Hello Mitchell School Improvement Team :-)
I think I am emailing the right group of people and you are interested in being a part of our team this year. If I am not correct, please forgive my error and let me know.
As I think you know, Mitchell School was audited this week by the Michigan Department of Education. In particular the audit covered the use of Title 1 and Title 3 funds in the school which are targeted to students who are not achieving and students who are English Language Learners (ELL).
Below is my update to staff about the audits:
What did they find? Some pretty good stuff, with a few suggestions and a couple "changes required" including:
Good stuff:
- 98% glowing things to say about the school and the work we've done/been doing to use data to make decisions about appropriate interventions
- They saw very appropriate relationship building with students in classes as they walked around
- They appreciated the perspective of parents and what they shared about their experiences at Mitchell
- They felt we (as a school) have embraced the achievement goals, are focused on teaming, are working to improve communication, and that we have a handle on compliance issues around Title 1 and Title 3.
Their recommendations (which are different than "changes required"):
- Collect agenda documents for any parent workshops
- Collect agenda documents when we talk about student achievement needs and interventions at staff meetings (especially if these conversations/discussions are led by Title 1 teachers)
Their notes about CHANGES REQUIRED:
- Make Title 1 entrance and exit requirements clear as written documents.
note: While I believe this is clearly defined by our use of achievement data and our actions, it has not been written down and so cannot be referenced. It is fixable.
This is the gist of what I expect in the written report . . . although I could have missed a few details. All in all, I anticipate the written report to be reflective of A LOT of good teaching and good practice at Mitchell.
As we go down the road to improving achievement at Mitchell, I hope you feel the same optimism I do about the possibilities. If you don't, I would hope you'd feel comfortable enough to talk it over with me and share your perspective.
Next steps (from my brainstorming so subject to change):
- Start school improvement process at Mitchell
- Revise Schoolwide Improvement Plan as needed through the use of our achievement data
- Connect our professional development and parent education work with the revised plan
- Encourage connections between the plan and the work of the Mitchell Scarlett TLC.
SIT members: I'll be in touch soon to schedule our first face to face School Improvement Team meeting.
If you have questions, please send them my way :-)
Sincerely,
Kevin
