CICLOS FORMATIVOS

With board approval, the superintendent reorganized EISD central administration for the beginning of the 2000-01 school year. The reorganization created three major areas of administration: Academic Services, Business and Financial Services and Administrative Services. All are headed by executive directors.

The Academic Services Department manages the development and modification of curriculum, the delivery of educational services and the evaluation of programs in EISD. The executive director supervises all principals, bilingual/ESL education, community outreach, special education and technology staff (Exhibit 2-38).

Exhibit 2-38

EISD Academic Services Department Organization 2000-01

Source: EISD superintendent.

The responsibilities of each of these positions are described in Exhibit 2- 39.

Exhibit 2-39

Responsibilities of EISD Academic Services Department Personnel Position Key Areas of Responsibility

Executive director, Academic Services

Responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of all academic programs, supervision of principals and supervision of all programs for special student populations.

Director, Special Education

Responsible for supervising all special education programs and serves as liaison to the Bastrop County Special

Education Cooperative. Community Education/ Community Outreach

Coordinates all communications with organizations and groups in the district regarding EISD programs and functions.

Coordinator, Technology

Coordinates all instructional technology services within the district, including implementation of new programs and staff development.

Bilingual Specialist Serves as lead teacher and administrator for all bilingual and ESL programs.

Source: EISD job descriptions and TSPR interviews.

The Texas Education Code prescribes certain criteria for staff

development in a Texas school district (Subchapter J. Staff Development, Section 21.451). The key requirements are that staff development:

• Must include training in technology, conflict resolution strategies and discipline strategies;

• May include instruction as to what is permissible under law;

• Must be predominantly campus-based, related to achieving performance objectives; and

• Must be developed and approved by the campus site-based decision- making committee.

Campus staff development may include activities that enable the campus staff to plan together to enhance existing skills, to share effective

strategies, to reflect on curricular and instructional issues, to analyze student achievement results, to reflect on means of increasing student achievement, to study research, to practice new methods, to identify students' strengths and needs, to develop meaningful programs for students, to appropriately implement site-based decision making, and to conduct action research.

According to TEA, an effective policy on staff development needs to include:

• How needs for training will be identified;

• Specific training requirements;

• How campus- level staff development operates;

• A focus on staff development for student achievement;

• Criteria for how campus staff are to be reimbursed for attending training on their own time;

• Requirements for special programs training (e.g., gifted and talented, Title I, students with disabilities); and

• Administrator training policy.

Exhibit 2-40 shows EISD's districtwide and campus staff development program for 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

Exhibit 2-40 EISD Staff Development

1998-99 and 1999-2000

Level Courses

Districtwide Technology basics Understanding poverty Character education

Climbing Toward Excellence Grade accounting

Technology

Sexual harassment Primary school ELIC

LINKS

Reading Renaissance (Accelerated Reader) Guided reading

Technology: basic computer skills, E-class grade accounting, Internet, TIF grant strands

Individually-assigned staff development Reading academies

Elementary school

Technology: learning to use In Focus, scanner, smart board, easy pro projectors, E-class grade accounting, Internet, email

Gifted and talented program: identification of students and teaching methods

Accelerated Reader

Texas educators code of ethics

Special education: identification and modifications Middle school Happy campers

Thinking maps

Tough kids

Teach with technology Extraordinary meetings It's the law

High school Focus training Cooperative learning

Questioning and inquiry techniques Sexual harassment

E-class grade accounting Socratic questioning Brain-based learning Cooperative discipline PDAS Source: EISD. FINDING

As a result of principals' monitoring the needs of EISD students, a number of new programs have been created, adopted or modified to meet specific needs.

Power Reading at the primary school is a reading intervention program that involves teams of teachers and educational aides who visit first and second grade classrooms four times each week to assist the classroom teacher in providing targeted support to bring all students to grade- level reading. A running record evaluation is conducted each quarter to

establish each student's reading level based on the rate and accuracy with which each student reads. After the evaluation, students are regrouped based on their progress.

At the elementary school, Accelerated Reader originally started through the use of Title I, Part A funds. In 1996-97, the program was adopted school- wide. Points are awarded for reading books at grade level and answering questions using a computer-based test. At many school

districts, the computer programs used to test student comprehension are in a classroom, limiting access during the day. The elementary school placed the test programs on computers in the library to give students greater flexibility to take the tests.

Skills building at the middle school is a new program initiated by the principal in 1999-2000. After the first six-weeks grading period, any student with less than a 75 in a core subject (reading, language arts, math, science or social studies) is pulled from an elective course for three weeks and placed in a study hall. Teachers are in the study hall for tutoring, not regular classroom teaching. The program attempts to catch students during the first semester whose grades would otherwise be so poor that even progress during the second semester would be insufficient to pass the course. According to the counselor responsible for implementing the program, potential retention students dropped from 80 at the end of the 1998-99 school year to 30 at the end of the 1999-2000 school year. At the high school, students enrolled in the Telecommunications and Networking program learn and apply technical skills related to computer networking infrastructures. The foundation of the curriculum is based on the Cisco Networking Academy Program. The instructor then incorporates the secondary materials needed to satisfy the established TEKS for the course. The students are able to apply their acquired knowledge through the practical application labs enveloped in the curriculum increasing their knowledge and skill level with respect to network topologies, routers and switches. Upon successful completion of the two- year program, the students will have a field of experience from which to draw when taking the Cisco Certified Network Associate exam. Students are encouraged to augment their learning experience through related studies in A+

programming language certification, Microsoft certifications or amateur radio operator licensing. The goal is to assist the students in identifying future career and educational goals by establishing a foundation from which they are able to draw when making decisions with respect to technology-related fields.

COMMENDATION

EISD develops programs at all grade levels targeted at improving student achievement and increasing career opportunities.

Program evaluation is comprehensive and should focus on program results and effectiveness, be independently conducted and examine issues

including:

• Economy, efficiency or effectiveness of the program;

• Structure or design of the program to accomplish its goals and objectives;

• Adequacy of the program to meet its needs identified by the school board, governmental agencies or law;

• Alternative methods of providing program services or products;

• Program goals and objectives clearly linked to and supporting department, division and district priorities, strategic goals and objectives;

• Adequate benchmarks and comparisons have been set for student goals, program cost efficiency and cost effectiveness;

• Compliance with appropriate policies, rules and laws; and

• Adequacy and appropriateness of goals, objectives and

performance measures used by the program to monitor, assess and report on program accomplishments.

Program objectives are measurable and adequately define the specific effect the program is expected to have on student achievement.

There is no regular program evaluation process in EISD. The executive director of Academic Services, a newly-created position, will be

responsible for program evaluation.

Effective program evaluation processes in school districts describe standards applied to the evaluation of all district educational programs. They involve the preparation of written curriculum guides and pacing calendars to time learning objectives to meet benchmark testing efforts; preparation of curriculum matrices that identify TEKS requirements by grade level and subject area; vertical alignment, scope and sequencing of the curriculum to ensure adequate coverage of TEKS and mastery of TAAS objectives by grade level and subject matter; and evaluation of the success of programs in meeting student achievement needs.

In Waco ISD, district staff developed a What Works process that allows schools to use discretionary funds to implement programs if they meet one of three conditions:

• Listing in the What Works compendium developed after a comprehensive review of educational research;

• The site-based decision- making committee can provide documentation showing the program has produced desired outcomes under similar circumstances; or

• It is a pilot project for whic h research design is developed and used to measure results for a period of time not to exceed three years. The principal and site-based decision- making committee must agree to discontinue the program if results are not achieved. The 1990 Spring Independent School District Standard Process for

Program Evaluation describes standards applied to the evaluation of all

educational programs in Spring ISD. Its intent is "to establish program evaluation as an expected, systematic and continuing process integrated with an organized program development cycle." The plan gathers information useful to improving, revising and determining the worth of programs. Two types of evaluation are included for these purposes: evaluation designed to improve the implementation of programs in progress and evaluation designed to make judgments regarding the merit of programs.

A select number of programs are reviewed each year. These program evaluations identify both strengths and concerns. Instructional and administrative staff and the board use evaluation results as the basis for program planning and revision. In addition to these evaluations, Spring ISD evaluates programs periodically through surveys of parents, teachers and students. Spring also annually surveys graduates. Specific staff responsibilities are identified at each organizational level, with overall program coordination invested in one district-level position.

Spring's five-year curriculum evaluation program was created based on

Standards for Evaluation of Educational Programs, Projects and

Materials, produced by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational

Evaluation. Variables to be addressed in the program evaluation process include:

• Measures of the Degree of Program Implementation;

• Measures of Student Performance;

• Measures of the Quality of Teacher Preparation and Development;

• Measures of Teacher Satisfaction and Concern;

• Measures of the Use, the Quantity, and the Quality of Materials and Resources;

• Measures of Unintended Effects;

• Measures of Student, Parent and Community Satisfaction; and

• Measures of Adequacy of Staffing, Facilities and Equipment Program evaluation is a data-driven process and requires time to disaggregate and assess data from various national, state and local assessment tools.

Develop a formal program evaluation process, clearly define roles and responsibilities and provide trained staff to lead the program.

The executive director of academic services should work with central office staff, principals and teachers in developing a rotational schedule of programs. A standard report format should be adopted, and a timeframe for accomplishment of the evaluations established.

Funds should be budgeted to provide contract data programming support or other assistance supporting program evaluation.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE