Support and Improvement Process

There are two categories for schools not meeting state standards under North Star: Comprehensive Support and Improvement and Targeted Support and Improvement.

Comprehensive Support and Improvement is for schools that need support in significant areas or for all students. There are likely multiple issues that need to be addressed schoolwide, in order to make sure all students are meeting their full potential. Comprehensive support and improvement is also for high schools where any student group has a graduation rate below 67%. Support for high schools that serve students from special populations, especially those designed specifically for students who have faced challenges on their path to graduate in four years, will be differentiated.

Targeted Support and Improvement is for schools that mainly need support in one or two areas, or with a small number of student groups. This means a school that may have high overall achievement can be identified as needing support because it is not meeting a particular student group’s needs.

There is also a category of just Support for some schools that are low performing on just math proficiency, reading proficiency, or English Learner progress toward proficiency, but not on the other accountability measures. Schools identified for only support will not need to complete the same activities described below, which are required for comprehensive and targeted support and improvement schools.

Schools identified for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement will need to notify families of the school’s designation and then engage families and their school community stakeholders in:

·         Completing a comprehensive needs assessment looking at the reasons why the school was identified

·         Developing an improvement plan addressing the root causes behind low student achievement or gaps, which must include at least one strategy backed by rigorous research showing its effectiveness

·         Implementing and monitoring the improvement plan once it goes into effect

Schools identified for comprehensive or targeted support and improvement will complete their needs assessment in the fall of 2018, and then develop their improvement plan by March 1, 2019. Their school improvement plan will be implemented and monitored throughout 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Once identification status is made public at the end of August 2018, schools will communicate directly with families and community members about how they can be involved in the comprehensive needs assessment and improvement plan development process during the 2018-19 school year.