The current superintendent, who entered the district in 2011, has unified the district with a district strategic plan and correlated school strategic plans, a common curriculum, common assessments, common programs, and systematic and standard administrator and teacher evaluation practices. The superintendent announced in October 2015 that she would retire in July 2016. The superintendent reported that the school committee is conducting the search for a new superintendent. Strength Finding 1. The superintendent has transformed the district from a system of schools, operating highly independently, to a school system with centralized planning, common programs, and collaborative decision making. A. The superintendent has created systems for centralized planning and goal setting. 1. Interviews and a review of documents indicated that the district was largely decentralized before the term of the current superintendent. The separate schools were not closely associated and principals had a great deal of autonomy. The current superintendent has worked collaboratively with central office administrators and principals to develop a more coherent approach embodied in the district’s strategic plan, known as the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. 2. Principals told the review team that they developed school and professional goals aligned with the district goals set forth in the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. a. For example, one of the district strategic goals was to broaden the use of project-based learning. Correspondingly, the Russell Elementary School had a school goal to implement project-based learning across the grades, resulting in a culminating activity in the second and third terms, and one of the Russell principal’s goals was to improve math skills and support instruction in grade 3 through project-based learning. b. Another district goal was to use data to differentiate instruction. Correspondingly, the North Middle School had a goal to hold data meetings with teachers to review benchmark data and “create plans to move forward.” Also one of the North Middle School principal’s professional goals was to increase the percentage of grade 6 students achieving proficiency on the MCAS tests through data analysis to inform instruction. 3. The superintendent’s professional goals were also aligned with the goals in the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. a. The superintendent submitted her professional goals to the school committee on November 2, 2015, in open session. b. The superintendent’s goals included building within the administrative team to analyze data to better tell the story of student successes at each school and in the
The current superintendent, who entered the district in 2011, has unified the district with a district strategic plan and correlated school strategic plans, a common curriculum, common assessments, common programs, and systematic and standard administrator and teacher evaluation practices. The superintendent announced in October 2015 that she would retire in July 2016. The superintendent reported that the school committee is conducting the search for a new superintendent. Strength Finding 1. The superintendent has transformed the district from a system of schools, operating highly independently, to a school system with centralized planning, common programs, and collaborative decision making. A. The superintendent has created systems for centralized planning and goal setting. 1. Interviews and a review of documents indicated that the district was largely decentralized before the term of the current superintendent. The separate schools were not closely associated and principals had a great deal of autonomy. The current superintendent has worked collaboratively with central office administrators and principals to develop a more coherent approach embodied in the district’s strategic plan, known as the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. 2. Principals told the review team that they developed school and professional goals aligned with the district goals set forth in the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. a. For example, one of the district strategic goals was to broaden the use of project-based learning. Correspondingly, the Russell Elementary School had a school goal to implement project-based learning across the grades, resulting in a culminating activity in the second and third terms, and one of the Russell principal’s goals was to improve math skills and support instruction in grade 3 through project-based learning. b. Another district goal was to use data to differentiate instruction. Correspondingly, the North Middle School had a goal to hold data meetings with teachers to review benchmark data and “create plans to move forward.” Also one of the North Middle School principal’s professional goals was to increase the percentage of grade 6 students achieving proficiency on the MCAS tests through data analysis to inform instruction. 3. The superintendent’s professional goals were also aligned with the goals in the Strategy for Continuous Improvement. a. The superintendent submitted her professional goals to the school committee on November 2, 2015, in open session. b. The superintendent’s goals included building within the administrative team to analyze data to better tell the story of student successes at each school and in the
westfield-public-schools-district-review-report-2016.docx