The teachers at WHS have been encouraged by our assessment results over recent years, but after receiving our winter assessment results this year, we are thrilled! For the last couple of years, overall, in reading and math, our students have performed above anticipated growth targets (they have not only grown in skills consistent with projections over time, they have exceeded them by a significant margin).
Though our school still scores slightly below the national average on the NWEA assessment for students in Grade 3-5, if we continue to improve our scores at the current rate, we will eclipse that long-held and elusive goal this coming spring!
We view these results as the product of exceedingly hard work by our staff, the implementation and refinement of new programming and instructional techniques, and an increased focus on achievement by our students. Our kids are really striving to be true Wildcats and meet parent and teacher expectations for citizenship and achievement at Woodland Heights School.
Way to go, WHS: always getting better, and clearly moving on up!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
The New Year Presents A Good Opportunity To Reflect On Our Growth Together
At this time of year, we all do a little more reflecting and taking stock than is our usual habit. It is a time for New Year's Resolutions, and accounting for the successes and shortcomings of the previous year. School's use the time offered during the Holiday Break to step away from our work a bit, and assess our effectiveness over the past few months in terms of our progress toward stated school improvement goals, and growth targets for students and our entire school. It is also an important time to take an honest look into the mirror and ask: "Are we living our school mission?"
At Woodland Heights School we have witnessed ongoing progress on each of our academic improvement goals, largely a result of teacher commitment, collaboration, and leadership across our district. Our teachers have worked very closely with their grade level colleagues here at WHS, and also with grade level colleagues at both Pleasant and Elm Street Schools. Every month, as a result of our school district's job-embedded professional development program, our teachers have an opportunity to work with grant-funded consultants and our elementary school academic improvement coach to examine and assess current teaching practices as well as strengthen their skills and techniques so that we can be more effective in meeting the diverse learning needs of our students. Additionally, grade level teacher teams meet weekly to plan lessons, and coordinate learning activities. In their weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings, grade level classroom teachers and interventionists (Title I and Special Education teachers) study the Common Core State Standards (the Common Core curriculum), develop common student assessments, analyze the results of those assessments, and discuss future teaching to better meet individual student learning needs (differentiate instruction). Additionally, we have a large representative 'Faculty Leadership Team' that meets twice a month to oversee our progress toward stated school improvement goals. We are looking forward to reviewing the results of our upcoming winter assessments, which will give us good feedback on the effectiveness of our program development efforts and our teaching practices over the last several months. Our work is consistent with teaching 'Best Practices', so we anticipate encouraging results from these assessments. We'll report to families on individual student and schoolwide performance on the AIMSweb (K-2) and NWEA (3-5) assessments later this month.
Another area that we have identified for ongoing improvement is school climate -- as it relates to student behavior and character development. Over the summer we developed "Project Wildcat: Phase 3" which set goals for the development of an explicit social skills teaching program, further development of our behavior intervention system for students who struggle with maintaining self-control, and a new plan to partner with parents and support the families of Woodland Heights School. Our staff has participated in extensive and ongoing training over the past several months to improve our abilities in each of these areas -- and progress is begin made. We also work with consultants to support our improvement in this area, and have a core group of teachers committed to this project which meets two times a month to oversee our progress in this area of our school practice. We continue to log disciplinary referral data and analyze the results, as well as discuss anecdotal observations and review the effectiveness of student intervention plans on a regular basis. We consider this information when we evaluate our strategies developed to improve classroom management practices, fine-tune our scholwide behavior system, and select staff training opportunities to support our ongoing improvement in this area. Our efforts have been vigorous, and we are seeing (and feeling) positive results. At Woodland Heights School, we help our students grow to be smart, and good -- we make 'Woodland Wildcats'!
Working together, and taking full advantage of our individual and collective experiences, talents, and leadership abilities; we have been able to make amazing progress toward our ongoing school improvement goals and initiatives. In doing so, we live our school's mission every day. At Woodland Heights School, we are dedicated "To educate, enrich, and empower children to learn, dream, and live as responsible world citizens." -- and you can see evidence of this in all that we do at WHS every day.
Thank you for your continued support, involvement, and membership in our school community. We are building a tremendous school together -- one that we should be very proud of!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestion for us here at WHS, please do not hesitate to call or email me at your convenience. Your partnership is important to us, and is vital in our effort to make Woodland Heights all that it can be for your children. Thanks again, and stay warm!
At Woodland Heights School we have witnessed ongoing progress on each of our academic improvement goals, largely a result of teacher commitment, collaboration, and leadership across our district. Our teachers have worked very closely with their grade level colleagues here at WHS, and also with grade level colleagues at both Pleasant and Elm Street Schools. Every month, as a result of our school district's job-embedded professional development program, our teachers have an opportunity to work with grant-funded consultants and our elementary school academic improvement coach to examine and assess current teaching practices as well as strengthen their skills and techniques so that we can be more effective in meeting the diverse learning needs of our students. Additionally, grade level teacher teams meet weekly to plan lessons, and coordinate learning activities. In their weekly Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings, grade level classroom teachers and interventionists (Title I and Special Education teachers) study the Common Core State Standards (the Common Core curriculum), develop common student assessments, analyze the results of those assessments, and discuss future teaching to better meet individual student learning needs (differentiate instruction). Additionally, we have a large representative 'Faculty Leadership Team' that meets twice a month to oversee our progress toward stated school improvement goals. We are looking forward to reviewing the results of our upcoming winter assessments, which will give us good feedback on the effectiveness of our program development efforts and our teaching practices over the last several months. Our work is consistent with teaching 'Best Practices', so we anticipate encouraging results from these assessments. We'll report to families on individual student and schoolwide performance on the AIMSweb (K-2) and NWEA (3-5) assessments later this month.
Another area that we have identified for ongoing improvement is school climate -- as it relates to student behavior and character development. Over the summer we developed "Project Wildcat: Phase 3" which set goals for the development of an explicit social skills teaching program, further development of our behavior intervention system for students who struggle with maintaining self-control, and a new plan to partner with parents and support the families of Woodland Heights School. Our staff has participated in extensive and ongoing training over the past several months to improve our abilities in each of these areas -- and progress is begin made. We also work with consultants to support our improvement in this area, and have a core group of teachers committed to this project which meets two times a month to oversee our progress in this area of our school practice. We continue to log disciplinary referral data and analyze the results, as well as discuss anecdotal observations and review the effectiveness of student intervention plans on a regular basis. We consider this information when we evaluate our strategies developed to improve classroom management practices, fine-tune our scholwide behavior system, and select staff training opportunities to support our ongoing improvement in this area. Our efforts have been vigorous, and we are seeing (and feeling) positive results. At Woodland Heights School, we help our students grow to be smart, and good -- we make 'Woodland Wildcats'!
Working together, and taking full advantage of our individual and collective experiences, talents, and leadership abilities; we have been able to make amazing progress toward our ongoing school improvement goals and initiatives. In doing so, we live our school's mission every day. At Woodland Heights School, we are dedicated "To educate, enrich, and empower children to learn, dream, and live as responsible world citizens." -- and you can see evidence of this in all that we do at WHS every day.
Thank you for your continued support, involvement, and membership in our school community. We are building a tremendous school together -- one that we should be very proud of!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestion for us here at WHS, please do not hesitate to call or email me at your convenience. Your partnership is important to us, and is vital in our effort to make Woodland Heights all that it can be for your children. Thanks again, and stay warm!
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