Sumner Middle School Principal Steve Sjolund and Assistant Principal Jenny Williams are placing a greater focus on quality academic interventions and data analysis of student performance. That’s what the administrators told the Sumner School Board in their report during a Jan. 12 meeting.
Sumner Middle School is one of two Sumner School District campuses on a Step 3 remedial plan, as reported to the board in September as part of an Academic Yearly Progress report of all schools.
Sumner is a Title I school, meaning it receives federal funding for low-income students and is therefore subject to corrective measures for standardized testing scores that don’t meet expectations.
Sumner Middle School is the only Title I school in the district on a Step 3 plan – one of two Step 3 schools in the district– and therefore has the most rigorous remedial plan of the eight campuses that did not meet expectations. There are five steps total in the AYP system.
“We’re sharing the effort in helping our students master grade level reading and math,” Sjolund said.
In its Step 3 plan, Sumner Middle was required to notify parents that it did not meet AYP standards, offer the choice for students to enroll in a different school, and take its choice of corrective steps; school administrators chose to extend the length of the school day.
But administrators have taken the additional step of offering three reading intervention classes and three math intervention classes per grade level for students who underperformed in either area on the Measures of Academic Progress test. Interventions are also available for students in the special education program.
Sjolund told board members that he didn’t just want extra attention for those students; he wanted the best attention possible.
“We believe the staff running interventions should be the best staff in those subjects,” he said.
He listed, in the presentation, additional beliefs that all kids deserve the opportunity to learn grade level math and that interventions will work best in small groups.
Listed objectives included keeping core teachers teaching a single grade level and adding one-on-one time for struggling learners.
Williams covered, in her portion of the presentation, the school’s intention to better analyze data from previous year MAP test scores.
“Coming from the background of being a science teacher, I love sifting through data,” she said. “We want to have more information than ‘Steve has a 217 on his MAP.’ We want to know ‘Steve needs helps in fractions and decimals.’”
Also this year, the school moved from a block schedule to a six period day schedule, and moved to a trimester school year.
New MAP data will be available to administrators and educators for analysis at the start of the third trimester in February.
In other news, the school board:
• was honored as part of School Board Recognition Month. School board members received a plaque and their choice of book to donate to the Donald Eismann Elementary School library.
• heard a report of 2011 goals from President Hillery Bertaux of the Sumner Education Association. Those goals focused on creating a manageable workload and respectful workplace for teachers.
• unanimously approved a policy for Operations and Maintenance of School Property.
• reviewed two new textbooks proposed for high school media and economics classes, respectively. The textbooks are “Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture and Technology,” and “Junior Achievement Economics.” No vote was made at that time.
• unanimously voted in the annual district School Improvement Plans.
• renewed the interlocal Community Recreation program agreement with the cities of Bonney Lake and Sumner.
