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C-M Board Hears Plan to Improve High School Scores
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Tom Thompson
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Crete Record
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November 27, 2008
The school board and administrative staff of Crete-Monee District 201-U seem determined to raise student achievement.
Following the ISAT/PSAE report last month that showed high school scores fell below state average in all areas tested and that the high school failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress last year, the board asked the curriculum team to return with information about what the district is doing to raise student achievement.
During the November 17 board meeting, the curriculum team, led by Assistant Superintendent/Curriculum and Instruction Laura Hirsch presented a report focusing on Response to Intervention (RTI), a problem solving model promoting student success.
RTI depends on universal screening of students to determine which students are at risk for not meeting grade level standards. Students whose scores fall below a certain cut-off are identified as needing more specialized academic intervention. A variety of intervention mechanisms have been put in place at the high school as part of the reorganization plan, and the board has appropriated funds to implement and sustain them.
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With its focus on early intervening services, RTI is a process of using student-centered data to develop and evaluate the impact of core curriculum, as well as designing supplemental and intensive interventions.
Newly adopted computer software is making possible the accumulation, storage, and flexible retrieval of data reflective of individual student progress. The stored data can be accessed and evaluated on an individual, course, class, sub-group, building, and district-wide basis providing, quickly, information that can aid in evaluating programs, teaching strategies, curricular elements, and other factors impacting student progress.
Already this year, use of the software has allowed the identification of students needing interventions of various sorts to increase their level of progress. According to Hirsch, this year approximately 140 students have been moved from one class to another in order to provide them with interventions designed to increase their successful progress. The results of assessments generated at the class, building, and district level are entered into the data bank throughout the year, permitting the tracking of student progress even on the individual level.
The RTI model is a three-tiered system. Tier 1 is universal instruction and is appropriate for 80 to 90 percent of students. Flexibility at this level permits short-term, minor interventions within the classroom. Students recognized at risk enter tier 2, which offers secondary interventions in the form of pull-out instruction, additional instruction either during or after school, tutoring, and other such methods of raising proficiency. The model assumes five to 15 percent of the student body might need these sorts of intervention services. Tier 3 involves intense, frequently individualized interventions which the model assumes is appropriate for one-to-five percent of the student body.
The goal is to recognize early on when these interventions are needed, to implement them quickly, and to monitor student progress closely and regularly in order to evaluate the success level of the curriculum, teaching strategies and intervention methods and strategies.
Board President Tom Verbeke asked the curriculum team to return next month with additional data that will help the board understand the factors involved in the low performance level at the high school. He wants to identify those factors over which the district has no or very little control and those which the district can affect through appropriate actions.
The board also adopted an energy conservation policy that lays guidelines for energy conservation measures all staff will be expected to take. It provides guidelines for environmental temperature settings, when windows and doors may be open, and when lights within the classrooms should be turned off. It prohibits the use of extraneous, non-district electrical equipment and requires regular compliance monitoring.
The policy also describes the roles of administration, staff, custodial and maintenance staffs in meeting the stipulations of the policy. The board approved the submission of a grant application under the "Safe Routes to School" program. The purpose of the grant proposal is the construction of a sidewalk on the east side of Will-Center Road south bound from Monee Elementary School property to Lilac and continuing to Colonial Drive and the installation of cross walks at Lilac Avenue and Will-Center Road and Colonial Drive and Will-Center Road. The estimated cost of the project is $250,000 and is 100 percent reimbursable. The district is cooperating with the village of Monee in applying for this grant.
In other business, the board set December 15, at 7 p.m., for a public hearing to approve a proposed tax levy increase of 8.83 percent over the previous year. As the board does every year, it has set the levy above the tax cap level in order to maximize the tax extension.
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