Jr. High in-service and OIP information update

At today's in-service, Mrs. Marquez distributed and discussed our building's OIP timeline with goals for the next four years.  The following are updates on BLT goals for year one:

Year 1

1.a.1. Research, select and adopt intervention framework

• Update - Mrs. Cindy Houk updated staff on Reading Plus, for which WJH is serving as a pilot school. Our inclusion staff, as well as Mr. John Knight and Mrs. Jenny Silcott, received training for Reading Plus last week.  Last Friday, students were tested and registered for the program.  Reading Plus targets the needs of students in the third grade and higher, and is a potential framework for our building's reading RTI.  The program correlates with Bloom's taxonomy and focuses on creating better silent, independent readers while improving their comprehension. 

1.a.3. Communicate goals of implementation to all staff.

• Update - Staff member have been apprised of the OIP goals for the next four years.  Also, Mr. Patrick Williams has included a link on the WJH web page for this blog in order to keep staff up-to-date on the process.

1.b.1. and 2.a.1.  Define and communicate expectations of systematic assessments and their use for each grade level/subject.
1.b.2. and 2.a.2.  Continue development and revision of short-cycle assessments.

• Update - Jr. High staff members have completed short-cycle assessments for all four grading periods.  Teachers will continue their revision of quarterly assessments as needed. 

2.a.4  Provide HQPD on creating assessments that include higher order thinking skills.

• Update - All Jr. High staff members have attended training on utilizing higher-order thinking skills/questions on short-cycle assessments. 

WJH Ohio Improvement Process Reading and Math Goals and Action Steps

District Reading Goal:  By 2012, 90% of all students grades K-12 will meet or exceed proficient levels on the OAT/OGT/Local Assessments in reading and increase the students with disabilities passage rate by 10% each year over the previous year's score.

District Math Goal:  By 2012, 85% of all students in grades K-12 will meet or exceed proficient levels on the OAT/OGT/Local Assessments in reading and increase the students with disabilities passage rate by 10% each year over the previous year's score.

WJH Action Steps: 

• Research, select, and adopt intervention framework.
• Update:  WJH is researching RTI (Response to Intervention) frameworks.  Mrs. Suzanne Holderness and Mr. Matt Murphy recently attended a two-day RTI training in Columbus, and made an excellent presentation on RTI to the staff at last week's in-service. 
• Communicate goals of implementation to all staff.
• Update:  Mrs. Melissa Marquez communicated OIP goals to the Junior High staff at the in-service.  Staff members have been emailed the link to this blog in order to keep up-to-date, and have been encouraged to offer feedback on the process.
• Define and communicate expectations of systematic assessments and their use for each grade-level/subject.
• Update: At the in-service, subject-area meetings were first held by teachers, who completed a thorough audit of current interventions and assessments.  Each department of teachers then reported their findings in meetings with Mrs. Marquez.
• Continue development and revision of short-cycle assessments
• Update:  WJH staff members have quarterly assessments completed for the entire school year.  Our staff understands, however, that assessments are obviously subject to revision when needed.  In addition, all WJH staff recently attended a training, arranged by Mr. Dickens, on utilizing 21st century thinking skills/higher-order thinking skills when designing test questions for quarterly assessments.