A Report

to the

B o a r d

2010-2011

No. 16 November 24, 2010

A. BCMC/Forbes Road Cost Attachment 2 is the cost for students who attend BCMC and also attend Forbes Career and Technology Center. In effect, we are double billed because we pay the full rate at BCMC and additionally at Forbes. Therefore, you can see for students who attend BCMC and Forbes the cost per pupil is $18,733.45. These figures were computed by the Business Manager.

B. Concerns Regarding the High School Status – Corrective Action 4 – In researching the school improvement scenarios for the High School should they not reach AYP this year, PDE defines three tiers of eligible schools as follows:

Tier I - The lowest-achieving five percent of schools in improvement, corrective action, or restructuring in a state;

Tier II – Equally low-achieving secondary schools that are eligible for, but do not receive, Title I funds. The Department has talked about a new focus on these high schools. Districts can obtain waivers to make these schools eligible for School Improvement Grants.

Tier III – The remaining schools in improvement, corrective action or restructuring that are not Tier I schools in the state.

The High School may fall into Tier II. If we were to apply to the state for school improvement grant money, then the district would be required to demonstrate its commitment to raising student achievement by implementing one of the following rigorous interventions:

Turnaround Model – This would include among other actions, replacing the principal and at least 50 percent of the school's staff, adopting a new governance structure and implementing a new or revised instructional program.

Restart Model – School districts would close failing schools and reopen them under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an educational management organization selected through a rigorous review process. A restart school would be required to admit, within the grades it serves, any former student who wishes to attend.

School Closure – The district would close a failing school and enroll the students who attended that school in other high-achieving schools in the district.

Transformational Model – Districts would address four specific areas: 1) developing teacher and school leader effectiveness, which includes replacing the principal who led the school prior to commencement of the transformational model, 2) implementing comprehensive instructional reform strategies, 3) extending learning and teacher planning time and creating community-oriented schools, and 4) providing operating flexibility and sustained support.

Information Update – November 24, 2010

OVER

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Rapid district improvement means that there are:

Dramatic changes in district structures, culture, policies, and process at the start of the improvement effort;

Evidence of significant improvement in instructional practices and student academic performance; and

Evidence that changes and improvements are system-wide and sustainable.

Only the Turnaround and Transformation Model should be considered in the event of the High School being designated as a Tier II school. Attachment 3 gives the required and permissible elements of these two models.

C. Distinguished Educator Meetings – Our Distinguished Educators, Drs. Elaine Brown and

Fred Smeigh, met this week with the principals at Dickson Elementary, and the Junior High School. Attachment 4 and Attachment 5 are the Agenda/Minutes from those meetings respectively.

D. Building Highlights – The following highlights have been submitted by building principals:

Attachment 6 – Fairless Elementary Attachment 7 – Wilkins Elementary

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

DICKSON ELEMENTARY

Meeting Notes

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Present: Allison Kline, Lori McDowell (for a segment of the meeting), and Elaine Brown

Weekly Walkthroughs- Four walk-throughs were conducted by Ms. Kline and Dr. Brown; we

debriefed comparing our notes as we checked for (SAMME) scaffolding, active engagement,

modeling, metacognition, explicit instruction, formative assessment, and higher level thinking

skills (Bloom). Principals will continue daily walk-throughs.

General Discussion:

Principals Monthly In-Service begun by Mr. Catalano

Instructional Initiatives/Strategies for 2010-2011; sample instructional strategies and

definitions for numerous educational terms are attached and were given to Ms. Kline in

hard copy along with these notes; the principals plan to develop a list of definitions for

the strategies to be surveyed so that staff is using a common language attached to

strategies while completing a survey.

A timeline was developed by Ms. Kline to in-service Dickson Staff; the Dickson

Elementary Staff will be surveyed on November 30 to learn their perspective on which

strategies teachers have comfort implementing and the frequency for which they already

implement strategies; this information will be used for developing in-service training for

Staff’s weekly meetings through March 8, 2011.

Ms. McDowell was invited into the meeting to discuss what types of strategies she has

offered to staff while in her position this year as a teacher coach; her expertise will be

utilized to help plan for the weekly building in-service programs and to help her focus

what she will do daily in her position.

Compiled by: Elaine M. Brown

Attachment 4

Woodland Hills Junior High School

Meeting Notes - November 23, 2010

Present: Dawn Golden, Frederick Smeigh

Response to Intervention and Instruction (RtII)

Mrs. Golden had begun listing programs on the RtII Tier 1, 2, and 3 academic and behavioral triangles. We decided

she would enter the programs currently in place for behavioral support e.g. Ovais Bullying, Champs, etc. When her

complete administrative staff is in place they will start completing the RtII Self-Assessment form found on the

PaTTAN web site. Once we have a benchmark for where the JHS is in implementing RtII, we will begin to plan for

implementing a complete program. There is also information on RtI on a national RtI website. Intervention Central |

Home

Standards Aligned System (SAS)

Mrs. Golden reviewed the SAS Questionnaire and has identified the areas that are either complete, in process, or not

started. To create a visual exhibit of the JHS’s status and progress in implementing SAS, she will create a SAS wall

in the building. The exhibit will be color coded with green indicating complete, yellow indicating in progress, and red

indicating not started.

Goals for this year:

Mrs. Golden decided to concentrate on improving the amount of active engagement of students during instruction.

Staff will be introduced to and have demonstrated strategies and activities that promote active engagement.

Performance Assessment and content area reading strategies will also be stressed. Underlying the emphasis on

active engagement will be questioning strategies – both oral and written- that stress higher-level thinking as identified

in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.

Implementation strategy:

Most efforts at school reform fail for two reasons: the leadership does not know what reforms are needed, and even

more often, the leadership does not have a plan and/or process to change an organization (school or district) and

sustain the change. I gave Mrs. Golden an outline of an article published in the Harvard Business Review by John

Kotter entitled Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail. Kotter provides an eight step process for

organizational change that is practical and easy to understand. Mrs. Golden is going to develop a draft

implementation plan, utilizing whatever process she feels comfortable with, which we will refine during the year.

Other items discussed:

We discussed starting a building Data Analysis Team, providing each teacher with a three ring binder containing

instructional strategies she wants them to include in their teaching tool box of strategies, and the use of instructional

videos to demonstrate the desired strategies. Mrs. Golden will begin implementing the plan when her administrative

team is intact, during the interim we will develop our implementation plan.

WOODLAND HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EDUCATION EMPLOYER AND WILL NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, GENDER, AGE, OR HANDICAP IN ITS ACTIVITIES, PROGRAMS, OR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

AS REQUIRED BY TITLE VI, TITLE IX AND SECTION 504.

Jean Marie Livingston, Principal

Kelly Berthold, Assistant Principal

FAIRLESS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

531 Jones Avenue, North Braddock, PA 15104 412-271-1317 fax 412-271-6657

Positives from Fairless On Wednesday, November 17th, the third grade students went on a virtual field trip to the Moore House. They learned what Thanksgiving was like 150 years ago and how the food was prepared. In this engaging program, students visited the Moore family kitchen at The Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and spoke with Mrs. Moore as she cooked over an open hearth fire using cranes and trammels, and tools from the 19th century. Students learned about where food came from, how it was prepared, and how harvest celebrations developed into the Thanksgiving celebration we experience today. This program began with an introduction to the Moore house kitchen. Students were introduced to the dish that was being made and partcipated in the making of the dish through discussion. Thank you to Ms. Kritikos for arranging the virtual field trip. Our second graders will experience the next virtual field trip to the Amazing Amazon. On Friday, November 19th, The Caught Being Good Award Ceremony was held. On Tuesday, November 23rd, the Fairless Service Club hosted a Family Movie Night. The movie Hotel for Dogs was shown. There were over 100 parents and children who came to celebrate Fairless Family Night.

Attachment 6

WOODLAND HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EDUCATION EMPLOYER AND WILL NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, GENDER, AGE, OR HANDICAP IN ITS ACTIVITIES, PROGRAMS, OR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

AS REQUIRED BY TITLE VI, TITLE IX AND SECTION 504.

KAREN E. BLOCH, Principal

WILKINS PRIMARY

362 Churchill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 Phone: 412-731-2238 Fax: 412-731-2256

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: Dr. Calinger, Dr. Wallace, and Board of School Directors FROM: Mrs. Karen E. Bloch DATE: November 24, 2010 SUBJECT: Notables from Wilkins Elementary - Week of November 15 – 19, 2010

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The fifth grade and sixth grade teachers had spent time the past few weeks analyzing their data between the two Benchmark tests given. Both grades saw that their students were having some difficulty with geometry and measurement and enlisted the art teacher to provide projects using measuring and different geometric procedures to enhance their understanding and proficiency in this math area. Mrs. Luczak and Mrs. Steigerwald's first grade classes produced a slide show of their classes, set it to music, and put it on the website with a background of music for the parents to view from home. All students had signed releases for photographs. Ms. Lewis' fourth grade class uses the ipods to read stories with a partner. They answer questions prepared by the teacher in the questioning the author format. Each pair then makes an oral report to the class. The procedure is used to build confidence skills for retelling the story, delving deeper into the author's purpose for writing the story, and to develop oral speaking skills.

Attachment 7