Flourish

Here's a nod and a huge shout out to the support and investment by SCPS for our instructional coaching program. Ms. Marcum (and the programs created by our IC group) is your best asset for instructional improvement- here's some research to prove it.

"With coaching, the quality of teachers’ instruction improves by as much as—or more than—the difference in effectiveness between a novice and a teacher with five to 10 years of experience, a more positive estimated effect than traditional PD and most other school-based interventions."

https://www.educationnext.org/taking-teacher-coaching-to-scale-can-personalized-training-become-standard-practice/

Monday we will continue work time sessions for teachers around building individual student RTI plans with intervention strategies. As usual, these meetings will begin at 8am and take place in the Flex room. Mrs. Mezin, Mrs. Wilkerson and I will be there to support teachers and teams. This work will be done on the new forms that Mrs. Mezin shared last week and are also linked below. The due date for all individual student forms is 10/25. We still have access to students old RTI forms, so we can use those as a resource in building new plans. Teachers should also be prepared to access Reading Plus, Dreambox, and MAP data for building these plans. I’m excited about continuing our work together, it is the right thing for supporting students and your strategies in the classroom!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eCX7A1dPhDvgPcfFJ9xxPB-aNmHUQh94hY9tZeeIwn8/edit

Empower questions - The most surprising thing about the questions I'm hearing is that so many of the questions are about standards-based grading. Since we have been fuly committed to SBG as a district for several years, I am a bit surprised by so much focus on this part of our transition to Empower. Because of this, I thought it might help to refresh our minds with a quick summary of the research behind SBG.

I discussed this with the Board last Thursday and Ms. Skellie shared my notes district-wide in the board meeting summary. But in case you havent seen it, I want to repeat just a short part here.

Why SBG? - There are two fundamental reasons for standard-based grading. Don't breeze past these. These are "drop the mic" reasons.

• Our current Kentucky Academic Standards require students to think deeper and work toward meaningful applications. Our previous standards required more rote learning (memorizing and repeating facts).
• The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (formerly NCLB) has changed the rules for schools. Federal education laws no longer allow schools to fail students who don’t learn. Instead, all students must be proficient. Because of this, the role of schools is to develop talent, not merely sort it.

How does SBG work? - There are 3 core principles in all SBG systems, including ours:

• Principle 1: All grades given should have meaning. To have meaning, they can’t be muddied with any other factor than learning progress toward mastery. Credit only shows up for learning progress toward mastery.
• Principle 2: Multiple opportunities are given to demonstrate learning over time based on feedback and practice. Locally and nationally, this is a point for criticism of SBG. Critics say this teaches students not to try the first time. It is important to note the top researchers in this area say: “if the purpose of a grade is to report mastery, then educators must look for evidence over time with multiple opportunities for updates.”
• Principle 3: Put homework and extra credit in the proper place. Research on homework says the predictability of learning is best assessed on formal measures such as tests, essays or other formal performances. Likewise, researchers say extra-credit has the potential to artificially widen the gap between students performing well and strugglers.
  

Here’s what the research says about standards-based grading.

We will have five classroom teachers out tomorrow. I will ask that teams spend tomorrow's 8-8:30 planning time welcoming our subs and getting them settled into their day. Teams will also need to be diligent about supporting and popping in on our guest teachers on planning periods, please. Everyone take a turn. It shows our subs that they are valued and it shows our students that their behavior matters even more for our guests.

You all know I truly believe that taking care of self and family makes us better and stronger for taking care of our students and each other. I NEVER want us to hesitate to use a sick or personal day when we need it. Our attendance rate for adults at EMS is excellent and I trust whole heartedly that you know how crucial it is that students are taught by YOU every minute possible. We do, however, have a sub shortage issue that does not seem to be getting better.

Our "fill rate" for teachers in September was around 70% and two weeks into October, it is at 80%. This means that TWO OR THREE out of every ten absences are going unfilled. I want to give a huge thank you to Ms. Overall, who has been able to assist when needed because she does not have a related arts rotation yet, but she will in a couple of weeks. She covers just about every day and this is not sustainable.

I am asking teams to plan this week with a specific scenario in mind. Here it is:

It is 8 am and you have a content partner missing and no coverage for the day. There is no teacher able to step in on their planning and administrators are tied up as well. What is your emergency plan?

We will share a few ideas at faculty meeting on Tuesday.

If we plan for it, that scenario becomes much less stressful for students and for you should it happen. Like I said before, we are an amazing team, so we haven't had this much yet, but it could happen and we owe it to students to ensure quality learning continues.

Here is how I envision our priority of sub situations:

Ideal: 100% fill for absent teachers. Teams check in every period on the sub for their team that day.

Plan B: Sylvia sends out an email call for coverage on teacher planning periods - you fill out a stipend sheet with her since your planning will occur before or after school hours.

Plan C: Class will report to the media center for a flex period (menu of options provided by the team to continue learning). Co-teaching for "fat classes" in the media center cancelled in this case.

Plan D: Ms. Long, Mr. Rhodes, Ms. Cox will sub as available.

Plan E: Emergency team plan- To Be Determined

8th grade team talks will happen during Advisory Monday and Tuesday of this week. Please bring students to the cafeteria at 9:00 am.

Team leaders, please send an email to Cox and Rhodes with the day preference, time preference, and subjects you wish for us to discuss with your teams. Team talks will take about 30 minutes. You can drop off your students with Cox and Rhodes; no need to stay. Related arts teachers, please weigh in as well. Let your team leader know what you would like reinforced with students.

I was the administrator for the state middle school football playoffs on Saturday at SCHS. The Cox's just made it a family day out - Tony and I ran the gate, Sam met friends at the skate park, and Jacob helped Coach Bruner run the chains for the games. I enjoyed the weather and talking with many of our students and families.

At one point, a mom approached me and asked if I had a minute. Truth be told, my chest got tight. Oh, boy, I thought. The student has struggled with some questionable behavior choices in the past and is new to East this year. Mom put her hand on my arm and said, "Thank you for the support you have given to my child. The way East Middle cares for kids and supports them to make good decisions even when they are in trouble is amazing. That doesn't happen everywhere. I thank you for the way you have cared for my kid."

WOW, friends. You deserve that compliment. I am proud to serve this community with you.