Campus Improvement Plan 2020-2021

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Demographics

Demographics Summary

Total Students: 910 
Ethnic Distribution: 
African American 89 10%
Hispanic 759 83%
White 39 4%
Asian 10 1%
Two or more or Other 20 2% 
Economically Disadvantaged 865 95%
Special Education 125 14%
English Language Learners (ELL) 365 40%
Title 1 Participation 910 100%

Demographics Strengths

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.
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 and 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 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, and 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 still needs to be strengthened.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Student Learning

Student Learning Summary

Due to Covid 19, students did not participate in STAAR during the 2019-2020 school year, however students made significant progress based on campus and district level formative and summative assessments.

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. During the 2019-2020 school year, students at Spring Woods MS made significant progress comparing results from the first district summative assessment, to the second district summative assessment, more than any other MS campus.

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

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 at each content area. Each Assistant principal is over a grade level and along with a counselor, they loop with their students, as part of a cohort.
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 blocked into a lab in order 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. 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. In addition to, a new position has been created for the coming year to continue to build the RTI systems.

The bell schedule was modified for the coming year as well, extending 4th period by 30 minutes 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.

SEL team has been identified and includes members from the leadership team, teachers, staff, community members, district support CIS, CYS, behavioral specialist, and counselors. The purpose is to identify student needs and provide support services in an RTI tiered system (DRIP meetings).
Every grade level has content PLC once every other week. These teams also have a leader that facilitates these sessions through the 7-steps of the PLC process. These PLCs are specifically intended to answer the 4 PLC questions and guide first quality instruction as well as response to intervention, as needed. The "High-Five" focus has been embedded in the effective PLC model.
Our student behavior management system is PBIS. We will also continue to use some of the practices from Restorative Justice and Character Strong Programs.

School Processes & Programs Strengths

The staff consists of individual members that have many strengths for planning, coaching and instructional leadership. As we approach the third 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 2020-2021 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 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. During the 2019-2020 three first year teachers were added to the math team, two taught lab courses, and one was an academic teacher; all other teachers had at least one year teaching experience to start the year and the vast majority of the teachers had between 3-7 years of teaching experience. During the 2020-2021 school year, two first year teachers will be joining the team, one in ELA and one in Math lab. 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 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.

During the 2020-2021 school year, 60 experienced teachers are returning and 14 new employees will be joining (12 have prior experience). 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, Safety, CIT, and PLC Coalition groups, in order to provide staff voice and recommendation/decision making to occur throughout the campus. In addition to, 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: Families believe previous low achievement and 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.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment Data Documentation

The following data were used to verify the comprehensive needs assessment analysis:

Improvement Planning Data

• District goals
• Current and/or prior year(s) campus and/or district improvement plans
• Campus and/or district planning and decision making committee(s) meeting data

Accountability Data

• Student Achievement Domain 
• Domain 1 - Student Achievement 
• Student Progress Domain 
• Domain 2 - Student Progress 
• Closing the Gaps Domain 
• Domain 3 - Closing the Gaps
• Effective Schools Framework data

Student Data: Assessments

• State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) current and longitudinal results, including all versions 
• STAAR EL Progress Measure data
• STAAR ELL Progress Measure data 
• Running Records results

Student Data: Student Groups

• Race and ethnicity data, including number of students, academic achievement, discipline, attendance, and rates of progress between groups 
• Economically disadvantaged / Non-economically disadvantaged performance and participation data
• Economically Disadvantaged / Non-economically disadvantaged performance, progress, and participation data 
• ELL or LEP data, including academic achievement, support and accommodation needs, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. 
• Gifted and talented data
• Dual-credit and/or college prep course completion data

Student Data: Behavior and Other Indicators

• Attendance data 
• Discipline records

Employee Data

• Professional learning communities (PLC) data

 
Parent/Community Data

• Parent surveys and/or other feedback

Support Systems and Other Data

• Processes and procedures for teaching and learning, including program implementation