The Heart of
Improvement:

The Story of
Thomasville City Schools…

We knew our kids were as smart as any other kids, but we also knew we weren’t reaching them. We had to do things differently!

Excellence is the Standard… because our children deserve it!

What does leading a team look like?

What obstacles do leaders face today?

Observations
Walkthroughs
Parent Conferences
Discip lin e
Community Events PLCs
Professional Development

At the heart of all effective leaders…
• Leaders serve as catalyst for actions and drives the success of the schools
• Leaders focus on STUDENTS
• Leaders foster a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment

What does it look like to UNITE ALL stakeholders and ensure that everyone marches in the same direction?
Assembling the TROOPS!

Getting started…
• Ensure effective district and school leadership
• Engage parents, communities and schools to work as partners
• Understand and hold high expectations for all students
• Align, monitor, and manage the curriculum
• Create a culture of data and assessment literacy
• Build and sustain instructional capacity
• Reorganize time, space and transitions

Transforming Leadership
Shifting mindset…
Why are some high-poverty schools performing and others not?

“After setting the context by examining poverty and its stunning effects on students, the authors then zero in on what HP/HP schools stopped doing or eliminated and what they started doing or improved on in three key areas of performance:”
• Building leadership capacity;
• Fostering a safe, healthy, and supportive learning environment; and
• Focusing on student, professional, and system learning.

“We had to get to a point where we were all on board with the belief that every kid was going to learn, that every family mattered, and that regardless of the condition of the home, this child would learn and reach proficiency. WE WOULD
DO WHATEVER IT TOOK… ALL OF US”

Planning for Excellence

Leadership Analyzed the
Definition of Rigor
• NC State Board Policy GCS-F-016
• Foundation for the Instructional
Framework in Thomasville City

Common Language:
TCS Instructional Framework
Communicate
Clearly
Mastery of the
Standards
Collaboration
Variety of
Assessments
Reflect for
Improvement
Critical Thinking
Scenarios
Positive
Relationships to
Encourage Risk
Taking
Professional Learning
Communities

Curriculum Alignment
Sessions with ALL TEACHERS

Monitoring Excellence
• Instructional Excellence Inventories
– 4 times per year at each site
(All to be completed before May)
– Each Inventory includes a data dive, several classroom walkthroughs, a teacher focus group, and a student focus group
– Central Office Leaders as observers

Monitoring Excellence
– Each inventory focuses on:
• High Expectations for Staff and Students
• Curriculum and Instructional Alignment
• Data Analysis and Instructional Planning
– Each inventory is modeled after NC DPIs
Comprehensive Needs Assessment, which was based on the Cambridge Education
School Quality Review Process

Developing Teacher Leaders
• District Professional Development: Miniconferences
• RttT Mini-grant: Teachers Helping Teachers
• Math Science Partnership Grant
• Summer Professional Development 2014

Identifying Leaders in the
Community
• Community Members as Leaders
• Parents as Leaders
• Students as Leaders

Leaders Create a
Central Message

Thomasville City Schools’ Past
• Priority Schools/RttT Lowest Achieving
District
• State mandated test performance was below the state average
• Graduation rate was below the state average

How do we know our efforts are working?
• TCS has been named to the College
Board’s 5 th Annual AP District Honor
Roll for increasing student success on
AP exams. TCS is 1 of 4 districts in NC.
• TCS has seen increases in state mandated tests and the graduation rate.

How do we know it is working?
• All TCS schools met or exceeded growth.
• 91% of TCS elementary, middle, and high school teachers met or exceeded growth.
• Increased the attendance rate
• TCS students increased college scholarships from $2.4 million to over $3.5 million.

Growth from 2013 Levels 3 and 4 to 2014
Levels 3,4,5 (GLP)
5 % or more
Gain
English II
4
5 th th
Reading
Reading
10% or more
Gain
3-8 Reading
Composite
3 rd
15% or more
Gain
Math
3-8 Math
Composite
5 and 8 Science
Composite
3 rd Reading
5 th Math
20% or more
Gain
Math I
8 th Math 4 th Math
6 th Math
7 th Math
8 th Reading
8 th Science
5 th Science
7 th Reading

“The urgency of the hour calls for leaders of wise judgment and sound integrity-leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice; leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity; leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ceretha Mitchell
Chief Academic Officer mitchellc@tcs.k12.nc.us