Campus Improvement Plan

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Demographics

Demographics Summary

Total Students: 860 
Ethnic Distribution: 
African American 85 10%
Hispanic 750 85%
White 39 5%
Asian 10 1%
Two or more or Other 20 2% 
Economically Disadvantaged 815 95%
Special Education 125 14%
English Language Learners (ELL) 412 48%
Title 1 Participation 860 100%

Demographics Strengths

The majority of students come from families who value education and have been in the school system since elementary school, including a cohort of students who participate in the dual language program. Families have a strong sense of family and unity due to the strong cultural awareness. Parents have a high regard for school and promote student attendance. Attendance is on the rise, but needs to be continued to be reinforced. Students are involved in extracurricular activities--many teachers and staff have created opportunities for student-interest groups, including clubs, athletics, fine-arts programs, robotics, Odyssey of the Mind, and other student-based interest groups. We believe every student should be part of a program at the school level. Connectiveness has a positive impact on student achievement, attendance, and the morale of a student. Teachers care about the students and their families and go above and beyond their duties in order to support the "whole-child."

Problem Statements Identifying Demographics Needs

Problem Statement 1: Students enter in 6th grade below grade level, specifically our ELLs. Only 25% of ELL students are making one year growth, according to TELPAS results from the 2018-2019 school year. Root Cause: ELL instructional strategies need to continue to be a focus in order to strengthen tier 1 instruction. Teachers have gained capacity on tier 1 instruction, but more strengthening is needed.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Student Learning

Student Learning Summary

Due to Covid 19, throughout the year there were inconsistencies with student attendance. Some students who were quarantined for 10 days at a time. 70% of students who were virtual to start the year, and 50% through the semester. None of the goals were met for any content area for any levels of approaches, meets, and masters. Another factor for not meeting our student achievement goals was that our master schedule did not provide the time for teachers to meet on a daily or weekly basis (PLC). Instructional rounds and observations (ILT) were not as consistent as previous years, due to part of the ILT availibility to go into classrooms together.

Regardless, the data will show that the 8th grade cohorot of students made 20% increase over the three years at SWMS, in the approaches level in reading. Also, we doubled the amount of students taking algebra from the 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 school year, accounting for a large portion of math students who are not accounted in the scores below.

2020-2021 Preliminary STAAR data:

Subject Approaches Meets Masters
Reading Total 50%/26%/11%
Math Total 42%/18%/9%
Writing Total 44%/18%/3%
Science Total 45%/24%/9%
Soc. Studies Total 30%/10%/3%

2018-2019 STAAR data:

Subject Total tested Approaches Meets Masters Approaches Meets Masters Approaches Meets Masters
Reading Total 781 418 54% 186 24% 62 8% 47% 18% 7% 7% 6% 1%
Math Total 781 513 66% 241 31% 67 9% 43% 15% 4% 23% 16% 5%
Writing Total 232 110 47% 47 20% 14 6% 35% 14% 3% 12% 6% 3%
Science Total 246 137 56% 65 26% 22 9% 36% 15% 6% 20%

Student Learning Strengths

Students made significant academic progress in all content areas, at each level of approaches, meet and masters, based on the 2018-2019 STAAR tests. However, during the 2020-2021 school year, the campus maintained reading, writing, and social studies scores, but fell below in math and science.

Problem Statements Identifying Student Learning Needs

Problem Statement 1: Although our students are making progress, many students are still below grade level, have gaps in learning from previous years, and many students are not at the meets and the masters level. Root Cause: Tier 1 instruction has improved, but still needs to be strengthened with rigor in order to increase academic success of students. Teachers are having to use instructional time to address learning gaps and there needs to be more emphasis on quality of first round instruction to support all students, then the RTI system to support tier 3 (learning gaps) and tier 2 (reteach of on-grade level instruction).

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

School Processes & Programs

School Processes & Programs Summary

The administration team consists of an instructional leader over each department--Math, ELA, Science, and Social Studies. The instructional leader also oversees other areas such as special education, athletics, and electives. Each instructional leader also collaborates with an instructional coach in each content area. For the 2021-2022 school year, a new position has been created, Middle School Instructional Facilitator, in order to support all contents/instruction. Specifically, the Middle School Instructional Facilitator will streamline PLC processes and instructional strategies for all content areas. Each Assistant principal is over a grade level and along with a counselor, they loop with their students, as part of a cohort. The master schedule has been created in order to support student achievement in reading and math, as well as support newcomers and ELLs. Specifically, students who have not passed STAAR math have been double-blocked to support student specific deficit areas. A true newcomer reading and math program has been created for first year students, and an ELL reading lab has been created to support beginner and intermediate ELLs. The master schedule was modified for this school year to 8 periods/day for students, in order to provide content teachers with an additional PLC meeting time, aside from their daily planning times. The additional PLC time will allow for teachers to collaborate on a daily basis, focusing on the PLC process. A robust robotics program has been added for all grade levels, as well as continued opportunities for fine-arts and athletic programs.

An RTI model was created during the 2019-2020 school year and has been modified for the 2021-2022 school year. The CAIS position will continue for the coming year to continue to build the RTI systems.

The current bell schedule continues to have an extended part of the school day, 8:00-8:40AM in order to provide extension and intervention (tier 2 support) for students in all academic areas, during a time that does not interfere with tier 1 instructional time.

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School Processes & Programs Strengths

The staff consists of individual members that have many strengths for planning, coaching and instructional leadership. As we approach the fourth year of PLC work, we continue to work through the 10 Essential Standards (ES) identified by each grade level content team, in order to continue to develop smart goals and continue focusing on what is most critical during the 2021-2022 school year.

Problem Statements Identifying School Processes & Programs Needs

Problem Statement 1: Many systems, such as PLC work, RTI, SEL are new and the staff is still developing in these areas. We need more time to master systems and continue building capacity in order to see the positive results we seek in our school culture. Root Cause: There was not a system of effective PLCs and RTI systems in place before and we have added several new teachers over the last couple of years who are new to the building as well.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Perceptions

Perceptions Summary

Spring Woods MS staff includes a wide-range of teaching experience. For the 2021-2022 school year, two first year teachers were added to the ELA team. The vast majority of the teaching staff has between 3-7 years of teaching experience. Adding novice teachers to an experienced team always provides an opportunity for the team to develop and build capacity for the first year teacher as well as the team.

At Spring Woods MS, we believe in a culture of collaboration. During the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year, all content teams developed an understanding of a true PLC and completed the year with identifying top 10 essential standards for each content area/grade level. Also, each content team went through an entire PLC process for an essential standard. Collaboration and having a true PLC process has helped developed teachers and build capacity of teams. Through PLCs and analyzing data, effective teachers share best practices, based on their results.

For the 2021-2022 school year, 60 experienced teachers are returning and 16 new employees will be joining (14 have prior teaching experience). A few new positions were created, and a few teachers were moved to other content areas, based on need and teacher requests. Teachers not returning have resigned/transferred/promoted for various reasons. While the campus recognizes the need for teachers to develop and seek other opportunities, due to personal or financial reasons, Spring Woods MS is committed to retaining highly effective teachers, through leadership opportunities at the campus level. Spring Woods MS created several committees, such as the safety, PBIS, CIT, and PLC Coalition groups, in order to provide staff voice and recommendation/decision making to occur throughout the campus. In addition, content department chairs serve as another opportunity to lead on the campus and build campus leaders. Culture and moral are significant in creating reasons for staff to remain on campus. During past years more emphasis has been put on celebrating and recognizing teacher success, although we acknowledge more can be done to celebrate staff success.

Perceptions Strengths

The campus is experiencing significant academic gains in all content areas. Through various platforms including the campus website, twitter, Instagram, and ItsLearning, we are able to publish more accomplishments about the campus and build on the narrative that Spring Woods Middle School is a highly-effective middle school campus and option for students and families.

Problem Statements Identifying Perceptions Needs

Problem Statement 1: The families belief that previous low achievement and the perception that SWMS is not a good campus has created a negative narrative. Root Cause: At one time, the campus was experiencing a negative decline in student achievement and increase in negative student behavior. There was not an academic focus on the campus.