Week 24: February 23-27

THE CIRCLE OF THE SIP







The image helps. We started the 2008-2009 SIP journey slightly less than one year ago.

It took great thinking on the part of the Leadership Team. It took great thinking on the part of each department. That day at TMC birthed Library 2.0. Then the thinking lessened and finally settled as the plan took shape, the work became less and less.

Then it started again -- this time with implementation. It was tough to implement our goals to gain improvement. Goal 1 -- Raise scores. We said we would read more, test better, implement best practices in each department. Goal 2 -- Increase attendance. We all wondered how. Goal 3 -- Reduce drop outs. The BAR team was created. The data was overwhelming. The implementation gave us hope. The data remained flat. Goal 4 -- well, our pilot cohort has its ups and downs. Time commitment issues.

It was frustrating. For all of us. The math department and I own the second large dot on the second set around that circle. I learned much that collaboration day -- about myself and the frustration of implementing school improvement. Then science grapples with inquiry. Social studies would rather throw things -- mostly at me -- as we work through reading improvement. I wonder at what point we ALL own school improvement. I ponder how to truly make that happen.

And so, we are two weeks away from sharing our school improvement with Mrs. Patterson and Dr. Dial. As we meet these last weeks with each department to review your data collection for your DIPs, I want to give you a few tips on what we are looking for:

1. Each department should prepare a single presentation piece (probably a notebook) for your DIP data (arranging by goal seems easiest).
2. Each DIP needs to be walked through, goal by goal, action step by action step, and data must be collected.
3. Analyze your data and summarize it for your DIP (one or two bullet points with samples)
4. Keep notes on Next Steps for the 2009-2010 DIP. This will really help our department for next year's DIP.

Okay everyone. Get your display of student work up. Get your data analyzed. We're on the final LARGE CIRCLE set of closing our SIP circle. Remember, it's a boat-load of work up front, but it quickly lessens. If you have questions -- don't hesitate to check with us!