Johnson County Central Public Schools Prepare for AdvancED External Review
For the past five years, Johnson County Central Public Schools administration, faculty, and staff have been preparing for an upcoming school improvement external review visit on April 10-13, 2016. This process is needed for school accreditation through AdvancED. School improvement is a requirement of Rule 10, Regulations and Procedures for the Accreditation of Schools. According to the Nebraska Department of Education, “The basic purpose of the continuous improvement process is to conduct an ongoing process for reviewing the educational performance and growth of students and, in those areas where performance is lower than expected or preferred, to institute a process of examining the reasons, setting improvement goals, identifying strategies aimed at improving the learning goal area, and verifying the performance gains.” (The Nebraska Framework, p. 5, July 2011).
The following are the steps in the school improvement process which have been completed for this external visit. Upon the completion of this visit, the district will identify a new steering committee and continue with this process.
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT LEADERSHIP
Step 1: Establish a Steering Committee for the Continuous Improvement Process
Step 2: Build understanding and Commitment to the Purpose and Process of School Improvement
Step 3: Develop the Timeline
Step 4: Create Committee Structures
Step 5: Update the Mission
CREATING THE PROFILE
Step 1: Determine Data Sources
Step 2: Include Student Performance Data
Step 3: Consider Perceptual Data
Step 4: Consider Program Data
Step 5: Include Demographic Data
Step 6: Organize and Present Data
Step 7: Reflect on and Analyze Data
Step 8: Check the Profile for Recommended Components
SETTING THE GOALS
Step 1: Prioritize the Areas of Need
Step 2: Determine the School Improvement Goals
Step 3: Research Effective Practices
PLANNING TO IMPROVE
Step 1: Develop Action Plan Strategies
Step 2: Reflect on Strategies and Interventions
Step 3: Write the Action Plan
Step 4: Establish Baseline/Post-Intervention Evaluation Data
IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN
Step 1: Help all Staff Develop an Understanding of the Goals and Strategies
Step 2: Monitor the Implementation
Step 3: Determine Effectiveness of the Intervention
Step 4: Recognize Progress, Affirm Successes
A team of five education professionals from AdvancED will arrive on Sunday, April 10, and will be onsite through Wednesday, April 13, 2016, to conduct a review of the district. This team will have knowledge of Johnson County Central Schools through an Accreditation Report submitted on March 1, 2016. This report includes an Executive Summary which includes a description of the school, the school’s purpose, a summary of notable achievements and identified areas of improvements, and additional information that helps provide a clear picture of the district. The information included in this summary explains the merger between Nemaha Valley Public Schools and Tecumseh Public Schools, and the demographic information of the towns and counties included in the district. It also details the Mission and Vision/Purpose and Direction statement of the district: JCC: Journey of Excellence; Creating Lifelong Learners; Citizens for Tomorrow, and how the decision-making process of the district is in alignment with this statement.
Also included in the Accreditation Report is a Self-Assessment report. To prepare for this external review and as part of the continuous school improvement cycle, the administration, faculty, and staff conducted a thorough and comprehensive self-assessment of the district. This self-assessment is an in-depth evaluation of each of the five AdvancED standards for Quality, that are the foundation of the AdvancED accreditation process. Each standard has several indicators with performance levels that describe varying degrees of accomplishment.
These Standards are:
Standard 1: Purpose and Direction: The school maintains and communicates a purpose and direction that commit to high expectations for learning as well as shared values and beliefs about teaching and learning.
Standard 2: Governance and Leadership: The school operates under governance and leadership that promote and support student performance and school effectiveness.
Standard 3: Teaching and Assessing for Learning: The school’s curriculum, instructional design and assessment practices guide and insure teacher effectiveness and student learning.
Standard 4: Resources and Support Systems: The school has resources and provides services that support its purpose and direction to ensure success for all students.
Standard 5: Using Results for Continuous Improvement: The school implements a comprehensive assessment system that generates a range of data about student learning and school effectiveness and uses the results to guide continuous improvement.
The administration, faculty, and staff members carefully examined all of the indicators, gathered data and evidence, and selected ratings for each according to the information obtained during this self-assessment. This information has been shared and strengths and needs of the school district have been identified, discussed, and highlighted. The district has many strengths and have planned ways to sustain those areas. The district has also recognized areas of need and have addressed or planned strategies for improvement.
Once the External Team is on-sight, they will carefully examine this self-assessment document and evidence, will conduct their own investigation into these indicators and ratings, will determine ratings based on their findings, and also give recommendations for sustaining powerful practices, and identify and make recommendations for opportunities to improve. The External Team will also conduct interviews with administrators, school board members, faculty, staff, parents, community members, and students, will observe classrooms, will examine additional assessment data, and will prepare a report to AdvancED in regards to accreditation.
The third part of the Accreditation Report is a Stakeholder Feedback Diagnostic. This is the survey data collected from parents, staff, middle and high school students, elementary students, and early elementary students. It has been disaggregated by the staff with areas of strengths and weaknesses identified. This information has been valuable in recognizing the areas of satisfaction, opinions, and concerns of all stakeholders. The administrators, faculty, and staff disaggregated the survey responses, and discussed this vital information during inservice times as this is relevant to the school improvement cycle and school improvement goals.
The fourth section in the Accreditation Report is the Student Performance Diagnostic. This is the student assessment data. The External Team will have access to Nebraska State Accountability Assessments (NeSA) and Measures of Academic Progress Assessment (MAP) data. The team will also see comparative data between Johnson County Central Public Schools and other schools in the ESU#4 and East Central Nebraska Conference schools. They will also have access to data from the Reading Street reading program, Prentice Hall reading program, Applied Literacy Class, and Marzano vocabulary data.
The final section of the report includes the school improvement goal. The district goal is, “Johnson County Central Public Schools will improve reading comprehension through the direct and explicit teaching of vocabulary.” To accomplish this goal the district was trained in the Marzano Vocabulary Instruction Model using Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering. Students have been instructed in the Six-Step Model and have completed pretests, activities, and posttests. This information along with the NeSA and MAP data shows that students at Johnson County Central have made significant progress in reading comprehension. The data from the Reading Street reading program, the Prentice Hall program, the Applied Literacy Class, and data collected on vocabulary acquisition reinforces this reading growth by students.
On Wednesday, April 13, the External Team will share their findings with the administrators, school board members, faculty, and staff. They will submit these findings to AdvancED and Johnson County Central Schools will receive a written report approximately thirty days later. At that time, the district will continue the powerful practices already in place, and develop a plan for the improvement priorities defined by the External Team. Johnson County Central Public Schools is presently accredited through AdvancED.