So 53% of their students met their growth targets, but we did not sadly meet um that goal of 60% in literacy. So going in the right direction um but not quite where we wanted it to be. In math um we wanted 70% of students to meet their growth targets. Um based below, you can see we had 42.9. I'll just round 43, 55, and 68%. Um and we had 76% of students meet their growth targets in math. So we did actually exceed that goal. And again, we're going in the right direction, which is what we want to see. Um, for social emotional learning, um, I went a little bit in a different direction. I did not focus on belonging. It was in the fall. Um, we did have a low percentage in belonging and it was a composite score and it seemed like a lot of things to focus on at once because there were so many different skills in belonging.
So, we just decided at SLT to focus on um managing their emotions, emotion management, because that was our greatest area of need. That was our lowest score. And we thought, well, if we just hone in on that, hopefully it will ripple into affecting belonging. Um and so we focus in on that and um and the end in the spring we did have 82%. So, we exceeded that goal as well. Um, as a little bit of an aside, we saw the same thing that the other schools reported where in the winter there was a dip um and we were like, yikes. So, we did um we stole an idea. I'm going to talk about stealing ideas um from Grace McWain and we also did student focus groups and we were really we love doing it. We want to continue to do that because um their voice really helped us to find some clarity.
We did find patterns. We um interviewed third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Um and it was myself, the social worker, and um a a teacher from SLT and our new EL teacher. Um and we showed them the results. We showed them the data. We said, you know, why do you think this is? And over and over again, the themes that were coming out were about neurode divergent students, students who just seemed a little different. And um it it really helped to find that pattern. And so based on that, and this is not part of our, you know, our goal or anything, but we did tr um try, we piloted some lessons at the end of the school year in fifth grade that we want to then try again at the beginning in the fall with all grades to talk about what neurode divergence is and um how it can actually be kind of a superpower.
But that's something that we're starting to hone in now that we've given it fall, winter, spring. Um, and we've seen that. Um, and we've seen the same exact trend that the other buildings have seen about that studentto student respect. That's something that we want to hone in on as well. So, even though we've met two out of three of our goals, we still have plenty of work to do. So, how did we do this? Um, we our goals were aligned to the strategic plan for enhancing teaching and learning and also fostering inclusion and belonging. So, on the academic side, we use learning targets and success criteria. This was our third year as SLT but our second year whole building using it. Um we did instructional rounds that was mentioned before. Um and that happened in the fall and in the spring. Um our SLT members walked through.
We were really excited to own the instructional rounds this year. In the past um we had a consultant that came in and pros and cons but you kind of do it the way the consultant does it. And so when we were given ownership of this this year, we were able to take our data from the fall and then we made some tweaks and we decided we wanted to change how we collected the data in the spring. Um, and we were really excited because in the fall last spring we saw the same thing. Who said it just now about compliance? Was it you, Gina? So when students were asked, you know, what does it mean to be a good learner? What does that look like? Sound like I'm good. I I I don't interrupt. I'm quiet. I'm kind. They were they were talking about the JB way.
safe, respectful, responsible, kind, I'm respectful, but they were they were being compliant. They weren't owning their learning. So, that's something that we came in in the fall and really hit hard. Um, but even in the fall when we did our walkthroughs, we did not see the change we wanted to see. We were kind of like when we looked at our data and so we continued to focus on it and we were really excited that in the spring more than half of our students were able to to give an answer that talked about learning and not compliance. we saw the learning targets and success criteria in in more than just half of the classrooms, but we wanted it to be what they were working on. Um, which wasn't always the case. So, we are moving in the right direction with that and we're going to continue that.
Um, for fostering inclusion and belonging, we taught the zones of regulation language. We um brought back grade level buddies. It's something that we had um pre-COVID, but it had kind of gone by the wayside. So, we brought that back um buddying up lower and upper grade levels once a month to do activities together. And um we also designated a regulation station or sometimes they're called a break corner um and taught the zones, put the visuals up and put that in every single space including specials. Um again, because we were focusing on that emotion regulation. So, we wanted to teach them some strategies and some ways to stay in the classroom. Um along the lines of AGS, our nurse data was also not in a good place. Um, and so we wanted to focus on what can we give them, what strategies can we give them to regulate in the classroom and not have to seek that at the nurs's office.
Um, we also saw a decrease in nurse visits from fall to spring, but I didn't bring the numbers, so I'll have to be better about that next time. Um, so next steps, this year it was all about really cementing success criteria, learning targets. Um, next year we want to kind of up the up our game a little bit. Um, we want to continue to focus on data guiding our instruction and PLC's. We're going to do some student goal setting. Um, and like all of the other buildings mentioned, we will be learning about that comprehens comprehensive Illinois literacy plan. That's a mouthful. Um, in SEAL, we're going to continue to focus on belonging. Um, we're going to launch the year with a theme and we're going to have some trimesterly celebrations to try to increase that belonging in our building as well. That's all I got for you.
questions. I was told I was too long in our practice, so I cut like half the slide. Was I Was I good? Did you type me? Okay, good. Much improved. Okay. Have a couple questions. Yeah. Um, did the self-manage if that improved, did it give your whole sense of belonging improve like you said you hoped it would? Our sense of belonging did improve a little bit, but not dramatically. But that one component improved which is the one we focused on. Yeah. And then um for the self-managed emotions and it says you you measured that by nurse visits. That was one of the components. Yeah. The panorama data and looking at nurse visits. We also had the same thing of they were going there for a hug and a mint and we said no more mints and um we created we created a pass system so that um and we did have a change in our nurses midyear so that kind of but also yeah that we were like oh we're kind of starting over again you know with a new person.
So there was a bit of a hiccup there um for our data as well and data collection too but um we did implement a pass system because students would just show up and say their teacher said it was okay when maybe they didn't. So, with that pass system, it was like, "Where's your pass?" And it it's a little piece of paper that the teacher just checks a box, but then we know that, you know, they had permission to be there because they'd come from recess, they'd come from lunch, they'd, you know, go to the bathroom, but then also kind of just go visit the nurse while they're out, you know. So, and I don't know um like the panorama and the self. So, I'm just curious like yeah, the self manage your emotions. So, is that just when they're feeling down or like any kind of emotion?
So, then I guess Does the does it ever get to like they're maybe acting out and it goes to the office like is there office visits or is it strict? Do you know what do you want like you measure can you measure that in office? You know we could behaviors where we determine they weren't managing their emotions. Not to put words in your mouth. Yeah. It's like you know so I understand like we're feeling bad so we're going to go to the nurse but it's more like I'm angry and I might be acting out towards another student. Does that behavior go to the office? Something like that would definitely yeah be some. So then did we measure the office visits? Like I don't know if that went down or up or Yeah, we absolutely could look at that. That's a good point. Um we didn't focus on that this year, but that's a data point that we could look at.
We really were looking on at students who were, you know, escaping the classroom and and visiting the nurse for that little something extra, not so much the big outbursts. Yeah. Yeah, but you're right. That's another way to collect data. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Okay, [Applause] now it's your turn. [Laughter] Hello. Uh, I'm Mike Wall. I'm the principal at Louise White. I'm Kristen Stern. I'm the instructional coach and a SLT member at Louise White. Okay. So, we um met in November and I listed many things that we were going to do do this school year for you guys and now we have done all those things and so now I'm going to tell you about them. Uh, those things that we did were having focus areas throughout the school. So, these are things where each month we have a different focus area. that might be kindness, respect, um, uh, sense of belonging, all of these different areas.
So, we'd have those focus areas throughout the school. We'd kick off with an assembly and then we'd have lessons throughout the month that were focused on that same topic in classrooms. And that way, kind of having that shared experience of looking at specific uh, areas that we wanted to see improvement uh, and working with our students. And we celebrated that each month with a celebration. And so that took many different forms including staff for student volleyball and basketball and various things that children were quite excited about and many of my staff as well. It was uh it was mostly the staff were very excited about. Okay. Another area that we focused on was CHAMPS and discipline uh alignment and reviewing our discipline procedures. that is CHAMPS is the program that goes with the walkthroughs that other principles have talked about and this is just having shared expectations in different spaces.
We found that we had different expectations in different spaces for children both multi-year going to a different teacher and the expectations being different but also throughout the day if we're going to specials or other locations. So trying to align those practices make sure that we all know what what a level one is etc. Uh and then just discipline review, reviewing our practices for how we're responding when students need additional support. Um and aligning those efforts between classrooms and throughout the school. And also uh with calming corners, calming corners or um regulations, regulation station, chill zones. They come by many names, but the purpose is having an acceptable corner uh of the room with uh calming fidgets or other things where students that are struggling with emotional regulation are able to calm themselves in a safe uh uh way without needing to leave the classroom to get a mint and a hug from the nurse or whatever other technique they found that works for them.
So that is just aligning those expectations throughout um all those spaces. So that's the behavior section and the academic. Uh we began with the uh Illinois comprehensive literacy plan introduction. This is going to be driving our instruction um for next year and for the foreseeable future. This was introductions to what does that mean and some of the shifts that come along with that. Staff reflecting on um what our current practices on and where those align and don't align with the comprehensive literacy plan. Uh and so starting some of that work, focusing like many of the other buildings on learning intentions and success criteria that is allowing students to know what they're supposed to be learning, what it's going to look like when they've learned it, so that they can take ownership of their learning and know whether or not they've been successful without needing an adult to always tell them.
Uh and then PLC structure review. So this is professional learning communities. This is where our grade level teams meet to look at data. So trying to align those practices to focus on data consistently in each one of those meetings and thereby drive student achievement. Um one highlight I was with the board sometime in the past it feels like multiple years ago uh but with another teacher talking about the fifth grade service club and so just to give you guys an update on that piece. So that was a um a club started by one of our fifth grade teachers Jamie Hartness who had this great idea and did all the work uh for it. Uh so that is where we had by the end of the year 80% of our students participating in different service jobs throughout the school. Um which was awesome and teachers liked it, kids liked it.
Um and lots of good data supporting that. One particular piece of data that you've heard about here is the sense of belonging. And for that fifth grade group from winter to spring, they saw a 10% increase in their sense of belonging as a as a cohort there. And I would attribute that to the hard work of our fifth grade teachers and building classroom community and supporting them, but then also some of these activities and opportunities to get involved in the wider in the wider school. Um so um did we meet our goals? Kind of. Uh for behavior uh we started the year with a goal that 95% of students would not have an office referral. Uh going back to the question about students needing to go to the office for discipline, this would be students that uh have a discipline incident that usually I'm involved in uh in order to resolve.
And so I think that's kind of that measure that we're looking at. So by mid year uh when we reflected on this data, we were at 92% of students. So we pivoted to make the goal 90% instead and we hit that goal. So uh we had 91% of our students ended the year without a discipline referral. Just for a reference in a school our size that 9% equals about 35 students and the vast majority of those students are have one uh one incident. So um so that's a celebration for a map like many of the other schools we had the goal of growth at 60% by the end of the year we were at 56% we were at in the winter 59% um and so we did not quite meet that goal uh despite having areas of um excellence there. And then sense of belonging as well was start at 76.
We were hoping to go to 80, but we have held at a nice 73% uh throughout the throughout the year. At our May school leadership team meeting, we um our staff had the opportunity to reflect on our progress and identify some action steps to help us move closer to our goals. uh two of our grade levels did meet our growth targets in math ELA and similar to the rest of the um elementary schools. We had a high proficiency in ELA and math. Um and we met um our building did meet their our math growth targets in math. Um and then several individual teachers from grade levels also met their math targets. And this is really encouraging sign of the progress that we're making. Um, these achievements highlight the strong instructional practices already taking place in our classrooms and give us a really solid foundation to build upon.
Looking ahead to next school year, our SLT wanted to focus on deepening our literacy alignment across the grade levels. Uh, we want to continue to build our uh, training rooted in the evidence-based strategies outlined in the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan, which we started to work on as a school this year. We also um our SLT really wanted to dig into some vertical alignment um and and really get teachers talking between grades to create more structured opportunities for them to talk about instructional practices that are working in their classrooms. And we really wanted to have a more cohesive learning experience between grade levels for our students. Um some of our students or some of our teams will be um exploring a new ELA resource potentially in the fall. We're hoping to learn from that experience and um see how we can use those insights to refine instructional practices across all of our teams.