McCluskey Inquiry Based

Learning Project
Needs Assessment
▶ The purpose of this project is to assess and meet the needs
of Maple Heights High School.
▶ In order to do this the PBIS team met regularly to discuss
the schools needs as well as come to conclusions on how
these needs will be met.
▶ It was ultimately decided to work on improving the schools
writing scores, and the school advisory program.
▶ That being said the school vision and mission states:
School Vision/Mission/ Goals
▶ “RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH
BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS AND FOCUSING
ON ENGAGING WORK”
School Vision/Mission/ Goals
▶ Maple Heights High School will provide students with
a challenging academic atmosphere offering them
the necessary skills to succeed.
▶ The school will be characterized by outstanding
student achievement and excellence in teachers,
administrators and support staff, working in a clean,
well-maintained, culturally equitable environment.
▶ Pride and respect will be fostered within the school
and the community.
School Vision/Mission/ Goals
▶ At Maple Heights High School, we believe:
▶ Everyone has dignity and worth;
▶ All students can learn;
▶ All students can produce quality work;
▶ Teachers are leaders and creators of engaging work;
and
▶ Every member of a community has the right and
obligation to build and maintain that community
School Vision/Mission/ Goals
▶ We offer a comprehensive academic program coupled with many
extra-curricular activities.
▶ All of these programs are designed to maximize student learning
while encouraging intellectual and personal growth.
▶ We encourage all students to become involved in our school
community and contribute in a positive way.
▶ We strive to provide a safe and productive environment that is
conducive to learning for all of our students.
▶ Our curriculum is consistent with that established by the Ohio
Department of Education and has recently been redesigned to
meet the rigorous standards set by the Common Core.
School Vision/Mission/ Goals
▶ Maintain high expectations
▶ Set reasonable goals
▶ Study diligently
▶ Become involved at school
▶ Take responsibility for your actions
▶ Build relationships
Data To Support Goals
▶ Support for these goals can be found in:
▶ González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of
knowledge: theorizing practice in households, communities,
and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
▶ Epstein, J. L. (2002). School, family, and community
partnerships: your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks,
Ca.: Corwin Press.
▶ Danielson, C. (2008). The handbook for enhancing
professional practice: using the framework for teaching in
your school. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Oppression
▶ The students are learning in a district that cares about
their education, but they have also unfortunately been
oppressed. Paulo Freire’s book Pedagogy Of The
Oppressed became a useful tool in creating solutions.
Pedagogy Of The Oppressed
“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor

and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would

require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and

responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must

be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal

located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is

rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.”( Freire,
47)
▶ This book applied to my goal because in this district
students have been oppressed. They have
unintentionally been hindered from the education that
they deserve, and their state test scores show this. The
goal is to now break free of this oppression and give
students the necessary skills to thrive on future
assessments, and to also feel connected to their
school and community.
Interest
▶ If this is the goal then I recognized we had some work to do.
▶ My interest in this particular project came from an educational
standpoint as well as a personal one. I wanted to see first hand
writing samples of our students and get to the bottom of why
they were performing so poorly. It came down to a series of
feeling uninvolved in the school, and feeling unprepared for the
test.
▶ This is why we decided to specifically work on the advisory
program with hopes of warming the climate.
▶ This is also why we chose to work on student writing practice
with hopes of finding where students are struggling and then
helping to coach them on being stronger writers.
Steps Taken
▶ The steps taken to meet the needs of students were:
▶ Conducting a student needs assessment in which we found most students felt
uninvolved in our school and that they were not strong writers.
▶ Collecting data on student writing scores which proved to be very poor and
aligned with students feeling unmotivated in a school they do not feel
connected to.
▶ Proposing 2 research based solutions which included conducting a school wide
writing assessment in which we found common strengths and weaknesses and
then coached students on their writing, and then improving the school
advisory program by incorporating students in the planning.
▶ Evaluating the solution in which we decided would be effective.
▶ Creating an action plan which was to regularly assess student writing and plan
lessons accordingly as well as improve the advisory program.
▶ And finally reflecting on our work which we found to be effective.
PBIS/ Leadership Team
▶ PBIS stands for positive behavioral interventions and
supports. This team meets every Wednesday to go over
data referring to our schools climate for staff, students,
and the community. We gather our data using surveys that
are later discussed at staff meetings. Our PBIS team
decided to focus on three major things this school year
which included school climate, students writing scores, and
our advisory program.
▶ The PBIS team decided to step forward and also become
the leadership team in order to find solutions to the poor
school climate, and low writing scores.
Advisory Program
▶ The advisory program we are working to improve is
supposed to be a place where learners gather to find
encouragement.
▶ This year the hope is for our advisory program to grow
from a study hall, to a place where real
communication and growth take place.
▶ We hope this becomes a place that students meet to
discuss their feelings, places they would like to see
growth, and make plans for the future.
PBIS Meeting With Administrator
▶ January 2017
▶ Questions discussed:
-What are the strengths and weaknesses in our building?
-What are some of the challenges our students are facing?
-What can we do to meet these needs?
PBIS Meeting With Administrator
▶ Conclusions made:
-Some of our strengths include that we have hard working students and
staff that are motivated to work towards progress. Some of our
weaknesses include the fact that many students do not feel that our
school has a positive climate and this leads them to not apply
themselves to their full potential on assessments.
- Some of the challenges our students are facing include not feeling the
want to be involved in the school, and not feeling prepared for writing
assessments.
- In order to meet these needs we plan to have students involved in the
advisory program, and to be regularly assessed in writing so that
improvements to better meet the needs of students can be made.
Reflection of the Conversation with
Principal
▶ In speaking with the principal I came to the conclusion
that she is extremely supportive and on board with
whatever we need to do in order to improve the
climate of the school so that we can encourage
students to put forth their best educational efforts.
▶ My principal agrees to be a part of the leadership team
that is also comprised of the PBIS team and
encourages our plan to revamp the advisory program
and improve writing scores.
Challenge Statement
▶ Maple Heights City Schools need to implement an attendance policy
that will alleviate the truancy problem in the district. Maple Heights
High School must come up with a building wide writing plan that will
improve student writing skills and test scores.
▶ Data has been collected through test scores and attendance records.
The school has also spoken to teachers at professional development
and TBT meetings.
▶ Decisions are currently being made by building principals and will be
spread district wide.
▶ I think I will discover that if we can get everyone on board this is an
attainable goal. The opinions of how to achieve this goal vary
drastically, but after assessing the data and providing the staff with
evidence everyone should be able to agree that a strong attendance
policy and a focus on writing we will see improvements.
PBIS Team/ Leadership Team
▶ Nadine McCluskey
▶ Chelsea Matthews
▶ Regina Bryant
▶ Sarah Ryan
▶ Joseph Guillaume
▶ Heather Knotts
▶ Nate Harsel
▶ Eden Ejigineh
▶ Deanne Miklovik
Challenge 1
▶ The climate in the school is negative.
▶ Students are not feeling inspired to work.
▶ The low moral is effecting their academic efforts.
▶ This is contributing to low writing scores.
Solution
▶ To solve this problem we plan to pass out surveys to
the students in order to gather their feelings on the
climate of the school, and what we can do to improve
this.
▶ We would like to start with improving our advisory
program, and we hope to have students become a part
of the planning.
Survey Questions
▶ Students were asked in their second block classes to
answer a series of questions in order to assess their
needs.
Questions
▶ Do you feel happy in your school?
▶ Do you feel that your needs are being met?
▶ Do you feel that you are receiving a quality education?
▶ Do you wish that there was more time to build
relationships with teachers and classmates?
▶ Do you feel our advisory program is effective?
▶ Do you enjoy advisory?
▶ How could we improve advisory?
▶ Would you like to be a part of advisory?
Questions 1-3
Reflection On Surveys
▶ In these first three responses it was evident that
students did not feel happy in their school, they did
not feel like their needs were being met, and they did
not feel that they were receiving a quality education.
Questions 4-6
Reflection On Surveys
▶ In questions 4-6 we learned that students do wish that
there was more time to build relationships with
teachers and classmates, they do feel that our
advisory program is effective, and that majority of the
students do enjoy advisory.
Question 7
▶ How could we improve advisory?
▶ “Make it less of a study hall”
▶ “Actually give us something to do”
▶ “Make it less boring”
▶ “Let us pick what we want to do”
Reflection On Surveys
▶ From some of the many responses from the children it
is evident that they do enjoy advisory, but they would
like it to serve a purpose.
Question 8
▶ Would you like to be a part of advisory?
▶ “Yes, I think it would be fun.”
▶ “What would we do?”
▶ “I don’t care.”
▶ “Sure, anything is better than what we’re doing now.”
Reflection On Surveys
▶ Students seem indifferent on becoming a part of the
advisory program, but there are some students who
are interested and we plan to invite these students to
take part in helping plan advisory.
Challenge 2
▶ Our writing scores are exceptionally low.
▶ Students feel that they are not prepared for state
testing.
▶ Students are not performing to the best of their
abilities because some are not motivated, and others
feel ill prepared.
Data (Report Card)
Data (OGT Writing Scores)
What Does The Data Tell Us?
▶ The data shows us that the students are not doing well
on OGT’s.
▶ Students were next asked to respond to a writing
prompt during their second block classes that asked
them how they felt about their writing skills, if they
felt prepared for tests, and what they could use help
with.
▶ Most students reported feeling ill prepared for testing
and in need of a refresher course.
Solution
▶ The solution we came to was Tuesday writings.
▶ During these writings students were given a school wide
writing prompt.
▶ Students were then asked to respond to this prompt in a 20
minute time frame during their second block class.
▶ The responses were there assessed and returned to the pre
determined graders.
▶ The graders would go over these papers, find common
strengths and weaknesses, and report these along with the
scores into “illuminate” an online tool the school uses to
keep track of testing data.
What Does The Data Tell Us?
▶ The data told us that students were struggling with
spelling, grammar, and basic mechanics.
Curriculum Design
▶ The next thing we would need to change was the curriculum
design.
▶ “Curriculum design refers to the physical act of creating the
curriculum for use in the schools. This may involve the purchase
of textbooks (one kind of work plan and curriculum) and/or the
writing of curriculum guides (another kind of work plan), and
neither may be well connected to the other. This presents a real
problem in considering the alignment of curriculum to the tests
in use. School officials like to believe that teachers follow
curriculum guides when in fact the research reveals they are
much more likely to be dependent upon the textbook as the
actual day-to-day work plan or “real” curriculum.” (Fenwick, 11)
Data Conclusions
▶ Our plan became to take our findings and implement them into
future lessons.
▶ Curriculum coordination became the goal. (Fenwick, 12)
▶ The high school had a staff meeting in which the findings were
discussed and Tuesday writings have remained in order to keep
track of writing progress.
▶ The English department created templates that were given to all
departments in order to show them how writing can be
incorporated into all classes.
▶ The English department also came up with plans for each grade
level to help improve writing.
How to make this happen
▶ In order to discuss our findings a professional
development day was hosted on March 3rd in which all
of the data findings were dissected, and plans of
improvement were announced.
Professional Development
▶ PD day regarding student writing improvement.
▶ Day opens with a presentation on student test scores, graduation rate, and
school report card.
▶ Faculty is then given an article on the importance of properly teaching reading
comprehension and writing skills.
▶ Faculty is broken into groups where we discuss common strengths and
weaknesses we see in student writing. Small groups are then merged into
three large groups that share what was discussed in individual groups.
▶ Staff is introduced to what will be happening with Tuesday writing
assessments in which they will give students a writing prompt for 20 minutes
and informed on how this will be graded on a common rubric by
predetermined graders.
▶ Day will wrap up with groups coming up with their own ideas, putting them on
poster board, and presenting ideas to the rest of the groups.
Reflection
▶ There has been a great deal of growth in this process for the school,
and for myself. In continuing to align with our schools goal of
improving writing scores and further developing our advisory program
we have been persistent with having students take a weekly writing
assessment in order to gather student strengths, and also get a better
idea of the things that the students need help with. This has now been
in action for over two months and data collected by our online
illuminate system is showing that student-writing scores are
improving. Problems such as thesis and mechanics have shown great
advances. The advisory program is a success as well. Students enjoy
having the opportunity to have a say in this program and have made
suggestions such as watching motivational videos, and doing more
hands on activities.
Evaluation
▶ Will be in sealed envelope to be turned in the last day
of class.
References
▶ Danielson, C. (2008). The handbook for enhancing professional practice: using the framework for teaching in your school. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

▶ Drake, S. (2012). Creating Standards-Based Integrated Curriculum. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

▶ English, F. W. (2010). Deciding what to teach & test: developing, aligning, and leading the curriculum. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

▶ Epstein, J. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Corwin Press

▶ Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group

▶ González, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: theorizing practice in households, communities, and classrooms.
Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates

▶ Grogan (2013). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (5th ed.) (pp. 40-54). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

▶ Knight, J. (2007). Instructional Coaching, A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.