Summary of Report Card Essay Example

Summary of Report Card Essay Example Summary of Report Card Essay Summary of Report Card Essay State Report Card Assessment Name: Instructor: State Report Card Assessment Summary of Report Card The Arbor Hill Elementary School located in Albany uses report cards to evaluate the progress of students during their study period. The school is administered by a Board of Regents who uses this assessment tool in a significant way to improve the learning standards for all learners. The report cards offer a wealth of information to the parents on the condition of elementary school using the federal and state accountability systems, on learner progress, and other measures used to evaluate the performance in the district and school. Knowledge obtained from the Arbor Hill report card is varied, detailed and important in enriching the instruction process among students. There are three main sections of the Arbor Hill Elementary School Report Card. The first part of the report card contains information on the school. The school profile contained information on the rate of enrollment of students from pre kindergarten to grade 12. From the records, it was evident that there was a steady increase in the enrollment rate from 231 in 2008 to 363 in 2011. The average class size also increased significantly from 14 in 2008 to 21 in 2011. This first section also contained information on the demographic factors including students who were eligible to have free meals, student stability and other statistics. The attendance and suspension statistics revealed information on the number of children who attended classes and those who were penalized through suspensions. Apart from these aspects, the other subsections included teacher qualifications, staff counts and the teacher turnover rates. The second section of the report card handles the accountability issues in the school. In this section, the requirements for the school of testing proficiency in mathematics, English language and another indicator are outlined. The proficiency parameters included criterion for participation and performance. The last section outlines the academic performance of the school and included records from the 2010-2011 academic years. The performance was categorized according to the three subjects: mathematics, English language and science. This data was presented in the form of graphs and tables that analyzed all the grades in the school. This summary and analysis of the report cards displays the extent to which valuable information can be gleaned from children’s activities at the school. Student Development Program Introduction This intervention program document provides direction on the best approach to develop and revise any plans for student improvement such as Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA). Although schools and districts in Albany may have different names for this plan document, this plan offers details that are necessary for improving subject performance among students in all schools. This document also offers instruments for formulating and reviewing the SPSA, including sections that assist in aligning the costs with the allocated funds awarded to Arbor Hill Elementary School and a yearly assessment form. Seven Recommended Steps for Developing the School Intervention Plan Apart from accomplishing the essential parts that appear in all school plans, the school intervention plan must satisfy the precise necessities of each definite program running in the school. The school intervention plan entails a constant formulation, execution, and observation cycle. The starting and completion date of the yearly planning cycle is a domestic decision. Nevertheless, every institution needs to implement an approved plan that will guide the operations within the school. The seven steps of this constant cycle are: Analyzing the student progress information The school intervention plan is based on analysis of data retrieved from students’ activities and other tests and evaluations such as the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessments and other federal assessments. Using this information from several grades, the LEA and SSC can retrieve numerous data on student weaknesses, individual contributions and teachers’ flaws. Measuring effectiveness of current academic strategies at Arbor Hill Elementary School The school needs to carry out a needs assessment that will determine the effectiveness of the current instructional program. The results of the needs assessment will be evaluated against state tools such as Academic Program Surveys that will establish whether the program is relevant or not. Establishment of key goals and improvement strategies The school should come up with realistic and achievable objectives and targets concerning the intervention program. These objectives should be in line with the LEA goals but still reflect the interests of the school. Defining the timelines, costs and funding procedure Each of the goals set by the school requires a similar action prescribed by the SSC and LEA. Apart from an action, each goal also requires to b allocated to an individual who will be responsible for its completion, the source of funding and the costs involved. Recommending the reading intervention plan to the board After all the relevant committees have assessed and reviewed the document, they present the document to the local governing board who conduct their own evaluation. This evaluation is important, as it will determine whether the document will be approved for implementation or it will be faulted. The board assesses the document for several elements including proper constitutions, legal validity and ascertaining whether all the necessary programs were included in the document. Planned Development in Student Performance The Arbor Hill Elementary School has assessed the educational performance of all learning groups and has taken in mind the efficiency of vital elements of the teaching program for students that failed to achieve the academic performance index benchmark and satisfactory annual progress growth goals. Consequently, the school has adopted several objectives, related measures, and expenditures to improve the educational performance of learners that failed to achieve the state standards. One of the goals for THE Local Education Authority (LEA) can be to ascertain that all students would attain proficiency in English language Arts by 2014. The goal for Arbor Hill Elementary School can be to improve the school’s proficiency average to 70% or more. These goals were set after analyzing data from the District ELA Benchmark Assessments. Improvements across the whole school in understanding comprehension were realized over a period of three years under the intervention program. However, accomplishments for the English students group in understanding comprehension has remained constantly dismal, particularly for learners at the CELDT transitional and premature advanced stages, based on analysis of CST results. The Arbor Hill Elementary School will evaluate the status of the objective on a monthly basis. More of this evaluation process will be elaborated in the strategy section. The strategy for the school to implement the plan to improve academic performance is to implement an institution-wide studying intervention program to tackle the academic needs of readers who are weak as categorized by district benchmark assessments. The literacy team members are responsible for determining weak readers and identifying, assessing and choosing an academic intervention programs that are developed for the individual literacy requirements of English learners and weak students and will include continuing evaluations of student development. The exact responsibilities of the literacy team are to gather and scrutinize summative and formative information on ELA issues at the school and district level. A minor function of the literacy team is to recognize learners from each grade who required reading interventions and their specific literacy requirements. The next step is the implementation and assessment of the intervention program. This part of the program will be administered by a joint effort consisting of the literacy team and the leadership team. While it is headed by a joint team, the two parties have separate roles in the implementation stage. The literacy team is charged with the responsibility of formulating reading intervention resources and materials. It is also charged with acquiring complementary instructional materials and standard evaluations. Consequently, the leadership team is responsible for developing intervention program targets, service models, and instruction and learning expectations and results. They are also responsible for analysis and evaluation of district standardized benchmark assessments and intervention programs. The assessment of the intervention program will be conducted on several stages. On a daily basis, the instructors should offer additional reading material and attention for students who are below average or intermediate. On a weekly basis, the teams in charge of all the grades will have collaborative meetings where they engage in analysis of the data collected from the intervention program and develop action plans using the outcomes from these analyses. The program being implemented will also be evaluated on a monthly basis. Finally, on an annual basis, the teams will evaluate the intervention program objectives and determine if they were being realized or if the whole program was a failure. Within the intervention plan, several programs that make the plan more effective are include. These programs are implemented at the state and federal level and are detailed in nature. Examples of these programs include peer assistance, economic aid, violence prevention and drug abuse. Evaluation Process The state has outlined the measures to be taken when handling planned activities and this includes evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention program on an annual basis. This evaluation program is important as it will release data on the program and pave the way for other subsequent programs. These state bodies include School Site Council (SSC) and the Local Education Agency (LEA) who offer investigation and review the services of the intervention program before making recommendations on its validity and continuity. Through this evaluation process, schools such as Arbor Hill Elementary School can determine the weak points within their program and strive to refine their system. Typically, the reports from these institutions may include the degree of achievement of goals and the comparison with state and national standards. However, both the LEA and SSC have to be careful in making conclusions from the evaluations they perform. They should consider all the relevant elements that can influence the success of the intervention plan such as the level of change in enrollment and the degree of implementation. The proper implementation of the reading intervention plan will benefit the students by increasing their level of understanding and ease the instructors’ burden in the classroom.