Successmaker Enterprise Software Purchase - Harford County ...

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Harford County Public Schools – State Discretionary Grant – HSA FY10 Integration with Educational Reform Under No Child Left Behind, each state has developed and implemented measurements for determining whether its schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) are making adequate yearly progress (AYP). AYP is an individual state's measure of progress toward the goal of 100 percent of students achieving to state academic standards in at least reading/language arts and math. It sets the minimum level of proficiency that the state, its school districts, and schools must achieve each year on annual tests and related academic indicators. Maryland has established standards for schools that serve as the context for school improvement. School progress toward the attainment of Maryland content standards is measured by MSA in grades 3 through 8 and by HSA in high school. HSA assesses students after they have completed selected courses – Algebra/Data Analysis, English, Government and Biology. The gap between the state standards and current achievement on these assessments provides the direction for school improvement. The Vision of Harford County Public Schools System provides the context for the system’s Master Plan. The Vision states: Harford County is a community of learners where educating everyone takes everyone. All students are empowered to contribute to a diverse, democratic and change-oriented society. Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) Master Plan is further aligned with the Mission of the school system: to foster a quality educational system that challenges students to develop knowledge and skills and inspires them to become life-long learners and good citizens. The Master Plan systematically addresses the four Board Goals: To ensure a safe and positive learning environment; To improve student achievement and close the minority achievement gap; To ensure the effective use of all resources; and To provide a high-quality workforce. This initiative aligns with federal, state and local requirements, educational priorities and school improvement plans. Annual data from the state assessments provides schools a snapshot of where students are at a single point in time. Daily instruction continues between when the tests are given and when the results are returned to schools. Teachers must know on a day to day basis where their students are in relation to the content standards to have the necessary information to inform instruction. This on-going monitoring is also the way teachers determine whether their instructional strategies are working for all students and which students need instructional interventions. Regular examinations of student performance on assignments and assessments enable teachers to make informed instructional decisions regarding teaching and re-teaching specific indicators/objectives. It is probably obvious, though not always practiced, that classroom instruction and assessment must be aligned with the state's content standards if a school wishes to attain state standards and meet their AYP target. Understanding the relationship between classroom instruction and student achievement is a prerequisite to clarifying the problem. Improved student achievement is based in large part on good alignment of instruction with the content standards and on knowing where each student is in relation to the indicators. Consequently, focusing the collection of data on what teachers need to know and do to align their instruction and understand where their students are in relation to the indicators/objectives they are expected to teach will produce the most useful information. Mortimore and Sammons (1987) found that teaching had 6 to 10 times as much impact on achievement as all other factors combined. Allen Odden and his colleagues conclude that ―improved classroom instruction is the prime factor to produce student achievement gains‖ (Odden & Wallace, 2003) The overall goal of the grant initiative is to promote maximum achievement for all students by combining the best principles of classroom management, peer assisted learning, and differentiated instruction into a comprehensive system focusing on accountability, measurable achievement, and improved access to the general education curriculum for diverse learners. Changing instructional practice is at the heart of improving learning outcomes for underserved and 19
Harford County Public Schools – State Discretionary Grant – HSA FY10 underachieving students. To truly improve teaching, schools need to transform their culture of practice from one that assumes that barriers to learning reside in the students to one that expects teachers to collectively assume responsibility for making sure all students learn. An emerging body of literature supports the use of learning communities and teacher collaboration as the kind of professional development that leads to such transformation (Grossman, Wineburg, & Woolworth, 2001). In addition to improved classroom instruction there is a need for additional intervention/remediation to address individual areas for deficit. This grant initiative provides access to intervention/remediation in addition to the core curriculum. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is a supplemental approach to mathematics intervention. While outcomes of studies of CAI are highly variable, most studies do find positive effects and none significantly favored a control group. Outcomes are usually stronger for computations than for concepts or problem-solving. Because of the hierarchical nature of math computations, CAI has an advantage due to its ability to assess students and provide them with individualized practice on skills that they have the prerequisites to learn but have not yet learned ( Slavin and Lake, 2007). Future Plans HCPS has struggled to identify an effective means of addressing the needs of diverse learners. Boundless Opportunities for MSA Success [Mathematics] Grant initiative offers an opportunity to refine instructional practice in order to promote maximum achievement for all students by focusing on the basics of good instruction. Barriers to the successful achievement of students must be addressed in a proactive manner. Marzano points to numerous studies demonstrating that two teachers working with the same populations of students can achieve starkly different results based primarily on the quality of instruction. Teachers and administrators engaged in continuous study learn how to prevent failure and how to provide effective intervention. This collaboration signals a community effort for the good of the community. Why co-teaching? Blackorby et al. (2005) reported on a comprehensive study of 11,000 students in the United States, which showed that students with disabilities who spend more time in general education classrooms are absent less, perform closer to grade level than their peers in pullout settings, and have higher achievement scores. Co-teaching is effective for students with a variety of needs, including ELL (Mahoney, 1997), those with hearing impairment (Compton et al., 1998; Luckner, 1999), those with learning disabilities (Rice and Zigmund, 2000; Welch, 2000), high-risk students and those in language remediation (Dieker, 1998; Miller et al., 1998). The Boundless Learning Co-Teaching model is aligned with the MD Co-Teaching Framework. This initiative is a key component of an MSDE School Improvement Grant focusing on building a MD Co-Teaching network. HCPS is committed to implementing this project with fidelity. The short term goals of this project is the piloting of an instructional delivery system that will improve the quality of instruction and increase learning outcomes for all students, especially those SWD additionally the grant allows for the provision of an intervention/remediation that supplements the core content.. Long term goals would extend over a multiyear period and demonstrate the impact of combining the best principles of classroom management, peer-assisted learning, differentiated instruction, and varied technology integration into a comprehensive system thus promoting an overall change in practice. It is the hope of the grant committee that the success of this project will lead to a systemic change of practice. Upon completion of the project, HCPS will create an evaluation report and summarize findings and recommendations consideration of expanded implementation of the successful portions of the project to additional core content areas. 20
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