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Best Practices for School Improvement
Amy Dherit
American College of Education
EL5703: School Improvement
Dr. Jacqueline O’Mara
June 14, 2021
, 2
Gaffney Middle School’s SIP showed some areas where there are areas that need to be
addressed in order to meet the needs of all the students. The areas of the greatest weakness
appeared to affect the students that are associated with being Students of Poverty subgroup,
Black or African American subgroup, and the Disabled subgroup. Three of my colleagues,
Casey, an 8th grade Pre-Algebra and Algebra I teacher, Karen, a 7th grade Regular Math 7 and
Pre-Algebra teacher, and Candace, a 7th grade ELA 7 grade and Honors 7th grade teachers
and myself, a 7th grade Science teacher discussed the needs of the current SIP for Gaffney
Middle School. We agreed upon the areas that provided opportunities for improvement were
using proven strategies across the three grade levels in literacy, math, and using assessments
to plan for instructional needs of the students. Due the majority of the school identifying in at
least one of the subgroups, all teachers would need to be able to use specific strategies, while
continuing to differentiate based on student ability. This would require that all teachers work
together to provide the necessary components to build fluency in both reading and writing and
higher achievement in problem-solving and reasoning in math. The professional development
for teachers will cover the ways in which these strategies will provide the same equitable
opportunities for all students while maintaining the necessary rigor to achieve significant student
growth.
Shared Vision and Mission
My colleagues and I worked together to create a shared vision of increasing student
achievement across the board, but making sure to provide the subgroups with a method that
targeted and supported continual practice and application. We felt this vision is attainable by
having all ELA teachers, across the three grades, be trained to use explicit instruction with the
same strategies to teach the writing components and integrate reading into the writing
instruction. Core teachers would be included in the training and also focus on using the same
strategies to integrate content reading and writing. We believe that all math teachers, also
Best Practices for School Improvement
Amy Dherit
American College of Education
EL5703: School Improvement
Dr. Jacqueline O’Mara
June 14, 2021
, 2
Gaffney Middle School’s SIP showed some areas where there are areas that need to be
addressed in order to meet the needs of all the students. The areas of the greatest weakness
appeared to affect the students that are associated with being Students of Poverty subgroup,
Black or African American subgroup, and the Disabled subgroup. Three of my colleagues,
Casey, an 8th grade Pre-Algebra and Algebra I teacher, Karen, a 7th grade Regular Math 7 and
Pre-Algebra teacher, and Candace, a 7th grade ELA 7 grade and Honors 7th grade teachers
and myself, a 7th grade Science teacher discussed the needs of the current SIP for Gaffney
Middle School. We agreed upon the areas that provided opportunities for improvement were
using proven strategies across the three grade levels in literacy, math, and using assessments
to plan for instructional needs of the students. Due the majority of the school identifying in at
least one of the subgroups, all teachers would need to be able to use specific strategies, while
continuing to differentiate based on student ability. This would require that all teachers work
together to provide the necessary components to build fluency in both reading and writing and
higher achievement in problem-solving and reasoning in math. The professional development
for teachers will cover the ways in which these strategies will provide the same equitable
opportunities for all students while maintaining the necessary rigor to achieve significant student
growth.
Shared Vision and Mission
My colleagues and I worked together to create a shared vision of increasing student
achievement across the board, but making sure to provide the subgroups with a method that
targeted and supported continual practice and application. We felt this vision is attainable by
having all ELA teachers, across the three grades, be trained to use explicit instruction with the
same strategies to teach the writing components and integrate reading into the writing
instruction. Core teachers would be included in the training and also focus on using the same
strategies to integrate content reading and writing. We believe that all math teachers, also
