School Improvement- It’s a Process
Since the passing of the federal law in 2001, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, schools and school districts in our country have been scrambling to comply by initiating school improvement activities at the state and local levels. This federal law was passed after studying trend data that compared America’s brightest students with the world’s brightest students, ours looked kind of dull.
Since Washington state began statewide accountability, using performance-based tests like the WASL, student achievement has gone from no child in the state able to pass the assessment (this includes more affluent districts like Lake Washington SD and Mercer Island SD ) to results on 2006 and 2007 that prove reform works.
In 2006, Washington state led the nation in closing the achievement gap for African American males. In 2007:
Reading Writing Math Science
Met standards
4th graders 77% 60% 58%
5th graders 72% 60% 36%.
Based on data available on the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the number of schools that would be consider high poverty and high performing is increasing significantly and includes schools like Van Asselt, Leschi, and Maple Elementarys.
Both Emerson and Rainier View have been engaged in school improvement programs since 2005-06. Rainier View has used Professor Marilyn Ginsberg’s Motivational Frameworks and Emerson has used the state’s School Improvement Assistance Program.
Now that both staff are in one building, we have spent the year looking into each others’ school improvement notebooks and in the revision of our school planning, we are beginning to merge the best practices in each.
On April 28, Scott Whitbeck, the Ed Director for Emerson, took our revised 2008 Transformation/School Improvement Plan to the superintendent. This revised refinement of our 2007 plan was based on the School Performance Review, a school wide needs assessment process (remember the parent surveys you did back in October); feedback from district observations, also called ‘walk-thrus (teams of staff members who work in central office or at other schools walk thru the classrooms looking for evidence of rigorous teaching); and assessments given at the district level.
One of our goals next year, is to actively include you in the academic and social progress at Emerson. Parent Advisor, Andrea House, and Saundra Polk-Barkly, Urban Impact Project are helping us to define what that will look like.
In the meantime, keep reading your Soaring Eagles and checking our website at :
Victoria E. Romero
Emerson School Improvement Facilitator
All Transformation plans can be found on the Info section under Documents Library.
Last Update: November 2008
