EDLD 5399 Recommendations for Campus Improvement Plan

Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the Comprehensive Final Report

Describing Recommendations and District/Campus Improvement Initiative/Action Research Lessons Learned

Review the above analysis, and write at least one page thoroughly describing recommendations and lessons learned from experiences with the improvement initiatives or action research plans.

     Our District Campus Improvement plan is a working document that needs to be evaluated and analyzed each year. For this assignment, I analyzed our plan and made some recommendations for the committee to think about over the coming year. My three biggest concerns for the plan were to revisit the comprehensive needs assessment for each campus, improve all STAAR tested areas 15% above the state average, and improve the physical fitness plan of all children and staff. The comprehensive needs assessment has been done in the past but not in a formal manner. We should also shoot for the stars when setting goals for the STAAR test. I believe that our goal should be substantially higher than the state average on all levels. Another very important component of the district improvement plan is the physical fitness plan. I believe that we must substantially improve physical fitness education to staff and students because of the declining health in our society.

     The  three actions that must be sustained to help achieve the district improvement initiatives are vertical teaming of teachers, hiring more highly qualified experienced teachers, and rewriting curriculum for PE classes and faculty programs that will enhance the students knowledge. Vertical teaming of teachers is a strategy that has been highly successful at each school. I would like for us to vertical team across the schools and not just the grade levels. Have teachers from the grade level below and above meet to discuss curriculum issues and best practices. We must also hire highly qualified teachers in the core areas, especially in the science and math area. At  present time, the state legislature is voting on dropping the number of STAAR test from fifteen to five. Highly qualified teachers with adequate training will be imperative for these tested areas. The last action that must be sustained is our district’s health. We must sustain and improve our PE program to include best practices and innovative ideas that can change the student’s perspective about their health. We have a nation that has an obesity epidemic that influences lives, insurance, and families in a negative way. If we can educate our students on the positives of eating right and exercise, we may be able to change some of these negative effects not only for our students, but for our whole staff.

     Three recommendations for our district improvement plan include having each campus do a comprehensive needs assessment, putting principals on the district site base team, and having the district site base team meet more often .I believe that the comprehensive needs assessment can help building principals collaborate better on the curriculum weaknesses of their campus. Building principals being included on the district site base team is another great idea because they have different perspectives about accountability, curriculum, and perspective than the assistant principals. At present, building principals are not on the district site base team. Principal traits can be invaluable when making recommendations to the committee. I also think that the committee should meet more often to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the topics addressed whether it be about curriculum or health.

     The three strategies for evaluating the district improvement plan are to desegregate state assessment data in a formal way, survey teachers about vertical teaming strengths and weaknesses, and survey students and teachers about the school physical fitness plan’s strengths and weaknesses. I have been in this school district for over ten years and have yet to fill out a survey. I believe that if the survey is done correctly, we can ascertain data and information that can help the committee make more informed decisions that can effect teacher/student instruction and knowledge.