Monday Points

October 1, 2012

Welcome back. October is Mad Grant Season and the Highline Schools Foundation is looking for creative ideas! Each year, the Foundation offers Excel / MAD Grants to Highline Public Schools employees. Since its origin in February 2002, they have distributed more than $232,000 to our district. The application is online at http://www.highlineschoolsfoundation.org/programs/excelgrants.html

I have been talking with students in Advisory classes about their preparation for college, career and citizenship.  I have also been pushing for them to attend the Life after High School Fair on Wednesday evening. We have a bus leaving from New Start about 5:00. Please join us for your own learning and modeling for students who need to see that we are truly interested in colleges for them. If you are going to drive yourself, the fair is at Mt. Rainier High School and begins at 5:30.

Celebration Points:

CHOICE PSO met Wednesday night for their kick-off parent meeting this year. Over one hundred and fifty were in attendance. Dinner was provided by parents who brought in taco fixings and other fiesta night delights. Mrs. Knuth, Ms. Love and I had the opportunity to address the crowd and thank them for such a fabulous display of partnership in the small learning community we call CHOICE Academy! I am very proud and thankful to our PSO leadership for having a wonderful dinner night and kick-off meeting.  Great job Lisa and team!

Instructional Point:

Going through our Fall Goal Meetings with each of you, I can see we are quickly becoming familiar with the layout and format of the Charlotte Danielson Instructional Frame. I have asked teachers to connect their growth goals to particular domains and components of CD. In our discussions we have all been brainstorming what possible artifacts and evidence for each element would be. You might want to think about which items you regularly produce (like lesson plans, assessments, rubrics…) that lend themselves to support your growth in your chosen instructional goal. I will not require such a collection of evidence this year, but recommend you think about how you might do that if ever asked. As well as student work, artifacts of your instructional practice can provide evidence to your teaching skills. Such a portfolio may also be a way to better illustrate your work in Domain 1 (Planning and Preparation) and Domain 4 (Professional Responsibilities), which do not lend themselves so well to direct observation in the classroom. Next week I will give an overview to the domains of Charlotte Danielson.

Data Points:

Washington State Report Card was released Thursday on the OSPI website. These are the official state assessment scores for 2011-2012. I want to congratulate CHOICE Academy math and Science for significant gains over the previous year scores. Testing in all subjects are well ahead of district average scores, and in Science EOC, we soar into the 90’s with only one other school higher (by 3 ½  points, you can guess who that is) I think it is fair to say that based on state assessments, CHOICE Academy is one of the highest performing schools in the district. Check it out:  http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?groupLevel=District&schoolId=1232&reportLevel=School&orgLinkId=1232&yrs=&year=2011-12 

You might have noticed an AMO tab on the Report Card. It is new. Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) replace AYP under Washington State’s waiver from No Child Left Behind. Although no accountability system is perfect, AMOs are simpler and more realistic than AYP. In a nutshell, each student group with at least 20 students has a 2011 baseline and must reduce the percentage of non-proficient students in half by 2017. For example, if 40% of Pacific Islander students met standard in reading in 2011, they must increase to 70% by 2017.

PCT Point

This Friday, October 5, Casey and I are going to put together a PCT around Project Based Learning to discuss what Integrated PBL might look like in your schools. This was a high interest area identified by your Shared Leadership Team. Both New Start and CHOICE have significant experience in PBL, so plenty of examples surround us. All staff, please meet at Salmon Creek, at 1:00, Friday, Oct 5.

My Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Oct 1	Oct 2	Oct 3	Oct 4	Oct 5
Session Transition Meeting Planning w/Andrea Advisory Chats In Classrooms Instructional Planning Team M/Carla and John	PCT Planning Goals Meetings In Classrooms Advisory Chat M/Wayne Para Meeting CHOICE Staff M/Steve G  re: ALE	HIB Assembly In Classrooms Advisory Chat Admin Forum (ERAC) Life After High School Fair	Math Data  Team In Classrooms Advisory Chat M/SWYFS M/ City & ESC	Goals Meetings Pro-Ob In Classrooms Goals Meetings PCT on Project Based Learning Goals Meeting Monday Points

Have a wonderful week and please try to make it “Life after High School”. Hope to see you there!

Mike