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Turning Points in Action at Eastgate Middle
School, Kansas City, Missouri
Background
In 2000, Eastgate Middle School saw an increase in the number of
students scoring at the failing levels of the Missouri State Assessment
system (MAP), the state mandated standardized tests which are performance
and standards based. Due to this, Eastgate qualified for and received
a CSR (Comprehensive School Reform) grant to pay for Turning Points
implementation.
Eastgate is located in North Kansas City, a suburb
of Kansas City, Missouri. There are 75 teachers and administrators
working with approximately 800 students in grades six through eight.
Approximately 18% of all students are on an Individualized Education
Plan (IEP).
Successes and Benefits of Implementing Turning
Points
When teachers, the principal, and the coach talk about the successes
of Turning Points, they describe:
- The use of the self-study (1) to create a more focused set of
school improvement goals
- The implementation of differentiated instruction allowing for
detracking and inclusion
- A reinvigoration of teams
- Visits to other Turning Points schools and to professional development
conferences and workshops outside of the network
The first two of these areas will be highlighted
in this report.
Use of the self-study to focus school improvement
goals
In their first year with Turning Points, staff took the self-study,
working with an experienced Turning Points coach to interpret the
results. Based upon their analysis, the school changed its school
improvement goals to a more manageable three: 1) Increase parent
and community involvement at all school events. 2) Improve student
learning by focusing on integration and targeting differentiated
levels of instruction to meet the needs of all Eastgate learners.
3) Establish small caring communities of learners through a building
advisory program that will establish a caring adult for each student
in the building.
After completing the self-study, teachers found
that some of their assumptions about the students were incorrect.
For example, some teachers were surprised at how many students were
eligible for free/reduced price lunch. By providing a real picture
of student demographics in the school, the self-study helped the
staff to think critically about the way to best serve students.
Detracking, inclusion and differentiated instruction
After examining self-study data at the end of their first Turning
Points year and noting that a large percentage of students who had
left their school to attend the new middle school were high socio-economic
status students, the Goal 2 committee decided that differentiated
instruction would be a better way to meet the needs of Eastgate's
students.
- Eastgate then spent year two engaged in professional development
to learn differentiated instruction strategies including outside
workshops, trainer visitations, staff meeting discussions on a
book that everyone read, and working with the coach in team meetings.
- In addition to implementing differentiated instruction, the
school began detracking it students and including special education
students in regular education classes. Prior to Turning Points
and during the first year of Turning Points implementation, students
were tracked on teams. In year three of the Turning Points grant,
a new special education model was adopted, which includes most
students on IEP in all of the academic classes.
Implications
This case study of Eastgate Middle School offers three important
lessons for other schools as they implement Turning Points principles
and practices:
Data-based decision making (DBDM) can create
a more effective school environment.
A school can use a data-based decision making process to clarify
its goals, implement effective strategies to reach those goals,
and improve student achievement. Using the DBDM process helped Eastgate
faculty and administrators to identify the most significant barriers
to student learning. Eastgate was able to save time over its prior
decision-making structure by focusing on their most important needs
and avoiding duplication of effort through the committees.
Schools must explicitly address equity if they
are to serve all students.
Schools will only be successful when they work to meet the needs
of all students. With the coming of a new middle school in district,
many students from higher SES left Eastgate. This change in demographics
at the school necessitated that the staff focus more on the needs
of the remaining lower SES students in ways that they had not in
the past. Many staff worried that this shift would create too many
challenges. In fact, with the elimination of tracking, a greater
emphasis placed on differentiated instruction, and other changes,
Eastgate staff have been more successful in meeting the needs of
their students.
Increased professional development opportunities
build a vision for the school.
At Eastgate, Turning Points was instrumental in helping teachers
to collaborate on issues of teaching and learning. Turning Points
has helped staff to (1) use team time to focus on teaching and learning,
(2) attend and present at conferences, (3) visit other schools,
(4) take advantage of professional development both within and outside
of the network.
Evidence of Success
Through three years of Turning Points implementation, students scores
on the MSIP have continually improved; in 2002, almost 59% of students
scored satisfactory or above in reading, much higher than the 47%
who scored at this level in 2000 (2). On the state's MAP tests,
the school has shown improvement in 3 of 4 subjects since 2000 (3).
(1) As a member of Turning Points, each teacher
and student at the school completes a survey about school practices.
This data is tabulated and returned to the schools in just over
a month.
(2) Data provided by the state of Missouri at
http://www.dese.state.mo.us/
(3) Data provided by the state of Missouri at
http://www.dese.state.mo.us/
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