School Improvement Plan

Cascade Ridge Elementary
School Improvement Plan
2021-22

A School Improvement Plan (SIP) ...

Is developed according to the Washington Administrative Code 180-16-220
Shows evidence of annual school board approval
Includes information that staff certification requirements were met
Includes evidence the plan is based on self-review and participation of required participants
Considers a collection of data over time that is analyzed to determine the focus of the plan
Promotes continuous improvement in student achievement in state learning standards
Recognizes non-academic student learning, what, and how
Addresses the characteristics of highly successful schools
Is led by the principal and the building’s Leadership Team
Requires collaboration with the school staff and district administration
Addresses equity (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, culture, language and physical/mental ability)
Has action plans that are based on best practice as identified by quality research
Is a continuous process that requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment
Addresses the use of technology to facilitate instruction
Addresses parent, family and community involvement

Characteristics of Successful Schools

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction identifies the following nine characteristics of successful schools:

clear and shared focus
high standards and expectations for all students
effective school leadership
high levels of collaboration and communication
curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned with state standards
frequent monitoring of learning and teaching
focused professional development
supportive learning environment
high levels of family and community involvement

SIP Planning

START DATE: Fall 2021

SITE COUNCIL REVIEW DATE: January 10, 2022

SCHOOL BOARD REVIEW DATE: March 16, 2022

PRINCIPAL: Jennifer Sehlin

LEADERSHIP TEAM:

Kate McConnell - Dean of Students
Angela Schubbe - Kindergarten
Becky Quinton - First Grade
Kari Perkin - Second Grade
Demetra Trull – Third Grade
Madyson Evans – Fourth Grade
Erin Foster – Fifth Grade
Jilian Murdock – Instructional Coach
Zana Moore – Librarian

Staff and demographic information are available for each school at the OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) School Report Card Home.

Re-Engagement & Recovery

This section of the School Improvement Plan describes the strategies this school used to identify and address the social-emotional and academic needs for students to successfully re-engage in the learning community and their learning path.

How did your school identify students who may have difficulty re-engaging in the learning community or may have social-emotional or mental health wellness needs?

The Cascade Ridge staff is invested and committed to ongoing strategies and interventions to ensure student success and concerns in the social-emotional health of our community. In beginning the 2021-22 school year, the team worked to ensure the smooth transition to full “in-person” learning by early identification of student’s needs through the Tier Two team and holding a Community Connection Meeting.

The Tier 2 Team met in late August to review data from Spring 2021 and identify the students who might need additional support at the start of the 2021-22 school year. Our PBSES coach and Counselor worked to inform teachers of students who had engagement or social/emotional needs during the 2020-21 school year. Our counselor, in tandem with a cohort of counselors (IVE, Sunset & Clark), created a beginning-of-the-year “student well-being survey” for parents addressing needs that were seen at home (link here: https://forms.office.com/r/NJYmvhArG6). With these responses and teacher input, five small groups of students were formed at second through fifth grade and convened this fall, addressing student social and emotional needs.

With the return to full time “in person” school, there were a fair amount of questions regarding protocols, safety, procedures, and the school day. Coupled with our Covid Handbook, a Principal Community Connection Meeting was held the last week of August before the schoolwide meet the teacher. This was very successful with a large number of parents and caregivers in attendance (via Zoom). Providing a live forum seemed to alleviate some of these concerns and our team was able to share that health and safety of our students is the number one priority for Cascade Ridge and the ISD as a whole.

What strategies did your school employ to re-engage students and address wellness needs?

September 2021 marks the 20^th year that Cascade Ridge opened its doors to students. The staff has adopted the following theme for the year: Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts. This theme encompasses many of the strategies that were employed for ALL students: predictability, structure, routine, Tier 1 practices and MTSS implementation.

During the spring of 2021, Cascade Ridge was a pilot school for an extended day with lunch service for Kindergarten to Third Grade. We used this to our advantage in teaching expectations and routines, as we knew about half of our students K-3 had experienced what was as close to “in-person regular school” for a few weeks. This familiar sense of routine, systems and structures added to promoting positive re-engagement and security for all students and staff.

Our Tiered teams partnered with staff in the commitment to implement extensive interventions/systems to start the school year. These interventions include:

Explicit teaching of expectations in all settings by all staff (hallway, playground, lunchroom, etc.).
Coyote Code tours – Our PBSES coach and Dean of Students conducted individual classroom tours teaching the Coyote Code: Be Safe, Be Kind & Do Your Job.
Coyote Coin recognition program and school-wide goal.
LAP services/Success Block implementation for all grade levels.
Lunchroom reward system with “music Fridays.”
During the August LID days, Tier 1 proactive classroom management strategies were reviewed including, 5-to-1 positive-to-corrective comments, positive greetings at the door, etc.
Some grade-level teams offered parent meetings within the first few weeks of school to build relationships and learn about each student’s unique strengths and areas of growth, as well as information about cultural background and family observances.
Staff was provided professional development by the PBSES coach and Counselor on building Emotionally Safe Classroom Communities and The Importance of Rest Throughout the Day.
Great Kids program – Weekly recognition of individual students, announcement and prize.
Classroom read aloud – Principal read aloud books quarterly. The first read aloud focused on the Equity Pledge using the book You Matter by Christian Robinson.
Office Celebration Board – Individual recognition in office for outstanding work. Communication home to parents with picture of work.
Identified Tier 2 interventions for some students such as Check in/Check out, scheduled/purposeful movement breaks, and counseling small groups.
VOICE mentors for identified students.
Visibility – Our school team including the PBSES coach, Counselor, Dean of Students and ELL teacher, are all highly visible at Cascade Ridge not only during lunch and recess times but at arrival and departure. This visibility cannot be underestimated in a year such as this. They are proactive, available and strive to build positive relationships with all students and families.

How did your school identify pre-requisite skill gaps that might prevent a student from successfully accessing grade-level or course-appropriate learning?

Academically, during our August LID days, our Instructional Coach led the staff in learning how to access and analyze data for individual students (Homeroom, spring i-Ready Reading & Math). Teachers had the opportunity to spend time collaborating with their grade levels and having informal discussions with previous year teachers. Moving into fall, teachers were able to collect additional data (F & P, fall i-Ready, SBA data, formative assessment measures) and make recommendations to the Tier 2 team for students who need additional support.

A SWIS refresher was also provided to all staff in August, which led to a greater understanding of the purpose of the data collection tool for social/emotional behaviors. After collecting data for the first several weeks of school, SWIS data indicated a high level of Tier 1 need in multiple grade levels. The PBSES Coach and Counselor implemented weekly direct social skills instruction using the Skill Streaming curriculum. Multiple students were assigned a Student Coordinator and Tier 2 interventions were implemented.

The Tiered Teams continue to use teacher referrals, BEISY data, SWIS data and At-Risk Indicators (health room visits, attendance, grades, assessments, BEISY, SWIS) to identify students of need.

Continued practices/Next steps include:

Continued focus on Tier 1 strategies (January re-teaching and reviewing the Coyote Code using 5^th grade leaders)
Flexible, responsive small groups to address student academic needs
Continued weekly direct instruction led by PBSES Coach and Counselor using the Skill Streaming curriculum and expanded to additional grade levels
Counseling small groups in multiple grade levels focused on coping skills
Continued professional development for teachers on Reading Foundational Skills Adoption: Success Blocks, Words Their Way, Heggerty, Benchmark Phonics
Read Great Reading curriculum intervention for students identified with gaps in phonological and phonemic awareness
Professional development utilizing i-Ready Reading and Math to address individual student needs and forming instructional groupings
Student access to i-Ready Reading and Math, which is personalized to address individual learning needs
Student access to Zearn and Zearn Foundational lessons, to support and reinforce math pre-requisite/foundational skills
Recovery Services for students with IEPs started in January 2022
Full implementation of Success Blocks, using Words Their Way, Benchmark Phonics and Really Great Reading
Data study of grade-level i-Ready data, January 2022 & April 2022

Data Study

This section of the School Improvement Plan describes the use and study of student achievement data to inform SIP goals and to set learning targets to address systemic disproportionality. Targets to address disproportionality are in reference to state Smarter Balanced Assessments using the Washington School Improvement Framework (WSIF), per state regulation. The most current WSIF available dates to 2019 due to the cancelation of recent state assessments. This WSIF provides a pre-pandemic baseline. Additional data available since the re-opening of schools is added to provide more current data for school improvement planning.

Cascade Ridge Smarter Balanced Assessment

Percent Meeting Standard

	ELA		Math
	2019 SBA	2021 SBA	2019 SBA	2021 SBA
3^rd	74.7%	80.7%	86.4%	90.3%
4^th	87.3%	89.2%	87.3%	89.2%
5^th	90.4%	76.8%	81.7%	64.2%

Sources:
2019 OSPI School Report Card
2021 Preliminary Scores from Homeroom
Note: 2021 was a modified SBA given in Oct-Nov 2021, with no performance tasks.

Washington School Improvement Framework

2021 Measures by Student Group – Cascade Ridge ES

	All	Asian	Black / African American	English Language Learners*	Hispanic / Latino	Low-Income*	Students with Disabilities*	Two or More Races	White
SBA: ELA % Proficient¹	88.0	92.6		66.7	85.7		85.7	100	75.0
Fall i-Ready Reading % Prof. % Approaching or above	81.3 95.8	93.3 97.9		50.0 83.3	64.7 94.1		31.6 73.7	83.3 96.7	62.0 92.6
SBA: Math % Proficient¹	90.9	97.2		66.7	100		75.0	85.7	77.3
Fall i-Ready Math % Prof. % Approaching or above	69.4 92.6	82.0 96.9		56.5 87.0	41.2 94.1		38.9 61.1	72.4 93.1	52.3 86.0

*Program enrollment fluctuates during the year, this data reflects students enrolled in programs on November 30, 2021
1 SBA was modified, without performance tasks. Scores are preliminary 3^rd-4^th assessment scores administered to current 4^th-5^th grade students.
Fall i-Ready was administered to 1^st-5^th grade students.

Data Study

Describe your SIP team process for studying school-wide, disaggregated data and selecting SIP goals.
Describe your observations regarding disproportionality that informed your SIP gap goal(s).

Describe your SIP team process for studying school-wide, disaggregated data and selecting SIP goals.

Student data and building academic needs are regularly reviewed at monthly Leadership meetings and twice-weekly Tier 2 meetings. In reviewing our current i-Ready Reading and Math data, Fall SBA data, Kindergarten WaKIDS data in comparison to the 2017-19 WSIF data, we were pleased with how the students were able to maintain reasonable progress during the 20-21 school year in the midst of the pandemic closure and remote learning.

In looking specifically at the fall i-Ready data, 81.3% of all students met proficiency in reading and 69.4% of met proficiency in math. This led to a discussion of our focus for the 2021-22 school year. While this specific data would indicate the need for a math goal, our school team decided to focus on ELA, continuing with our goal from the previously written SIP. The school team felt that with the focus on reading foundational skills, focus on Student Learning Plans with the Dyslexia Law and Success Block implementation, reading is an area of district focus and would be appropriate for us to pursue as we return and recover from the unique 2020-21 school year. Reading is critically interwoven into math skills, in that the comprehension of math problems and understanding of what is being asked can impact math scores. The school team strongly feels that reading foundational skills are essential not only to reading success but to success across all academic subjects. The Instructional Coach and SAGE teacher will offer regular math professional development sessions throughout the year, so this will not be an area left behind.

The school team felt strongly that the consistency of maintaining reading progress and continuing a one-year goal utilizing the SBA as a measure was appropriate for the 21-22 school year.

Describe your observations regarding disproportionality that informed your SIP gap goal(s).

Disproportionality Targets

Identify targets for each Washington School Improvement Framework subgroup for which you have baseline data. Baseline for group sizes of less than 20 are suppressed in public documents, targets are set for all groups.

Identify targets for each Washington School Improvement Framework subgroup for which you have baseline data. Baseline for group sizes of less than 20 are suppressed in public documents, targets are set for all groups.

ELA Proficiency Rate

*Group*	2017-19 WSIF Baseline	2022 Target
All Students (for comparison)	86.8%	---------------------------
Black / African American
English Language Learners	54.5%	65.0%
Hispanic/Latino of any race	83.3%	93.0%
Low Income
Students with Disabilities	41.0%	51.0%

Math Proficiency Rate

*Group*	2017-19 WSIF Baseline	2022 Target
All Students (for comparison)	85.5%	---------------------------
Black / African American
English Language Learners	64.0%	75.0%
Hispanic/Latino of any race	71.1%	80.0%
Low Income
Students with Disabilities	35.9%	45.0%

Regular Attendance Rate

*Group*	2017-19 WSIF Baseline	2022 Target
All Students (for comparison)	96.3%	---------------------------
Black / African American
English Language Learners	92.4%	95%
Hispanic/Latino of any race
Low Income
Students with Disabilities	94.0%	95%

Achievement Goals & Actions

This section of the School Improvement Plan describes the setting of a specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and timely (SMART) school-wide achievement goal(s).

School-Wide Goal(s)
Gap Closing Goal(s)

School-Wide Goal(s)

By the spring of 2022, 90% of 3^rd-5^th grade students will meet or exceed standard on the ELA SBA.

Action Steps. What research-based strategies will be implemented to achieve school-wide goals?

Action Steps. What research-based strategies will be implemented to achieve school-wide goals?

The Cascade Ridge staff will engage in school-wide Success Block times, utilizing the instructional tools listed below (adopted curriculum from Reading Foundational Skills).

Heggerty: chosen to strengthen phonological and phonemic awareness instruction. Phonological awareness difficulties represent the most common source of word-level reading difficulties. Instruction in Phonemic awareness helps all children improve their reading skills. Heggerty will be used for universal instruction (Tier 1) in kindergarten and 1st grade, as well as for targeted or intensive interventions (Tiers 2-3) K-5th grade.
Hulme, Bowyer-Crane, Carroll, Duff, & Snowling, 2012; Mel- by-Lervag, Hulme, & Halaas Lyster, 2012; Vellutino et al., 2004 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611435921 Additional research: https://heggerty.org/Phonemic-awareness-research/
Words Their Way: chosen because this multi-sensory program ensures students develop the essential elements of reading including phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and vocabulary. Word study provides opportunities for students to explore and manipulate words. The explicit instruction and sequential scope and sequence support students with reading difficulties. Words Their Way Classroom will be used for instruction of reading foundational skills for students at or above standard in phonological awareness and phonics. This program uses a placement assessment to focus small group instruction on actual learning needs. Eddy, R. M., Ruitman, T., Hankel, N., Matelski, M. H. & Schmalstig, M. (2011). Pearson Words Their Way: Word Study in Action Intervention Efficacy Study Fina Report https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/intervention/toolGRP/635442d54b9bb2df Additional research: https://doi.org/10.1080/0270271890100305
Benchmark Phonics Workshop: chosen for its explicit, systematic, and multisensory curriculum, Benchmark provides a universal foundation for all Kindergarten students. Phonological awareness, basic phonics skills, and high-frequency sight words are critical components of Benchmark Phonics Workshop. Practice and authentic reading and writing applications are included.
Really Great Reading: chosen for explicit, targeted and intensive instruction (Tier 2-3) for students in 1st through 5th grade who are assessed to have skill gaps in phonological awareness and phonics.
i-Ready: chosen as a literacy screener to meet the state requirements for a screener for reading difficulties associated with dyslexia. Also used to provide students with personalized instruction, which includes an adaptive online pathway to reinforce learning and provide resources for small group instruction with the teacher.https://www.curriculumassociates.com/-/media/mainsite/files/i-ready/research-overview-proven-to-work-brochure-2019.pdf https://charts.intensiveintervention.org/progressmonitoring/tool/?id=d264b2946d8df43d#Reliability

Professional Development

Conducting guided reading groups based on assessment/small group instruction
Continued training and resources for implementation of WA state dyslexia law
Professional development around Reading Foundational Skills and instructional tools/curricula
Monthly technology training to support literacy
Strategies for collecting and analyzing data on student progress to guide instruction
Training for support staff (LRC1, school psych, Principal) in Orton-Gillingham method

Gap Closing Goal(s)

By the spring of 2022, 1^st – 5^th ELL and LRC1 students will increase reading proficiency as measured by i-Ready. ELL students will move from 50% proficient (fall) to 75% proficient (spring), and LRC1 students will move from 31.6% proficient (fall) to 50% proficient (spring).

Action Steps. What additional research-based strategies will be implemented to achieve gap-closing goal?
Approach to gap-closing. How will your action steps address disproportionality?

Monitoring Effectiveness. What on-going artifacts or evidence will be gathered to show this activity is making a difference in student learning?

i-Ready Diagnostics – Fall, Winter, Spring
RGR diagnostic data for students who show gaps in phonics or phonemic awareness
Fountas and Pinnell Reading Assessment Data
SBA Data for ELA and Math
Eureka Math Module Tests and Exit Tickets
Words Their Way Inventories and Spell Checks
RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming) Assessment for K-1
Benchmark Phonics formative and cumulative assessments for Kindergarten
Heggerty Phonological and Phonemic Awareness for K-1
ISD Spring 2022 Common On-Demand Writing Assessment: for K-5 in informational or opinion writing

School Improvement Plan

Cascade Ridge Elementary School Improvement Plan 2021-22

A School Improvement Plan (SIP) ...

Characteristics of Successful Schools

SIP Planning

Cascade Ridge Elementary
School Improvement Plan
2021-22