Division Name: Fairfax County Public Schools

School Name: Westlawn Elementary School

Date: October 27, 2017

Initial Plan

Title I schools implementing schoolwide programs are required to develop schoolwide plans in accordance with Section 1114(b) of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).  Guidelines for plan development include the following:

• The plan should be developed with the involvement of:
  • Parents;
  • Other members of the community to be served;
  • Individuals who will carry out the plan, including teachers, principals, other school leaders, administrators, paraprofessionals present in the school;
  • The local education agency;
  • To the extent feasible, tribes and tribal organizations present in the community; and
  • If appropriate
    • Specialized instructional support personnel;
    • Technical assistance providers;
    • School staff; and
  • If the plan relates to a secondary school, students and other individuals determined by the school;
• The plan should be available to the Local Educational Agency (LEA), parents, and the public; information in the plan should be in an understandable and uniform format and, to the extent practicable, provided in a language that parents can understand; and
• If appropriate and applicable, the plan should be developed in coordination and integration with other federal, state, and local services, resources, and  programs, such as programs supported under ESSA, violence prevention programs, nutrition programs, housing programs, Head Start programs, adult education programs, career and technical education programs, and schools implementing comprehensive support and improvement activities or targeted support and improvement activities under section 1111(d).

 

The ESEA requires four components to be included in the schoolwide plan. The template below provides a framework that may be used to develop and/or update a schoolwide plan. For each component, the narrative section in the template should be completed in sufficient detail to document how the component has been thoroughly and thoughtfully addressed. Schoolwide plans should be reviewed annually and revised as necessary to promote continuous improvement and to reflect the school’s initiatives to upgrade the entire educational program of the school.

To maintain focus, eliminate duplication of effort, and promote comprehensiveness, schools should operate under a single plan if at all possible. A school that already has a plan for school improvement might consider amending it, rather than starting over, provided that the existing plan was based on a comprehensive needs assessment and can be revised to include the four required schoolwide components. This template can be used by schools with existing Indistar® plans to reference indicators and tasks in the Indistar® plan that related to the schoolwide components.

Using Indistar®:

• Access the Title I Schoolwide Plan template from the “Complete Form” tab of the Indistar® dashboard.
• Provide a narrative response that describes how the school has addressed the requirements for each component;
• Where applicable, identify the indicator(s) and task number(s) from the school’s Indistar® plan that align with each required component;
• Click “Save” at the bottom of the form to save your responses; and
• Submit the plan to your LEA Division Contact by returning to the dashboard. Under the “Submit Forms/Reports” tab, go to the Title I Plans section, and select the Title I Schoolwide Plan “Submit” button.

Not Using Indistar®:

• Access the Title I Schoolwide Plan template on the Title I web site.
• Provide a narrative response that describes how the school has addressed the requirements for each component; and
• Submit the plan as directed by your LEA Title I Coordinator.

Resources:

Schoolwide program resources, including USED guidance on Designing Schoolwide Programs, Supporting School Reform by Leveraging Federal Funds in a Schoolwide Program, and Title I Fiscal Issues, can be accessed at the Title I website under Guidelines and Procedures/Federal Guidance.

 

A Virginia Department of Education presentation on Requirements and Implementation of a Title I Schoolwide Program can be accessed at:  http://www.doe.virginia.gov/federal_programs/esea/index.shtml.

 

Component 1 §1114(b)(6):

A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school that takes into account information on the academic achievement of children in relation to the challenging state academic standards, particularly the needs of those children who are failing, or are at-risk of failing, to meet the challenging state academic standards and any other factors as determined by the local educational agency.

 

Evidence: A systematic effort involving multiple stakeholders to acquire an accurate and thorough picture of strengths and weaknesses of the school community, thus identifying student needs through a variety of information-gathering techniques. A data analysis summary must be included which incorporates benchmarks used to evaluate program results. The results of your data analysis must guide the reform strategies that you will implement to improve instruction for all students.

 

Narrative:

 

Multiple Stakeholders:

All general education teachers in grades K-6, curriculum specialists, instructional coaches, and administrators were involved in systematic data analysis and needs assessment. The analysis occurred during the fourth quarter 2017, grade-level team data dialogue and planning meetings.  Team leaders, curriculum specialists, and team leaders led the meetings.  The curriculum specialists, instructional coaches and administrators offered the consistency in discussing the same key analysis vertically across the grade levels. The analysis allowed for consistent and vertical perspective on student learning needs, with a close look at performance trends among demographic groups. Teams also met over the summer to further disseminate data and plan. Preliminary findings were shared with the whole staff during the first contract week to gain feedback and further input. During Back to School Nights, teachers shared grade level goals based on the needs assessment and offered parents opportunities to give their perspective to challenges and tactics for overcoming them.

 

Summary of data analysis including a variety of data sources: 

For reading, a review of SOL achievement in grades 3-6 indicates that reading achievement has shown steady improvement over the four year period 2014-2017 from 61% to 73% achievement based on *VDOE data. While Westlawn met the Federal Annual Measurable Objectives (FAMO) overall, for various subgroups of students, there are a significant number of students who ended the school year with a text reading level below grade level benchmark. The school goals are for all students to be at grade level benchmark by the end of third grade and to exceed the state SOL target range of 70% -75%. Teams identified two goals for all students which will significantly benefit students who ended the school year below text reading level. These goals take into account 72% of the students at Westlawn are English Learners and research indicates that it takes four – seven year for English Learners to become proficient in academic and social language. The goals are for below. The strategies for these goals are outlined Component 2 of this document.

1. Reading Instructional Delivery and Assessment: Implement Systematic, Vertical Plan for specific elements of the Balanced Literacy Framework (namely focus lesson and guided reading) and ensure learning with Progress Monitoring.
2. Writing Instructional Delivery and Assessment: Implement Systematic, Vertical Plan for specific elements of the Balanced Literacy Framework (namely focus lesson, time for writing, and opportunities to reflect and share).

 

For mathematics, Spring 2017 SOL assessment results mathematics achievement has shown steady improvement over the four year period 2014-2017 from 71% to 72% achievement based on *VDOE data. The data also indicates that Limited English Proficient (LEP) students have increased in their achievement from 63% to 67%. While Westlawn met the Federal Annual Measurable Objectives (FAMO) overall, for Westlawn’s key subgroup of LEP students, the gap in achievement from all students in 2017 was 5%. The school goals are for all students to be at grade level benchmark by the end of third grade and to exceed the state SOL target range of 70% -75%. Specifically, a need was identified to build students’ resilience and risk taking as problem-solvers to give them the skills necessary for tackling multi-step problems and problems without a clear approach to reach the solution.  Additionally, a need was identified to enhance students’ ability to explain their mathematical thinking. Application of a math workshop model, incorporating consistent performance-based math tasks, was identified as a key strategy to address these needs.

 

*2017 Data Source: Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), Division and School FAMO Pass Rates; data as August 9, 2017

 

Specific Goals:

 

Based on the reading and mathematics data above, Westlawn Elementary has set the following Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, Time-bound and Rigorous (SMARTR) goals for student growth and performance.

 

Closing the Gap: (focus on two key subgroups Students with Limited English Proficiency and Students with Disabilities)

Reading:

• By Spring 2018, the percent of students with Limited English Proficiency students in grades 3-6 achieving proficiency in reading as demonstrated on the Standard of Learning (SOL) end of year exams will meet or exceed 74% (Annual Measurable Objective and State Accreditation Projected Goals). This projected achievement represents a 100% closing of the achievement gap on Spring Reading SOLs 2018 SOL scores when compared to all students’ 2017 result and up from the score of 68%.

 

• By Spring 2018, the percent of students with disabilities in grades 3-6 achieving proficiency in reading as demonstrated on the Standard of Learning (SOL) end of year exams will meet or exceed 66% (Annual Measurable Objective and State Accreditation Projected Goals). This goal is in line with the four year (2014 -2017) growth from 40% to 59% achievement.

 

Closing the Gap: (focus on two key subgroups Students with Limited English Proficiency and Students with Disabilities)

Mathematics:

• By Spring 2018, the percent of Limited English Proficient students in grades 3-6 achieving proficiency in mathematics as demonstrated on the Standard of Learning (SOL) end of year exams will meet or exceed 72% (Adjusted Annual Measurable Objective and State Accreditation Results) in 2017-18.
• By Spring 2018, the percent of students with disabilities in grades 3-6 achieving proficiency in mathematics as demonstrated on the Standard of Learning (SOL) end of year exams will meet or exceed 50% (Adjusted Annual Measurable Objective and State Accreditation Results) in 2017-18.

 

Raising the Bar: (for All Students)

Reading

• By Spring 2018, the percent of students in grades 3-6 achieving competency in language arts as demonstrated in the Standard of Learning (SOL) will meet or exceed 84% (State Accreditation Results).
• By spring 2018, 100% of Westlawn students (K-2) will meet or exceed 84% proficiency on the FCPS end of year Development Reading Assessment (DRA) benchmarks (K= DRA level 4, 1st=DRA level 16, 2nd=DRA level 28. 100% of our students entering below fall bench mark DRA 2 Level  will make at least one year’s growth.

Mathematics

• By Spring 2018, the percent of students in grades 3-6 achieving proficiency in mathematics as demonstrated on the Standard of Learning (SOL) end of year exams will meet or exceed 82% (Annual Measurable Objective and State Accreditation Results).

 

 

Budget Implications:

Title I funding will be allocated to the following:

• Staff: Resource Teachers  in Reading, Mathematics and Advanced Academics,
• Professional Development: ADD+VANTAGE MATH RECOVERY Course, Content Reading Across Curriculum Course, Mathematics Workshop Course, Team Collaborative Planning, Learning, and Data Analysis Time
• Instructional Materials: Technology, Literacy, Writing, and Mathematics Instructional Materials
• Home School Connection: Parent Workshops in Literacy and Mathematics
• Intervention/ Enrichment: Extended Learning Opportunities before and after school