review the data we have gathered. This includes data from the Smarter Balanced Assessment, MAP testing, DIBELS and SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words) reading data, and student climate survey data from our 3rd-5th graders. As we review our data, we look for patterns such as areas of student strengths and weakness, and patterns among student groups – our Multilingual students, students in special education, and students from different racial groups, for example.
After reviewing data and setting goals for student growth, we consider the reasons why we think students may not be achieving at as high of levels as we would like to see in a particular area, focusing our problems of practice not on a problem with our students, but on an adult problem of practice. In other words – what can we as educators do better to help our students achieve at higher levels. The problem may be that we are not emphasizing an area of the curriculum that our students’ need, or that we need to think about how to incorporate more small group instruction into the day to give students extra opportunities for support. It may be devoting additional time in the day to regular practice of a particular skill that we believe will be foundational to student success. It may be thinking about how we can better collaborate with parents to support students in a new way. After our goals are set, we work to assign resources (time and staff) to support student growth, always starting with our students furthest from educational justice – the students who have been least well-served by our district historically. Our district focuses supports on African American males, working from the theory that the strategies we use that support students who have been underserved will also lift all our students. We align our goals with district goals targeting 3rd grade reading and 7th grade math.
These are our Continuous School Improvement Plan Goals for the 22-23 school year:
Safe and Welcoming School Environment Goal:
Based on the data from our most recent student survey in Spring of 2022, we are focused this year on student self-advocacy and adult responsiveness to unfair or unkind treatment of students. Our efforts will be on the following three goals for all student groups:
Students responding positively to “At school, I learn how to speak up for what I need” will increase from 76% to 85% by Spring of 2023.
Students responding positively to “Adults take action when students are being mean” will increase from 78% to 89% by Spring of 2023.
Students responding positively to “If someone is treated unfairly because of their culture or background, adults here take action” will increase from 82% to 89%.
3rd Grade Priority Reading Goal:
For the 2022-23 school year, at least 58% of 3rd grade students of color furthest from educational justice will meet standard or higher on the ELA Smarter Balanced Assessment.
5th Grade Math Goal:
For the 2022-23 school year, at least 55% of Black/African American 5th grade students will meet standard or higher on the Math Smarter Balanced Assessment.
