HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
High functioning schools will engage in a variety of continuous improvement processes utilizing
specific activities at the appropriate times. However, schools just beginning the improvement process
may need to adjust the time lines to allow time to institute practices, processes and procedures that may
not be in place. Keep in mind that this is a two-year process.
Page 1 frames the year-long processes, practices and procedures of continuously improving schools.
Improvement Processes that should be ongoing throughout the year
Conduct regularly scheduled staff
meetings
Celebrate successes that support
values and beliefs
Conduct family/community engagement
activities
Provide support for personalized
learning
Administer benchmark/common
assessments and analyze data to
determine instructional effectiveness
and make necessary adjustments
Maintain documentation of school
leadership team meetings (e.g.,
agendas, minutes, work plans, sign in
sheets,) Areas of focus are included
each meeting
Monitor classroom instruction and
improvement in student learning
Monitor and assess SMART Goal
progress on a periodic basis
Monitor changes in classroom
instruction
Participate in the instructional rounds
process
Construct, evaluate and integrate data
walls into the work of school
improvement
Structure the work of collaborative
teaming and the leadership team
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 1
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
Section A.
MAY/JUNE/JULY/AUGUST
EVIDENCE
1. Revisit or determine core beliefs and values that will lead to
collective commitments.
2. Revisit or develop a structure for the leadership, collaborative
and focus teams.
3. Revisit or create a meeting schedule for all collaborative/focus
teams.
(a minimum of weekly collaborative team meetings).
4. Revisit or develop a process to promote student leadership and
provide a mechanism for student voice.
5. Begin or continue strategic planning with stakeholders. Develop
a sustained, annual professional development plan based on
needs as determined by measurable student data.
6. Revisit or conduct School Counseling Program Audit and revise
or develop the School Counseling Plan.
7. Create a calendar of school events.
Section B.
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
EVIDENCE
1. Disaggregate WESTEST 2 data-involving all staff members.
2. Analyze all school data (including DP21/WVEIS data, Student
Needs Assessment, Stakeholders Survey) related to the Standards
for High Quality Schools.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 2
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
3. Develop and implement intervention plans for academics,
attendance, behavior, and at-risk students.
4. Match Mentors with at-risk students.
5. Determine three focus areas.
6. Convert focus areas to school SMART Goals (objectives.)
7. Establish collaborative team goals that align with school goals.
8. Conduct initial WESTEST 2 Test Talks.
9. Begin the work of the School Leadership Team.
10.Conduct a faculty (Instructional Practices Inventory) IPI
overview.
11.Conduct the first IPI data collection and facilitate faculty
discussion.
12.Construct data walls and or data notebooks.
13.Implement the process to promote student leadership and provide
a mechanism for student voice.
14.Administer the culture survey on an annual cycle. S3 high
schools also administer the climate survey.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 3
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
15.Begin to gather documentation/data about parent engagement.
16.Incorporate an extended day/year program (if applicable.)
17.Develop Individual Student Transition Plans (ISTP) for students
at the appropriate grade levels.
18.Finalize the online strategic plan document.
Section C.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER/JANUARY
EVIDENCE
1. Conduct second IPI and facilitate faculty discussion.
2. Complete Cultural Typology and share with the faculty.
3. Participate in collaborative conversations and discuss the follow
up questions with the leadership team.
4. Conduct a professional staff development training to show the
relationship of IPI to DOK.
Section D.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH
EVIDENCE
1. Use DP21 and other sources to examine leading indicators of
change (e.g., student and teacher attendance, discipline, student
engagement.)
2. Conduct third IPI and facilitate faculty discussion.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 4
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
3. Conduct follow-up WESTEST2 Test Talks.
4. Participate in collaborative conversations and discuss the
follow- up questions with the leadership team.
5. Administer the Audit of Principal Effectiveness (survey.)
Section E. APRIL/MAY
EVIDENCE
1. Create and deliver the annual presentation to SSOS. Describe
what events have taken place; number of participants;
accomplishments and challenges/ and describe the impact of the
WVDE SSOS.
2. Plan motivational activities for summative assessment.
3. Analyze and disaggregate all available data.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 5
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
GLOSSARY
Analyze data—Determine the meaning of data. What do the data tell a school about its practices? Why are the data what they are?
What are the root causes of the data?
Annual Presentation—Required Tier I and SIG school meeting in May held with WVDE, RESA, and district representatives to
present data and evidence of progress toward school SMART goals
At-risk students--Students who are showing evidence of failing a subject or a major task, important to success in school
Audit of Principal Effectiveness—A survey that provides information about the effectiveness of principals in dealing with personnel
inside and outside the school setting, nurturing school climate, and serves as the educational leader of the school. (Valentine, J)
Benchmark Assessments – Designed to assess the objectives taught during an instructional cycle, benchmark assessments provide
comparisons to state standards thus showing a "benchmark" of student proficiency at a particular point in time. Typically uniform in
timing and content across classrooms and schools, benchmark assessments provide results that can be aggregated at the classroom,
grade, school and district levels. This information, when provided to school and district decision-makers, serves as an interim
indication of how well students are learning and raises important questions regarding the impact of instructional programs and teacher
practices. These assessments may serve a variety of purposes, including predicting a student’s ability to succeed on a large-scale
summative assessment, evaluating a particular educational program or pedagogy, or diagnosing gaps in students’ learning.
Climate Survey—Survey to help schools learn about their school climate (the total environment of an organization including physical
and social dimensions, administrative structures and culture) and learning/teaching conditions that facilitate the school improvement
process. School climate is a multidimensional construct that is the manifestation, the visibility, of the interaction of the four forces
(Physical, Social, Environment and Culture) that create it, with culture being the most dynamic. Collaborative Conversations—
Twice yearly conversations designed to help identified Tier I and/or SIG schools process and reflect on their progress toward meeting
their school SMART Goals. Participation is designed to build the capacity of schools to self-assess as part of the improvement
process. The conversations take place via conference call between representatives of the school, district, RESA and WVDE.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 6
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
Collaborative Teams – Teachers are organized into collaborative teams on the basis of shared responsibility for addressing the
critical questions of teaching and learning with a particular group of students – for example, by content, course or grade level. Team
members work interdependently to achieve a common goal for which each member is mutually accountable. Each teacher team
engages in a collaborative process to improve student learning by: clarifying essential outcomes by grade or course; developing
common assessments; establishing targets and benchmarks; analyzing assessment results; and planning for interventions and
instructional improvement strategies. Teams are guided by student data to identify student, teacher and school learning needs. Each
collaborative team is facilitated by a team leader who serves on the School Leadership Team and has a process for communicating
with other teams. All teachers participate in collaborative teams.
Common Formative Assessments – Assessments created collaboratively by a team of teachers responsible for the same grade level
or course. Aligned to the learning targets taught, Common Formative Assessments are administered to all students in that course or
grade level. Given periodically throughout the year, the results of common formative assessments are analyzed by the team and used
to identify (1) individual students who need additional time and support for learning, (2) the teaching strategies most effective in
helping students acquire the intended knowledge and skills, (3) areas in which students generally are having difficulty achieving the
intended targets and (4) improvement goals for individual teachers and the team.
Culture Survey—A tool developed by Jerry Valentine that helps provide insight about the shared values/beliefs, the patterns of
behavior and the relationships in the school. The survey measures six unique factors (collaborative leadership, teacher collaboration,
professional development, collegial support, unity of purpose, and learrning partnership) of a school’s collaborative culture.
Culture Typology—A tool developed by Jerry Valentine to be used by a school staff to assess and describe their existing school
culture. It engages the staff in conversations to determine the typology (Toxic, Fragmented, Balkanized, Contrived Collegiality,
Comfortable Collaboration, Collaborative) that describes their school.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 7
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
Data wall—Data management tool used to create a visual representation of student, grade level, teacher or school achievement. A
private data wall would be found in a place that is secure and not open to the public. Individual student data are displayed and moved
as consecutive assessments are given. Teachers can also track the success of their students with this method. A public data wall can
be in a public space and tracks grade level or whole school progress on a series of academic or management data. They do not show
personally identifiable information about students. The data walls can provide clear information, promote motivation and become the
basis for discussions about causes and solutions.
Disaggregate data—Separate a whole set of data into its parts. As defined by NCLB Law, disaggregated data means that test scores
can be sorted by categories such as all economically disadvantaged students, all racial or ethnic minorities, all disabled students or all
limited English students.
DP21—Data Portal for 21st Century Success (DP-21) is an interactive data portal that seeks to provide key educators access to data
that are indicative of school success and improving student achievement in a single, user-friendly location. DP-21 allows educators to
examine key data in a single location for more efficient school-level data analysis. Through DP-21, schools will have the opportunity
to identify any areas of success or concern. If there appears to be an item of interest, school leaders may then research it further by
exploring their existing resources.
DOK—Depth of knowledge is a reference to the complexity of mental processing that must occur to answer a question, perform a
task, or generate a product. The four levels can be assigned to a test question, a verbal question, an activity or a task.
Focus teams—Teachers working together using protocols on a particular aspect of school management/improvement (e.g. Discipline
Team, Attendance Team, Healthy Schools Team). It might be called a committee and participation is voluntary.
Instructional Rounds Process—A process intended to help practitioners develop a shared understanding of what high-quality
instruction looks like and what schools and districts need to do to support it.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 8
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
Intervention plans—Plans developed by a teacher or team of teachers to help a student or students master learning that has been
shown to be deficient based on an assessment (might be classroom, formative, benchmark, or summative). Plans are targeted to
specific content standards and are designed only for the period of time needed to bring the student to mastery of that learning. Plans
may also be applied school wide based on goals/areas of focus adopted by an entire school (e.g. S3).
IPI (Instructional Practices Inventory)—A researched and proven method for gathering data on student engagement evidenced
through higher order/deeper thinking. Faculty collaborative conversations about how to increase student engagement follow each data
collection.
ISTP (Individual Student Transition Plans)—Formulated twice during a student’s public school career. During 8th grade, each
student’s ISTP plan is developed for grades 9 and 10 based upon previous career awareness, exploration activities and a review of
ACT EXPLORE results. At the end of the 10th grade year, each student develops the second phase of the ISTP based on the student’s
ACT PLAN results in consultation with her/his parent/guardian(s) and school counselor or advisor.
Leading indicators—Measurable educational indicators that change before actual systemic educational change takes place. They can
be used to make predictions about trends (e.g. When a school’s attendance drops, it can be predicted that achievement will drop).
Mentor (adult to student)---A faculty or community member who is assigned to support one or more at-risk students who are
showing evidence of failing a subject or major task important to success in school.
On-line Strategic Plan—On-line tool for annually recording each school’s or district’s strategic planning process.
School Leadership Team (SLT) –Uses a distributed leadership model (sharing leadership responsibilities across the organization) to
support the work of teacher collaborative teams. The leadership team is made up of school administrators, one member from each
teacher collaborative team and others at the principal’s discretion. The SLT meets on a regular basis staying focused on school-wide
issues that have the greatest impact on student achievement through data analysis. The leadership team promotes a clear, consistent
and compelling vision by cultivating trust through effective collaboration. The SLT monitors the effectiveness of the Strategic Plan.
The work of the leadership team builds shared knowledge, develops common beliefs and establishes collective commitments shared
through planned communication.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 9
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Timeline for Continuous School Improvement
School SMART Goals—School-wide goals based on data analysis by the entire staff of a school. The school leadership team
analyzes data and establishes school-wide goals. All other staff members drill down, analyze grade level or course data and establish
team goals.
SMART Goals—Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Results-based, Time-bound goals stated in objective form. For West Virginia,
goals are overarching goals and SMART Goals are traditionally what have been called objectives.
SSOS (State System of Support)—The West Virginia Department of Education’s system for providing broad-based support for
schools that have been identified as low performing. It includes personnel from various departments working together to help schools
focus on school improvement.
Student voice—Student participation in the determination of school policies, programs, rules and procedures to influence learning.
Team SMART goals—Collaborative team academic goals based on school-wide focus areas driven by summative and formative
assessment.
Test talks—Discussions between an adult and a student or students about performance on a particular assessment. It leads students to
analyzing results to learn what they know and don’t know and to formulate goals and a plan for learning what was missed. The adult
can be a teacher, administrator, counselor or other knowledgeable educator. It could be about classroom, formative, benchmark or
summative assessment.
WESTEST2 test talks—Discussions between an adult and a student or students specifically about WESTEST2 in order to help
students identify their strengths and weaknesses, then formulate goals and plans to address those weaknesses. In addition, test talks
can talk place about any other kind of assessment.
West Virginia Department of Education
Page 10