STRATEGY
Harbor City High School East
"Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy"

Background. Our school's current performance on Maryland HSA and MSA state assessments requires immediate and long-range improvement in classroom teaching and student achievement. Moreover, our current student attendance patterns have an adverse impact on learning because they limit the instructional time available to help all students achieve passing standards on HSA assessments. In response, we have developed an Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy as our immediate approach to address these challenges in the 2006-2007 school year. The following "Work in Progress" resulted from this Pilot Project and will be updated and integrated into our school improvement plan for 2006-2009.
Purpose. Our Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy was developed to accomplish the following tasks:
  1. To define "Accelerated" as our way of prioritizing and increasing the quality and quantity of standards-based lessons and assessments delivered to our students in a semester-based framework to support success on HSA and MSA assessments.

  2. To focus students, teachers, and parents/guardians on the content standards our students must demonstrate to pass state tests and complete subject area credit requirements for high school graduation.

  3. To describe the specific components that comprise our Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy to account for student achievement through classroom teaching.

  4. To provide a way for our teachers to participate in developing and constantly improving the Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy based on our school's vision, mission, and assessment data.

  5. To establish the focus and instructional priority of our 2006-2007 school improvement plan.

Back to top
School-Wide Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy. Our Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy requires all teachers and administrators to participate in a school-wide implementation process. We have divided our school year into the following three phases for our School Improvement Team and Instructional Teams and each teacher to carry out this strategy.
  1. In Phase One (July and August), our Instructional Teams will help all teachers to:

    • Identify the scope and sequence of content standards to teach HSA subjects in the first semester. This means using core learning goals, expectations, indicators, and assessment limits to drive the selection and sequence of learning activities, formative assessments, and resources and not the scope and sequence of textbooks or other resource materials.

    • Plan and deliver start-up professional development sessions to support the Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy.

    •Others: ???

  2. In Phase Two (September, October, November, December, and January), our Instructional Teams will help all teachers to:

    • Plan, teach, assess, and analyze standards-based lessons on a weekly basis according to the scope and sequence developed in Phase 1.

    • Administer classroom BCRs and ECRs weekly, BCPSS benchmark assessments as scheduled, and HSA/MSA Assessments.

    • Plan and deliver on-going professional development sessions to support the Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy.

    • Collect samples of standards-based lessons, related student work, and performance profiles for student portfolios.

    • Others: ???

  3. In Phase Three (January, February, March, April, May, and June), our Instructional Teams will help all teachers to:

    • Adjust instruction and services based on assessment data and professional judgment from Phase 2.

    • Plan, teach, assess, and analyze standards-based lessons on a weekly basis according to the scope and sequence developed in Phase 1 and adjusted for the second semester.

    • Administer classroom BCRs and ECRs weekly, BCPSS benchmark assessments as scheduled, and HSA/MSA assessments.

    • Collect samples of standards-based lessons, related student work, and performance profiles for student portfolios.

    • Plan and deliver on-going professional development sessions to support the Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy.

    • Others: ???

Back to top
Expected Outcomes. The following outcomes are expected as a result of implementing the Accelerated Instructional Improvement Strategy to support standards-based instruction and assessment at Harbor City High School East by June 2007:
  1. A percentage increase in student achievement over our 2006 performance on HSA and MSA assessments, thereby meeting AYP for MSA and precluding a restructuring status for school improvement.

  2. A school-wide needs assessment process that focuses professional development on specific student academic, attendance, and inclusion needs; test performance; and requirements.

  3. A team approach representing all academic areas for developing standards-based-based lessons and assessments related to our vision of student learning and assessment results.

  4. Increased leadership and professional skills by lead content teachers to support the use of the web-based applications TaskBuilderOnline and eLearningTeacher by approximately (???) additional teachers to implement standards-based instruction and assessment in our school.

  5. Approximately (???) standards-based instruction and assessment lessons to correlate with our progress to increase student achievement (??? teachers x one prototype lesson x 9 months) developed, taught, scored, and analyzed by participating teachers during the 2006-2007 school year.

  6. Increased weekly use by teachers and administrators of computers connected to the Internet to demonstrate our commitment to access data quickly, develop lessons and tests, teach, assess, and communicate within the school and worldwide.

  7. A web site dedicated to instructional improvement for posting and seeking feedback about our school improvement plan, Instructional Team activities, standards-based lessons and assessments, and links to related resources.

Back to top