Board of education considers District Improvement Plan | News … – warrenrecord.com

During its meeting Tuesday night, the Warren County Board of Education was expected to vote on a proposed District Improvement Plan to increase student achievement while also considering a number of other factors, including the social and emotional well-being of students and staff members.

The district plan builds upon an existing plan with a goal that by 2028, 80 percent of students will demonstrate proficiency as measured on state assessments. This plan was developed with a focus on helping students both academically and socially/emotionally after they had been out of the classroom for an extended time during the pandemic.

The District Improvement Plan which the board of education considered on Tuesday focuses on building upon existing strengths while helping local schools that received a performance grade of D or F rise out of low performing status as measured by the State Board of Education.

Background

Dr. Kisha Clemons, Warren County Schools’ chief academic officer, presented a draft District Improvement Plan for 2023-24 to the board on Oct. 24. She indicated that the local school system is making progress as measured by state assessments and other data:

• Exceeded district benchmark goal for cohort graduation rate

• Warren County High School increased its graduation rate by 18.9 percentage points, from 56.1 to 75

• Warren Early College High School received a performance grade of A

• Warren Early College and Warren New Tech High School exceeded growth.

• Vaughan Elementary School increased its school performance grade from F to D

• Increase in proficiency in all metrics (or subjects included on state tests), except science (grades 5 and 8)

• English II and biology have met or exceeded growth for the past two years

• A 5.15 percent increase in the nontraditional enrollment (Career and Technical Education)

School performance measures for 2022-23 indicated that Vaughan Elementary School and Warren County Middle School met growth. However, in addition to Vaughan, Warren County High School received a performance grade of D. Mariam Boyd and Northside elementary schools, and WCMS received performance grades of F. Warren New Tech High School received a performance grade of C, but that school merged with Warren County High School at the start of the current school year.

A state requirement

According to information made available to the public on the Warren County Schools website, warrenk12nc.org, most of the schools in the district, or 83 percent, have been designated as low performing by the North Carolina State Board of Education. State law requires the State Board of Education to classify schools as low performing if they receive a performance grade of D or F, regardless of whether or not they met expected growth.

Because most schools in the district were classified as low performing, the State Board of Education has designated Warren County Schools as a low-performing district. The school system notes that all low performing districts in the state are required to develop an improvement plan “that specifically addresses how the district will improve both the school performance grade and school growth score of each low-performing school, and how the superintendent and other central services administrators will work with each low-performing school and motor the low-performing school’s progress.”

The District Improvement Plan

Information about the draft District Improvement Plan included on the Warren County Schools website states that the school system’s goal “is to improve each school’s performance and growth score to ensure all of our schools are no longer designated as low-performing.”

During her presentation in October, Clemons described a number of areas on which Warren County Schools continues to focus as being critical components of the district plan:

• Refine core instruction: Renew the focus on core content by building instructional leadership and capacity in the schools.

• Expand pathways to success: Provide students with meaningful learning opportunities and training experiences to prepare them for college or a career.

• Manage mental and emotional health: Improve the capacity to identify, assess, and respond to student mental, behavioral, and social-emotional needs.

• Create conditions for employees to thrive: Make Warren County Schools a desirable and sustainable career path for current and future employees.

• Build community trust and confidence: Develop, communicate, and implement an education strategy that incorporates the values and meets the unique needs of the community to naturally secure strong student enrollment.

Clemons noted that the District Improvement Plan focuses on the following priorities in order to improve student outcomes:

• Strengthening the school/district improvement process (Making sure that the vision and mission statement align with what is going on in the classroom every day.)

• Recruit, support, and retain high quality staff

• Ensuring high quality education in every classroom, and monitoring instruction to assess impact on student learning (This priority will include monitoring the impact of instruction on student learning in order to be able to offer professional development for teachers and other school staff to help them improve instruction.)

• Provide all students with access to multiple pathways

• Build educators’ capacity through various professional development opportunities

• Utilize a variety of services and supports to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of students

Information about the District Improvement Plan on the school system website indicates that Warren County Schools currently offers the following opportunities for students:

• Leader in Me Schools (Vaughan Elementary School and Warren County Middle School), which are structured around the principles that everyone can be a leader, everyone has exceptional talent, we can empower students to lead their own learning, and we must support students’ social and emotional needs as much as their academic needs. This model is designed to create a culture of leadership among students and staff.

• Spanish Immersion School (Northside Elementary School), where students are taught in both English and Spanish, learning a language and culture they may not otherwise understand. The program is designed to teach students a foreign language while strengthening their understanding of their native language.

• Warren Early College High School, which provides students the opportunity to earn college credits and associate degrees while still in high school, without having to pay college tuition.

• Google School (Mariam Boyd Elementary School), which teaches digital competency, the efficient use of technology, and introduces students to experiences and learning opportunities that are only available online. The Google technology program enhances traditional face-to-face teaching and learning.

• Space Force JROTC (Warren County High School), which is the second in the country and one of a few in the nation selected to switch from Air Force to Space Force. Students have the opportunity to learn about aerospace, military protocols, engineering, critical thinking, and problem solving.

• SparkNC partnership (Warren County High School), which allows high school students to explore a variety of high-tech careers, including artificial intelligence, gaming, software development, computer systems engineering, and cybersecurity while they earn high school credit and make professional connections for future employment.

The information that Warren County Schools provides online encourages parents to follow their student’s academic progress and work with their teachers to help ensure that they stay on track academically.

To find more information about Warren County Schools’ District Improvement Plan, visit the school system website at warrenk12nc.org. Click on Menu. Under the Academics and Curriculum heading, click on District Improvement Plan.