Chyna Broadnax | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Aug. 2, 2007

Iredell-Statesville Schools held its annual End of Year review to track its progress and design a plan for the coming year.

The all-day review was attended by principals, assistant principals, administrators, lead teachers and school-improvement teams.

One item on the agenda was to look at the 2006-07 Strategic Plan and highlight the initiatives that are working while determining what areas need improvement.

Superintendent Terry Holliday said such reviews are valuable because it involves everyone in the process.

The district is constantly looking to improve because “we’re not satisfied with the status quo. Our improvement means more kids are successful,” Holliday said.

“It lets you know what you’ve done well, what you’ve accomplished and what you need to work on,” he explained.
The group focused on strategic priorities, including high student performance; healthy, safe, orderly and caring schools; quality teachers, administration and staff; strong family, community and business support; and effective and efficient operations.

Each recommendation for change will be considered by the school board at its end of year review on Aug. 12.  Armed with the results of the review sessions, each school will take into consideration its achievement gaps and create a new School Improvement Plan for the coming year.

High Student Performance

The goal here is simple: Every student will master essential knowledge and skills and every student will graduate from high school.

Under the SAT scores objective the district must be at or above state, region and national averages.

The administrators found strengths, including an increase in enrollment in the Huskins Program, in which students take college courses.  Students enrolled in this program increased from 195 in 2005-06 to 385 in 2006-07. I-SS ranks 15th in the state, based on latest data from 2005-06, while ranking second in the region.

In English I the district is above the accepted standard, but below average in algebra I and II and geometry.

In terms of AP enrollment, the district has a 55 percent AP course passing rate.

When dealing with Adequate Yearly Progress, the district has 15 of 26 schools that have made AYP with Third Creek Elementary out of federal improvement.

An additional “strength” is decreasing number of students who did not pass the Carolina Online Computer Skills from 412 at the end of the 2006-07 year to 47 students after a computer competency course in summer school.

As for graduation rates the district improved 3.5 percent over the previous year, reaching 75.12 percent with a constant decline in dropout over the past three years.

Statesville Middle School Principal Roberta Ellis has been in the district for 23 years and can see the impact such reviews are having on the schools.

She said all administrators have input because they are all working on the same strategic priorities.

“We get a total picture of what’s happening in the system,” she said.  “We can’t improve unless we know where to improve.”

Healthy, Safe, Orderly and Caring Schools

I-SS is at or below state average in four of nine grade levels and eight of 10 high school EOC courses. The district is at or below the region in six of nine grade levels and eight of 10 high school EOC courses.

Their identified weakness was the system is still not in the top 10 compared to state in class size.

The group recommended collecting data to monitor actual class size at all grade levels and collect data that compares class size and proficiency levels to determine the impact of class size on learning.

Crime and violence within the system is seeing a downward trend with 17 schools having no incidents, five having one and 10 of 34 reducing the number of incidents.

Statesville Senior High, West Iredell High, East Iredell Middle, Lakeshore Middle, Statesville Middle had a decrease in incidents.

The reviews equip the schools with the tools needed to better serve the students, according to Statesville Senior High Principal Larry Rogers.

“It helps us identify the needs as well as where the gaps are,” he said.

“It provides us tools and gives us an opportunity to look at the district as a group and an opportunity to look at our school and analyze data,” he said.

Executive Director for Career and Technical Education Steve Hill said the reviews are an opportunity for administrators to gage their accomplishments and form a blueprint for the next year.

“It helps us develop our road map for the upcoming year so we know what we need to focus on,” he said.

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