School Improvement Plan, 2011-2012

2011-2012 Report | Student Objectives Review | Profile | Progress Report | Focus Group Reports | Plan | Process

School improvement plans are developed and maintained using our school improvement process:

Current Improvement Plans

Curriculum

• Plan: Continue to unpack academic content standards, revise and maintain scope and sequence for all courses and departments, and create unit plans of instruction. These unit plans should be created by unpacking targets and then creating powerful and diverse student assessments that drive instruction. These assessments and the school grade reporting should provide clear information to all stakeholders about student academic achievement and progress by all students on the student objectives.
• Annual action plans for academic departments include improving maps and revising standards.

Curriculum Planning and Evaluation System

• Plan: CAJ needs to continue implementing schoolwide communication, planning, and evaluation systems that addresses curriculum development skills, instructional and assessment skills for teachers and adequacy of resources (including technology, human and time) to deliver the curriculum, all in an effort to improve student achievement and progress by all students on the student objectives.
• Annual action plans include updating the Curriculum Planning and Evaluation System and PLC Annual Goals, and having department chair report progress on their PLC goals each month.

Curriculum Technology Integration

• Plan: Increase use of technology to help students learn.
• Annual action plans include 1-to-1 laptops for seniors and integrating technology in 3 unit maps per grade for K-5.

Legal Status Change

• Plan: Get CAJ's legal status changed to a school (gakko houjin).
• Annual action plans include developing a cash reverse that is equal to 25% of the annual budget.

Professional Development Plan

• Plan: Continue to implement a clearly articulated professional development plan driven by schoolwide improvement goals that will train and prepare staff to show ongoing improvement on the delivery of the curriculum and that can be clearly tied to increased student achievement and progress by all students on the student objectives.
• Annual action plans include training new staff in Understanding by Design and curriculum mapping, providing teachers with a baseline checklist they can use to guide the mapping work, and training teaching staff in assessment (Understanding by Design Stage 2).

School Improvement Process

• Plan: Implement an ongoing improvement process which integrates:
  • The board’s vision via a fully integrated “ends”-based governing system (policy governance/Carver model).
  • Continuous strategic thinking applied to day-to-day operations rather than an occasional strategic planning cycle.
  • A sustainable, focused, usable and well maintained school improvement plan.
  • Accreditation: A WASC approved process that allows CAJ to engage in ongoing self-study and produce reports that serve its unique needs.
• Annual action plans include revising focus group reports, documenting specific ways students and parents can participate in school improvement, developing more data charts to go with the profile, further developing the school improvement plan, and publishing an online annual report.

Current To Dos

Culture Focus Group

1. Make notes from parent cafes available online for parents.
2. Explore why some parents feel communication isn’t great, for example, language, technology, format, awareness or other.
3. Explore incorporating our diversity (including linguistic diversity) into chapel.
4. Involve parents/classes in promoting/sharing their culture (for example, by having an International/Geography Gala Day).

Facilities Focus Group

1. In light of the electricity conservation measures, provide two fans per classroom if air conditioner use must be minimized.
2. Have teachers “spring clean” classrooms.
3. Clean tops of tall shelves and cabinets at least once a year.

Program Focus Group

1. Increase high school focus on intentional use of reflection to match middle and elementary.
2. Survey recent graduates about their readiness for college to see if the curriculum is challenging like our parent and student surveys say.
3. Have the Leadership Team increase shared understanding of the connection between ESL admission policy and the way decisions are made.
4. Address parent concern about how CAJ prepares students for the SAT (through publicizing the ways we have available and our reasons for not having specific preparation, or by offering more preparation):
5. Have the Leadership Team provide opportunities for staff to share ProD learning.
6. Review the contents of the school profile to ensure it includes all relevant information and to increase profile accessibility.
7. Survey elementary school parents to assess their level of satisfaction about information they have on upcoming events and assignments.
8. Increase parent awareness of CAJ’s student support systems (LRC/special needs, guidance, library, health center, ESL).

Staff Focus Group

1. Make sure job descriptions for are available for all jobs.

Student Objectives Focus Group

1. Track our graduates, and collect anecdotes about how well they feel CAJ's program prepared them for college.
2. Explore how the Naviance database could be used to help our data/decisions to answer the questions that come up.
3. Gather more informal assessment data of verbal communication ability.
4. Train of parents in using iCal, online grades, online resources, communication by email, and strategies for overcoming their lack of confidence in English.
5. Explore ways to improve data collection and how we can develop common assessment strategies.
6. Have PLC conversations about data, and develop a way to record the anecdotal evidence from these discussions.
7. Ask PLCs to discuss what they understand by the student objectives.