OSP Connected
March, 2019-Office for School Performance-Volume 27
Message from Dayle
When I was training for a running event years ago I asked a friend who was a runner for advice. How should I train? What shoes should I buy? Where were the best places to run? What I didn’t ask about, and turned out to be the most important, was mindset. For those of you who run or do other crazy physically demanding things you know that the body conditioning is just a part. It’s mostly in your mind. When the body is tired, do you listen to the “just stop” that shows up or do create a new message? The narrative is important.
When it comes to school and teaching the narrative is also important. Research will tell you that students of color are more likely to get referrals and referrals that lead to punitive responses compared to white students. Educators tend to think students of color are more violent and inclined to criminal activity than white students. Years ago our Latino boys told us via our Needs Assessment that their teachers are less likely to sit and help them work than their white peers. They felt less connected. What narrative is going on here?
I worked with a student once that frequently used cuss words when he was agitated. He called young girls horrible names and would instigate fights during free time with foul language when things weren’t going his way. I was frustrated and didn’t know why the student was so vulgar. I didn’t know what action to take to help him be more successful at school. In pure desperation- and maybe exasperation- I said, “What else can you say? What other words could you use when you’re frustrated?” His response rocked my narrative. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s what you say when you’re mad!” For months I had told myself this student was aggressive and unkind and mean. When truth be told, this child was at a loss for words and had feelings he didn’t know how to express.
Our Strategic Plan asks us to know students by name, strength and need. Part of the purpose of this is to get to the true story of our students. Don’t make up their narrative. Dig in. I expect you too will find a story that is different than the one you made up.
Be aware of your narratives. Interrupt them to find the truth.
HSD Focus 2018-2019
INSTRUCTION:
It is important to remember that the academic paths of our English learners are wide and diverse - just like all of our students. The academic background, prerequisite skills, and content knowledge for each learner is unique, and as a result, we cannot assume that English learners have moved seamlessly through the levels of English proficiency. Variation in students’ exposure and knowledge of English or literacy skills in their home language have a significant impact on acquisition of English. Here are some characteristics of English learner profiles to consider (from EL Achieve):
English Learners with 0-3 Years is US Schools:
May have well-developed literacy and age/grade-level content knowledge in their primary language
OR
May have limited vocabulary and syntactical knowledge in their primary language
May have limited literacy and age/grade-level content knowledge
English Learners with 3-5 Years in US Schools:
For students progressing well:
Consistently able to use English to communicate their thinking
Developing knowledge of vocabulary and syntax
Literacy skills in English are approaching grade-level expectations
At Risk of Becoming Long-term ELs:
Able to sue English for everyday purposes, but lack vocabulary and/or syntactiv knowledge to fully participate in academic tasks
May be struggling with English literacy
May show signs of being disengaged in school; may default to one-word or short responses
English Learners with 5+ Years in US Schools:
Former ELs:
Able to use English accurately and effectively to communicate for everyday and academic purposes
Literacy skills in English meet grade-level expectations
Usually performing well academically
At Risk of Becoming Long-term ELs:
Able to use English to communicate for everyday purposes, but lack precise vocabulary and/or syntactic knowledge to fully participate in academic tasks
Most are struggling with English literacy
May be disengaged from school; may default to one-word or short responses
As we finish up our ELPA21 testing for they year, this is an important reminder of knowing each and every one of our English learners who we serve. What is their unique academic path and what supports do they need in order help them progress as emerging bilinguals?
Check out the HSD Language Central website through Teaching and Learning for additional information and resources for supporting academic language for all students.
BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS through Culturally Responsive Teaching:
As we move into the fifth week of a new semester we challenge you to try this activity from Don Graves, a literacy and language expert who wrote the book A Sea Faces about getting to know your students. It is a great litmus test for how well we knew our students. Here’s how it works:
Create a three-columned chart on a piece of paper or on a simple table/spreadsheet on the computer.
In the left column, write your students’ names in the order in which you remember them. Try not to list them alphabetically or by your seating chart (Just this alone is interesting. Who do you remember first? Who do you struggle to remember?)
In the middle column, write down one positive thing about each student that doesn’t have anything to do with school work. (Jenny likes horses. Matt skateboards. Maria lives with her grandmother.)
In the third column, put a checkmark if you have talked with each student about this piece of knowledge. This helps us recognize how well we know our students, and—perhaps more importantly—how well they know we know them!
For students you struggled to remember, or for ones you didn’t know as much about, make a commitment to connect with them in the next few days.
This is, of course, just one idea. There are lots of other ways to get to know our students and build positive relationships with them. What are some other ideas you have tried? Share with your colleagues so that you can learn from each other!
CAREER & COLLEGE READY: Purposeful Dual Credit
Working jointly with the HIllsboro community, the Hillsboro School District is creating relevant, viable pathways for all students in order to unlock their passion, talent and potential. Throughout the last year we have worked collaboratively to design an integrated marketing campaign for all of our high schools’ distinctive career and college pathways (CCP). To showcase our pathways and provide consistent communication and marketing messages to our students and parents, we have created a new logo for CCP as well as a logo for each pathway. Additionally, we now have an informational marketing brochure for each and every pathway in the district. This brochure details the student’s interests, career possibilities, college options, salary potential, skill sets and the classes required for each pathway. It is especially important to take note of our new marketing information as it is forecasting time in our district. For additional information please see our CCP website: click here for examples of these important communication pieces and look for printed examples throughout our high schools.
New Standard Implementation
The health standards crosswalk have been completed for K-8 and are situated in Teaching and Learning by grade level in your Health Standards folder in the current standards folder. A significant change to the new standards include grade level performance indicators (in place of banded grade levels). The new health education standards consists of 8 overarching (similar to anchor standards) that are the same for grades K – 12. Each of these standards have sub-standards or specific grade-level performance indicators. We know that the effective implementation of new standards takes time to understand what they mean and how they connect or not with what you are doing now. We invite you to take time to familiarize yourself with the crosswalk so that you can begin implementing the standards next year. High school is in the process of aligning standards and piloting curriculum.
Language Arts Adoption Update
We are in the midst of finalizing the Request for Pilot RFP applications for our LA Adoption K-5 pilot teams. Each of the four feeders is represented, we have between 2-3 PLC teams per grade level represented in both dual and none dual schools for a total of 33 classrooms. Both bilingual publishers McGraw-Hill Wonders/Maravillas and American Reading Company, are part of the pilot process. We hope to begin the PD trainings and start to use materials in April/May. Our 7th -12th-grade task force teams will be working on Reading CCSS alignment first and then begin the RFP application process.
DCA Corner
Each month we will highlight a dashboard, report, query or feature in DCA that you can use to make thoughtful, well-informed, data-driven decisions to better help students be successful.
This month, we will introduce you to one of the most powerful features of DCA; the Dynamic Query Tool. This DCA feature enables you to design, build, save and share your own reports. It can be quite handy in cases where you just need quick access to a very specific data set or when you need student data in a way that is not available using an existing DCA report.
For example, let’s say you are in an elementary school and simply want to know which of your grade 5 students have attendance rates between 80% and 90%. While there are multiple reports in the attendance category, no single report provides this specific data. However, it is easy to build a query that will provide this information. Here’s how...
Once you have accessed the query tool, your process for building your query has three main steps. The first step is to choose the school year, student status and school name from the top menu:
The second step is to select the columns of data you want in the report from the menu on the left side of the screen:
The last step is to filter the data the way that you want using the built-in filters. Here is an example of how you would filter using the example above of grade 5 students with attendance between 80% and 90%:
Once you have built and filtered your query, you can save it in DCA. Saved queries will always be available to you when you log in and will load the most current data each time they are opened. In addition, your query can easily be exported to Excel or Google Sheets. Finally, saved queries can be shared with others in the district using the Schedule feature.These three functions are found on the Menu in the upper right corner of the query screen:
There is much more to the dynamic query tool than can be detailed here. This brief overview should be enough to get you started. Give it a try when you get a chance. Don’t worry, you can’t break it! If you are building a query and just want to start over, all you have to do is click “Reset Grid” on the above referenced menu and everything goes back to the starting point.
To access the Dynamic Query Tool, navigate to DCA and then select Queries > Dynamic Queries > Student Data.
If you have questions about the query tool, DCA in general, and/or would like training in your building on using DCA, contact Tom Luba (lubat@hsd.k12.or.us.)
Coffee Conversations - Person First Language (Episode #5)
This month's Coffee Conversations from Student Services is all about the IEP - it's purpose, development, and use for general education teachers. Watch Kellie and Sabrina navigate the ins and outs of the IEP and then check in with a special education teacher to learn even more!
You can see all the Coffee Conversations (and the bloopers!) on the student services handbook. Click on the picture below to watch the video!