In May of 2018, John R. Good received its state assessment results for the 2017-2018 school year.  It was to receive an F rating and become Improvement Required by the Texas Education Agency. Making matters worse, it was also going to be labeled a Comprehensive campus because it ranked in the bottom 5% in the state for closing achievement gaps and low student growth.  

Having been part of the new administration that joined the John. R. Good family in June of 2018, we quickly realized that the culture at Good was second to none. The staff treated each other like family.  They cared for one another and ensured that the children were loved. The only thing missing was the true work it takes to function as a PLC. 

The first step was create John R. Good’s Guiding Coalition. Knowing that the foundation of an effective PLC lies within the four pillars, the guiding coalition came together to find clarity in it's collective purpose and what they were prepared to do in order to accomplish and attain it.  Having come together and established their purpose, they guided the rest of the faculty in this endeavor. Collectively they came up with would be become John R. Good’s mission, vision, shared values, and goals.  The mission and vision is now recited daily as part of our morning broadcast announcements as well as revisted during faculty meetings when teachers are asked to write on a sticky note how they have helped support the school's mission and vision within the past month 

The next step for the guiding coalition was to target where changes were needed. They began the process of conducting a needs assessment utilizing the 3 Big Ideas of a PLC as the driving force: Focus on Learning; Building a Collaborative Culture; Focus on Results. Through this process the team identified that the biggest obstacle they were facing was building a true collaborative culture and a focus on results. 

In years prior, John R. Good had already started it’s PLC journey and created systems that allowed teachers to meet in collaborative teams.  However, what had taken place during these team times was the opposite of what it means to take collective responsibility and work together to establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum.  Due to Good’s performance decline over previous years, district coaches had taken over their collaborative team times and isolated the development of what students were to learn and how they were to be assessed. Albeit done with the best of intentions, teachers felt they no longer had a voice in the planning process.

To address that issue teacher teams developed norms that fostered the expectations of working within a collaborative team: to achieve a common goal; The TEAM establishes what students will learn NOT an individual; develop assessments to gather data; intervene and extend as needed.

These norms were shared with all support staff that took part in their collaborative team time making sure that everyone shared the same common goal and understanding.  In many instances, district coaches took part in the development of those norms. From this point forward true collaboration started to take form. 

In 2018-2019 John R. Good went from a 55 TEA rating to an 83 with a distinction in academic growth.  

In 2021-2022 John R. Good went from a 83 rating to an 85 with a distinction in academic growth.

You can not attribute the success of our campus on one adjustment. Many changes that have taken place at John R. Good have proved beneficial. However, most of the success that was accomplished in one year can attributed to the power that comes from working together as a campus PLC and the belief that together students will achieve. 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Several systems were put in place four years ago that support our monitoring of student learning as an ongoing process every week. These systems continue today with minor adjustments made along our PLC journey.

Development and Creation of Essential Standards

At the end of each school year our guiding coalition meets for two days to plan for the following school year based on data and survey results of the current school year.  One of the items to review are our essential standards. They make adjustments to which standards we target based on end-of-year data.  This sets the foundation for all future planning.  Teams will use these essential standards to create their common formative assessments or exit tickets. Teams will also use these essential standards to create their beginning of the year diagnostic for both reading and math.  This diagnostic then becomes the driving force for our small group lesson plans. 

Collaborative Team and Student Learning

Before the school year starts, grade level teams meet to develop their norms and develop SMART goals for both our state assessments and district assessments.  They then create their collaborative team time agenda that includes the norms they created and expectations from each contributing member. 

They come together every Thursday for collaborative team time. This time time is sacred and dedicated for teams to go through the four critical questions of a PLC:

• What do we want all students to know and be able to do?
• How will we know if they learn it?
• How will we respond when some students do not learn?
• How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

As part of their collaborative team agenda, all teams are expected to review student data to start the team time. This ensures that student learning is being monitored at all times. However this depends on the team's pacing guide. There may times when no formative assessment is available.  If so, they may be focused on different aspects of the 4 questions.  Some teams may working through question 1 while other teams will be look into reteach material for those who didn't learn the material. They then link this analysis back to their beginning of the year diagnostic and make notes in their data trackers when students have mastered a skill they missed on the diagnostic. 

As a result of these meetings teams will have created either student learning for the following week, reteach material, or extensions for those who demonstrated mastery. 

Collaborative Team Time for Specials Team

Starting in 2020-2021 Good's specials team began the process of incorporating other content area vocabulary into their lessons.  When they meet for collaborative team they review the upcoming lessons for reading or math for all grade levels and then teach those terms within their lessons. 

 

 

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

Good's Good Time Intervention

Another major adjustment that was made 4 years ago was the school's master schedule. The guiding coalition realized that there was no dedicated time on the master schedule for RTI and small group instruction.  They felt it was extremely important that if we wanted to be intentional about closing gaps we needed to be intentional about the time we provide Tier 3 and small group instruction. 

The first step was to identify and note on the master schedule the small group instruction blocks for every grade level for both reading and math. Nothing else was to be taking place during these times except targeted small group instruction. 

We then established and listed on the master schedule "Good Times", our school's RTI time. For the last hour of the day all non-classroom staff push into classrooms to provide targted instruction for Tier 3 students. This included our fine arts and P.E. teachers. This provided us approximately 20 people to send accross campus to help and support. 

For grades 3rd-5th, identified students reported to the cafeteria to work with their tutor. Not only did this approach target specific students on specific skills, it also communicated to the entire staff that collectively we would help improve student learning. 

Our master schedule is also designed so that our instructional support staff provide push-in support to teachers during their small group or guided reading blocks. 

 

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

In the Fall of 2017, our Guiding Coalition created our Professional Promises. These clarified our purpose, vision, values, and goals. Every year, our staff and faculty evaluate and recommit to our Professional Promises to emphasize the correct task. We also utilize this as part of our interview process to ensure that we hire people who believe in and support our mission. Our Professional Promises also assist us in holding one other mutually accountable for excellent levels of student learning.  

John R. Good Elementary Professional Promises

Campus Mission: At John R. Good Elementary our mission is to create a community that is Prepared, Respectful, demonstrates Integrity and Diligence, and strives for Excellence.

Vision Statement:

Working interdependently within a safe learning environment to ensure growth for 

every child.

Another system that was put in place 4 years ago was our school's DDI process. Every two weeks teams must meet with admin to share out two weeks worth of data along with their analysis of that data utilizing the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) matrix.  This matrix was designed so that it ecompasses the same components from a PLC DDI meeting. 

During the Strenghts and Weaknesses portion teachers must touch upon the following items:

Reflection on Previous DDI Meeting:● How did previous action steps work? What needs to continue? What needs to be changed?

Data Analyzed: Celebration(s):● What is going well?

Places for Improvement:● What areas were shown to be in need of improvement?

Trend to address:● Of these needs, what 1 specific area will we address?

Reflection: ● What is the reason for the trend? ● How do you know this (assessment data)?

During the Opportunities section of our DDI teachers must provide the plan which includes several of the topics below.  It is during this time that teachers also get to request help/support/development, schedule observations and modeling lessons that directly tie into a weakness they are experiencing in their instruction.

Action Steps: ● Who is going to do what? ● When and where will the strategies be implemented? ● Who will be impacted by these strategies? ● How will you assess your action?

The Threats component of SWOT ties into the DDI protocol below.  

Department/Building Goal Reflection: ● How will this impact your department goal and our building goals?

It is through our SWOT analysis that teachers are able to share out what they are doing well and where the gaps are. As they share out these weaknesses or strenghts, it gives their colleagues the chance to provide support or request support from somone who demonstrated a strength. This is also when we invite district coaches to come and provide insight on other methods to teach a lesson. 

Integrated into the "Opportunities" section of SWOT teachers can request prescriptive trainings they'd like to attend based on data.  It can range from classroom management to trainings like Accelerate to Educate that my teams requested this past  year.

Good Time Planning

This is an extra hour of planning that is provided to teachers every two weeks so that they focus solely on the unpacking of standards and the creation of their CFA's.  This approach as proven to be very effecitive as evidence by our strong increases in our districts universal screener MAP.  Pandemic data aside, our campus has demonstrated tremendous growth compared to the year it went Improvement Required.    

 

 

Snapshot of a TRUE campus PLC…

1. A emphasis on learning for the benefit of all

2. A culture where teachers and students work together to ensure that all students succeed.

3. Examining the best practices and current reality as a group

4. Orientation through action: active learning

5. Defining the essential knowledge that each student must acquire

6. Responding consistently when students do and do not learn

7. An unwavering dedication to improvement

8. RESULT-FOCUSED, not INTENTION-FOCUSED

Valued characteristics of a Canyon Pointe Collaborator:

• Collaboration: Active listener, shares information, keeps team accountable for all kids' progress, fulfills collective commitments, provides value to good culture, follows through on expectations, maintains a problem-solving attitude.
• Instructing: A thorough understanding and knowledge of TEKS allows teachers to identify and unpack essential learning targets, differentiate instruction to meet the academic needs of all students, align resources, develop common formative assessments, and use data to drive reflective teaching practices.
•  Conduct Governance: Understanding and compassionate, consistent in standards, tough but caring, specific education in social skills, fosters empathy and collaboration in students, and provides a classroom climate and culture in which all kids feel valued.
• Professional Behaviors: Prepared and ready to go the extra mile for students, dependable and trustworthy, compassionate and loyal. Maintains a professional manner and attitude, receives and responds to feedback properly, and treats all stakeholders with decency and respect.
• Professional Beliefs: Having a growth mindset means believing that all kids can achieve high levels of achievement, valuing open communication, working together as a team, and having a servant's heart and a focus on the needs of the students.

Achievement Data Files

• good-k2-eoe-data-4468.xlsx
• good_map_data-3-5-316.xlsx

Additional Achievement Data

Our culture of continuous improvement is evident in our collaborative team meetings.  Last year, specifically in Kindergarten, we had to revisit the purpose of working as a collaborative team and collective learn, understand, and refocus our efforts to better meet the needs of our students.  With support from our campus instructional leaders, we helped to reframe their collaborative time to be more data-driven and learner focused.  

Another example is our second-grade team.  When planning as a grade level, they look at the math common formative assessments, analyze the data during the following planning meeting, and as a team, we look at specific TEKS from the assessment that aligns with the instructional plans for the teacher to implement immediately with the students to cover TEKS they struggled with.  Before teachers give the assessment, we look at the questions to make sure the tier one instruction will cover how the questions are asked on the assessment. 

John R. Good is facilitating a culture of continuous improvement not only on our campus but in our district as well. Our guiding coalition is derived from a representative from each grade level, SPED, specials, counselor, and all of the instructional support team. This group meets every six weeks to discuss the needs of their teams. Campus leadership utilizes this information to drive campus-level decisions

Our guiding coalition focuses on the SWOT results from our collaborative team meetings.  During the monthly data talks, all involved offer instructional support and mentoring targeted to specific students on identified needs.  This also includes celebrations!  The Greater Good celebrates growth in these data talks.  Our guiding coalition team members follow up with teachers in areas of opportunities as well.  All  teachers have paras and support staff personnel support with instruction – small group push-in and pull-out.  These groups are created using formative and summative data to meet the students where they are – whether for the intervention or enrichment.  The focus is on all students’ and teachers’ growth. First-year teachers are provided mentors to support them with both curricular and SEL support. Teachers get to observe colleagues better themselves with instructional and classroom management needs. We all work together for the Greater Good!  Specific Professional Development opportunities that teachers attended or were provided as a result of collaborative team decisions include small group reading, Foundational Literacy skills including a scope and sequence for phonics instruction  (English and Spanish), data collection, and creating instructional plans based on specific data. 

For the 2021 - 2022 school year, our school district has moved away from campuses following the district-created lesson plan to a more autonomous approach,  allowing our campus to determine whether teachers should create their own lessons or follow district-created material.  Now the responsibility for creating and the assessment of the effectiveness of the lesson will rest solely on the campus.  Our teachers are ready due to the work we have done within our collaborative team time and the shared commitment to results for the Greater Good. 

Systems used in place.

-          Essential standards – presentation and doc used by teachers

-          SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats matrix)

-          Pacing Guides

-          Campus Professional development

-          Weekly planning meeting agendas created by grade-level teams

-          Data trackers

-          Teacher created Common formative assessments

-          Intervention schedules based off data from common assessments 

 

There are 6728 elementary schools

We were in the bottom 5%  - that is in the 336 lowest schools in TX!

Due to Closing the Gaps Domain III 

We were on track to get ourselves out this past year, however, COVID 19 disrupted all state testing. We were poised to no longer have that label, and be very close to an “A” rating, however with no testing, we have to keep the same status from the year before -

From Improvement Required to Recognized and received a Distinction in Growth within one school year! 

STAAR isn’t our only measure of success.  

Over 80% of our Tigers improved in their reading levels.

The Percentage of Tigers meeting their growth targets in MAP (universal screener) improved in every grade level for all contents!

Work interdependently as collaborative teams

Be accountable to yourself and your team

Be self-reflective 

Ensure GROWTH for every child

Let’s Have fun!

 

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Files

• teacher-analysis-good-elementary.xlsx
• contreras-data-tracker.xlsx
• weekly-tek-assessments.xlsx