River Valley School Improvement Team Up and Running
by Debra Lynch
School improvement planning is an important function to every academic institution. Every two to three years the staff members at River Valley revamp the current school improvement goals to align with recent data analysis. Looking at the school mission statement, test scores , survey information and data help drive the goals set by school improvement team. Staff members participating on the team are Maggie Burkhardt, Cathy Cortez, Bridget Esposito, Mary Hately, Debra Lynch, Colleen McNaughton, Joanne Mitchell, Dana Pitlik, Sonya Raymond and Kelli Vorel. Parents joining us in this endeavor are Erin Sczepanski, Amy Schuter and Tigi Tasso.
The River Valley School Improvement team has set three important goals to achieve over the next three years:
1. By the end of the 2012 school year, the 5th grade ISAT reading scores in the meets and exceeds levels will increase from 83% to 85%;
2. By the end of the 2012 school year the students will show an increased amount of respect to each other and will work to gain the respect of others. The self evaluations should decrease in the neutral and strongly disagreed categories by 3% at each grade level.
3. By the end of the 2012 school year, the 5th grade ISAT math scores in the exceeds levels will increase from 14% to 20%.
Currently all sub groups at RV meet AYP on ISAT testing except students with disabilities, in the area of reading. As a staff, we are working on individual plans for each of these students to help them achieve their academic potential.
RV is celebrating the following successes based on data and feed back from our staff and community:
1. RV increased the percentage of students in the “meets” and “exceeds” categories on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test for Reading in 5th grade (66% meeting/exceeding in 2005; 73% meeting/exceeding in 2006; 77% meeting/exceeding in 2007 and 83% meeting/exceeding in 2008 and 2009);
2. Increased the percentage of students in the “meets” and “exceeds” categories on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test for Math in 5th grade from 2008 to 2009 (moved from 83.9% in meets and exceeds to 85.6%);
3. Made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the areas of Reading and Math in eight of the nine indicators according to the specifications of the federal No Child Left Behind Act; and
4. Continued to use and analyze data from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, the Terra Nova standardized achievement test, and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills reading assessment (DIBELS) to identify struggling readers and implemented RtI (Response to Intervention) strategies to increase student achievement in this area.
Note that 5th grade is RV’s exiting grade level, therefore we use the data collected at that grade level to set our goals by.
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