Pulaski County Special School District

Student Achievement Improvement Initiative

Dr. Don Henderson, Superintendent of Education

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·        Educational Accountability

§         Educational Accountability monitors and analyzes district and school-level improvement using data from:

§         Desegregation Plan 2000

§         Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced tests

§         Enrollment

§         Disciplinary reports

§         Graduation and retention rates

• Division of Learning Services is focused on providing services to support the school in increasing student achievement on the Norm-referenced and Criterion-referenced tests.
• Test score results are readily available to administrators, teachers and other staff, along with our patrons and constituents to review and provide feedback.

·        Staff Development for Administrative Team

• The District’s Administrative Staff—including the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendents, Directors, Coordinators, Principals, and Assistant Principals—meets regularly to:

§         Enhance the development of professional skills through the use of  national, state, or District facilitators.

§         Identify District strengths and weaknesses that require collaborative efforts for improvement.

·        Independent Consultant/Facilitator

• Credibility to recommendations for school change and improvement through an independent evaluation team.
• Our District has contracted with Dr. Stephen Ross of the Center for Research in Educational Policy at the University of Memphis to:

§       Provide expertise in identification of school needs by collecting  data and facilitating a school’s efforts to develop and implement:

Benchmarks, Indicators of Success, & Evidence of Success for all     aspects of school improvement.

§     Assist with Formative and Summative Evaluation of the particular school’s efforts toward improvement.

·        School Action Plans (Arkansas Comprehensive School Improvement Plan – ACSIP and Formative Evaluation Process for School Improvement – FEPSI)

·        All of the District’s schools are participating in a program to enhance school effectiveness and improvement.

·        The unique strengths and weaknesses of a particular school are addressed through its ongoing School Action Plan.

·         Staff will consider the learning needs of each school community and develop strategies to address specific needs as determined by sub-population test scores.

·         All of the District’s schools have three major priorities and corresponding interventions within their unique Action Plan:

§          Literacy

§          Mathematics

§          School Climate

·         School Climate Surveys are conducted to assess perceptions and opinions of school personnel and to develop strategies to address climate factors shown to inhibit school effectiveness.

·         Structured School Observation Measures (SOM^©) are conducted in  classrooms to collect information on:

§         Instructional Orientation

§         Classroom Organization

§         Instructional Strategies

§         Student Activities

§         Technology Use

§         Assessment

§         Time devoted to academics

§         Levels of “student engagement”

·        School Profiles

·         District-wide and individual school profile reports provide information on Criterion and Norm-Referenced test scores.

·         These reports are designed so that each school’s test results may be viewed in comparison to overall State and District results and to their peer schools within the District.

·         The test data are disaggregated by ethnicity and gender to identify particular schools or grade levels where an ethnic or gender subgroup needs interventions to improve test scores.

·         These profiles are provided to the District’s administrative team and are available to anyone through our website (www.pcssd.org).

·        Student Achievement is the “Main Thing” in the District-Wide Action Plan 2004-2005.

·         Details of Action Plan 2004-2005 have been approved by the District’s Board of Education and discussed/disseminated by the superintendent:

§         At administrative meetings.

§         Through discussions with principals and other staff.

§         On our website for all to review.

If you have questions or comments concerning this page, please contact:
Dr. Robert L. Clowers, Director of Accountability.

This page was last updated on August 10, 2004.
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