Explain the activities in which your school will participate to increase your overall rating. Include specific details.

As evidenced in the SES Band Data, which content area(s) will be the focus for improving student achievement and why was this area chosen?

Based on our data, we will be focusing on improving student achievement in Reading.  We chose this area because we did not make many gains in this area and additionally, as we move away from Reading classes school-wide, we need to focus on how to infuse Reading strategies and skills into other content areas.

What specific BEST Practice(s) will be implemented or scaled-up to improve teaching and learning in order to increase performance within the SES Band?

Best practice #1: Focused and Authentic PLC Process

Describe in detail how the BEST Practice(s) will be scaled-up.

Teachers will attend continuous PLC meetings every other week by grade level and subject area.  Teachers will collaborate on the results from assessments in order to provide strategies for remediation and enrichment to ensure proficiency.

Leadership team members and administrators will monitor PLC's through walk-throughs and data collection

Please complete this section based on 2018-2019 end-of-year results.
Instructional Implications: Discuss the success of specific strategies/activities and provide a rationale as to why those academic improvements occurred as a result of those strategies.

Teachers implemented the use of the iReady program which is a comprehensive standards-based math curriculum individualized to student success.  Using this program helps teachers to monitor individual student success and resulted in the student achievement success.  General Math data was 58% achievement, 54% achieved learning gains, and 43% of the lowest quartile demonstrated one year's growth.  Also, through the use of PLCs in Math, 84% of students passed the Algebra EOC and 95% of students passed the Geometry EOC.

We saw success in the area of Social Studies (Civics) through the use of focused Professional Learning Communities.  Teachers collaborated to discuss best practices and to monitor student data.  As a result of data analysis through the PLCs, teachers developed and implemented remediation and enrichment activities to be used within the classrooms. Student achievement data was at a 66%. 

Additionally, In Language Arts, we implemented vertical planning across grade levels.  ELA success can be attributed to the vertical planning done through the PLC process.  Teachers discussed the importance of building on writing strategies from grade to grade in order to enhance student achievement.  The teachers implemented the gradual release model for teaching literacy and writing skills from 6th grade to 8th grade. There was an overall achievement in ELA of 58%.  Learning gains were also at 55% and a one year's growth for the lowest quartile at 42%.
 
With teacher collaboration through the use of PLCs, the results in 8th Grade science scores, based on the 2018 Science Standards Assessment (SSA), were 43%