ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board heard a pair of important presentations at its most recent meeting Monday evening.
The first presentation came from Eisenhower Middle School during the meeting’s Good Things portion.
“One of the things we’ve really been watching the past couple years is our instructional efficacy,” Eisenhower Middle School Principal Randi Jones said. “Instructional efficacy refers to a teacher's belief in their ability to influence student learning and engagement, even with challenging student, and it's the confidence a teacher has in their teaching skills and strategies to bring about positive changes in student achievement. It’s all about giving the students the tools and strategies they need in order to be successful in the classroom. In our MRA survey, it specifically asked the teachers a few questions: How confident are you in (a) your ability to collect data that helps you improve your instruction, (b) develop learning targets together with your students, (c) help build each student to work independently, (d) model a growth mindset in your classroom, (e) provide differentiated instruction that challenges each student’s thinking, (f) provide students with feedback that helps them grow, and (g) seek out information that helps you improve your instructional practice? These were very targeted questions about the teachers’ belief in their impact. When we started Leader In Me, we had 59 percent of teachers answering those questions favorably, and this year, that jumped to 75 percent. 80 percent is considered a highly effective school, so we’re getting close to that point. And something to keep in mind is between last year and this year, we had 15 percent turnover, so even with that many new teachers, they’re still feeling capable and have a good belief they can impact their students in a positive way.”
Jones said there has also been some growth in regard to student academics with state assessments.
“We’ve been working on reducing the number of students scoring in the lowest levels on the state assessments, the 1’s and 2’s, and moving them into the 3 or 4 scoring area,” Jones said. “This year, we saw a five percent increase in the number of students scoring better with the math assessments and an eight percent increase in the number of students scoring better in the reading assessments, so we’re seeing some really great academic gains with the state assessments. We’re also feeling really optimistic about this year’s state assessments scores, but we won’t be getting those results for a while, so we’ll have to wait and see how those all ultimately turn out.”
Jones added there has also been growth in regard to student academics in regard to grades.
“With our students at Eisenhower Middle School, we also target a grade base school. The past three years, as a school, we’ve targeted having the majority of our students’ grades being C’s or higher,” Jones said. “Throughout the years we’ve been doing this, we’ve seen a lot of improvement, and we’ve seen an increase in the number of students getting C’s or higher and a decreasing the number of students getting D’s or lower. Four years ago, only about 80 percent of our grades were C’s or higher, and this year, we set our first-semester target at 91 percent, and we met that, which we’re really happy about. We wanted to be sure and help reinforce habits of getting work turned in, taking good notes and going to tutoring if needed, basically being an overall good student and achieving those grades.”
Jones then talked about some new curricula being used at the school.
“This year, we got the newest version of our math curriculum, and part of that includes a supplement, ALEKS, which is a tool that targets each student’s learning on the standards for that course level,” Jones said. “Everything comes together almost like a pie chart, and as students achieve mastery of the different skills in those areas, their pie grows, and they’re able to see their success in a tangible form. In ELA, we’re in our second year of our Marzano curriculum, which we received new textbooks for and a consultant from Marzano, so we were able to then add proficiency scales. Every essential learning outcome students have in ELA, they now have targeted proficiency scales for that, which tells the students what they need to have a basic understanding of the standard, what they’ll need to have in terms of mastery, and what they’ll need to have advanced. Teachers and students now clearly see the targets they have, and they’re able to tangibly measure their growth as they’re working through everything throughout the year.”
A trio of students then shared their progress to the school board members before the presentation concluded.
The board then heard about the district’s KESA action plan from Assistant Superintendent of Academics Dr. Maria Gomez-Rocque.
“We were technically scheduled to meet up in February, but that got pushed back due to inclement weather, so we ended up meeting March 6, and we took our team to Sublette to meet with representatives from Garden City, Dodge City and Geary County,” Gomez-Rocque said. “We went through and reviewed our data and drafted our initial action plan, which we’ll be submitting to the state. Our District Leadership Team (DLT) finished that March 25, and we have received some feedback from the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center, and I’ve also submitted to a gentleman who’s in charge of school improvement throughout the state, and he’s also given some feedback, so there are some tweaks to be made. Our action plan was then reviewed at he district KESA meeting April 11, and we have until May 5 to share everything with stakeholders for any input, and that includes from the board of education. The plan is due back to the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) by May 6, and we’ll meet that deadline.”
Gomez-Rocque then shared some other aspects that need to be discussed in terms of the KESA school improvement model.
“We do have to select a Fundamental, and the KESA team chose standards alignment, which has been shared with the board as well. The goal of that is to align lessons, instruction, and materials to Kansas standards and clearly identify what students must know and be able to do. This includes interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cognitive skills in Pre-K to 12th grade,” Gomez-Rocque said. “Structures also had to be picked, and the KESA team chose professional learning and professional collaboration. The district professional development and mentoring plans account for the alignment of classroom practice with state standards and high quality instructional materials to optimize conditions for learning in classrooms, and the collaboration systems includes grade level and content teachers aligning instruction with state standards and high quality instructional materials to optimize conditions for learning in classrooms. We are looking at having professional development days so we can meet as a district and work on our standards alignment, which will include collaboration across the entire district.”
In the meeting’s new business, the board approved new furniture and equipment for Bright Start Early Learning Center as well as the hiring of two additional speech paras and a new elementary special education teacher at for the 2025-26 school year. The board also approved the renewal of Asset Essentials for work order tracking and Linq for Food Services. The board also approved the replacement of windows at Sunflower Elementary School, Cottonwood Elementary School, and Bright Start Early Learning Center and a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Liberal for the use of City facilities. To conclude the meeting’s new business, the board approved the purchase of football uniforms for Seymour Rogers Middle School.
