Carthage Intermediate Center (2024)

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

***PROMISING PRACTICES SCHOOL***

The Carthage Intermediate Center began the journey toward full implementation of the PLC process during the 2019-2020 school year. This was the school year before the district was going to implement a structural shift from a 5th and 6th grade school to a 4th and 5th grade school.  We used the PLC process as a strategy for developing our new school.  

The first thing we did was establish a guiding coalition that would shepherd the shift to the new configuration and support the implementation of the systems and processes necessary for a new school to thrive.  Once the Coalition was established, we worked to collectively develop a mission and vision for our building.  This process was time consuming, but highly focused on identifying our core values and developing a vision that is aligned to those values.

With the Mission and Vision firmly in hand, we set out to develop the systems and structures that would serve as supports for our new staff as we worked toward our vision.  Every system that was proposed was weighed against our mission and vision before implementation.  Once a system was ratified, it was put into place and the rationale was communicated to the rest of the staff, who had opportunities to reflect and respond to the proposed system.

What we learned through this process was the importance of the full staff having a voice in the process.  Our goal is for the entire staff to take on the mission and vision as their own.  As the years have progressed, we have always kept this measure front and center.

We maintain a focus on the PLC process in our daily lives through frequent collaboration around the four questions of what we want students to learn, how will we know they have learned it, what will we do when they don’t, and what will we do if they do?  

We also plan our collaboration meetings in advance and look for opportunities to highlight a focus on learning, collaborative culture and collective responsibility, and a results orientation.  We meet weekly to develop common assessments, review assessment data, and plan for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction.  

We have bolstered our content collaboration teams by including our special education and English language development teachers.  Their addition has led to positive changes to our general Tier 1 instructional planning and delivery.  These content collaboration teams have created a guaranteed and viable curriculum for Tier 1 by identifying priority standards, unpacking them and creating proficiency scales for each. 

With the exception of Guiding Coalition meetings, all of the above is done within the school day, utilizing a master schedule that was revamped to create protected and organized time for all three tiers of instruction, as well as time for collaboration amongst the hallways for Tier 2 and time for each content team to meet.

 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

To create a guaranteed and viable curriculum, our collaborative content teams started by mining through our state standards to identify a small number of “priority” standards each team would use to develop a guaranteed and viable curriculum. Each team proceeded to break down each priority standard through a common “unpacking” process. They identified learning targets and success criteria for each standard. This process allowed them to develop proficiency scales so all teachers had a common picture of what it means for students to show “proficiency” with each standard. It also allowed them to collectively identify prerequisite skills and vocabulary that could be used to frontload their instruction.

The next step in the process was to lay down the priority standards on an academic calendar. This “Curriculum Calendar” establishes the scope and sequence of the priority standards for each school year. Each team developed common unit assessments and established common testing protocols. These included things like when and how the test would be administered as well as when the data would be reviewed by the content team.

Each year, we revisit the priority standards and curriculum calendar to evaluate whether they require any rethinking or adjustment.

The staff at the Carthage Intermediate Center dedicate time every two weeks to review and revise curriculum based on assessment data derived from team developed common assessments. These common assessments were developed through a rigorous process of unpacking their priority standards and creating rigorous questions to assess student understanding of the concept. Our collaborative teams also use this data to determine interventions and extensions for their students.

Students are sorted into tier 2 learning groups every two weeks where they receive targeted instruction on the team selected grade level learning target. This instruction is done in smaller groups to allow teachers to intensify their instruction during this Tier 2 time. A posttest is given at the end of the two week cycle to monitor growth.

Student learning at the diagnostic level is also monitored regularly in our Tier 3 settings. This progress monitoring is conducted by the students’ Tier 3 interventionist. This can be a Special education teacher, an ELD teacher, a Title I teacher or Instructional Aide, or the classroom teacher. It depends on which of these interventionists is providing the below grade level skill gap intervention.

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

At the Carthage Intermediate Center, we have created a master schedule that embeds and protects time for all three tiers of instruction. During our Tier 2 time, we use data from our CFAs to create intervention and extension groups. The intervention groups provide targeted small group intervention on grade level skills for students who have not yet mastered the concept. Extension groups provide extension activities for students who have mastered essential standards of each cycle.

During our Tier 3 time, all students who are one or more grade levels below their current grade level receive an intensive intervention at their level. Tier 3 academic interventions are provided by special education teachers, ELD teachers, Title I teachers, and classroom teachers. Students who are at or above grade level receive individualized instruction on their specific levels. This instruction extends their learning and pushes them beyond the grade level standards. We utilize the iReady instructional pathway for this individualization two days per week. The rest of the week’s individualization comes from the classroom teacher and is based on each student’s “next steps” that are identified by our district diagnostic assessment.

As a part of our building PD plan, we provide professional development to our teaching staff on how to support our students identified as “gifted learners”, as well as other students identified as high achieving. Students identified as “gifted learners” receive a weekly lesson from our district gifted educator on SEL skills that are specific to their needs.

We also provide additional time for students to dive deeper into our physical education and fine arts curriculum and develop their passion in those areas. This “Encore Extension” time simultaneously provides teachers an opportunity to engage in the PLC process with their grade-level curriculum teams.

The CIC also institutes a House System focused on creating connections and reinforcing behavioral and SEL standards. As an extension of this, we provide responsive counseling services for all students demonstrating below grade level behaviors. Our Social/Emotional team also provides small groups and individual interventions, and SEL classroom support.

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

At the Carthage Intermediate Center, all members of the staff are part of a collaborative team. All certified teachers are part of a grade level collaborative team as well as a grade level curriculum team. All staff members are also a part of a “House” that works to build student capacity for Tier 1 behavior skills.
The district gifted teacher is a member of the Guiding Coalition and regularly collaborates with other buildings on gifted education and supporting high-achieving students in the district.

CIC ELD and Special Education teachers are involved in grade level collaborative meetings where they work to improve educational outcomes for all students by strengthening our Tier 1 instructional plans. Our general education staff members meet about our students with ELD and SPED specialists to work toward the goal of 100% of our students learning at high levels.

All teams analyze data against the building and district goals and identify students who are not making progress. Plans are made collaboratively to meet these needs in a continuous cycle of improvement.

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

The attached data is very exciting for us.  It represents steady improvement over the past three years of state and local assessment data.  While the steady improvement on these assessments is nice, we are also excited to share the impact of our practices on our state English Language Proficiency data, where in three years, we have gone from below the state average to well above the state average.  This improvement is directly related to our implementation of PLC practices within and amongst our collaborative teams.

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