Franklin Crowder
Educator/Aspiring Administrator
CURRICULUM, ASSESSMENT, & EVALUATION
An education leader promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and professional growth of staff. A collaborative effort results in the development, assessment, evaluation, and revision of a shared curricular approach that schools use to achieve continuous growth and improvement. As an future leader, the expectations of this were exhibited and reflected in my experiences in working with curriculum and assessment in related experiences and activities.
AFTER SCHOOL REMEDIATION
Students were identified and enrolled based on academic performance, reflected by report card grades and testing scores in reading, writing, and math. The classroom teachers analyzed theses scores, considered classroom performance, and determined that the child would benefit from these programs.
Strategic planning, using best practices and effective technology like Powerschool, Imagine Learning, and Study Island, along with the skills of our dedicated teachers and practicing outside the normal classroom hours can be the place to support learning breakthroughs in the classroom.
Students attend this program for 1½ hours after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Students receive 30-45 minutes of homework help, then work on specific skills in Language Arts and Math. Lessons utilized parallel the regular school day curriculum. Approximately 45 days per year were provided throughout the school year, with exceptions on early release days and holidays. After the completion of this program, I had some key takeaways from the construction and the execution of its services. These include:
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An instructional intervention is more than just a strategy.
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Interventions are specific, formalized steps to address a particular need your child may have.
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Many schools use a framework called response to intervention (RTI) to help struggling students.
FACULTY MEETINGS: SOL REVIEW
Every two weeks, Sutherland Elementary School meets in the library for professional development and review of information pertinent to the faculty and staff. One of the major items that are reviewed annually is the testing procedures and scheduling for the school. Our guidance counselor is also our testing coordinator for the school and plays a large role in overseeing the process that takes place in the school. I had the opportunity to assist her in ensuring that classroom teachers had a proctor, hallways had monitors, and review to ensure all testing accomodations were met. I learned that these procedures are vital to ensure that the testing environment is secure and in compliance with all regulations set by the Virginia Department of Education.
SUMMER SCHOOL DATA DEBRIEFING
After the summer school term was completed, the administrative team was invited by the Assistant Superintendent to meet at the district's School Board Office. Our lead principal, co-administrative intern, and myself attended to report on several points of data recorded during the summer school session. Attendance, grades, and behavior were the three main aspects that we collaborated on to report. What we found was summer school attendance correlated with suucess in Summer School. Also, classes that demonstrated having behavior issues also had students who struggled. Furthermore, we found that elementary students (grades 3-5) wanted to mimic the behaviors seen in the middle school populations (grades 6-8). Even though they were separated in the school for studies, they still ate in the same cafeteria. I suggested that schedulaing should take this into consideration when planning in the future. I also attempted to send the 3rd-5th grade students in early and have the 6th-8th grade students report later. This helped in terms of discipline, but students didn't eat as they were still full from breakfast. Therefore, administration had to collaborate and create alternative solutions in which the disruptions would cease and all students would succeed. These were situations that were presented in the meeting as a means to use as points of reference for next year's Summer School session.
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TEAM MEETINGS
Sutherland Elementary School has assembled a School Improvement Team to ensure that the needs of the student population are met and that the school continues to identify strengths and weaknesses of the school. Each school must have a School Improvement Team that develops the School Improvement Plan. This plan should identify the school’s efforts to improve student performance and reach the educational goals of the school board. This team consists of the principal, assistant principal, instructional personnel, instructional support personnel, and parents of students attending the school.
During these meetings, the desegregation of data to identify trends and student subgroups was used to cater instructional practices as a means to reach struggling students and help them to reach their greatest academic potential. Furthermore, I learned that the data analysis is key to developing programs and identifying trends and subgroups that may benefit in remediation activities.