May 2012 - Lexington Public Schools

Math Intervention: We have been able to reduce the number of students in the lowest level ofmath classes in grades 6, 7 and 8. Ms. Rangel sees a big difference between the 2x and 4x a weekclasses.Child Study: Dr. Flynn: this process has been a huge success. We have worked to revise thisprocess over the past five years. We now have other districts coming to visit our school and learnabout our child study process. This year we have worked on a new process for better screening ofstudents struggling with social / emotional issues. We hope to implement this process next yearto a greater extent.Goal 2: The Mural was completed this spring to reflect diversity and Rachel’s Challenge. Weare using common language with students due to Rachel’s challenge. This has been extremelyhelpful for kids to learn from their mistakes. Our counselors are working very closely withDiamond Guidance staff on curriculum so that kids are having a common experience. We needto continue to work on homework loads and balancing. This could be an entire year project forthe next principal to look at homework policies. Teacher: The career program has been verysuccessful. The kids are really enjoying it. Guidance Counselors have been going into classes totalk with kids about what it takes to have a certain career. This is why technology and 21 stcentury skills are so important for us to continue to teach our students.IV. Draft of goals for the 2012-2013 school yearThe goals will not change, but the implementation will change each year. There are many waysthat we can continue to improve and our implementation and / or timelines will change. We needmore time to work with data teams and student improvement. We always run into a largewindow of time in the middle of the year where we can’t have meetings and need more time(half days, early release days etc). Our data team push has slowed down in order to give teacherstime.V. Administrative TransitionDr. Flynn: Goals will remain the same on the SIP next year. Implementation will be tweaked.Ms. Monaco has begun to draft some of the implementation and timeline. Ms. Monaco is aClarke Principal finalist and had her interview day yesterday. Mr. Peter Cohen is also a finalistand will be interviewed tomorrow (Friday May 11, 2012). He is currently a principal inWestford.V. QuestionsParent: Was there any follow up about homework issue and what to do next after the meetingwith Dr. Flynn last summer? Dr. Flynn: we had a faculty meeting about effective use ofhomework. The faculty enjoyed the discussion and the format and it was a great dialogue. Our8 th grade counselor has worked with the 8 th grade teachers to educate them on how students arestruggling with the amount of homework based on input from students and parents. Teachersneed to continue to understand how much it affects students.Parent: Progress Reports – are we monitoring whether families are logging in? Admin: yes wecan see who has logged in and who has run reports. We have been working with families whohave not yet logged in to determine issues and obstacles. Teachers can still send home the moredetailed progress reports if necessary.