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Date: 1/22/2019
WEST SPRINGFIELD – According to state law, school districts are required to create a District Improvement Plan (DIP) every three years outlining their aspirations to improve the performance of the district and its schools – and the West Springfield Public Schools District is no exception.
From 2018 to 2021, WSPS plans on honing in on a variety of key components, including topics like English learners, special education, social-emotional learning, modes of communication with families and alternative pathways to graduation – there are six strategic objectives in total.
The district plans on funding these initiatives through the regular budget, explained WSPS Superintendent Michael Richard.
“Our objectives are being funded though the regular budget process in terms of if we need to hire additional staff or implement programs with staff we have – we’re using existing funding or making limited instances with additional requests to the school committee and town council for appropriations,” he said. “But that’s still months off in terms of when we’ll be doing those next steps.”
The 2018-2021 plan was assembled in August of this year by its District Improvement Plan Team – which consists of members from area schools, Health Services and the superintendent – and is still in the early stages of planning.
To learn more about the six objectives, and how the district plans on accomplishing them, Reminder Publishing sat down with leading members of the DIP team to take a closer look into the mechanics behind the process.
The following is a broken down, summarized version of the first three objectives. The remaining three will be released next week as the second part of this series.
Objective 1: The English Learner (EL) program will be aligned to comply with policies and laws while ensuring that programming and curriculum are consistent with established standards relative to Special Education, rigorous instruction and non-traditional pathways
On Nov. 22, 2017, Governor Charlie Baker signed An Act relative to language opportunity for our kids (LOOK) into law. Broadly, the LOOK Act aims to give more flexibility to districts in terms of having the ability to choose different language acquisition programs that best fit the needs of their students.
It also seeks to ensure accountability for “timely” and “effective” learning of the language.
“If you go back to what’s been happening since 2011, the state of Massachusetts was noted as a failing state when it came to this population [English learners] of students,” said WSPS Director of English Language Learners Sharlene DeSteph. “Now, we’re increasing again how we look at English language learners – and their education – by the LOOK ACT.”
As a response to the Act, WSPS plans on implementing a few changes in order to get up-to-speed with the newly mandated regulations.
One of the changes is to incorporate a monitor system that tracks English learners’ progress from one ACCESS year to the next – ACCESS stands for the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State for English Language Learners test, and assesses students in listening, speaking reading and writing.
Students who are deemed as needing extra assistance will be placed in a specialized student success plan, said DeSteph.
“The state is hoping that, within six years, all of our English learners will be out of the ESL [English as a Second Language] program and be successful in the mainstream,” she added.
The district is also in the process of creating an English Learner Parent Advisory Council (ELPAC), which will include parents and guardians of English learners. The first ELPAC meeting is scheduled for February, and will “bring English learner parents into the district and get them comfortable, while having them have input in the future programming.”
Objective 2: The District will design a systematic student support model which encompasses the five core competencies to address the social-emotional, behavioral, academic and language needs of all students
The second objective surrounds social emotional learning (SEL), which is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions – also known as the “five core competencies.”
WSPS plans on taking a closer look at the district’s current social-emotional support systems in conjunction with its Instructional Support Team (IST) model – a tiered system of support designed to identify a student’s needs for academic or behavioral support – and assess where improvements might need to be made.
Instructional Support is a process designed to maximize individual student success, while also serving as a screening process for students who may be in need of specialized education services.
It uses specific assessment and intervention techniques to help remove educational or behavioral stumbling blocks for all students in the regular classroom.
The WSPS district is currently in the process of assembling its Instructional Support Team, which will work to identify a student’s needs and develop intervention plans.
“The goal is to redesign our behavioral and academic review of individual students so that we can provide real clear, concise supports for those students,” said WSPS Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Tim Connor. “This is something the district has always been involved with, but as the population evolves, as needs evolve, as society evolves, it’s time for us to look at what we currently have for structures around supporting students.”
The team will meet for the first time on Feb. 5.
Objective 3: The District will expand the implementation of the inclusionary model in West Springfield that emphasizes both a common understanding of rigor and strategies to increase student engagement
When it comes to administering special education, a few different approaches are available.
While some teachers may prefer taking special education students outside of the classroom to focus on individual skills, more and more schools are swaying toward co-taught inclusionary models – including WSPS.
Co-teaching pairs special education and regular teachers together in a classroom to share the responsibilities of planning, instructing and assessing students – allowing special education students to stay in the regular education classroom, explained WSPS Administrator of Special Services Kathryn Mahony.
Under the current District Improvement Plan, the district hopes to implement more co-taught models in and around its schools.
“Over the last four years, the state, and others who have done research in the field of instructional practice, have really found there are much stronger outcomes for students who are kept in a regular education setting. Every time you take a student out of the classroom, they’re missing out on something that’s happening in the classroom,” said Mahony. “You might take them out to work on a particular skill, but they’re missing the global content area.”
The district currently has co-teaching at Fausey Elementary School in grades 2, 3, 4 and 5, and at Memorial Elementary School in grades 4 and 5.
The West Springfield Middle School has moved to a fully inclusive practice, meaning all of its grades are co-taught.
In wrapping up the first part of this series, Connor added that the first three objectives of the District Improvement Plan all touch on areas of student support services.
“If you look at the first three objectives, they’re all about student support,” he said. “Whether it be the English learner population, or the inclusion of students with special needs. What we’re trying to do here is knock down the barriers and be more inclusive with the entire population in those first three [objectives], and that goes into behavior as well.”
Reminder Publishing will release a follow up story next week highlighting the remaining three objectives included in the plan.