High school and Birchland Park establish school improvement plans

Date: 11/2/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor

Last week, The Reminder reported on the School Improvement Plans (SIPs) for Mountain View, Meadow Brook and Mapleshade elementary schools for the 2009-10 school year. This week, we look at Birchland Park Middle School and East Longmeadow High School.

Kathleen Hill, principal of Birchland Park Middle School, set her school apart this autumn by naming four SIP goals for the upcoming academic year while other administrators set three.

Hill noted that the first two goals respond specifically to issues with Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) not being achieved, according to goals outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act.

"The goals are to improve student achievement," she said. The first goal, to increase the math scores in a specific subgroup, will result in those students needing help attending a second math course during a school day because doing so in the past has led to "drastic improvements," according to Hill. This is the second year of this implementation.

English Language Arts scores also could be improved, so the middle school will begin offering an after-school program for students who need help. A second class couldn't be added, like in math, due to a lack of faculty.

The third goal is to improve differentiated learning in the school. "Teachers will be taking a year to study differentiated instruction," Hill explained. "They learn how to judge each student's strengths and then teach to that." In layman's terms, a differentiated classroom will have students who need improvement receiving a certain type of instruction while those who may be ahead of the curve receive a different type of instruction -- all on the same subject.

The fourth goal is one Hill said she is really excited about focusing on parent outreach to enhance school-home communication.

Birchland Park recently signed up for Edline, a Web-based service that allows teachers and parents to log in from any computer and see what homework is due and view progress reports and the school saves "a large chunk of money and paper by posting the newsletter there," according to Hill.

She added that the middle school's site is still a work in progress, adding that she thinks the other East Longmeadow schools will jump in on Edline eventually.

Parents are invited to visit www.eastlongmeadowma.gov/schools.htm and click on Birchland Park Middle School to see the Edline site.

At the high school, Principal Richard Freccero continued a goal from last year, implementing the second part of a U.S. history course in preparation of a social studies MCAS test.