City of Methuen Annual Report: 2012

More documents

Recommendations

Info

C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u a l R e p o r t : 2 0 1 2office and the school committee to support and facilitate these efforts, which bring us closer to ourgoal of excellence.Report of the Comprehensive Grammar SchoolThe Comprehensive Grammar School (CGS) houses a pre-Kindergarten through grade eight (8)enrollment of approximately 1200 students. The school is organized into grade-level teams with fifty(50) homerooms. The CGS also houses significant system-wide programs for English LanguageLearners, language-delayed students, students with pervasive developmental disorders, andstudents with severe special needs. Thanks to the positive attitude and pride of the staff, students,and parents at the CGS, the school has a reputation for providing its students with a caring andfriendly learning environment. Professional educators take the initiative to improve and innovatetheir instructional methodologies. Parents are involved, informed, and welcomed.The Comprehensive Grammar School participated in the Performance Improvement Mappingprocess (PIM) developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.The staff at the CGS spent time analyzing the English Language Arts, Math, and Science MCAS scores.Each teacher/content team identified items on the MCAS where students scored below the stateaverage. The information regarding the areas of need compiled by the teams led to the developmentof school-wide goals to improve overall student achievement. Using the data gathered by the gradelevel teams, the PIM team worked collaboratively to determine the 2013 Student LearningObjectives, Improvement Objectives, and Action Plan for the 2013 School Improvement Plan.Standards-based report cards continue to be a major focus for teachers and students at the CGS. Wewill continue to dedicate time during professional development days and common planningmeetings will continue to discuss moving forward with building-based grade-level assessments,common record-keeping, and building consistency within the grade-levels.Teachers will continue to receive professional development regarding Enrichment Block. Teachers ingrades 5-8 have been implementing intervention/enrichment blocks for the past several years.Students will receive ESL, tutoring, related-service delivery, and other direct interventions during thisblock of time. In addition, for the first time, all students will be able to access enrichmentopportunities during this block of time. In years past, student that have participated in Band andChorus were pulled from this block; however, CGS administration found a scheduling solution thatwould allow all students to participate. We have shifted the focus of our reading intervention tutorsto grades one and two in order to provide additional explicit reading instruction for strugglingreaders. As part of the DESAC state sponsored grant, we are fortunate to have imbeddedprofessional development in kindergarten and grade one to focus on strengthening BalancedLiteracy instruction.Communication is important at the CGS. CGS administration is constantly using the ConnectEdfunction to inform parents of meetings, activities, events, and announcements. This communicationtool has proved to be very effective and well received by the parent community. There are many95
C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u a l R e p o r t : 2 0 1 2teacher website links on the CGS webpage and practical day-to-day information on the website.Teachers also send home curriculum newsletters and calendars to parents on a regular basis.The PTO also provides CGS students with the opportunity to view excellent cultural and curriculumrelatedperformances and assemblies. The PTO works with administration to provide qualityperformers and assemblies that properly align with the curriculum scope and sequence. The PTOplays an integral role in building a positive school environment by hosting movie nights, ice creamsocials, holiday fairs, play dates during the summer for new students, and other events throughoutthe year.There is a CGS School Council that is comprised of teachers and parents that meet every other monthto discuss new school initiatives, participate at times in the decision-making process, and overallprovide input and productive discussions about inner-school workings.Marsh Grammar SchoolIn 1998, the Marsh Grammar School opened as a PK–grade eight (8) building in the west end of thecity. The school houses approximately 1350 students. The school is comprised of a lower school (PK–4) and an upper school (5-8). There are two preschool classrooms, one integrated and one intensive,along with fifty-four (54) regular education classrooms, six (6) at each grade in grades K–8. We alsohouse five (5) district-wide special education classrooms.As an aggregate, the Marsh student 2012 MCAS scores in both English language arts andmathematics remained consistent over the past four years. In ELA, students have had a performancerating of High. The mathematics performance rating has been Moderate.The Marsh Grammar School Improvement Plan has been developed through the PerformanceImprovement Mapping (PIM) process. This process is a means of analyzing MassachusettsComprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores and Progress and Performance Index (PPI) data.Setting goals and objectives and creating specific action plans are essential components of the PIMprocess. Data analysis began with grade-level teams of teachers working collaboratively to reviewthe 2012 MCAS scores and the 2012 School Improvement Plan to make decisions about whether ornot the school had met its goals. Information from the grade-level teams informed the decisionmakingof the small group of upper and lower school teachers, coaches, and administrators that metto develop the plan. Based on the data provided, and our school’s commitment to excellence, theteam decided to focus on the following three (3) goals across content areas:1. Improving students’ skill in identifying, analyzing and interpreting elements of nonfictiontexts;962. Improving students’ skill in applying comprehension strategies in various genres; and3. Improving students’ skill in communicating effectively in writing, including using informationfrom the text to support written responses.
Page 1 and 2:
City of MethuenAnnual Report: 2012S
Page 3 and 4:
C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u a
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
16C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
34C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48: C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u a
Page 59 and 60: 56C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u
Page 97: C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n u a
Page 107 and 108: 104C i t y o f M e t h u e n A n n
show all

City of Methuen Annual Report: 2012

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?