Kleb Intermediate (2020)

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

Our PLC journey began in 2014 after being inspired at the PLC conference in San Antonio, Texas. Since then, our shared understanding of the PLC at Work process has driven both our classroom and campus decisions in how to support both our students and staff. After attending the conference, we knew that the PLC at Work process was the next collective step our campus needed to take in order to create a systematic approach to evaluate the effectiveness of our instructional practices, engage all students in meaningful learning, and foster a collaborative environment. 

We began the process of creating a culture for improvement by first evaluating our current campus processes and soliciting staff feedback on areas to refine. Through this process, our leadership team determined that our first step would be to realign the master schedule the following year to allow for common team planning periods during the school day and incorporate a daily intervention/extension period. Additionally, the leadership and PLC team provided targeted professional development for our staff to deepen our understanding of the PLC process, and create shared norms, beliefs, and clarity around the goals and structures of a high functioning professional learning community. 

The next step of the journey included working with the campus leadership team to implement PLC systems and campus expectations while increasing shared understanding of the work. We created a mechanism to support student movement in the new intervention and extension period which we named Bearcub Den. This step of the journey has been the longest, starting from a basic intervention tutorial and moving to a complex system allowing tiered intervention and grouping for extension and choice. 

Through systematic evaluation each year, our campus continues to identify areas of success and refinement. Our commitment to the PLC at Work process has deepened, and evidence can be seen throughout the collective use of agendas, data protocols, backward design planning templates, extensive RtI processes, and teacher led teams, which are driven by collaboration and reflection. 

In order to facilitate a culture of continuous improvement, we have focused on creating a campus that values collaborative decision making, continuously evaluates our effectiveness, focuses on student results, and promotes collective efficacy. From our system of committees to the collaborative effort in campus improvement planning and professional development, our campus strives to have a bottom-up approach while keeping our students as our focus. Our collaborative focus is apparent in our PLC data evaluation process, student trackers, and planning. Upcoming unit work is collaboratively planned and evaluated through data digs and protocols for instructional effectiveness. New instructional methods and practices from staff research or district curriculum committees are continually used to bring effective, engaging instruction to our students. Ideas and methods are shared across campus through department meetings, staff led campus professional development, and district learning summits. Our RtI processes on campus which include RtI leaders and an RtI committee are also consistently tracking, monitoring, and evaluating student progress and evidence of learning. The evidence is used to identify students who need additional support for academic and behavioral success and to improve instructional practices.   

Campus specialists are also a valuable part of the learning processes, as they provide both academic and behavior support to our staff and students. Specialists actively research resources for our staff, participate in weekly PLC meetings, provide embedded professional development, and support teaching practices through student centered coaching. Our digital learning specialist recently moved her office to the campus PLC room in order to provide real time technology advice and guidance for teams. The campus leadership team is another example of the collaborative efforts on our campus. The team, consisting of department chairs, specialists, counselors, administration, and a district coordinator, meets once a week to evaluate current instructional priorities, determine action steps, provide feedback, and align campus work. Our campus understands that in order to create forever learners within our students, we must also embody the spirit of being a forever learner. This understanding creates a sense of urgency on our campus to consistently push ourselves to be better educators for not only our students but for each other.

The most rewarding part of our journey has been to see the progress and growth that our students and teachers are making through the PLC process.  Our campus mission is that every Bearcub on campus is “stepping up, reaching out, and moving forward” and the foundations and training we have experienced through our PLC journey are making that mission possible.

 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Our district and campus goal is to know every student by name, strength, and need. This serves as a catalyst to monitor our students regularly to ensure we meet their academic and behavior needs in a timely manner. For academic monitoring, our campus uses multiple measures of learning, including district and campus common assessments, adaptive skills testing, formative assessments given throughout lessons, and competency based rubrics. Data from these assessments are tracked by PLC and RtI teams through data trackers which are housed in a digital database and visually displayed in our PLC room.  Our central PLC planning room promotes vertical and cross-curricular planning while providing administration an overview of progress for more specific feedback during walkthroughs. Discussion protocols have been created by our campus (and are now used district wide) to analyze student progress and instructional effectiveness for each unit. After each assessment, data is added to our student growth trackers and student trends are evaluated to determine if supports need to be implemented during Den or if multiple groups of students need remediation through in-class tier two intervention. We now encourage students to be more self-reflective and goal-oriented by providing progress trackers within classes and using campus-wide goal setting Den lessons. At semester, students are sent current district assessment and MAP scores via email in order to track their current progress and set second semester goals while also celebrating their progress and growth. Another strategy we are utilizing is a focus on implementing personalized learning into instruction. Our campus is one of seven selected to participate in a district cohort with EdElements to empower student agency and enable choice and voice through multiple pathways of learning. These pathways will include multiple opportunities for teachers to evaluate student progress and provide flexibility in how we meet student needs. We are excited about how this opportunity supports our campus in tailoring learning and giving faster feedback.

Monitoring student progress is only effective if we can ensure that we have a guaranteed and viable curriculum. We ensure this by significantly contributing to the work at the district level in our Curriculum Refresh that consists of content teachers, specialists, and district coordinators identifying essentials and creating clarity for staff over “nice to know” vs. “need to know.” Campus specialists also serve as a bridge of communication between district and campus, are utilized for teacher instructional support through coaching and modeling, and actively participating in our PLC processes. This includes evaluating campus common assessments for content and rigor before teams begin lesson planning. Curriculum at the campus level begins with teams examining content using the four PLC questions to guide their work. For each unit, state standards and district resources are examined, essential standards are determined, the team decides how to evaluate learning, and plans responsive intervention and extension. Campus documents that align to the PLC framework were created three years ago and are used to assist teams through this backwards design process to ensure viable short and long term curriculum.

 

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

In Klein ISD, one of our commitments as educators is to relentlessly pursue student success by ensuring high expectations for every student in character and academics. In the spirit of that commitment, Kleb has created multiple systems to monitor student performance and meet their needs. This monitoring involves the planning and implementation of interventions and extensions on campus. This work begins before students even arrive on campus in the fall. Grade-level teams begin the work for a new school year in April by examining the effectiveness of our current intervention and extension systems and determining if adjustments need to be made to the RtI master schedule and extension teachers for the next school year. We also determine if any upcoming professional development opportunities could strengthen our current systems or teams. Our campus created our daily “Bearcub Den” intervention and extension period four years ago, which currently falls after fifth period and provides an opportunity for students to receive academic and behavior supports through RtI, tutoring, character education lessons, and conferences. There are also extension opportunities for our students in GT dens, independent work facilitated through our learning management system Schoology, and passion projects--flexible learning dens that engage students through interest and choice. In early August, our campus RtI team reviews intervention and testing data for our incoming students to create monitoring and early intervention groups, specifically in reading and math. We set the campus calendar for Den intervention and extension and share with content teams to use for long range planning. It also houses links to our den scheduling system that allows teachers to pull any student on campus for intervention and extensions during Den. The implementation of this system has given our teachers scheduling flexibility and therefore increased response time when addressing areas of need. The RtI team also completes an intervention and extension plan for the campus and creates professional development. Throughout the year, the RtI and PLC teams and specialists continue to refine our monitor lists and identify students with needs to provide targeted support. Student progress in the interventions are monitored using campus created documents and trackers which provide data to the teams and committees. 

Outside of the intervention period, we have other pathways built into the master schedule to meet varied student needs.  This includes advanced tracks of study to accelerate students in both science and math so they can take Algebra, Geometry and Biology while here.  All students designated GT in ELA are in a cohort throughout middle school. We also have multiple CTE opportunities for students to earn credit and begin career pathways before high school.  When in PLC, core courses plan in-class tier 2 supports to ensure that students placed in RtI have documented in-class supports. Additionally, for students who are multiple years behind we offer Power Math and Reading that preload foundational skills while still allowing access to tier 2 support during the intervention period.  Students still not successful have the opportunity to recover credit online through our Edgenuity program.

 

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

Our collaborative team efforts began with creating a culture grounded in building teacher capacity and valuing every voice in the decision-making processes. Our campus consists of multiple committees and teams grounded in our collective commitment to improve student learning. Our collaborative teams include:

New to Kleb cohort: Whether teachers are new to the profession or just new to our building, our new staff meet once a month with the principal and veteran teachers to get additional support, participate in professional development, or conference with their campus mentor.

Grade Content teams: Our campus adjusts the master schedule to give grade level subject-area teams the same conference period so that they can meet multiple times a week to PLC and plan in our PLC room.

Department teams: Our DCs utilize common first period duty for reviewing lesson plans, peer coaching, and meeting with the leadership team for campus planning.

Leadership team: Leadership team consists of DCs, specialists, administration, and counselors. Weekly meetings are held beginning with the full team and then shifting to specialists and administration for planning coordinated teacher support. Agendas, learning activities, and protocols are used weekly to guide meetings.

RtI team: The RtI team consists of grade level teachers that provide intervention instruction on campus for each grade-level core content area. We meet quarterly to discuss progress and the RtI data team completes data digs and provides team support. 

PBIS team: The PBIS team includes administration, behavior teacher, counselors, and teachers. The team leads PBIS professional development, creates character lessons, reviews discipline trend data, leads incentive programs, and coaches staff on providing behavioral supports. We collectively created a behavior matrix and began implementing the PBIS framework. Currently the work has expanded to include a behavior teacher who provides tier 2/3 student behavior support and manages behavior data. 

Administrative team: The admin team meets weekly after leadership to discuss campus planning, walkthrough feedback, and addresses campus concerns. 

The work of these teams includes a shared understanding that to improve student learning we have to focus our efforts on supporting the student as a whole. Our academic focus is rooted in the work of our PLCs and being driven by a sense of urgency. Through consistent use of agendas, protocols, and the PLC process we focus on getting results and ensuring student progress. We prioritize distributing leadership and empowering others, leading to strong team practices and results, as evidenced by our consistency in leading or piloting district initiatives. We consistently seek opportunities to grow our staff into teacher leaders.  This is demonstrated in the breadth of leadership opportunities; there are twelve team leaders, eight department chairs, twelve teachers on the PL leadership team, six PBIS team members, twenty leadership team members, twelve RtI leaders, two data managers, a lead mentor and four teacher mentors, 18 curriculum refresh members, six teachers on the admin-in-training team, and seven SpEd action team members for eighty four total leadership opportunities on campus.

 
 
 

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

Over the past several years, Kleb Intermediate has seen a steady rise in our student population numbers, as well as an 11.6% increase in our economically disadvantaged students from 31.0% in the 2015-2016 school year to 42.6% in the 2019-2020 school year. The biggest change occurred in 2018 with Hurricane Harvey impacting schools, families, and communities across the city. However, despite these changes, Kleb has continued to surpass the district and state in both reading and math proficiency scores over the past three years. We also saw a steady increase in the overall performance of our subgroups, specifically our Special Education, Economically Disadvantaged, Hispanic (our largest minority subpopulation on campus), and English Language Learners over the past three years. 

 

 

The consistency and improvement in our achievement scores, throughout these changes, can be accredited to the collective effort of our campus to create sustainable, effective systems on campus that are rooted in the PLC process and enable us to meet the needs of all students on campus. Beyond academics, our work this year has expanded to include a behavior intervention specialist to provide support to students in need of tier two or three behavior interventions and the use of a behavior data management system called SWIS. The system has allowed us to track behaviors on campus by student, location, and frequency. The results have become a valuable data measure in team meetings and in grade level meetings when determining student supports and our campus has seen a decrease in targeted areas of intervention. 

2020-2021: Selected for Ed Elements Personalized Learning Campus Cohort One

GT Humanities Pilot Campus

Digital Communications Pilot Campus

Advance Science and Accelerated Math Pathways

Coding PLTW Pilot Campus

100% pass rate on Algebra 1 EOC 

High School Credit offerings: Algebra 1, Spanish, Fine Arts, Speech, Health

District Champions in Cross Country, Track, Football, and Basketball

Partner School with the Alley Theatre

Renaissance Festival Theatre School Days Competitor

Klein ISD One Act Play Participant

International Thespian Society Troupe #89081

National Junior Forensic League Membership

Destination Imagination Global Finalist Fine Arts – 2018

Destination Imagination Global Finalist Improvisation – 2019 

Honor String Orchestra Finalist ranked 6th in the state for 2018-2019 school year

The Houston Cup Orchestra Finalist 2018-2019

Mark of Excellence Commended Winner for the Kleb Symphony Full Orchestra 2018-2019

Ann Roberts Best Overall Ensemble Chamber Orchestra 2018-2019

Ann Roberts Best in Class Sub-Non Varsity and Varsity 2018-2019 and 2017-2018

Klein Music Festival Best in Class 2018-2019

Klein Music Festival Best in Class Runner-up 2017-2018

Kleb Fine Arts Department Awards for 2019-2020

Texas Art Education Association Conference Exhibit:Student art selected for state conference exhibition

Scholastic Art Awards- Four Gold Keys, Three Silver Keys, and 12 Honorable Mentions

Houston Livestock and Rodeo Quick Draw- Two students advanced to participate in the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Quick Draw event at NRG stadium and one scholarship awarded to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Glassell School of Art classes

Houston Livestock and Rodeo Art Exhibit - Klein ISD-Five blue ribbons, nine red ribbons, and three white ribbons 

Youth Art Month Capitol Exhibit, Austin, TX- Student work advanced to the YAM State Capitol exhibit, one of 100 selected in Texas

Bayou City Art Festival- Three students’ art in the top 30 finalists.

Kleb Fine Arts Department Awards for 2018-19

Scholastic Art Awards- Ten Gold Keys, three Silver Keys, and seven Honorable Mentions

Houston Livestock and Rodeo Quick Draw- Three students awarded opportunity to participate in the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Quick Draw event at NRG stadium and three scholarships to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Glassell School of Art classes

Houston Livestock and Rodeo Art Exhibit - Klein ISD- Five blue ribbons, nine red ribbons, and three white ribbons

Bayou City Art Festival- One finalist in top 30

Pearl Fincher Student Art Contest- Third Place in Middle School Division

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Glassell School of Art Portfolio Scholarship- Nine portfolio entries, seven scholarships to MFA, H Glassell School of Art, and a three year Advanced Placement scholarship

Jr. Visual Art and Scholastic Event- 114 awarded highest rating of four and fifteen Platinum Awards (top 10% of those receiving a rating of four) 

 

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