December

Goal: One year of growth, or more, for one year of schooling

District direction: Use the research of John Hattie to guide us in the top yielding instructional strategies to focus on.

District focus area: Support teacher and student clarity around what one is learning for the day and how one knows it is learned for the day.
Assessed by asking students during class visits, and/or by asking teachers.

Each school also has a focus area and ways to monitor growth:
Teacher clarity
Developing a visible learner
Providing effective feedback
Know thy impact through quality formative assessment

Action Steps:
Continued site and district collaboration.

Provide any desired professional development especially in the above focus area(s).

The district also has a strong focus in the content area of literacy; using the above top instructional strategies in providing reading, writing, listening and speaking instruction throughout the day for students, as is providing some reading workshops.

Use of instructional coaches to support planning, model instruction, observe and debrief.

Provide monthly PIP/STP and new teacher workshops around the above.

Sites send staff to various conferences especially around the above.

Here are some of my professional goals to support the district vision and evaluate my impact.

*Communicate a clear vision, direction, and expectations, to all of Konocti Unified members

Actions: *Communicate the Konocti SMARTER Goal to staff via the website *Share the vision with principals to share with staff *Walk-thrus at schools and in classrooms 1x to 2x a month and provide critical feedback around vision, direction and expectations *Report out the direction and progress to the school board at least every other month *Allow time at each principal meeting to discuss the direction, expectation, progress, next steps, best practices.

Evidence of impact:

*Ask a teacher focus group about their understanding of the direction, why this direction, and what the expectations are

*Increased teacher and student clarity from the 2x a month walk-thrus (see a 5% -10% increase from the baseline data)

*Increased reading scores by 5-10% in December and again in March; adequate number of students showing hinge effect in December subject area assessments and again in March

*Increase by 5% to 10% of students proficient/advanced on the SBAC interim block reading assessment in January/February

*Based on research and the needs of the district, provide meaningful and relevant professional development to drive the direction of the district.

Actions: *All day staff development on what works best in education *All day staff development on each school site’s focus area, revolving around what works best in education *Principal meetings devoted to instruction and learning; with evidence to monitor our progress and impact *Collaboration time devoted to instruction and learning; with more regular data analysis around student progress and adult impact *PIP/STP workshops on classroom management and teacher clarity (content area is literacy) *Professional development workshop on close reading per site *After school deliberate weekly and lesson planning; identifying the LI and SC and then aligning the resources and activities *Offer additional pertinent PD  in reading instruction or in writing/articulating success criteria

Evidence of Impact:

*The minutes from collaboration

*Student’s growth on this December growth data per subject area and grade level

*Students reading growth on the SRI and Reading in December by 5% -10% and again in March  *Adequate number of students showing hinge effect in December subject area assessments and again in March

*Increase by 5% to 10% of students proficient/advanced on the SBAC interim block reading assessment in Janaury/February

*Increased evidence of teacher clarity and student clarity in the classroom via walk-thrus

*Seek regular feedback from administration and staff around professional development and collaboration; respond timely and accordingly

Actions: *Sought feedback via google forms after September 26 – synthesized and reported out to Konocti and to the school board *Adjusted October 31 SDD based on the feedback *Adjusted collaboration agenda topics based on the feedback *Sound feedback after October 31 – synthesized and reported out to Konocti, to principals and to the school board *Respond by allowing more time to plan at collaboration *Continue to respond accordingly to the district data *Develop addtional PD based on request *Provide individual feedback after each class visit *Continue to gather feedback at district collaboration

Evidence of Impact:

*Gained clarity as evidenced from the teacher-focus group responses

*Increased teacher clarity and student clarity in walk-thrus

*Use of Fall CAASPP data, STAR and SRI Data, SBAC block interim data as feedback

*Minutes and responses from the adults about the student reading levels, about the December results, about the SBAC interim assessment results

*Minutes from the December and March district collaboration regarding instructional next steps based on the growth data

*Provide administration and staff with student data to regularly monitor, analyze, and respond to

Actions: *Provided Caaspp results in the fall for principals to analyze (and then principals used similar data to analyze with their staff in the fall) *Provided structure for school sites to analyze the baseline reading data – STAR or SRI; and SBAC interim assessment results on a regular basis *Develop quarterly time in principal meetings to analyze student academic data, walkthrough data, teacher focus group data, feedback information *Use of Star and SRI and CAASPP and Aeries as viable data management systems

Evidence of Impact:

*Principals used similar data in the fall to analyze with their staff

*Minutes and responses from the adults about the student reading levels, in September, again with December results
*Minutes and responses from staff about their SBAC results in December and again in January/February

* 5% -10% increase in reading scores in December and again in March; adequate number of students showing hinge effect in December subject area assessments and again in March.

*Increase by 5% to 10% of students proficient/advanced on the SBAC interim block reading assessment in January/February

*Minutes from the December and March district collaboration regarding instructional next steps based on the growth data

Remember Teresa Amabile, in her book, The Progress Principle, proclaims the power of progress, stating that well-being and motivation, attitude and behavior, all improve with the increase of progress.

Response to Recent Feedback and Next Steps

Professional Development was created around the most current and comprehensive research in the field of education. Professional development was also created from Konocti's own feedback, progress, evidence, and direction.
The professional development was/is intended to enhance adult performance and accelerate student learning.  As Teresa Amabile explains, in The Progress Principle, when people experience progress, including incremental progress, all other variables such as behavior, attitude, attendance, fall into place.


Goal: One year of growth, or more, for one year of schooling












Feedback. I am reading your feedback.  Here are some common themes:
 

Application into classroom	Informative	Unproductive	Recommendations
Scaffolding different types of questioning in the classroom Revise the levels of  my assessment questions Write clear learning intentions Write different success criteria Provide more appropriate feedback to students – constructive and specific Implement “better” rubrics	Informative. Amazing. Finally have a grip on this whole visible learning thing. I learned something new. I have a clear picture of what a visible learner is Learning the positive power of feedback on adults. It was very good. Any training is helpful	The solo taxonomy was too big of a new concept for now. The solo taxonomy – I don’t know how to use it to help kids. We were going to get time to apply this work, and never did. Poor instructional delivery by the solo taxonomy consultant	More time to collaborate. More time to implement. If we are to implement, we need time to collaborate and create (assessments, feedback or learning intentions and success criteria)

The superintendent, principals and I will review the common messages from the feedback at a November management meeting. We will respond by providing clarity to some of the statements as well as take steps to implement some of the recommendations. Stay tuned.

Here are a few immediate responses:.
* Similar to Bloom's taxonomy, the solo taxonomy allows teachers to write different levels of questions; write different levels of success criteria (both for the classroom, and for assessments).
* The district is not looking to rewrite all the unit assessments.
* Schools each have a focus area  - providing effective feedback, or developing a visible learner, particulate learning intentions and success criteria, developing formative assessments - with reasonable next steps for implementation and improvement.
*The district is looking to support the school's focus areas, with a strong foundation in teacher clarity - articulate learning intentions and success criteria.
* Yes this work demands time and collaborative time to plan, create, and successfully implement.
* Having clear learning intentions and success criteria(s) for the day, allows students to achieve and progress at their level. When student feel that immediate and daily academic success, motivation and  self-efficacy trail.