Part 3: Desired Results for Student Learning

Narrative Description of the Process of Defining the Desired Results for Student learning

The School Improvement Team of the 9^th Grade Campus of Boiling Springs High School worked collaboratively with the staff, administrators, and parent and student representatives to develop a shared vision for student learning. The team set out to identify and prioritize a list of goals. From this list, a clear concise goal statement would be written for the top three. The means to evaluate these goals must be specified as well determining the areas of desired results from the National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE). The following two questions were used as guiding principles: What skills do we expect a well-educated student to possess? What do we expect our students to know and be able to do when they leave the 9^th Grade Campus?

We began our work, during Wednesday afternoon team meetings during the spring of 2004, by reviewing our Beliefs and Mission/Vision, current school profile demographics, as well as the latest findings of educational research and future trends related to defining expectations for student learning. In addition, a review of the South Carolina State Curriculum Standards for each subject area was undertaken. We also found it helpful to review the “School wide Goals for Student Learning” published and advocated by NSSE based on an interdisciplinary review of the National Standards for Student Learning. Specifically, we composed and conducted an informal survey of our faculty to determine precisely which goals to target. The discussion and subsequent goals, appeared to target the less tangible goals rather that the concretely measurable ones. We ascertained that this was due to the condition that we are only in contact with the majority of the student body for one short school year. Also due to the fact that as of the present time we are relatively disencumbered of the constraints of full-scale school-wide standardized testing. As a faculty, we are compelled to further not only the students’ academic progress but their mastery of life skills. This is an observable derivative of our school beliefs and vision.

Based in the survey results, from the six categories, with 19 possible indicators, we rated our top 3 school goals for student learning:

Learning to Learn

• Students will first identify personal learning styles and then exercise the self-discipline necessary to work and achieve personal goals.

Interpersonal Skills

• Students will gain or obtain the ability to cooperatively work with others successfully in a group to arrive at a solution to the proposed problem.

Personal and social responsibility

• Students will understand and accept responsibility for their own actions.

Utilizing the results we began to collect data to document evidence of students’ current levels of achievement of these goals. Faculty provided samples of student assignments which met the criteria for each goal. The purpose of collecting evidence of student achievement was to help us establish baseline data so that we could monitor improvements in student learning over time.

Initially, much of the data defining the students’ current level of achievement was found in the profile. Additionally, anecdotal data was mined from faculty during team member meetings. All team members were required by the administration to conduct peer observations which also contributed to the evidence of students’ current levels of achievement with regards to the school wide goals for student learning.

9^th Grade Campus Boiling Springs High School

Initial Brainstorming of SACS Goals for Student Learning

Learning to Learn

• Students will first identify personal learning styles and then exercise the self-discipline necessary to work and achieve personal goals.
• Students will incorporate new vocabulary into everyday speech.

Expanding and Integrating

• Students will be able to analyze reading selections and determine main idea and intent of the selection.

Communication

• Students will know how to locate access and use appropriate on-line resources in research.

Thinking and Reasoning

• Students will be able to write a works cited list using MLA format.
• Students will have opportunities to publish writing outside of school.
• Students will be able to gather and analyze data for the purpose of solving problems and testing hypotheses.
• Students will be able to solve problems logically by using a process.

Interpersonal Skills

• Students will gain or obtain the ability to cooperatively work with others successfully in a group to arrive at a solution to the proposed problem.
• Students will first gain an appreciation and understanding of their own culture and then use that knowledge to appreciate and think objectively about other cultures.
• Students will perform operations with manipulatives in assigned heterogeneous group settings.

Personal and social responsibility

• Student will understand that he/she is responsible for her/his own actions.

Desired Results	Indicators
Learning to Learn	Students make a commitment to creating quality work and striving for excellence. Students use a variety of learning strategies, personal skills, and time management skills to enhance learning. Students reflect on and evaluate their learning for the purposes of improvement.
Interpersonal Skills	Students work with others in a variety of situations to set and achieve goals. Students manage and evaluate their behavior as group members. Students deal with disagreement and conflict cause by diversity of opinions and beliefs.
Personal and Social Responsibility	Both the National Standards for Civics and Government and and the South Carolina Social Studies Curriculum Standards list understanding of rights and responsibilities as goals for student achievement. Students take responsibility for personal actions.

Learning to Learn Skills

The review of performance assessments of student learning indicates that students use a limited number of strategies for their learning and rarely self assess their won learning to determine ways they can improve.

Interviews with faculty and the in-house peer observations indicate that students often do not make a personal commitment to creating quality work or striving for excellence in completing assigned projects and that they demonstrate a limited ability to apply learning to learn skills such as effective time management.

Interpersonal Skills

Students have some competence working in groups; however, with additional practice i.e. more opportunities in various classes across the curriculum, further mastery would be demonstrated.

Personal and Social Responsibility

As part of the process in developing into responsible citizens, the students need to take more initiative by joining at least one of the many opportunities for extra curricular activity or participating in the numerous occasions that present themselves for charitable activity either financially or with donations of time.