Guests: Dr. Pam Kinsey-Barker, Dr. Larry Parks

Minutes Members Present: Betsy Nay, Maria Ces Carou, Leah Harkness, Brent Branham, Megan Reece, Kelly Cloak, Nancy Lowery, Caroline Hartsell, Julie Oliver, Kelly Aman, Amy Wilson, Derek Currie, Diane Walters, Lorraine Finnerty, Vicky Edamura, Dawn Clark, Janet Frazier, Christy Patrone, Donyea Daniels Guests: Dr. Pam Kinsey-Barker, Dr. Larry Parks

WHAT WHO TIME NOTES: Opening Welcome Derek 3:15 Currie

Academic Goal Academic 3:16 Strengths Subgroup to 1) Advanced math classes continue to be a strength. 2) There are lower “F’s” this year compared to last year. 3:50 3) 8th Grade Science failures are down (26% to 14% for 1st quarter.

4)6h grade LA has started off very strong 5) All LA classes had a Case 21 score above the Northern Average 6) 6h grade Math is above the Northern Average 7) Tracking the cohort of students is showing an increase in student motivation and work ethic 8) Our Case 21 scores are above or at County for all LA, all 6th grade, 7th grade Math

Areas of Concern: 1) Continued(?) pattern of 8th grade science having a larger percentage of failures. 2) Failures in lower level math classes. 3) Current 7th graders were below Northern and WCPSS for EOG last year. 4) 8th grade Science has the biggest difference between County and School Case 21. 5) Math 8 is 7.2 below County for Q1 Case 21

Priority Concerns: 1) 8th grade Math is 7.2 points below County for Case 21 2) 8th grade Science is 5.2 below County Average 3) Lower Level Math Classes in general have the lowest scores and most failures (how do we increase motivation in these classes)

How are we acting on the data? Friday Guided Study math tutoring with Beta Club students working with lower- level math students. After school math tutoring – Spanish 2 Honors Society from MHS are coming in one day a week to help students who are struggling.

Special programs are implementing the iReady math program with 8th graders.

Next Steps? Each department will ask what is their policy regarding students who are absent, making up missed work.

We need to formalize our policies for making up missed work for the student with 1 an occasional absence, as well as the student with chronic absences.

Climate Goal Climate 3:55 Student Survey Data: Subgroup to Students are given a 4-question survey each quarter. This school year, we revised 4:25 the survey slightly to focus first on academic perceptions, and then on behavior/safety perceptions.

Student Survey Strengths: Students who SAY they are motivated to make good grades is over 90% in all grade levels.

80% of students surveyed believe that teachers care about their academic success. When comparing this to the Teacher Morale Survey from this quarter, indicating that the teacher morale average is low, it is encouraging to note that teachers are making positive strides to provide engaging lessons for students and remain motivated to set high standards.

Student Survey Areas of Concern: 31.7% of our student body believes that WMMS students do not follow school rules.

How are we acting on the Student Survey Data: Develop a way to determine WHY there is a perception among students that fellow students don’t follow school rules. What types of rules aren’t being followed? To what degree is rule-breaking creating an obstacle to learning?

Remove the “neutral” option in the Likert scale surveys to get a more accurate measure of which way students “in the middle” are leaning.

Recognize that although teachers’ morale is low, students feel they are receiving rigorous and meaningful instruction.

Student Behavior Data: 2012 2013 Mo. Mo. Avg. Avg. Major + 76 23 Minor Classroom Disruptions Major + 83 44 Minor Non- Compliance

Last year’s data was gathered through SAM, this year’s data collected through google doc.

Student Discipline Strengths Our discipline data has declined over the past 2 years.

Staff perception of discipline is much improved.  Polling of grade level administration, and a sampling of staff.

Student Discipline Area of Concern Based on student survey, 15% of students disagree that WMMS is a safe place. 2 Based on the student survey, 31.7 % of students disagree that WMMS students follow school rules.

Based on ALC referral data for current school year, the largest percent of referrals are for non-compliance at 24%.

Student Discipline Next Steps Dig deeper to better understand student perception of WMMS being an unsafe school and WMMS students not following rules.

 forming small student focus groups.  additional student survey.  Lee and Dawn will work with the referral and ALC data to see if there are specific subgroups that are creating the majority of our data. Last year, our Latino population definitely produced our largest number of referrals. This year, that element isn’t as obvious, but teasing the data a little may reveal something. If we do identify a specific area, we can seek to develop a program similar to what we did with the Latino parent population.

Parent Climate Data Upon the recommendation of Dr. Kinsey-Barker to Ms. Aman earlier this year, we will only give one parent survey each year. Based on the positive survey return we achieved last year, the SIT has decided to do the same this year and send a short, paper survey home with report cards.

Faculty Climate Data We are keeping track of faculty morale. What are the areas of concern and what do teachers feel presents road blocks to planning and implementing meaningful instruction. What can we do to insure the most positive, honest results on our NCDPI survey this year?

Faculty Climate Strengths We are up to date with our first quarterly faculty survey. 64 of our teachers responded with thorough, honest answers.

Administration is working with SIT to formulate another survey to find areas of concern that can be addressed, specifically regarding the NCDPI survey. We are looking for ways to be proactive.

Faculty Climate Areas of Concern Faculty morale is slipping. Over 50% of the responses were on the low half on a scale of 1-10.

Faculty Climate Next Steps Continue surveys and share all detailed results with administrative team. Share basic numbers (the 1-10 scale) with all faculty.

Work with administration to implement any improvements they see beneficial.

Closing ALL 4:30 Let’s continue to get this information at the department meetings and to grade level meetings. 4:35

3 Dr. Kinsey-Barker encouraged us to use the data people at Central services to research our questions.