Staff Development

Staff Development Plan

We have adopted the CSCOPE curriculum and will schedule time for teachers to work with the curriculum. Currently, we only implement CSCOPE with Math and Science. Like most districts, we feel these are our main areas of weakness and want a vertically aligned curriculum to hopefully help improve student success. We are preparing to increase the areas where we implement CSCOPE and will allow time for training.

Most of our staff development is handled on the campus level with each campus developing a plan to address those issues identified by site based committees. There are differences in the needs of early childhood campuses and secondary campuses. On the elementary campuses that do not have to take the TAKS, most of the staff development is based on parent involvement, Response to Intervention, and curriculum. Those campuses also disaggregate achievement test data along with other testing data such as TPRI to address weaknesses. Those campuses that do take the TAKS will also bring in the AEIS data to address the weaknesses there. We also need to be aware of our at risk students and start making plans for them as early as possible.

Across the district we have good scores. The areas holding us down are our scores in the African American, Special Education, and At Risk sub groups. We need to focus our staff development on these areas to hopefully increase test scores.

We have developed a “Failure is not an option” motto and really stress goal setting on the campus level to address specific campus needs. We also stress behavior initiatives on the campus levels. A staff survey helps identify areas of concern that are important to teachers.

We have a grade with a high number of autistic students and each year the teachers receiving these students go through autism training. We try to cover the state mandated requirements like bloodborne pathogens, gifted and talented, sexual harassment, and others with workshops and staff meetings throughout the year and summer so we can focus on campus and district needs during scheduled staff development days.

We are also adopting new software for the school for attendance, grades, discipline, etc. Administrators have been receiving training over the past month and will continue to receive training in the summer with the teachers. We have a state waiver from the state that allows us to have 177 days of instruction with the three additional days required for staff development. We have to spend those three days on curriculum and instruction.

The only day we will meet as a district for beginning of the year staff development is Monday. We will have a district breakfast. The rest of the training will be decided on a campus level focusing on curriculum, instruction, student success initiatives, goal setting in alignment with district plans, and new technology. All of the trainers are coordinated through central office. Specific attention will be placed on teaching diverse populations to reach our sub groups in hopes of helping them become more successful.

Two possible programs to implement are the Ruby Payne and Why Try programs. Both of thse programs will be beneficial with working with our at risk and minority students. We also need to find ways to improve the performance of our special education students. We need to look at how our programs are being implemented and how effective they are.