Medora schools seeking funding

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MEDORA

As the school improvement plans are set for 2017-18 at Medora Community Schools, Principal Austin Absher hopes to land a grant to provide even more opportunities for students and staff.

She recently presented the school improvement plans to school trustees and Superintendent Roger Bane.

They were reviewed by the school leadership team and will continue to be discussed in order to ensure proper implementation of the steps within the plan, Absher said. The team also will track and evaluate progress toward the goals.

For both the elementary and junior-senior high schools, one goal is to show a 5 percent increase in both the English/language arts and math achievements on the ISTEP+ test in the spring. That will be shown through classroom, formative and summative assessments and checks for understanding.

“Five percent is a hefty goal, but we showed quite a bit of growth on ISTEP last year, so hopefully, with all of that growth, that’s going to be enough to kind of knock us up in the percentage passing numbers,” Absher said.

Another goal is for student attendance for the lowest 7 percent of students to improve at least 2 percent by the spring. That will involve weekly and monthly attendance data.

An additional goal for the high school is to have 100 percent of its 21 seniors graduate in the spring. Absher said 2014 marked the last time the school had a 100 percent graduation rate. This past school year, 15 of the 16 seniors, or 93.75 percent, graduated.

After hearing the school improvement plans, board President Joe Campbell said it’s going to be a task for the school.

“If we can get more parents for buy-in and helping, that would be a plus,” he said.

Absher agreed.

“One of the things that would be really nice if we got this grant is being able to hire a parent outreach coordinator to do things like having meetings where parents could come in and discuss these goals and the next time really being a part of looking at data and really studying to see what the students are doing,” she said.

“Hopefully being able to have that kind of liaison between the school and parents and have some additional ways to get them involved in the data side of it and making decisions with it,” she said.

In October, Absher applied for a 1003(g) school improvement grant for the elementary school. It’s a multi-year competitive grant awarded to schools that show a strong commitment to building capacity within a school to improve teaching and learning.

The school is hoping to receive the $572,500 four-year grant.

The funding would allow the school to enhance curriculum, improve formative assessment techniques and create professional learning communities in 2017-18.

Then next school year, it could develop common formative assessments, enhance tier I and II interventions based on data and introduce non-cognitive skill sets.

In 2019-20, the elementary could refine common formative assessments from the prior year, embed 21st century skills and develop student data binders.

And in 2020-21, the school could develop growth mindset curriculum and integrate technology consistently with fidelity.

The funding also would support these additional opportunities:

  • Strategic school improvement planning
  • Development of a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) framework with strong instructional strategies
  • Creation of a makerspace lab for students to use technology
  • Professional development opportunities for teachers to enhance teaching and learning experiences
  • Extended learning time for students, such as before/after or summer school

Some of the funding would cover stipends for a parent outreach coordinator, a STEM facilitator and a data facilitator to analyze testing data on a regular basis, Absher said.

The school should learn by Dec. 1 if it has qualified for the final round to receive the grant.

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