- Objective 1 - By December 2015, 8th grade students who are ELs and had multiple Ds and Fs in 7th grade will have one or no Fs on their Fall Semester Report Card. (Note: There will also be Progres Report objectives along the way.)
- Objective 2 - By June 2016, 8th grade students who are ELs and had multiple Ds and Fs in 7th grade will have no Fs on their Spring Semester Report Card. (Note: There will also be Progress Report objectives along the way.)
Describe how leadership, teachers, families and students will be involved in this process. What role will each play?
- Administrators will make sure there is time during advisory class for an advisory teacher to have a smaller group of the focus group students - not too many - only enough he/she can check in with at least twice a week
- Leadership will also make sure there is a resource teacher and counselor with time to meet with parents of these students several times a semester.
- Several (potentially) advisory teachers will be responsible for individual check ins with students and for teaching self advocacy skills to students. Teachers will meet with counselor and resource teacher to come up with a process that matches what the parents are also learning.
- All teachers communicate about these students through SST meetings and emails.
- Resource teacher is responsible for showing parents and helping them understand how student can stay technologically and academically organized.
- Parents or Guardians will attend regular meetings about students. (If possible, videos about meeting topics will also be created for those parents unable to attend.)
- Families / parents will learn how to help student stay technologically and academically organized.
- Families / parents will learn how to seek help for student - and what help is available to student.
- Students will attend advisory class.
- Students will fill in regular self assessments.
- Students will learn and practice skills of self advocacy
What are the interventions that you plan to implement based on your goals and objectives?
- Focus group students are 8th grade students (in 2015-2016) who are ELs and had multiple Ds and Fs in 7th grade.
- Focus group students will meet individually with their advisory teacher at least once a week to create academic progress goals and check in with their advisory teacher as evidenced by collaborating with the advisory teacher to fill out check in meeting sheets.
- Parents of focus group students will have met with a counselor and a resource teacher in a small group of no more than 10 parents to learn specific ways they can help the student stay technologically and academically organized with their assignments and school events.
- This process if for a specific focus group of students right now. However, this could become more of a school wide process if the data shows significant improvement for these students.
In the master schedule a resource teacher and counselor would need to be available to meet with parents at the designated meeting time. At least one advisory teacher, if not several, would need to have a smaller than usual class size to host this focus group.
Materials would need to be developed and copied for parents about HOW to support student academically and technologically. This may include creating videos for parents who cannot be present during the meetings. Videos would not be a complete replacement for meetings but hopefully could support the parents as they learn these skills.
The advisory teacher responsible for monitoring student progress (of the focus group students) and checking in with this group of students on a consistent basis will need professional development. The advisory teacher will need to learn how to teach self advocacy skills to the students. He or she will also need to understand how to positively, with structure and purpose, mentor the students throughout the school year. The self advocacy skills curriculum could be developed by the team of the advisory teacher, counselor, and resource teacher.
The resource teacher and counselor will need time during the school day and perhaps time before the school year starts to talk about what they will focus on with parents during each session with them. They will need to plan what skills they will teach parents and need to help parents understand how to get help for themselves when they are not sure what to do to help. The counselor and resource teacher will also need time to debrief together after these parent meetings.
The advisory teacher, resource teacher, and counselor need to all meet together regularly to debrief on the progress of students and how the process is or is not working. If weekly meetings are challenging to fit into the schedule, every two weeks the group should meet. Changes may need to be made along the way. An administrator should also be involved and updated on the progress of these students, and attend meetings when available. Administration & Leadership