Week of January 18th

UAI Staff News

Volume III

Issue 19

Week of January 18th, 2016

UAI Celebrations

Middle School.  In December, the middle school had a series of wonderful events that continued to build a sense of community for our girls and their families.  The 6th grade hosted a family potluck where all the teachers reached out to girls' families and over 20 families joined our 6th graders for a wonderful in-day potluck. The 7th graders had a blast at Star Wars, and the 7th grade team was especially proud to usher in a new generation's appreciation of a long-standing phenomenon.  The 8th graders enjoyed a wonderful Ice-Skating Trip that brought the grade together!  School is meant to be an enjoyable, fun experience alongside the work we do every day.  Great job MS team for creating these special experiences for our girls.

High School.  This month, the high school teams have been focusing on student achievement.  To celebrate both social emotional and academic growth and achievement, the 9th grade team elected their first students of the week (who are pictured just in front of 401).  Both 9th & 10th/12th grade teams have launched a mandatory lunch study period to intervene for students who are failing classes.  The 11th/12th grade team is proud to report that their work with Group U, their most struggling group, has resulted in improved grades across the group.   The end of the fall term is an important time.  Remember, students who are passing as of the fall do not lose their credits.  So, achieving a passing grade now is an important step towards securing credit accumulation and promotion to the next grade.  Great work HS teams!

Announcements 

DRP Results and Getting Back to Basics.  In the last few months, I've observed over 20 different classes, and I've only seen a small handful of Unison Reading Groups and an even smaller amount of conferences.  In checking in with Val and Colleen, the trends are similar.  Couple that with our latest DRP results, and Houston....we have a problem.  Here's some data from the latest DRP:

• 44% of 6th Graders are currently reading below grade level (vs. 72% in Sept)
• 69% of 7th Graders are currently reading below grade level (vs. 72% in Sept)
• 63% of 8th Graders are currently reading below grade level (vs. 59% in Sept)
• 67% of 9th Graders are currently reading below grade level (vs. 84% in Sept)
• 65% of 10th Graders are currently reading below grade level (vs. 70% in Sept)
• 66% of 11th Grader are currently reading below grade level (vs. 56% in Sept)

In terms of growth, the chart below shows the percentage of our students making or beating national average growth in each grade band 

(OAGL = On or Above Grade Level; SBGL= Somewhat Below Grade Level; WBGL= Well Below Grade Level)

	% Meeting or Beating National Average Growth
	OAGL	SBGL	WBGL	ALL
6th Grade	69%	63%	45%	60%
7th Grade	29%	27%	48%	38%
8th Grade	50%	41%	53%	48%
9th Grade	58%	33%	40%	42%
10th Grade	53%	38%	46%	47%
11th Grade	20%	33%	38%	30%

In almost every grade, 2 out of every 3 students in our classes are not reading at grade level.  Also, in almost every grade, less than half of these students are growing their reading skills enough to overcome their below level deficiencies.  This is a big deal, and we need to explicitly and immediately address it.

Double doses of Unison and Conferences are the Tier One Interventions that we use at UAI.  Without consistent format execution, students are not guaranteed opportunities to build foundational skills in literacy.  A student who can't read at grade level cannot easily access the materials you provide them in work time, and thus cannot readily acquire new information and content knowledge that your subject area requires.  Literacy and Numeracy are foundational skills that every content area requires.  With so many of our students lagging behind the curve, we all need to become reading interventionists.  At UAI, that takes the form of Unison and Conferences.

We need to get back to the basics.  Please use the next few weeks to plan to relaunch the formats and get back into the habit of scheduled conferences and UR groups.  To get us back on track, for the month of February, teacher observations will be exclusively these two crucial formats (Unison and Conferences).  If you are not in those formats when we arrive, we will conduct a review of your Unison and Conference records instead.  

DRP data directly correlates to student achievement on NYS Middle School exams and NYS Regents exams.  If this many of our students are not achieving at grade level at the midyear point, we are in some pretty hot water for the end of the year assessments.  We need to act now to ensure our students' future success.

Coaching Help is Always Available.  If you feel that Unison and/or Conferences have not been high quality for you or your students, there is help!  We have a lot of peer coaches available to help if you need it!  

• For English, Science, and Social Studies folks:  Meredith, Darby, and Ilyana have consistently strong UR groups and have worked to support others in this format in years past and this year.  Each have also been trained on how to be effective peer coaches.  They all have professional periods available to help support you and if you all need more time, I can help with per session.

• For Math & Language folks:   Danielle & Jamie have worked as peer coaches last year and have worked alongside other coaches to refine what UR looks like in math.  In math, there is often less to read, but the collaborative reasoning is still very much part of the format.  Similarly, Language breaches focus the students on the target language.  For both subjects, the principals of UR are exactly the same for UR in other subjects, but the execution looks slightly different.

• For all subjects in Conferences:  Rebecca, Wendy and Marianna all have consistently strong conferences.  Social Studies, and Science teachers will have more in common with the Reading Conferences (Rebecca) while Wendy and Marianna may be better to help Math teachers.

• Team Leaders:  Additionally, your grade and subject team leaders are there to help you troubleshoot your work anytime you need it.  All of our team leaders are experienced Learning Cultures teachers who have worked many years to adapt the formats to grade level and/or subject area needs. 

• Establishing Social Norms to be able to hold formats:  The Dean residencies I mentioned last week are still in place.  Martine, Doris, and Jen can help you establish strong expectations for the classroom to more effectively be able to hold UR and Conferences during Work Time.

• Administrative Support:  Finally, if nothing else seems to be working, reach out to me, Val, or Colleen.  We're around to help you, too, on anything that you need.

Student Data Conferences and Building Student Buy-In to Format Relaunch. Speaking of conferences ... The midyear is the perfect time to review student data and set goals for the spring.  Additionally, connecting student performance on key indicators like the DRP, Benchmark Performance, and Course Grades will be an opportunity to establish student intention for formats like UR and Conferences and to develop a growth mindset.  Over the next few weeks, please leverage student conference time to review student data and progress.  Key data points to include are:  Benchmark Data from November, Attendance, Exit Slips, Classroom Assessments, CBM growth (Maze, Writing CBMs, ORFs, Math Fact Fluencies, etc.).  The goal of these conferences is to use tangible data points for students to use to set SMART goals towards end of the year achievement.

Midyear Review Reminder.  The work you do with Unison and Conferences can be some of the data and growth that you share at your midyear review.   Last week, I outlined the expectations for this conference.  Please take a moment to review it again by CLICKING HERE.  Also, please take a moment to review how you will include your Unison Reading and Conference records to illustrate the work you've done with students and how it has impacted their learning.

Teacher To Dos

Benchmark Exams to ISS Teachers.  Copies of HS Benchmark exams need to be provided to proctors of extended time rooms by the end of the school day on Tuesday. 19JAN  Copies of middle school benchmark exams need to be submitted to Joanna for copying by Friday 22JAN.

Submit Fall Unit Plans.  In preparation for Subject Team Work, I need copies of your unit and unit documents from this past semester.  Please upload the units you did this past fall and the associated documents (rubrics, resource maps, inquiry sheets, accountability forms, etc.) to this folder by the end of the school day on Wednesday 20JAN.

Important Dates

• Thursday, 21JAN15 and Friday, 22JAN15.  High School Benchmark 2 SCHEDULE
• Monday, 25JAN15.  4th POD Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 25JAN15.  End of Marking  Period 3
• Tuesday, 26JAN15 thru Friday, 29JAN15.  Regents Week SCHEDULE.
• Thursday, 28JAN15.  All MP3 Grades due at 3pm
• Thurs., 28JAN15 and Fri., 29JAN15.  Middle School Benchmark 2 SCHEDULE

• Monday, 01FEB15.  Full Staff PD See AGENDA HERE.  8:30AM-2:50PM
• Wednesday, 03FEB15.  Black History Month Winterfest Night (6-8PM)
• Tuesday, 02FEB15.  First Day of Spring Term.  Start of MP4
• Monday, 08FEB15.  Chinese Lunar New Year, NO SCHOOL
• Wednesday, 12FEB15.  Black History Month Assembly Full School (1:45-2:30PM)
• Monday, 15FEB15 thru Friday 19FEB15.  Midwinter Recess, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 22FEB15.  POD Cycle Launch and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 29FEB15.  1st Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings

• Monday, 07MAR15. 2nd Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Friday, 11MAR15.  4th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 14MAR15.  5th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 16MAR15. MP4 Grades are Due at 3PM
• Monday, 14MAR15. 3rd Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 17MAR15 and Friday, 18MAR15.  Benchmark 3 (This will be MS Predictive)
• Monday, 21MAR15. 4th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Thursday, 24MAR15.  Women's History Month Full School Assembly (1:45-2:30PM)
• Friday, 25MAR15.  Good Friday, NO SCHOOL
• Monday, 28MAR15. 5th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings

• Monday, 04APR15. 6th Pod Debrief and Grade Team Meetings
• Tuesday, 05APR15 thru Thursday, 07APR15.  Middle School NYS ELA Exam
• Wednesday, 13APR15 thru Friday, 15APR15.  Middle School NYS Math Exam
• Friday, 15APR15.  5th Marking Period Ends
• Monday, 11APR15. Pod Prep and Grade Team Meetings
• Monday, 18APR15. Pod Share - Grade Team Meetings moved to Tuesday
• Monday, 18APR15.  6th Marking Period Begins
• Wednesday, 20APR15.  5th Marking Period Grades Due at 3PM
• Friday, 22APR15.  5th MP Progress Report Distributed 8th Period
• Friday, 22APR15.  Poetry Slam Full School Assembly 1:45-2:30PM
• Monday, 25APR15 thru Friday 29APR15 - Spring Recess, NO SCHOOL

For All UAI School Important Dates, please add "UAI School" calendar to your google calendars.

Per Session Posting

No New Postings This Week