Evaluating the School Improvement Plan

By: Kaitlin Tris

Module 3: LEAD 5383-Teacher Leadership for School Improvement

---

Introduction: Interviewees & Highlights

On July 26, 2022, I interviewed two colleagues who are district resource teachers on the district autism team. One colleague, Ms. Thoms is a new member of the district autism team. She has been teaching for 10 years and is a special education teacher. Mr. Stew has been a member of the district autism team for 3 years. Teaching is his second career, and he has been teaching for 8 years. During my interview and discussion with them about the school improvement plan, we discussed these main points:

● thorough supports in place to support students’ academic achievement

● the lack specific student behavioral goals

● inconsistent measures of success (not using the SMART goal format)

---

Summary of Interview Findings

My colleagues and I all agreed and discussed to great lengths how impressed we were with the thoroughness of the different support in place to support students’ academic achievement in the SIP. It was clear at the Discovery School at Four Corners there are plenty of additional resources teachers and parents can utilize to support students’ academic achievement. While there were specific goals for students’ academic achievement, there were no goals related to the student's behavioral goals. The interviewees and I discussed the lack of a behavioral goal and how this could negatively impact teacher and students’ abilities to make academic gains. According to Pennington (2022), “When educators focus on student behavior, they direct their efforts toward more meaningful outcomes, including increasing behaviors that produce access to academic content” (p. 316). In fact, the interviewees and I discussed that student behavioral goals are the foundation for learning and are needed to be established and focused on before academic achievement can begin.

As we were reviewing the Discovery School at Four Corners’ SIP, we initially thought it was clear what the measures of success were for the goals and objectives. However, after further investigation, the interviewees and I discussed the lack of SMART goals. Initially, it looked like there were clear expectations set. However, after a closer look, there was no criteria for success, only a list of evidence staff could provide. While this list of evidence is also crucial in achieving SMART goals, knowing the criteria for success is critical to know if progress is being made. In addition, Brown et al. (2016) state, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, so you won’t know when you’re done” (p.4). Since there were no measurable criteria for success, the interviewees and I noticed there was no way to determine if the goals and objectives were met, which is one area the SIP needs to be improved.

---

Conclusion: Teacher Leader Recommendations & Action Steps

The one critical school improvement area is the need for behavioral supports and specific behavioral goals and objectives to be added to the school improvement plan. Ingersoll et al. (2018) discuss that teachers teach more than academic skills and the need for behavior support is critical in schools. While the Discovery School at Four Corners’ SIP mentioned a social emotional curriculum in the introduction and briefly mentioned key actions of a parental involvement objective, there were no specific goals and objectives related to students’ behavior.

My colleagues and I recommended the following two action steps:

● identify student behavioral needs based on survey, observational, and student

record data to create specific student behavioral goals

● create professional development training on SMART goals and update the SIP to

include SMART goals

According to Brown et al. (2016), “Scaffolding and support around the writing and implementation of SMART Goals is likely to lead to more effective students’ learning and more effective schools in the long term” (p. 9). As we base our academic instruction on research, creating SIPs based on research is critical. Supporting teachers in the writing and implementing SMART goals can improve student’s learning and create more effective schools.

---

References

Brown, G., Leonard, C., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2016). Writing SMARTER goals for professional

learning and improving classroom practices. Reflective Practice, 17(5), 621-635.

https://doi.org//10.1080/14623943.2016.1187120

DSFC School Council. (2018). Discovery school at four corners: School improvement plan

2019–2021. https://www.gpsk12.org/sites/default/files/DSFC%20SIP%2019-21.pdf

Ingersoll, R. M., Sirinides, P., & Dougherty, P. (2018). Leadership matters: Teachers' roles in school decision making and school performance. American Educator, 42(1), 13. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1173452.pdf

Pennington, R. (2022). Applied behavior analysis in the classroom: Applied behavior analysis:

A valuable partner in special education. Teaching Exceptional Children, 54(4), 315-317.

https://doi.org//10.1177/00400599221079130