Campus Improvement Plan 2020-2021

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Demographics

Demographics Summary

Our enrollment profile has remained the same, as has most of our demographic data. We will have eleven prekindergarten classrooms, seven Spanish bilingual and four mainstream English classes in PK4. We are currently staffed for two PK3 Spanish and two PK3 English class sections. This year we will continue to increase the number of students served in our three-year-old program, as well as, continue the growth in our PK4 program.  We also have one ECSE classroom for special education students.

According to our most recent school report card, we have 322 students. Our racial makeup is: 4% African American, .6% Asian; 90.1% Hispanic, 4.7% White, 93.1% Hispanic and .6% Two or more races.

Student attendance is often inconsistent, in both PreK3 and PreK4. Parent education on the importance of coming to school each day continues to be a focus.

Many of the students at Lion Lane are considered Economically Disadvantaged, specifically 89.8%. English is not the first language of 73.9% of our students.    Most of our students (81.4%) qualify as "at risk" of not graduating from high school.

Demographics Strengths

The staff at Lion Lane has been remarkably stable since the opening of the school in 2001. The school director remained unchanged until October 2018. We were very fortunate to have a stable staff of teachers, assistants, office staff, and a nurse. A few staff members have been here since the building opened 18 years ago. The last year, has allowed us to hire several new teachers and assistants, as well as, a new front office staff. The changes in staff has created a new energy on campus and a desire to step outside of the comfortable curriculum and move forward in following the district curriculum in literacy, math, science and social studies. It has also allowed us to increase our focus on developing student social skills and focus on the SEL portion of the curriculum.

Our families experience crises that would be expected of those living in a high poverty area, however, we have family support in our campus social worker. Due to a late hire of a social worker, the focus on the parent center decreased this past year. This will be revitalized in the coming school year. We continue to have parent volunteer program and an ongoing community partnership with Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church (CEPC).

Problem Statements Identifying Demographics Needs

Problem Statement 1: Our families continue to experience crisis associated with our demographics Root Cause: Poverty
Problem Statement 2: Student attendance is frequently inconsistent. Root Cause: Poverty and parent education
 

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Student Learning

Student Learning Summary

Lion Lane administered the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring Tool at the beginning, middle and end of the year. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to administer the EOY CIRCLE assessment. The MOY assessment was administered and yielded student growth. The percentage of students scoring at or above benchmark exceeded the district average in 6 of the 9 areas assessed. The scoring results when English and Spanish scores were combined were as follows: Rapid Letter Naming (82%), Rapid Vocabulary Naming (56%), Writing (91%), Social Emotional (94%), and Math (81%). Our lowest scoring area was Rapid Vocabulary naming at 56% of students scoring at or above the benchmark. In addition, a large percentage of students are reading at a DRA/EDL level 1-4.

Generally, our English classrooms continue to score lower than our Spanish ones, with the exception of the Writing and Social Emotional subtest, where the English classes scored higher. There is still a significant gap between English and Spanish Rapid Vocabulary Naming (RVN) scores. However, with an ongoing focus on shared reading and language strategies to support vocabulary development, we have seen an increase in RVN. This will continue to be an area of focus for our students at Lion Lane.

Student Learning Strengths

Lion Lane administered the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring Tool at the beginning and middle of the year. Due to COVID-19 we were unable to administer the EOY assessments. For midyear assessments, we identified areas of focus for the remainder of the year. In math these included: Rote Counting (39% on track) and Operations (27% on track). Other math subtests such as, Shape Naming, Number Discrimination, Number Naming, Shape Discrimination, Counting Sets, and the Overall Math Measure were at or above the district level.

The scoring results were as follows: Rapid Letter Naming (82%), Rapid Vocabulary Naming (56%), Writing (91%), Social Emotional (94%). Rapid Vocabulary Naming is an area of growth for our students. In addition, a large percentage of students are reading at a DRA/EDL level 1-4. Students in our bilingual program, are out performing students in our Mainstream/ESL classroom.

Problem Statements Identifying Student Learning Needs

Problem Statement 1: Mainstream/ESL classrooms performance on CIRCLE assessment is consistently lower than the performance in the bilingual classrooms.
Root Cause: Poverty, lack of experiences and parent involvement

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

School Processes & Programs

School Processes & Programs Summary

As Lion Lane continues its transition to a new leadership structure, we continue our focus in all classrooms on English language development. Students in our bilingual classrooms were exposed to the Preview-View-Review Strategy during the math and project (science/social studies) block of instruction. Students in our Mainstream/ESL classrooms were exposed to thoughtful planning of vocabulary development paired with hands on, interactive activities. 

Each day students participate in three learning workshops focused on higher level thinking skills and problem solving: literacy, math, and projects.

1. We maintained a balanced approach to literacy learning by taking each child where they are at the beginning of the year, using our CIRCLE and Observation Survey (OS) data to building on their strengths. Throughout the year, using middle of the year CIRCLE and OS and classroom assessments to ensure that all students are meeting end of year expectations.
2. We turned our focus to the new district curriculum in math and implementing workstations during math.
3. Students participated in class projects that allowed them to apply their recently acquired literacy, math, science, and social studies skills in authentic situations.

In addition, students participate in daily social skills development activities, gross motor instruction and recess.

Teaching young children appropriate social skills is critical in early childhood. Student behavior generally meets age appropriate expectations. However, students that were in crisis were met with immediate support. These students received classroom support in the form of focused social skill development, behavior intervention plans, and frequent contact with a variety of adults to support the appropriate behavior. Access to a Behavior Intervention Specialist on campus allowed us to have quick intervention that was frequently monitored. We were able to access support from the district's System of Care department. This combined support helped teachers to target specific student behaviors and provide a variety of data based interventions. Professional development sessions were held before school started with new staff to support Project CLASS implementation.

Our teachers continue to be highly dedicated and hardworking. Many have been on our campus for many years, however, due to staff re-locations and promotions, we will be adding new staff for the 20-21 school year. We have established professional learning communities lead by experienced team leaders. Under new campus leadership, the campus mission was restructured and the vision will be re-evaluated to ensure that we are all working toward a common goal.

School Processes & Programs Strengths

Our literacy instruction remains a strength. We have focus on sending children to kindergarten with strong literacy skills, because research suggests that this is the most significant predictor of future success in school. There is a strong commitment by our staff to providing a balanced literacy program.

Our teachers differentiate instruction teaching most of the day in smaller focused groups. Instruction is based on assessment data to ensure it is matched closely to student need.

Some of the strengths of our instructional program that our staff, parents and community shared are:

• We consistently differentiate instruction and all classrooms are using technology in meaningful ways 
• Data is used to facilitate and guide instruction
• Teachers collaborate to best meet the needs of all students
• The full day program allows us to thoroughly implement all content areas 
• Small Group instruction

Additionally, to enhance anytime, anywhere opportunities for our youngest learners we are providing ReadyRosie access to parenting videos that help them engage students in learning at home.

Our professional development time continues to be instrumental in allowing us to grow together as a staff. Because staff had indicated that this time could be better used if the professional development was targeted to their individual needs and areas of growth, we were able to begin to refocus this time to better meet teacher needs. This will be a continued area of focus in the coming year.

This year, we added an Intervention Specialist who focused on behavior and academic interventions to support student achievement. She supported student growth through hands on interventions in classrooms and through professional development for our staff members. This model was well received and will be a continued focus to meet all stakeholders needs.

Through CIT team participation, we had two parent representatives on our CIT team for the 2019-2020 school year. These parents participated in our meetings and were active on our Campus Improvement Team.  School and Classroom newsletters were sent to parents in English and Spanish. We had almost all of our students represented by parents/guardians at Meet the Teacher, Open House, and Parent Conferences. Parent classes were held – proportionately more parents from bilingual classes attended than from mainstream/ESL classes. Parents responded to attendance calls, absence note reminders to reduce tardiness and increase student attendance.

Some of the ways we currently support our community include:

• Parent meetings (i.e. Meet the Teacher, Parent conferences, Book Fair) 
• CIS worker on campus to support families
• Constant communication with parents (school and classroom newsletters, Remind, marquee reminders/announcements, phone calls, conferences) 
• Evening parent events
• Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church (CEPC) 
• Super Smiles Dental Program
• Spring Woods High School Students - Growth and Development class 
• ReadyRosie

Problem Statements Identifying School Processes & Programs Needs

Problem Statement 1: Families continue to experience crisis associated with our demographics. Root Cause: Poverty

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Perceptions

Perceptions Summary

Under new campus leadership, we continue to see the implementation of new processes and procedures to ensure student and staff safety, refinement to communication process and more collaboration when planning. The 'Work from Home Order' due to COVID-19 provided the teachers an opportunity to truly refine their ability to collaborate and have authentic relationships. I observed that teachers who had not been receptive to support from their peers started seeking out assistance and support to grow in areas that had previously been challenging. In the end, our team grew as a whole, not just professionally but in the area of authenticity.

Campus leadership continued to provide opportunities to increase engagement and team building through celebrations, lunches, treats, etc. These practices will continue, while exploring better ways to meet the staff needs.

Lion Lane's enrollment has decreased over the past several years, and additional study is needed to see if there are three or four-year old’s in our community who are not participating in our program or if this is related to the demographic changes in our community.

Perceptions Strengths

We will continue to participate in the "Share a Smile" program with our staff this year as we feel this is a strength in creating our positive climate results.

We will continue to encourage parents to volunteer in classrooms. We also participate as a lab school for Spring Woods High School students who support instruction in all of our classrooms two - three days per week.

Problem Statements Identifying Perceptions Needs

Problem Statement 1: Families continue to experience crisis associated with our demographics. Root Cause: Poverty