Northside High School (2020)

  1. PLC Story
  2. PLC Practices
  3. Achievement Data
  4. Awards
  5. Resources

After being designated as a Model PLC School in the Spring of 2020, Northside High School entered into the grant process the following school year in the midst of masks and social distancing.Today we remain on our continuous improvement journey. 

After more than three years of the most recent work to implement the Professional Learning Community process, we have much to be proud of and remains on a continuous improvement journey. At the start of the journey,  Northside became the first high school in Arkansas to earn Model Professional Learning Community status. A culture had been established where a shared mission, vision and values had clearly been collaboratively built and implemented. Teacher-led data teams were instituted and intervention time was present. Genuine student achievement gains had been made most notably demonstrated in the increase in test scores and some of the best graduation rates the school had ever achieved.

There were, of course, early adapters, but the process of building buy-in from all stakeholders took time. The Guiding Coalition members really took ownership of the PLC process and led our staff to create new vision and mission statements as well as strong collective commitments. Our vision was revisited during the 2021-2022 school year and our collective commitments were pared down in August 2022 to more manageable verbiage and both are now actively used to develop work for all staff and students.

Slowly, remaining staff members began to invest themselves, their time, and their efforts into the culture change. Many now look forward to their weekly team meetings as well as their own training time with Solution Tree content experts. Teams are so invested in the work that we now provide monthly protected planning time for two hours after school so teams can work and get compensated with standard based curriculum funds (SBC) for their extra efforts. Both district and building level administration provide funds for substitutes as needed to allow teams maximum collaborative time together. Now, the majority of staff members are actively involved in the work of a true professional learning community and have adopted an “our kids” mentality. This work has also allowed us to be a district leader in the PLC Process, as we work to create common district learning goals and expectations for the success of our students. 

From our PLC Coach, Jack Baldermann:

In the spring of 2020, after an incredible amount of work and an intense focus on student learning gains, Northside was poised to achieve continued progress on the test score increase journey. 

 

In the next 18 months, the pandemic hit, a significant turnover in administration occurred, and an entire grade level (9th grade) was added to Northside.  In my career I have never made excuses and have been tenacious 

 

about a Results Orientation. However, the emerging research is clear that the pandemic impacted high poverty and diverse schools disproportionately. This was true for Northside. The culture here has been and is centered on relationships between staff and students. The lack of contact between students and their teachers significantly impacted student learning and eventually performance on the state exam. It is imperative to recognize that prior to the pandemic scores were increasing. The entire team was in survival mode and offered a valiant effort to see students continue to graduate at high levels, but the significant decrease in instructional time was detrimental.  

 A school that had moved from D to C and on the verge of B status had been rocked by the upheaval. With the incredible decrease in student-teacher contact time coupled with additional challenges that were more prevalent at a high poverty school, test score performance (as you would expect) declined.  That does not eliminate the true work and improvement that has taken place and that continues.

Administration turnover and the lack of consistency has impacted implementation. It should be noted that many dedicated and talented administrators have served Northside well including two quality principals, but the team has changed significantly every year of the grant with only one member being present all 3 years and 11 different administrative leaders in the positions since the fall of 2020.

 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

NWEA MAP data is analyzed on a consistent basis and focus groups of 9th and 10th grade students are created by teachers and instructional coaches for targeted interventions in reading and math. All interim and state assessment data is consistently examined student by student by skill and pushed out to instructional teams for analysis and action. Regular and consistent collaboration on data when appropriate is a minimum requirement for teams and a data tracking sheet is used by every team. The data tracking sheet ensures that data is not only analyzed but acted upon.

Teachers now use assessments in a formative way to guide future instruction and/or interventions within their teams. Instructional coaches also encourage staff to include student self-reflection in their assessments and actively teach students to assess their own quality of work and growth toward proficiency. Schoolwide data is posted in the staff workroom and pushed out to teams. Instructional coaches facilitate conversations with teams meant to track student progress toward graduation and get students who are off track back on track for graduation as quickly as possible. Collectively, we are trying to move away from tracking “bubble students” and toward moving “band students” and helping district level administrators to understand why this matters more to our overall student growth.

Teams built a guaranteed viable curriculum to eliminate curricular discrepancies and are also now leading this same work at the district level as our district moves toward aligning curriculum and summative assessments between the two high schools. Any team that struggles to meet minimum expectations of collaboration are supported both directly and indirectly by administration and/or instructional coaches 

Looking toward sustaining the work we have already started, administration and instructional coaches are developing a core set of seven HRS instructional strategies to emphasize during the 2023-2024 school year and plan to implement ‘instructional rounds,’ a formalized observation system and a requirement for all staff. We also want to encourage more academic reading in teams and administration is willing to provide funds for books on pedagogy, instruction, and content specific instructional strategies.

Another highlight is that teachers from a variety of disciplines have incorporated the student-centered assessment improvements outlined by consultant Dr. Tony Reibel in our work. The Ft. Smith School District is also moving to district-wide common essentials and summative assessments. The work done by the Northside PLC teams and instructional coaches has largely been adopted as the official curriculum for the Ft. Smith Public Schools. 

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

We continuously refine our enrichment/intervention program (WIN) so that all students are being properly challenged and experiencing growth; that will continue to be a priority focus for our core teams. Our teams complete formative assessments bi-weekly, but individual teachers do this throughout instructional cycles as well.

During the 23-24 school year, in an effort to have more time to intervene with our students, our WIN time is now the 2nd half of each class period on Wednesdays. Our staff has received ongoing training as to how to structure this time in the classroom to facilitate small group intervention focused on what the student needs based on a learning target. 

Teacher teams work together to create these intervention lessons, and participate in progress monitoring as part of their weekly team meetings. Additionally, we are implementing improved use of student self assessments and the use of exemplars for students to check themselves against clear criteria. 

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

  

Individual teams created norms and established a culture of collaboration, celebration, and accountability for one another; the core four PLC questions are part of every team’s norms. Each team also creates quarterly SMART goals. Administration, instructional coaches, and staff consistently celebrate teacher achievement and commitment to all students. 

The graduation progress of every student is actively watched, monitored, and attended to with fidelity starting in the fall of freshman year. Specifically, the English 12 team tracks all student failures throughout the fall semester and works with administration, instructional coaches, and the graduation coach to curb failures during the fall semester of senior year.

Administration invited instructional coaches and department chairs, as well as teachers, to provide input on the master schedule for next year and is poised to create the strongest, most effective teams ever. For future staffing needs, instructional coaches, department chairs, and/or PLC team leads participate in interviews, but another area for growth includes establishing that team norms and expectations must be clearly communicated to interviewees during the interview process. We are establishing a stronger system to help new hires become active and valued members of their collaborative team and for providing support throughout their transition into our school. We also created a formal system for dealing with grievances.

Administration will continue to provide opportunities for all staff members to have choice and voice in decision making, and the Renaissance Team will continue to provide celebrations and launches that are integral to building community and collective efficacy amongst staff. Collective efficacy will continue to require strong focus because it is so foundational to the work of PLCs.

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

Based on the U.S. News and World Report National High School rankings. Northside has improved from 152 in Arkansas and currently stands at 120 (2022 rank). Moving up 30 slots makes Northside one of the more improved high schools in Arkansas.

 
  • High Reliability Schools Level 1 Designation: Spring 2023
  • District Teacher of the Year: Aimee Brinkley: Spring 2022
  • Model PLC at Work Sesignation: Spring 2020
  • Designated School of Innovation 2019
  • Assistant Principal of the Year 2018
  •  Cyber Patriot team 1st place in Arkansas and ranked 19th nationwide in the Silver tier.
  • Member of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science 
  • Times Record Top 3 Public High Schools "Best of the Best"
  • 2019 Store/Cafe Marketing Contest for School Store Point of Sale
  • 2018 Top High Poverty Schools in Arkansas based on ACT Aspire Math Growth Score "Beating the Odds" Office of Education Policy
  • 2018 #3 on top 5 in Northwest Arkansas Schools "Beating the Odds" Office of Education Policy
  • 2019 Bandmaster of the Year and "50 Directors Who Make a Difference"
  • Multiple teachers who are National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certified
  • Teacher selected as "Hometown Hero" fall of 2019
  • Numerous awards for JROTC, Band, Choir and Orchestra, photography, television broadcasting, Skills USA
  • 2018 Marketing Teacher of the Year
  • National Youth Arts Council Award for "Once On This Island" Musical production spring 2019

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