A school administrator, principal Kim Locken of Lyndale School in Oungre, showed how her school staff was able to take data on how students were doing, and used that data to help the students improve their academic results.
She made a presentation at the monthly board meeting of the Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division, noting her school has an enrolment base of 55 in the Kindergarten to Grade 9 facility.
The presentation was a practical example of Cornerstone’s system goal to use information to continually improve how students learn and succeed in class.
Locken began the screening process in 2013 in the school where newcomers make up about one-third of the student population. She said she continued to gather data for another year and then began implementing action plans using the information that had been gathered. By the 2015-16 school year, utilization of the data and programs were well underway with recognition of the needs for literacy interventions, which led to an early intervention team completing a 10-week training course. Now in 2018, Locken told the board members, “we know our students, but before we didn’t have all the specific information we needed to see growth. We need to focus on some individual students where the graph shows real need.”
Using such tools as a “visibility wall” in the school, teachers and students are now able to make programming relevant to their school and its needs and with a small enrolment, Locken said it was important to keep individual student identification out of the mix while still reflecting the needs. The detailed assessment process includes infants and young children, an ages and stages questionnaire, early years evaluation, teacher assessment, phonological awareness skills testing and early numeracy tests. This process leads to curriculum-based measurement for reading and mathematics skills and comprehension levels for all the students.
As an example, she explained how a new math screening test gives students 15 minutes to solve between 12 and 18 curriculum-aligned computation questions from the provincial curriculum. A newly-developed writing test to determine if students are writing at grade level will be reported to the education ministry next year. The literacy assessment extends to Grades 7 to 12 for teachers and students across the division.
Screening and record keeping extends to behavioural issues as well as absenteeism. It also embraces progress being made among English as another language students.
These factors lead to a school improvement plan, she explained during the presentation. The Lyndale principal said the school community council embraced the improvement concept and have been enthusiastic supporters. That support includes providing resources and materials to add value to the school experiences for their students while staying within the assigned budget.
They have included some fundraising projects when necessary to provide the additional equipment or materials such as Literacy Bags, Math Supports and projects that focused on bullying (through a puppet program) and a Cree language instruction opportunity. New gymnasium shirts and additional equipment were added features.
Professional development for the teachers took the form of writing conferences and early learning program seminars, Locken said, adding that “teachers know where they want to go,” in terms of professional development and what would help them in offering the best to their students.
Monitoring is carried out through a weekly reference and tracking of data sheets for all three things (academic, behaviour, attendance). Using data sheets “we can drill down to individual data and the student’s needs,” she explained.
