Our journey began in July of  2016 when the Lillie J. Jackson leadership team (10 members) plus administration attended Solution Tree PLC at Work Institute in San Antonio.  We went in with the mindset that we needed to shift into a higher gear focusing on digging deeper into the guidelines and functioning as a high performing school.  This team of teacher leaders continued to meet over the summer and worked to take the information learned at the institute and design how that would look in Pre k.  

Before school started in August of 2016, the teacher leaders planned to introduce the entire staff to the PLC Framework sharing the benefits and structures we learned at PLC at Work.  

The team made the proposal, answered questions and gave the staff time to discuss and process the information.  Once we reached consensus, we explained that this is a journey, and we would be on it together.  Our first goal was to ensure our Mission and Vision truly reflected who we are and our purpose. 

One of our main focuses for the first year on our journey was to build a layer of trust with each other.  We felt this was important so we were open and vulnerable to share data and receive feedback from our team.  We got to know each other on a personal as well as a professional level, which helped us collaborate and truly become a team.  

After a year of PLC Lite, during the summer of 2017 we took an additional 12 teacher leaders that wanted to know more about the PLC process and were eager to help tighten up our process. During our August inservice, we took the time to disaggregate 2016 Data and trained the entire staff on SMART Goals Process. The staff wrote Campus SMART Goals and Started utilizing the book “Learning by Doing” in our Leadership meetings and excerpts from the book  to train the staff in September.  Each team met weekly to look at data, develop and schedule Common Formative Assessments and answer the PLC 4 Essential Questions. Based on BOY assessments, each team wrote a smart goal for their team based on campus goals.  Teams kept a data chart in their PLC room where each child’s scores, strengths and needs were listed.  One of our main campus goals was rote counting for all students, as it showed as our lowest area of growth.  After each formative assessment, the data wall was updated.  The campus leadership team met bimonthly and discussed campus data.  Based on this discussion, we made a plan for students that needed continued intervention and the effectiveness of our RtI process.  

We continued with this process, taking  a new set of teachers until 100% of our professional staff was trained by Solution Tree at PLC Institutes.  Along the way, we would take a step back and evaluate our process, and shift as needed.  We adopted the motto that this is a journey not a destination.  We continued to see progress, and continued to push forward.  As a campus leadership team, we decided on our essential standards and goals based on data trends.  The 4 Essential Questions were always the driving point of our work.  

In the fall of 2020, we had a leadership change and redesigned our Mission  and Vision that was more in line with our campus focus.  This involded making campus collective commitments.    

Vision

Student Learning, Student Experience, Community Engagement and Resource Stewardship. These guiding principles underscore our commitment to real innovation and limitless opportunity for each of our students.

Mission

All of our students enjoy thriving, productive lives in a future they create.

Our Collective Commitments consisted of making commitments as Leaders of Instruction, as Leader to our Students, to each other as Leader to Leader and also as Leaders of a Learning Community.  We uphold each of these commitments and hold each other accountable.   

In the Spring of 2020, we switched to virtual learning due to the pandemic.  With this change, our goals and focus for student success did not waver.  As a campus, we continued to meet and discuss student needs and how we would meet those needs.   In the Fall of 2021, student success was our focus but realized we must look at our data and differently and take a solid approach on how to close the gaps that our students were coming to school with.  We took a different approach to tracking our data and moved to a digital “data wall” and began to unpack a new curriculum.  Our continued focus has been to unpack the guidelines in order to come to a collective agreement on our essentials and how we would assess and instruct those guidelines as a campus, and not as teams to ensure a viable guaranteed curriculum.  

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Each year, we analyze student data and set  goals for our campus.  Each class keeps data on formative and summative assessments on a google doc that is shared.  We look at this during our data talks and ensure to answer the four questions based on our data.  As a campus, we discuss the Pre k Guidelines, and decide on which guidelines are Essential. We break them down and look at vertical alignment to see what the expectation for that guideline is for kindergarten.  Each month, we have data talks with our teams.  We have uniquely planned our teams to represent all students  due to the fact that our entire campus is Pre k.  On Tuesdays, we meet as teams and discuss our data on formative assessments, goals we have set for students, as well as our instructional designs.  

During this time, we discuss how our classes are performing as a whole as well as  individual learning.  Based on the data, we make a plan of intervention or extension.  Teams also plan our next formative assessment based on initial data and student need.  

As a campus, we meet weekly to collaborate on which Essential Standards will be taught, how the skills will be assessed, and how the assessment will be delivered.  As teacher teams, they collaborate on the assessments  in order to ensure that the assessment meets the criteria of  common formative assessment.  Following the formative assessment, the teams discuss data from the assessment during our data talk. Based on the data, we formulate a plan for students that need additional practice on each skill.  Our Pre k Instructional Framework allows for two small groups each day.  One of those small groups is  focused on introducing new material and the other is focused on students that need intervention or enrichment.  Each day, the framework has 100 minutes of center time where students explore and find activities that enrich their learning.  Teachers utilize this time daily to provide research based interventions to students.  Based on formative and summative assessments, as well as teacher observations, our teachers provide reteach or enrichment during Systems of Intervention and Extension during the built in additional small group time. 

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

Teachers track student data on a digital data wall.  The data that is tracked is based on our campus goals.  Teachers assess students at the beginning of the year and then set a goal for each student for the middle of the year.  Based on student data, teachers work in small groups or individually to reteach and reassess.  These students are put on an MTSS (multi system of student support) tier and an intervention plan is put into place.  Students that are in need of improvement after the first 9 weeks move to a tier 2 and we begin formal meetings with teachers and parents.  At this time, goals are set, interventions are documented and teachers are required to work with students 3-5 times per week on the goals set in MTSS.  

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

Starting in 2018, the shift of our PLC’s went to more of an individual student by student guideline by guideline focus instead of class or campus focused.  By analyzing individual student data and discussing each student’s needs and graphing their progress, we had a visual representation of where our focus was needed.  As teams, teachers discussed their class data and made a specific plan for students in need of intervention and extension.  

All teachers have attended a 3 days Solution Tree PLC at Work conference or Virtual PLC at Work.  In April of 2019, a group of teacher leaders attended the PLC 15 Day Challenge to ensure we were maximizing our time on learning.  

Our discussions are based around the 4 Essential questions. Each Monday, we meet as a campus to determine Essential Guidelines (standards) across the campus.  As a campus, we break down the standards, determine if it is a “Need to Know, Good to Know or Nice to Know”.  Teachers are provided an agenda for the meeting which tasks them to bring certain documents which could include student work samples, formative assessment data or curriculum materials.  The teachers do a deep dive into the curriculum and standards then have discussions based on the current data and set a course of action.  Based on this information, the teams meet on Tuesdays to discuss each standard and how it will be assessed, create formative standards (date, vocabulary and method of assessment) then how it will be taught.  This ongoing discussion allows teachers the opportunity to meet with teachers with a similar class make up (Bilingual, co-teach, ESL only) to analyze specific data and discuss individual student needs.  

Achievement Data Files

• 21_22-school_benchmark_growth_report.pdf
• school_average_growth_report.pdf
• circle_school_average_growth_report.pdf

2019 District Teacher of the Year Finalist

2021 District Assistant Principal of the Year Finalist

2022 District Principal of the Year 

May 2022 School of the Month 

Files

• boy-and-eoy-profile-data-2021-2022-xlsx--sheet1.pdf
• plc-s-a-journey-to-discovery.pdf
• examine-the-data-template-4114.pdf
• developmental-stages-of-writing.pdf
• entire-plan-w_-notes--addendums--2.pdf
• examine-the-data-template.pdf