Friday, September 23, 2016

Priority Status/M-STEP UPDATE

As some of you may know, Vestaburg High School was released by the State School Reform Office from the Priority School status. This was driven by the consistant growth we have acheived over the last 4 years.  For example, on the most recent data we demonstrated growth in 8 of the 10 areas at the secondary level.  In addition, thanks to the work of our staff district wide we have improved our state rankings by over 35% at the Secondary level in the last 3 years.  Thus, we were one of only 7 schools that were released from Priority status this past year.  

As a district, the staff continues to look at all areas and set goals to push our district forward.  One of the areas that has helped create our success has been our staff working together as a district to improve a variety of areas. For example, the staff is working through a district wide MTSS approach to address specific needs of our students.  Some of the strategies that we have implemented are common intervention times, coherence and updating of curriculums in all areas, a focus on classroom questioning for depth of knowledge and engagement, classroom learning labs, close reading strategies, and alot of data analysis including M-Step, ACT, SAT, and NWEA which we implemented 4 years ago as district level assessments.  

This year we are focusing on student engagement.  Our entire teaching staff attended a professional development session with Dave Burgess called "Teach Like A Pirate" that is designed to energize and engage students and staff. However, it all comes down to the work and commitment of our teaching staff and their focus on meeting the needs of each individual child.  The thing we are most proud of is how dedicated our staff is and how they continue to come together to do what is best for our students! 

This is proof and reinforcement of the fact that we have an outstanding staff at Vestaburg.  It demonstrates what is best about our district and our community in that, we always come together and are willing to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Thus, it is with confidence that we say that this is just the start and that we will continue to put in the hard work and make our school the absolute best it can be!  We ARE Vestaburg!