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Eugene Reimer Middle School

School Plan for Student Success

2013 - 2014

1 1. Mission Statement:

Eugene Reimer Middle School is a diverse learning community empowering the whole person toward individual success, community involvement and global citizenship.

2. School Context:

Reimer Middle School, which opened September 3, 2002, proudly bears the name of a local hero and Canadian Olympian Dr. Eugene Reimer who embodied perseverance and leadership.

The most recent demographic information (Statistics Canada 2006 & Abbotsford – Community Profiles: West Clearbrook 2010) indicates:

• 62% of households have children living in their homes • 14% of households are single parent families • The median annual family income is $54,591.00 • 37% of persons of Aboriginal identity are school age (5-19) • 68% of new immigration to Abbotsford is from Asia (including South Asia) and the Middle East • 74% of visible minorities in our community are South Asian

Eugene Reimer Middle School Enrolment

Year 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 Enrolment 631 616 614 584 530 495

Year 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 Enrolment 508 488 473 449 427

Next year we anticipate a staff of 21-22 teachers, covering 14-15 divisions. Grade 8 has historically had the highest number of divisions as this is the year that all rural students must attend middle school before moving on to high school the following year.

The majority of the students entering grade 6 at Reimer come from one of three feeder schools: Harry Sayers Elementary, Dave Kandal Elementary, and Blue Jay Elementary. The grade 8 population, however, is also composed of students from Mt. Lehman, Ross, Aberdeen, and Bradner Elementary. An interesting characteristic of our school is the fact that our incoming students from the rural schools can enter Eugene Reimer at any of grades 6, 7, or 8. As a result, some students join us for only one year. In fact, every September nearly half of the student body is brand new to Reimer Middle School.

2 Over the past nine years, the rural schools have been declining in enrolment, resulting in fewer students coming to the school and to grade 8 primarily. As a result, Eugene Reimer Middle School demographically reflects its nearest elementary schools (Blue Jay, Harry Sayers & Dave Kandal), which are predominantly South Asian and a reflection of the growing South East Asian immigration trend. As well, a recently opened “Choice” School in the community has drawn interest from parents who connect to the traditional model of education offered there as it reflects the parents’ own experiences growing up.

Eugene Reimer has seen a steady increase in the proportion of ELL students in our school with the percentage of families whose first language is not English. To address this learning reality, we have implemented a comprehensive ELL co-teaching program that targets ELL learners for language acquisition more directly. The model will offer language learning support for students in all grades. This co-teaching model has become a best-practice model for the district.

Our Learning Services team will consist of three teachers, and anticipating a school counselor through the Learning Improvement Funds. We also have a part-time mediator on staff two days a week who work out of the Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association. Next year, as in this year, Reimer will have a full time Community Youth Support Coordinator who functions as a mentor, advocate, coach, and after school / summer program coordinator who runs programs as Eugene Reimer, and three local elementary schools. In addition, a part-time Youth Care Worker and a part- time Aboriginal TA round out our Learning Services. Our Learning Support Services meets the learning needs of our IEP students and other students who sometimes need a small group setting for instruction and /or emotional / behavior support. When required, they are responsible to contact outside agencies such as Child & Youth Mental Health, The Ministry of Children, Autism B.C. and other agencies that can act on the behalf for our students. Supervision of the Learning Services is coordinated through the Learning Services Team leader.

Since its opening, Eugene Reimer has offered a unique opportunity for all students in the building to learn spoken and written Punjabi language. Combined with French language courses, we offer students a choice of either French or Punjabi for all students, regardless of their backgrounds. Parents are supportive of our Punjabi Language class and are pleased that this opportunity is provided for their children as they move from Harry Sayers, Dave Kandal and Blue Jay Elementary, through Reimer Middle, and on to Rick Hansen Secondary, all of whom provide Punjabi language programming. Half of the students at Eugene Reimer learn French and half learn Punjabi.

There are currently twenty-six Aboriginal students enrolled at Reimer Middle School. Our Aboriginal TA provides cultural awareness activities in class and on a school-wide level and takes the students to activities with other Aboriginal students in the district. She also provides academic, social and behavioral support for aboriginal youth throughout the day.

3 Community Profile:

Reimer offers an exciting explorations program that we call "Encore." We offer four encore courses for all of our students which include technology, home economics, drama, and music. Our new music program has performed at several local schools, and has been a huge part of our Divali, Christmas, and Vaisakhi celebrations. This year several other schools in our district have invited our performers to take part in their assemblies. Our major celebrations attract many parents.

Eugene Reimer will be entering its second year of a uniform dress code that has been highly successful. We have a lot of positive feedback from our parents other community adults in favour of our dress code.

This past December, Eugene Reimer officially opened as a Community Hub - a destination facility for community programs including a tutoring program, family sports, language learning, and parenting programs. Our motto for our HUB is "Our School ~ Our Community." The HUB has brought in a number of programs into the school during the evenings and even during the day.

In April of this year, the Eugene Reimer Community Garden was officially built. This facility will give garden space for the school and for community members wishing to have a garden plot for their use. This is another exciting addition to our school that will continue to bring our school and community closer together. Our home economics and resource room teachers will be taking advantage of our garden and incorporating vegetable, herb, and flower growing into their courses.

Next year Reimer will launch its commitment to adopting the Abbotsford City of Character virtues: Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Empathy, Courage, and Service. The staff chose to move forward with the City of Abbotsford virtues after on-going conversations about virtues in general for our students. We are excited about adding this component to the quality education that we provide our students. As a Character Champion, Eugene Reimer will have a role in purposefully teaching our students these virtues and impacting the development of our students as strong citizens.

Data Picture of (Eugene Reimer Middle School)

4 A Data Picture of Eugene Reimer Middle School Student Achievement Results Indicator 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 Grade 6 Writing 91% 89% 93% 96% (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) TBA FSA - Grade 7 Reading 79% 74% 64% 61% (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 74% FSA - Grade 7 Writing 86% 90% 93% 95% (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 100% FSA - Grade 7 Numeracy 81% 81% 64% 63% (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 74% Grade 7 Social Responsibility N/A N/A 96% dnw 97% (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) % of Intermediate Students with a C+ or 78% 78% 69% 65% 68% better in Language Arts % of Intermediate Students with a C+ or 79% 79% 67% 53% 71% better in Mathematics Student Engagement Data Average Daily Attendance N/A 93% 93% 92% 94% Percentage of Students Using School’s 18% 16% 27% 25% 24% Learning Services Percentage of Students Successfully 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Transitioning to Grade 9 in a high school % of Students in Extra-curricular Activities 58% N/A 42% N/A 75% Discipline Data Number of Referrals 21 fighting, defiance disruption, defiance disruption, defiance Top Reasons for Referrals disruption harassment, assault, harassment harassment, fighting harassment, fighting vandalism Number of In-School Suspensions 72 92 83 95 11 Number of Out-of-School Suspensions 5 8 40 68 10 Survey Data Student Satisfaction Survey Item: #14 Do you feel safe at school? 91% N/A 85% 97% 88% Student Satisfaction Survey Item: #20 1 or more 100% How many adults at your school care about you? N/A N/A N/A N/A 4 or more 70% Student Satisfaction Survey Item: #7 At school do you participate in activities 58% N/A 42% 83% 58% extracurricular? Student Satisfaction Survey Item #18 At school, do you get exercise? 92% N/A 89% 99% 95% Demographic Data Overall Enrolment 488 487 472 449 427 Percent Using the School Meals Program 1% 1% 1% 2% 3% Percent Transiency N/A 10.6% 4.4% 8.3% 5% Percent Special Education 8.2% 9.7% 9.1% 12% 13.1% Percent ELL (funded) 3.5% 3.5% 5.5% 8.7% 7.2 Percent Aboriginal 5.6% 4.9% 3.8% 6% 6.8% Percent whose first language is not English 67% 68% 70% 69% 72%

5 3. Leadership/Teamwork:

Eugene Reimer is systematically developing a plan for improving student achievement through our:

School Planning Council:

(Called SPA at Reimer - Staff / Parent / Admin):

 Reimer SPC is comprised of: Parent representatives: Nancy Rogers and Bob Ahuja. Teacher representatives: Harjinder Dhaliwal, Michelle Macdonald, and Michael Whalley. Admin representatives: Reg Gabriel (Principal) and Steve Twele, (Acting Vice Principal).

 The SPC will review the budget to ensure that staffing and resources are in place to support the school plan. This will be achieved through participation in the budget setting process and helping to create our School Plan for Student Success.

The Parent Advisory Council:

 The PAC and school administration work together to communicate PAC activities and information regarding the School Plan.

Principal and Vice Principal:

 Report progress on struggling students, reading comprehension assessments, and interventions to the Assistant Superintendent.

 Gather data from team leaders and classroom teachers to help create our school Achievement Spreadsheet - a resource for tracking student assessments and grades to help inform our practice and the direction of RTI protected time blocks.

 Provide content of Non-Instructional days and how it relates to School Plan to the Assistant Superintendent, if requested.

 Provide time and structures for staff to share information on struggling students and our reading comprehension goal through common meeting times such as team leader meetings, grade level meetings, POD meetings, and staff meetings. A school structure of common prep time for classroom teachers in each grade will help teachers work collaboratively on student achievement.

 Work with district helping teachers in curriculum throughout the year who can provide direction and resources to the staff to address student learning.

6 School Focus Team:

 The School Focus Team (SFT) consists of two teacher members and the Principal. The SFT plans activities for school non-instructional days to meet our school goal and addresses staff professional development interests as per staff survey data and voting.

Team Leaders:

(Grades 6, 7, 8, Learning Support Services, Athletic Director / Physical Education, Math Interventions and Assessment, English Interventions and Assessment)

 Team leaders meet with administration to discuss struggling students in English Language Arts and math.

 Team leaders will address and review student achievement at grade team meetings. Team leaders will use the lens: How do we improve reading comprehension?

 English Interventions and Assessment and Math Interventions and Assessment will oversee 1) assessments, 2) the collection of data, 3) the analysis of data (eg. trends by gender, designations, ELL, Aboriginal), 4) collaborate with the grade/pod/div teachers to help create an intervention response of specific reading and math teaching strategies for staff based on student learning needs, 5) collaborate on assessment rubrics for teachers and students, 6) monitor progress regularly and report to grades/pods/div teachers and administration, 7) work with teachers in subject areas to ensure subject related academic language is explicitly taught, 8) provide updates for the SPA.

Teachers:

 Teachers will meet in grade teams and at staff meetings to discuss student achievement.

 Teachers are encouraged to share successful "best practice" teaching strategies at staff meetings and grade team meetings.

 Teachers will meet each term with administration and the Learning Services team leader to review their struggling students and the interventions they are using to help students be successful with the learning services teacher and the administration.

7  Teachers work with the English Interventions and Assessment and Math Interventions and Assessment teachers to target specific students with specific reading and math teaching strategies.

 Teachers will coordinate RTI "protected time" instruction blocks with the LSS teacher connected to their grade in order to provide targeted interventions for students (personalized learning).

 Teachers will provide Tier 1 (CORE) and Tier 2 (Supplemental) instruction for all students and help LSS teachers coordinate Tier 3 interventions.

Parents:

 Parents will be aware of the school goal through SPC meetings, PAC meetings, and other communications home. Their input is incorporated into the school plan.

 Parents will have a direct influence on where school budget monies are allocated to support the school goal through our SPC.

Students:

 Students will set personal learning goals for reading comprehension based on assessment data from the previous year and the current year.

4. Communication:

 The SPC will communicate the school goal and its progress on our website and on the PAC bulletin board, and by reviewing data on our goal progress at the School Planning Council meetings.

 The Administration and SPC members will meet regularly throughout the year to review the data on our progress in our goal. Allocation of funds through the PAC will support our goal.

 The PAC will provide time in their meeting agenda for the SPC to discuss the school plan.

 Updates of progress on our reading comprehension goal will be discussed at Struggling Student Meetings, Team Leader Meetings, and Staff Meetings.

 Teachers will share with students their progress in reading comprehension.

8 5. Goal

To improve student achievement in literacy, specifically reading comprehension.

6. Rationale:

Rationale for choosing goal and objectives:

1. A 2011 survey indicated that 69% of the student population said that English is not the first language spoken at home on a regular basis; as such, the culture of English literacy is difficult to support at home. The ELL background of our students does hamper language acquisition, and this gap needs to be addressed.

2. Recent Reading Assessment District (RAD) assessment data has shown that our average reading score (on a scale of 1-4) is 2.13. Level 2 is minimally meeting expectations, whereas level 3 is fully meeting expectations. We are targeting a 3 for all students.

3. Furthermore, the RAD assessment, when broken down by specific skills, will give precise insight to the areas of reading that students are struggling in. With this information, students can be targeted with purposeful interventions whose impact can be tracked and analyzed. With this context in mind, the Literacy Interventions Coordinator will provide oversight and support for all staff. The RAD will be one of our benchmark assessments for determining the growth of individual reading ability.

4. Since FSA data is compared year-to-year and not by cohort, it is very difficult to determine to what extent instruction, interventions, or the students’ natural ability have on the results of the assessment. Nevertheless, the FSA data does give us an indication of how our students are performing in general: over the past five years, reading comprehension has consistently achieved below our writing and numeracy scores. We will continue to identify the most effective reading strategies to address the learning needs of our students.

5. The Grade 7 FSA data from 2012 and 2013 FSA indicates that our reading comprehension has increased from 67% to 74% (minimally meeting, fully meeting, or exceeding), but for the FSA, we are targeting 100% of student to meet this criteria. Reading comprehension is still a priority for the school. Changes in our ELL model, RTI implementation, and increased data tracking have made some changes, but there are a number of students we still need to reach.

6. Addressing our reading comprehension goal through math classes is important as well. Word problems in math can cause comprehension issues for students who might be able to perform the appropriate math formulas, but not understand

9 exactly what they are being asked to calculate. Structures Which Support the Goal (Time, resources, organization):

 This coming year, Eugene Reimer will continue to implement the Response To Intervention (RTI) model for improving student achievement. This three-tiered model follows four guiding principles: Collective Responsibility, Concentrated Instruction, Convergent Assessment, and Certain Access. The focus is not on teachers teaching, but rather on students learning and the school doing everything it can to meet the learning needs of each student to help students meet their potential. RTI is an ideal model for ensuring personalized learning. A significant step this coming year will be the implementation of "protected time" where Learning Support Services teachers will work closely with classroom teacher to identify learning gaps and address them with targeted instruction. With "protected time" scheduled for all division classrooms, LSS teachers will be integrated into the classrooms helping all students improve their learning. This pull-in model with be augmented with pull-outs for IEP students needing additional learning support for their personal learning needs.

 Reading comprehension scores on the Reading Assessment District (RAD) at each grade, reading comprehension scores the Stanford reading assessment and the Gates Reading Assessment, as well as scores on the reading component of the FSA’s in grade 7 and the district's own Grade 6 Write will provide additional information for teachers to identify their students reading ability and plan targeted instruction for improvement. We are a data-driven school and use this data to drive instruction.

 Over the past two years, our ELL program implemented a significant intervention for reading comprehension, writing, and language acquisition: the co-teaching model with the grade 6 English teachers. In this model all students, not just our ELL students receive purposeful exposure to language and strategies designed to improve reading comprehension and writing. This model gives common language and experience to our grade 6 students that are transferable to other subject areas. It will also facilitate our ELL learning to be working at the same high level of instruction as the other students. Next year this model will be expanded to all students through grades 6-8.

 This year the school has purchased several reading comprehension instructional resources to help teachers target specific reading comprehension strategies.

10 7. Objective:

To improve the reading comprehension of all students by the end of the school year.

Note: Sub groups of gender, ESL, Aboriginal, designations, and grade will be disaggregated to help staff determine which students are struggling in improving their reading comprehension.

We will closely track 2012-2013 trends in ELA grades, and our three Reading assessments (RAD, Gates, and Stanford) to help inform our practice for next year. Data from these areas will be used to help us target reading comprehension in our RTI "protected time" blocks.

8. Performance Indicators and Targets:

To improve the reading comprehension of all students by the end of the school year.

• 100% of students will improve their RAD assessment score in reading comprehension by one point by the end of the current school year.

Performance Indicators and Targets Related to Objectives in Percentages

Evidence 2008-2009 2009-20010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 FSA - Grade 7 Reading (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 79% 74% 64% 61% 74% FSA - Grade 7 Writing (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 86% 90% 93% 95% 100% FSA - Grade 7 Numeracy (Percent Meeting/Exceeding) 81% 81% 64% 63% 74% Classroom RAD Assessment: 2.14 // NA 2.30 // NA 2.21 // 2.57 dnw 2.13 // TBA FALL / SPRING % of Intermediate Students with a C+ or 69% 78% 69% 65% 68% better in Language Arts Grade 6 Write – students meeting or 90% 93% 93% 96% TBA exceeding

11 9. Actions:

Teachers Will Receive Training By:

 Collaborate with Learning Services and the English Interventions and Assessment team leader, and meet in grade teams to discuss resources, strategies, and challenges of delivering reading comprehension strategies.

 The School Focus Team will plan to offer professional development workshops aimed at classroom strategies to improve student reading comprehension and ongoing assessment tools. District helping teachers will be the primary supports.

 Participate in reading comprehension activities at staff meetings and team meetings.

 Be given opportunities to share successful strategies and tools with colleagues, during staff meetings and grade team meetings.

 Working with the school ELL teacher in the co-teach model will expose teachers to more resources and strategies for teaching reading comprehension.

Teachers Will Be Involved in Data Collection, Analysis, and Instruction Planning:

 Conduct school wide RAD, Gates, and Stanford assessments for all grades in October and April of each year. The data collected will be used to assess incoming student abilities, as well as measuring the overall improvement over the year. This data will drive instruction in response to learning needs. Specific reading skills can be tracked and interventions will follow when appropriate.

 Track student achievement in English Language Arts by learning outcome; struggling learners will be identified and targeted for additional instruction.

 Target student reading comprehension skills with specific strategies and assessments for learning.

 Review exam results and discuss the student achievement of our students. Then teachers will discuss best instructional practices and plan for any necessary adjustments in instruction.

12  Meet with the administration to discuss their students, their data, and their plan moving forward for addressing learning needs. 10.Progress/Results Related to Objective:

The RAD, Gates, and Stanford assessments are in place. A mid-year writing of these assessments data have become part of our Achievement Spreadsheets and are reviewed by individual teachers, at grade team meetings, at team leader meetings, at struggling student meetings, and at staff meetings each term to discuss learning trends, gaps, and successes.

In addition, Math and English Language Arts common assessments will help target students for re-teaching learning outcomes - this will support our goal of reading comprehension In English.

Though we have not targeting the FSA 7 assessment specifically, we do track our students' results on this assessment to help us get a picture of how they are doing. The process of tracking itself may have had an impact on the 2013 data (tentative), or the cohort of 2013 simply might be stronger. Nevertheless, the percentage of students collectively minimally meeting, fully meeting, or exceeding in Reading has increased from 67% to 74%.

At the same time, our Numeracy scores have increased from 63% to 74% and our Writing scores have increased from 95% to 100%.

Appendix A: This is a sample of the Student Achievement Data sheet that teachers are using to track their struggling students, learning trends, and RAD data to help with our reading comprehension goal.

Appendix B: This is the FSA data for the past three years plus our current year in Reading, Writing, and Numeracy.

Appendix C: This is a sample print-out of our Student Achievement Spreadsheet that the administration, team leaders, and the teachers use as a resource to complete Appendix A and to search for learning trends in their grades and classes.