Westside Community School Strategy
The Plan For Achieving The Strategy’s Outcomes
The Westside Community School Strategy is a student focused strategy with a holistic approach to addressing barriers to
student learning. The long-term goal for Westside Strategy is to increase academic performance at each of the six
schools included in the Strategy (Bellevue, Delaware, Shea/Bellevue Academy, Seymour, Blodgett and Fowler). The
short-term goals are to begin to make progress at each school regarding attendance, behavior, school climate, parent
involvement, and participation in student/family support programs. The objectives, outcomes, and strategy activities for
each of the six elements of the community school model as well as three core components of the Strategy are summarized
below.
GOALS
 Students attending school on the Westside graduate from high school and are prepared to continue their
education and/or enter the workforce.
 Systemic reform in the way that we support families and children within and across sectors (schools, the
public sector and not-for-profits).
 Resource allocation decisions made by key stakeholders reflect the priorities and needs identified through
the Strategy.
 Cross-sector communication and collaboration results in more effective programming and better
outcomes for families.
 Providers working with students and families incorporate academic outcomes as a measure for evaluating
program/service effectiveness.
SIX ELEMENTS OF THE STRATEGY
Health/Dental Services
 Objective: School based or school-linked health and dental services will be made available to all students
at these schools.
 Outcome: Improved health of students through prevention, diagnosis and treatment of health and dental
conditions
o Measured by: Reduction in high-end diagnosis; increase in preventative care; improved
attendance rates
 Outputs: # of students enrolled (approx. 80% of total enrollment at each school);
patient contacts, types of diagnosis, attendance of enrolled students
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will educate and inform families about the availability of school based health
services. Strategy staff will actively support School Based Health Centers’ and the schools’
efforts to enroll students and their families in school base health centers.
o Strategy staff will link families to health services in the community as necessary
o As needed, high-risk students (approx. 20%) will be enrolled with school-based health
services
Mental Health Services
 Objective: School based or school-linked mental health services will be made available to the students at
these schools. Student support teams will assist in identifying students who would benefit from these
services.
 Outcome: Improved mental health of enrolled students through prevention, diagnosis and treatment
o Measured by: Referrals and Behavioral Assessments
 Outputs: # of students served; # and type of referrals, suspensions and hearings;
ratings of behavioral assessments
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will educate and inform families about the availability of mental health services
at the school and in the community.
o Strategy staff will support the enrollment of students/families in mental health services
through referrals from the Student Support Teams.
o As needed, high-risk students (approx 20%) will have mental health services made available
Academic Intervention Services (tutoring, SES, after-school programs)
 Objective: Students who are not performing at grade level will receive additional academic intervention
services as provided in the school and in the community before, during, after-school and/or summer
school. Student support teams will assist in identifying students who would benefit from these services.
 Outcome: Students increase academic performance and preparedness to learn
o Measured by: Report cards and tests and Teacher Feedback Surveys
 Outputs: # of students w/AIS services; # of hours of AIS per/child; multiple
measures (i.e. test scores, teacher observations, portfolios)
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will identify existing AIS programs and promote AIS services with families
and help to enroll families as necessary in needed programs.
o At-risk students (approx 20%) will be required to have AIS supports if they are not currently
performing on grade level.
Youth Development Programs (character development, after-school programs, youth development trainings)
 Objective: Students will be exposed to and supported with the 40 developmental assets of positive youth
development.
 Outcome: Improved student behavior and improved school climate
o Measured by: Behavioral Referrals, attendance and school climate surveys
 Outputs: # of programs, # of students served; # and type of referrals, suspensions
and hearings, attendance
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will work with the schools to identify character building programming to
implement in the school for all student.
o Strategy staff will promote with students and families positive youth development activities
both in school and in the community.
o At-risk students (approx 20%) working with Strategy staff will be required to be involved in
at least one youth development program.
Early Childhood Programming and Educational Services
 Objective: The Westside community will have sufficient quantity and high quality early health programs
and educational experiences for families and their children.
 Outcome: Increased number of children utilizing school and community-based early interventions and
supports; Improved readiness to learn for children entering pre-kindergarten and kindergarten
o Measured by: # of children in early intervention programs; readiness assessments of children
upon entering school
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will assess the current utilization of early childhood education services and work
with families to promote and enroll child in quality early educational opportunities
o Strategy staff will collect information about the barriers to accessing early childhood services
Family Supports – Family Resource Network
 Objective: Families facing conditions that are interfering with a child’s ability to learn will receive the
support that is necessary to stabilize the home and/or strengthen the family (i.e. housing, employment,
literacy, adult education, ESL/GED, health and mental health).
 Outcome: Improved family conditions, functioning and school involvement
o Measured by: Parent involvement w/ school; parent conditions and wellbeing assessment
 Outputs: Successful linkages to services, parent contacts at school, improvements on
family wellbeing assessment, parent satisfaction surveys
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will work with all families to encourage greater involvement in school and
community programs (general information and referral).
o Strategy staff will work with families referred by the school through a form of case
management that will ensure accountability for improvement in family conditions.
THREE CORE COMPONENTS OF THE STRATEGY
School Based Student Support Teams
 Objective: To build a multi-disciplinary team (or use an existing team) within each schools that is
responsible for identifying at-risk students (approx. 20%) who require comprehensive supports of the
Strategy
 Outcome: At-risk students will receive the supports that they need to achieve academic success
o Measured by: Improved behavior; improved attendance; improved academic success
 Outputs: Development of student success plan; # of supports received by student; #
of meetings held to discuss students progress; grades, referrals, attendance
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff and school staff will coordinate the meetings of Student Support Teams to
identify targeted students and to develop Student Success Plans. Follow-up and
accountability measures will be central to the operations of the Teams.
Professional Development and Training
 Objective: To develop a multi-disciplinary training program for all front line workers, agency staff and
school staff that will guide the work being done with families on the Westside.
 Outcome: Individuals working on the Westside will receive high quality universal training (professional
development) that supports their work with students and families.
o Measured by: Trainings offered to multiple sectors; Satisfaction with training; Changes that
result from the trainings
 Outputs: # of training sessions; # of individuals trained
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will develop a proposal for developing a comprehensive training program that
develops workers skill set in working with families including a focus on cultural competency,
class and race.
o Strategy staff will issue an RFP for the training proposal and work to develop the training
curriculum with the consultant/agency.
o All Strategy staff will be trained by the consultant/agency
o Consultant/agency will offer several cross-sector trainings throughout the year on the
Westside Community
Strategy Database System
 Objective: To collect meaningful student and family information that documents current conditions and
assists in identifying the needs and priorities of families attending Westside schools.
 Outcome: Provide the Strategy, the schools and the agencies involved with the children and their families
with a clearer picture of what is going on with the child and family in order to provide better services in
order to have better outcomes which is academic success.
o Measured by: The ability to produce aggregate information on families and children on
Westside; New programs developed that are targeting identified needs by the Strategy
 Outputs: Reports generated identifying priority areas; New programs;
 Strategy Activities:
o Strategy staff will be responsible for logging in student/family plans and for collecting and
logging into database family and community data identifying needs and priorities.
o Strategy Executive Director responsible for aggregating student, school and community data
and presenting to key stakeholders of the Strategy for action.
January 14, 2007