The document provides feedback from multiple school review meetings.
1) Communication and problem solving support from student services is working well, as is involving stakeholders in identification meetings. However, having resources for students who don't qualify for intensive support and solutions for extremely difficult behaviors is tricky.
2) Meetings could be improved by being tighter on roles and deadlines and providing more school-based support for differentiated instruction. One-shot professional development doesn't work and data like CAT4 is not always useful.
3) Identification meetings and the exemplary practice rubric are valuable, but the rubric language could be simplified with examples. Scheduling meetings after school limits participation, and balancing direct support with professional learning community
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
School review feedback april 2012
1. 2012 School Review Feedback
April 26th AM COMMENTS:
What’s Working:
As we’re evolving through the years and meeting in this capacity, we’re finding value in the
process of having discussions with other schools around service delivery
Communication is working well from Student Services and the problem solving approach used.
Feel supported with problem solving & finding solutions
Involving all stakeholders in ID Mtgs – teachers, PSPs, etc. Having good support from student
services in time of need.
Appreciate that we are sticking to the process of aiming for exemplary practice in areas of
service delivery as identified by the Ministry of Ed. – appreciate the transparency and openness
to feedback, and staying with this process instead of jumping on new initiatives
What’s Tricky:
Having resources/support for students who don’t qualify as students with intensive needs – the
diversity students that we still need to support
Having support/resources/solutions for students with extremely difficult behaviours so that it’s
not negatively impacting the learning environment for other students.
Parental involvement and support and the engagement/partnership of other agencies is still
difficult at times
What could be done differently:
Be tighter on roles and deadlines around ID Mtgs – schools & PSPs be prepared (schools get
paperwork in on time and PSPs have ideas to share)
Having more school-based support/knowledgeable personnel in schools regarding
Differentiated Instruction
We need to train schools in a common approach for proactively dealing with 80% of the
students – universal supports, effective environments
Take some things off our plate and need to do less initiatives better
One shot approaches to PD don’t work – ie one shot of RTI training in fall and then assuming
that schools are ready to use this info at the school level.
Train in teams or school-wide so that administrators aren’t solely responsible for sharing
information from inservicing such as PLCs
CAT 4 data is not usable in our school so we see no purpose in using it. We’ve developed a
school-based assessment that is more usable and effective in guiding programming.
2. We are data rich with F & P which gives us common language among teaching staff and don’t
need RAD 6...please throw that out!
April 26th PM COMMENTS:
What’s Working?
Appreciate the ID meetings and chance to work with our PSPs
Darran appreciated 3 ID Mtgs this year – good process for our classroom teachers to be part of it
– would jump at even more opportunities to engage in this
Excellent tool to identify and refocus where we are and where we should be headed regarding
exemplary practice – use this as a tool to make us better
This rubric is good for clarifying expectations and helping new staff know what we are aiming for
Don’t get rid of the CAT4; make it optional as some schools appreciate the info they gain from it
What’s tricky?
The rubric vocabulary is very wordy – needs unpacking/simplifying so that the language is clear
to all who read it, as it can be interpreted differently
Give concrete examples for the wordy definitions to help explain this better
What could be done differently?
Have PSPs block dates for school meetings in spring and fall to support PSP attendance at
student team meetings
Need to develop a communication structure regarding PSP communication with classroom
teachers – so they are aware of what is happening and can answer questions from parents
Would like time to have team meetings for student programming/transitioning in the first few
days back at school – would be nice if it wasn’t mandated what has to be done on all of these
days to leave time to have some planning meetings.
April 27th AM COMMENTS:
What’s Working:
Taking the time to discuss with staff and get their perspective; beginning the dialogue
The directives set out by the SSS were clear and helpful; this increased awareness of staff
Interdisciplinary consultation meetings are valuable and even more would be great
Allowing for time for SSTs to complete IIPs is a positive step
3. What’s Tricky:
Interdisciplinary meetings needs have more preparation before PSPs come to the school
Meeting often occur after school; this does not always allow the EAs to attend; schools could
put in requests for additional pay for EAs to attend after school
We need to consider the balance between PSPs attending meetings and providing direct service
to students
Balance between PSP PLC time and support in the school
What could be done differently:
PLCs for SSTs
Staffing component for classrooms is too low, putting too much responsibility on SSTs to teach
as well; they are wearing too many hats
Unpack the rubrics so they are easier to understand; put them in teacher-friendly language