Plan Overview

Core Strategy 1: QUALITY INSTRUCTION

1. Students indicate that they are asked to demonstrate that what have learned in a well-rounded manner. At least 75 percent of students indicate that they are asked to demonstrate what they have learned through all five of the different methods about which they were asked. The two most frequently used methods are through tests and quizzes (91%) and through projects (90%), while sharing thoughts in writing and sharing thoughts out loud (75%) were less commonly used. Eighty-three percent indicate that they use technology to demonstrate what they have learned, which confirms other results regarding technology integration in the classroom.
2. Teachers would like to integrate activities that involve creative and critical thinking more than they currently integrate these activities. In practice, teachers estimate that they integrate activities that promote critical and creative thinking 5.3 days over a 10-day period. When asked about their ideal number of days that they would want to utilize creative and critical thinking activities, the average increases to 6.7 days over a 10-day period. District leaders should further explore what barriers currently prevent teachers from integrating creative and critical thinking activities into their practice as much as they would like, and investigate ways to reduce these barriers.
3. Instruction in Westside could better connect with the real world. Teachers indicate that in a typical 10-day period, they ask students to solve authentic problems less than half of the time (mean: 4.7 days). Additionally, relatively few students indicate that they have the opportunity to work on real world problems in school (69%). District leaders should further investigate ways to integrate real world problems into the curriculum and reduce barriers for teachers in incorporating authentic problems into their instruction.

Core Strategy 2: PERSONALIZED LEARNING

• Students believe that they have opportunities to learn with other students during the day, and feel that their teachers get to know them and understand their learning styles. Almost all students either “agree” or “strongly agree” that they get to learn with other students throughout the day (91%). Eighty-two percent feel that most of their teachers get to know them well and another 75 percent believe that most teachers know how their students learn best. Students are least likely to agree that their teachers ask for their ideas throughout the day (59%).
• Most parents believe that their child receives sufficient personal attention in order for her or his learning needs to be met. Seventy-two percent of parents either “agree” or “strongly agree” that their child receives personal attention from his or her teacher. This indicates that Westside can continue to work with teachers to identify ways to provide personal attention in the classroom and to communicate to parents the ways in which teachers provide personal attention to their students.
• Teachers report that they frequently do activities to get to know their students or make a classroom decision based on information they have learned about their students. Teachers report that during a typical 10-day period, they do an activity to get to know their students or intentionally make a classroom decision based on information they have learned about their students on an average of 5.4 days.

Core Strategy 3: TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

• The use of technology in the classroom is seen as an effective tool to enhance student learning. Eighty-five percent of teachers indicate that they agree (% agree + % strongly agree) that technology use in the classroom enhances learning for all students (down slightly from 2017). Students have a similar view on the effectiveness of technology in the classroom, as 90 percent believe that technology improves the quality of their learning. Additionally, most feel that technology helps them focus and that they understand more when using technology in a classroom setting (79%). Parents continue the trend of supporting the use of technology in the classroom, as 84 percent believe that it can improve the quality of their child’s learning.
• Westside is doing a better job at introducing new technology to students than in previous years, but the majority of students still report that they have not used a new technology in school before. Sixty-one percent of students report that they have not used any new technology in the classroom that they had not known about previously. This number is down from the previous two years (64% in 2016 and 68% in 2017), indicating that Westside may be increasing the amount of new technology that is used in the classroom and therefore students’ levels of familiarity.
• Technology activities most frequently take place at the substitution and augmentation levels, and less frequently at the transformational, modification, and redefinition levels. On average, teachers implement technology activities at the substitution level 5.4 days and at the augmentation level 4.5 days in a typical 10-day period. These levels are utilized more frequently than the transformational level (mean 2.9 days), the modification level (mean 2.3), and the redefinition level (mean 1.4).