School Improvement Plan

What is a School Improvement Plan?

A School Improvement Plan (SIP) is a strategic blueprint that schools use to enhance student learning and improve educational practices. It outlines specific goals for improvement, actions to achieve those goals, and methods for measuring progress.

Key Points of a SIP:

Goals: Clear objectives the school aims to achieve to enhance student outcomes.
Actions: Steps and strategies the school will implement to reach its goals, based on research and effective practices.
Monitoring: Regular review of progress with adjustments made to ensure the school stays on track toward its improvement objectives.

The purpose of a SIP is to provide a clear roadmap for schools to improve educational outcomes for all students, particularly focusing on eliminating disparities and ensuring equitable opportunities for every student.

Every school in Washington State is required to have a School Improvement Plan.

Monitoring and Adjusting:

A SIP is not set in stone. It's reviewed regularly, with progress monitored against the set goals and activities adjusted as needed to stay on track toward improvement.

Visit the Issaquah School District SIP website to learn more about SIPs.

District - School Improvement Plans

Achievement Goals

By Spring 2024:

Achievement for all students (grades 3-5) in the area of math will increase from 85% meeting or exceeding standard to 90% as measured by the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA).
Achievement for all students receiving ELL services will increase from 37.5% meeting standard to 45.5% or more as measured by the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) in English Language Arts.

Guiding Questions

Reflecting on previous action plans

What actions were successfully implemented?

Action Plan Review

The continual implementation of differentiated guided reading groups is believed to have had a positive impact on student learning. This instructional strategy coupled with high level professional learning opportunities related to reading instruction was beneficial for our students.

The i-Ready program and its corresponding components (diagnostic results, My Path student instruction, professional development) were well received by staff, students, and their families.

In the fall of 2022, all students completed an i-Ready reading diagnostic assessment. Data reviewed from this assessment helped our i-Ready team to create intervention groups for students in grades K-3. These students received target phonics instruction (4x/week for 25-30 minutes) using the Really Great Reading (RGR) curriculum.

In January, 2022 our Instructional Coach lead a data review from the second i-Ready reading diagnostic assessment. This data helped our grade level teams to understand the specific reading needs for each student. Using this data, grade level instructional groupings were created which resulted in the creation of Success Blocks at all grade levels.

What was observed? What evidence did you use to determine impact?

As our team reflected on our previous School Improvement Plan (SIP) and processes, it was evident that our students demonstrated significant growth in reading from the fall of 2021 to the spring of 2022. District and state assessment measures (i-Ready Reading, Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math) showed sound growth.

SBA Results (Gr. 3-5)	fall 2021	spring 2022	Overall Growth
English Language Arts (ELA)	77.8%	86.8%	9.0%
Math	76.2%	85.0%	8.8%

These scores met one of our SIP goals from last year: By the spring of 2022, 85% or all students (Grades 3-5) will meet or exceed standard on the ELA and Math SBA.

In addition, similar growth was noted on the i-Ready Reading diagnostic assessment.

i-Ready Results (Gr. K-5)	fall 2021	spring 2022	Overall Growth
Reading	77.8%	86.2%	8.4%

These scores also met one of our SIP goals from last year: By the spring of 2022, 85% for all students in grades K-5 will be on grade level expectation or higher as measured by the i-Ready Reading diagnostic assessment.

Our reading gap-closing goal was: By June of 2022, 80% of students (Grades 1-5) who scored below or approaching grade level expectations on the fall i-Ready Reading diagnostic assessment will be at grade level standard or reach their individual stretch goal.

# of Students	92
# Met Grade Level Expectation	20
Percentage	21.7%
# Met Stretch Growth	35
Percentage	38.0%
# Met Typical Growth	56
Percentage	60%

Unfortunately, these scores did not meet our final SIP goal from last year. Not knowing i-Ready very well, this was not a well-thought-out goal. It was nice to see 60% of students that started the school year below standard in reading to meet their typical growth but hoping that 80% would meet their stretch growth was quite ambitious.

How did actions impact disproportionality and equity?

Family Engagement Review

Family engagement throughout the 2021 – 22 school year was challenging. Many restrictions were still in place to prevent the spread of COVID which limited our opportunities to meet in-person at school. Much of the connection with families still needed to occur online.

When given the opportunity to meet online with parents and families, we were able to share student data, achievement, and instructional strategies we were utilizing in the classrooms. The idea of creating Success Blocks was a new concept to our families and the need for this type of approach and intervention was shared at Site Council meetings, PTA meetings, and monthly, “Coffee with the Principal” meetings. The opportunity to share about new curriculum and a renewed focus on phonics instruction was well-received by our community.

What actions would you continue or change?

Backed by Data

Schools use multiple data sources to inform their planning. Progress toward school improvement in overall achievement and disproportionality is monitored using state and district measures using a common School Improvement Data Dashboard.

Data Workbook for Elementary School

Process
Findings

Process

Preliminary data for the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA - 2022) was shared with members of our Leadership Team in August 2022. Although these results were not finalized, our team was encouraged to see the growth our students in grades 3-55 made in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math. Our next step was to share i-Ready reading and math scores with our Leadership team. In September 2022, the results from the grades 1-5 diagnostic assessment were shared with the Leadership Team. These two data points, and input from all school level constituents, helped our team to decide to switch our school level focus from reading to a math school improvement goal for the next two school years. Additionally, these SBA and i-Ready scores were then shared with Site Council (October 2022) and with PTA (November 2022) in order to share our successes, gather input, and establish goals for our next School Improvement Plan in the area of math.

Findings

Our Leadership Team noticed that students receiving English Language Learners (ELL) services and those on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) both continue to demonstrate an achievement gap in all academic areas. It’s to be noted that the gap in achievement for these two groups was significantly reduced from the fall of 2021 to the spring of 2022 illustrating that direct, in-person, instruction is effective.

The demographic make-up at Cougar Ridge continues to become more diverse. In October of 2022, nearly 65% of students at our school identified as students of color. In addition to our changing demographics, our ELL population also continues to grow. More and more students are enrolling directly from other countries outside the United States, bringing with them new cultures, traditions, and languages. Cougar Ridge currently has students that speak 26 different languages in their homes.

The diverse make-up and language-rich aspect of our school, along with the opportunity gap for our ELL students in English Language Arts, convinced our Leadership Team to focus our gap-closing efforts on our ELL students. Plus, our staffing of the ELL program was increased this fall from 1.5 FTE to 2.0 FTE.

Likely the disproportionality gap for our ELL students in the area of English Language Arts is directly related to the minimal amount of English they are exposed to in their native country. Our increase in staffing and opportunities to work with our ELL students more often on their language skills will hopefully help close this opportunity gap.

School-Based Action Plan

Action	Implementation	Impact: Evidence/Monitoring
Professional Development (Math)	District Math TOSA, Rowena Duane, and Cougar Ridge teacher, Agnes Jang, will lead a series of math professional learning opportunities for all classroom teachers. In addition, each grade level will have a half-day release (March 2023) to collaborate with Rowena and Agnes related to the math running records they will be tracking in their classroom.	Increase in i-Ready Math Diagnostic Scores Better understanding of student math processing and skill
ASAP Math (Grades 1-5)	Students (grades 1-5) identified to have low Numbers and Operations scores (below 2.00 for most grade levels) from the fall 2022 i-Ready diagnostic score, will be invited to participate in a before school math intervention program. Class size for each group will be 6 or fewer students. This 12-week ASAP math intervention program will run from January 10 to April 6, 2023. Funding for this intervention program is provided through a grant from the Issaquah Schools Foundation.	Increase in ASAP Assessment Scores (Pre vs. Post) Increase in i-Ready diagnostic scores in the domain of Numbers and Operations
Small Group Math Instruction	All classrooms will provide differentiated small group math instruction at least 4x/week.	Increase in percentage of i-Ready Math Typical and Stretch Growth percentages
i-Ready Math – My Path	Students will have multiple opportunities throughout the school day to access i-Ready My Path in Math.	Increase in percentage of i-Ready Math Typical and Stretch Growth percentages
Monthly Math Challenge and Online Tournament	Cougar Ridge PTA is offering all students (K-5) a monthly math challenge. These monthly questions get progressively more difficult and are provided online monthly. In addition, all students were invited to participate in an online math tournament to be held on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022.	Number of Participants and Number of Math Challenges completed

SIP Team & Final Review

Principal: Drew Terry
Site Council/PTSA Review Date: January 31, 2023
Supervisor Review: Melinda Reynvaan
School Board Review Date: February 15, 2023

Leadership Team:

Elisabeth Carroll, Kindergarten
Colleen Rose, Grade 1
Chrissy Bachman, Grade 2
Megan Hand, Grade 3
Steve Boynton, Grade 4
Brittany Goldfinch, Grade 5
Kristy Joslin, Specialist
Adrienne Parker, Special Education
Anne Miller, Dean of Students
Shawna Tredway, Paraprofessional

Checklist

Action plan includes use of educational technology.
Action plan includes strategies for family engagement.
Action plan includes strategies for engaging students and/or addressing the social, emotional and/or mental health needs of students and barriers to learning
Action plan includes a school-based action to implement one (or more) of Culturally Responsive Practices, Universal Design for Learning, Trauma Informed Practices, &/or the 4 High Leverage Instructional Practices.

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