Colorado's Unified Improvement Plan for Schools

Challenge School UIP 2024-25

      
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Content


  • Document icons and definitions

  • Priority Performance Challenges
  • Root Cause
  • Major Improvement Strategies
  • Action Steps
  • Progress Monitoring
  • Trend Direction

Executive Summary


Priority Performance Challenges Root Cause Major Improvement Strategies
  • Schoolwide Growth in English Language Arts
    		•
  • Limited focus on explicit Instruction of Writing Skills
  • Lack of targeted writing practice in other content areas
  • Limited feedback for students during the writing process
    		•
  • Explicit Instruction on Writing Skills
  • Targeted Writing Practice
  • Feedback and Revision
    		•
  • Achievement in English Language Arts
    		•
  • Inconsistent progress monitoring to adjust instruction
  • Limited focus on explicit Instruction of Writing Skills
  • Lack of targeted writing practice in other content areas
  • Limited feedback for students during the writing process
    		•
  • Explicit Instruction on Writing Skills
  • Targeted Writing Practice
  • Feedback and Revision
    		•


    Access the School Performance Framework here: http://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/performance

    Access the Literacy Curriculum Transparency Dashboard here: https://www.cde.state.co.us/code/literacycurriculumtransparency-dashboard

    Improvement Plan Information


    Additional Information about the school


    The Challenge School is a magnet school for motivated students and gifted learners. Cherry Creek School District's mission of dedication to excellence and equity provides us with the guidance to develop the best educational setting for all children where all students will be inspired to think, to learn, to achieve, and to care. It is our goal to spark the intellectual curiosity within our students and foster learning as a life-long process. We teach students to recognize their abilities and build upon their strengths. Through a rigorous academic program, we encourage our students to become compassionate, critical, and creative thinkers able to communicate their ideas with impact. We take pride in nurturing the whole child in our Connections classes where we teach character development, executive functioning skills, and flexible mindset. Through our immersion program, mini-course, academic pursuits, multi-age classes and after school activities, Challenge School provides learning opportunities that embrace and transcend the teaching of traditional school subjects. Our students acquire a genuine love for learning and the disciplined habits needed to guide them throughout their educational career and lives. Through our school community’s collaboration and support, we can inspire, empower, and challenge all students.

    Improvement Plan Information

    The school/district is submitting this improvement plan to satisfy requirements for (check all that apply):


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    Narrative on Data Analysis and Root Cause Identification


    Prior Year Targets

    Provide a summary of your progress in implementing the Major Improvement Strategies and if they had the intended effect on systems, adult actions, and student outcomes (e.g. targets).


    Based on your reflection and evaluation, provide a summary of the adjustments that you will make for this year's plan.

    Current Performance

    Our recent trend in written expression has shown that this is consistently our lowest subclaim area on CMAS across the board.  It’s noteworthy that this area has increased by 15.4% over the past four years in post-covid times.  We have also dedicated additional time and focus to improve in this area over time.  Challenge consistently performs among the top few CCSD schools in this area each year.  


    Written expression is by far the lowest scoring subset of the English Language Arts assessment on CMAS across the state every year. This trend holds true both for CCSD and for Challenge School. Because the portion on Written Expression is truly the synthesis of reading and writing for a variety of purposes, it's critical to focus on this area to promote college and career ready students.



    Priority Performance Challenge and Associated Root Cause

    Priority Performance Challenge:  Schoolwide Growth in English Language Arts

    Area of Focus: English/Language Arts growth


    Root Cause: Limited focus on explicit Instruction of Writing Skills

    Teacher lesson planning for our humanities based model of instruction for Language Arts and Social Studies has led to several large, long-ranging writing tasks throughout the year. Instruction has been largely based on evaluating student content knowledge of social studies standards. Writing instruction has been historically limited in the explicit teaching of the individual elements of the writing process. Teachers will place increased focus on planning, drafting, revising, and editing moving forward.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction

    Root Cause: Lack of targeted writing practice in other content areas

    Teachers in Science, Social Studies, and ENCORE classes implement little written work for a variety of purposes.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction

    Root Cause: Limited feedback for students during the writing process

    Because student writing projects have traditionally been extended over long periods of time, teachers often gave little feedback to students during the process, but provided critical feedback once final writing pieces have been submitted.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction


    Priority Performance Challenge:  Achievement in English Language Arts

    Area of Focus: English/Language Arts achievement


    Root Cause: Inconsistent progress monitoring to adjust instruction

    Inconsistent use of student performance data on CFAs during data cycles in collaborative teams. Teacher use of this formative data to inform remediation and extension of tier 1 instruction is inconsistent.

    Root Cause Category: Data Analysis

    Root Cause: Limited focus on explicit Instruction of Writing Skills

    Teacher lesson planning for our humanities based model of instruction for Language Arts and Social Studies has led to several large, long-ranging writing tasks throughout the year. Instruction has been largely based on evaluating student content knowledge of social studies standards. Writing instruction has been historically limited in the explicit teaching of the individual elements of the writing process. Teachers will place increased focus on planning, drafting, revising, and editing moving forward.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction

    Root Cause: Lack of targeted writing practice in other content areas

    Teachers in Science, Social Studies, and ENCORE classes implement little written work for a variety of purposes.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction

    Root Cause: Limited feedback for students during the writing process

    Because student writing projects have traditionally been extended over long periods of time, teachers often gave little feedback to students during the process, but provided critical feedback once final writing pieces have been submitted.

    Root Cause Category: Instruction

    Action and Progress Monitoring Plans

    Major Improvement Strategy and Action Plan

    > >

    Explicit Instruction on Writing Skills

    Describe the research/evidence base supporting the strategy:

    		Hattie's Effect Sizes: Micro teaching, Teacher clarity, providing formative evaluation, direct instruction

    Strategy Category:

    		Research-based Instructional Practices

    Associated Root Causes:

    Limited focus on explicit Instruction of Writing Skills: Teacher lesson planning for our humanities based model of instruction for Language Arts and Social Studies has led to several large, long-ranging writing tasks throughout the year. Instruction has been largely based on evaluating student content knowledge of social studies standards. Writing instruction has been historically limited in the explicit teaching of the individual elements of the writing process. Teachers will place increased focus on planning, drafting, revising, and editing moving forward.

    Implementation Benchmarks Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Benchmark Name Description Start/End/Repeats Key Personnel Status
    Collaborative teams plan specific elements of writing instruction

    		Instructional coach, Admin

    Action Steps Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Name Description Start/End Date Resource Key Personnel Status
    a05PU000003PIRR
    		10/01/2024
    04/30/2025     		Admin
    > >

    Targeted Writing Practice

    Describe the research/evidence base supporting the strategy:

    		Hattie's Effect Sizes: Teacher clarity, Direct Instruction, Feedback Students will write for a variety of purposes within different disciplines. Teachers will not only evaluate written work for demonstration of learning in content, but also for elements of writing, specifically argument, supporting details, conventions, expository writing.

    Strategy Category:

    		Research-based Instructional Practices

    Associated Root Causes:

    Lack of targeted writing practice in other content areas: Teachers in Science, Social Studies, and ENCORE classes implement little written work for a variety of purposes.

    Implementation Benchmarks Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Benchmark Name Description Start/End/Repeats Key Personnel Status
    Non Language Arts teachers to implement student writing to demonstrate learning.

    		Instructional Coach, Admin

    Action Steps Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Name Description Start/End Date Resource Key Personnel Status
    a05PU000003PI3G
    		09/23/2024
    11/15/2024     		Admin
    > >

    Feedback and Revision

    Describe the research/evidence base supporting the strategy:

    		Hattie's Effect Sizes: Direct Instruction, Micro teaching, Feedback, Formative evaluation, Peer tutoring, Scaffolding

    Strategy Category:

    		Research-based Instructional Practices

    Associated Root Causes:

    Limited feedback for students during the writing process: Because student writing projects have traditionally been extended over long periods of time, teachers often gave little feedback to students during the process, but provided critical feedback once final writing pieces have been submitted.

    Implementation Benchmarks Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Benchmark Name Description Start/End/Repeats Key Personnel Status
    Teacher feedback during the writing process.

    		PLC facilitator, Instructional coach, Admin

    Action Steps Associated with Major Improvement Strategy

    Name Description Start/End Date Resource Key Personnel Status
    a05PU000003PIpd
    		10/01/2024
    04/25/2025     		Admin

    Progress Monitoring: Student Target Setting

    Priority Performance Challenge : Schoolwide Growth in English Language Arts

    Performance Indicator:

    Measures / Metrics:
    ANNUAL
    PERFORMANCE
    TARGETS
    2024-2025: Overall school growth will be at the 67th Median Growth Percentile (MGP) as measured by CMAS in English Language Arts in grades 3 - 8.
    2025-2026:

    INTERIM MEASURES FOR 2024-2025:

    Priority Performance Challenge : Achievement in English Language Arts

    Performance Indicator:

    Measures / Metrics:
    ANNUAL
    PERFORMANCE
    TARGETS
    2024-2025: Overall achievement in English Language Arts for both Black and Hispanic student populations will be 85% meeting or exceeding college readiness benchmarks (CRBs) as measured by the spring 2025 CMAS
    2025-2026:

    INTERIM MEASURES FOR 2024-2025:

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