NMS School Improvement Plan for 2017-2018

Continue to Make Improvements at NMS

On Thursday, May 25, Mr. Geoghegan presented the NMS School Council's 2017-2018 School Improvement Plan to the MPS School Committee.

Let me again thank all the people who were responsible for making this plan:  the NMS Council of parents, teachers, and community members; NMS faculty and staff; and NMS administration.

Below I have the Google Slide Presentation as well as the Plan itself.

Here is a slide that encompasses all of the ideas we hoped to incorporate in this Plan.  You will see that our intention is to keep improving in every aspect of school for our NMS students:

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Geoghegan.

We are always working to make NMS even better.

Thank you.

Middleborough Public Schools

John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School

School Improvement Plan

2017-2018

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin

John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School

2016-2017 Council Members

Mr. Martin R. Geoghegan, Principal

Ms. Amy Anderson, NMS Faculty

Ms. Amy Conley, Parent Representative

Ms. Patty Delaney, Parent Representative

Ms. Anne Peddie, Parent Representative

Ms. Amie Nay, Parent Representative

Ms. Sherri Swindle, Parent Representative

Ms. Deborah Walgreen, NMS Faculty

Administrative Summary

This School Improvement Plan serves as a blueprint of the actions and processes needed to produce school improvement for the John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School.  It has been prepared with the School Council, staff of the Nichols Middle School (NMS), and the Administration.  As a collaborative team, we have worked on this plan to help us in identifying what we need to improve on.  We incorporated parts of the district’s Strategic Plan to align our plan with the direction of the district as a whole.  This plan will focus resource allocation, staff development, instructional content and practice, and assessment on the goals that have been established by the team.  NMS will then focus many areas of staff meetings, staff in-service, staff recognition, and staff monitoring around the School Improvement Plan objectives.  Since we have invested time in the development of a thoughtful, focused plan, we know this will pay dividends to our school over time.

John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School’s 2017-2018 School Improvement Plan’s Goals are:

§  To celebrate our students’ academic, social growth, and achievements with community recognition to promote positive outcomes;

• To continue to build stronger relationships within the school and district community to support students with social and emotional challenges; and

• To increase Student-Centered Learning experiences for all students through the utilization of more personalized learning strategies throughout their classes. 

The mission of the Middleborough Public Schools is to foster a culture of excellence within every student, in every classroom, every day.

School Goal #1:  To celebrate our students’ academic, social growth, and achievements with community recognition to promote positive outcomes.

Connection to District Strategic Goal (B) Culture of Excellence (B-1 and B-2)

Performance Target:  Help our students realize we care about their achievements and recognize that sometimes we need to measure success in different ways.  We want our students to see GRIT stands for Growth, Resilience, Integrity, and Tenacity in what they can accomplish.

Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Utilize social media as a means to celebrate and recognize our students’ successes.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Utilization of social media: Twitter, blog, website, contact with Gazette Academic achievement	Support from Administration Student Activities account
Continue our ROAR Awards and TIGERS School Culture Initiative.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	More students recognized for incremental growth Academic achievement	Support from Administration Student Activities account
Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Study and form a committee to create a NMS “School ‘Honor’ Society.”	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff Committee	School Year 2017-2018	Committee agendas and meeting minutes Development of criterion and selected outcomes	Support from Administration and Faculty
Finding ways to recognize our NMS students more.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Marked change in achievement, attendance, and discipline reports	LifeTouch Postcards Faculty Meeting time
Create an NMS “Honor Roll” Committee.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	More discussions and conclusions made on what defines achievement. Closer calibration of grading practices across teams, grade levels, and school-wide.	PLC and Faculty Meeting time Research articles and Professional Development

School Goal #2:  To continue to build stronger relationships within the school and district community to support students with social and emotional challenges.

Connection to District Strategic Goal (C) Culture of Well-Being (C-1 and C-2)

Performance Target:  In today’s world, we need to help our middle school-aged students see the purpose for their learning and support them on where they are academically, socially, and emotionally. 

Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Incorporate more “career study” opportunities throughout our academic courses and the school year.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Career Day(s) Academic assignments Classroom observations	Career resources; online program Tapping local businesses NMS PTA
Develop a Guidance curriculum to be studied by all students where each student takes the class once a year through their DIAL block.	NMS Administration PPS Director NMS Guidance Staff NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Curriculum guide Students getting to know their Guidance Counselor and having meetings each year Classroom observations	PLC and PD Time Support from Administration and professional development
Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Study to incorporate a more organized positive behavioral intervention and support system.	NMS Administration PPS Director NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Improve student emotional well-being, increase school safety and promote positive behavior Classroom observations Achievement, attendance, and discipline reports	PLC and PD Time Support from Administration and professional development
Begin a more formalized student mentor/mentee structure within, across, and vertically with students in the district.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Increase student leadership opportunities Utilize MHS Internship program, Student Council, and volunteers better	DIAL Time Support from Administration, Technology, and professional development

School Goal #3:  To continue to make our curriculum, instruction, and assessment a more personalized, individual exploration where the students are at the center of their own learning in all courses and classes.

Connection to District Strategic Goal (A) Culture of Innovation and Achievement (A-1, A-2, A-3)

Performance Target:  Instruct for 21^st Century Learning with a more personalized view in conjunction with implementing the standards to have our students see that education is boundless and not limited to classrooms, textbooks, schedules, brick and mortar as we make them better and more creative communicators, collaborators, and critical thinkers within a 1:1 Chromebook environment.

Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Develop a Portfolio system to track learning, growth, and goals for all students of personal work to be collected from academic courses during trimesters and at the end of each school year.	NMS Administration Department Leaders NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	A year-end reserve of learning and MCAS Scores Helping students see connections between classes and the importance of learning overall.	Google Suite of Apps Chromebooks
Help students to develop academic and social goals to be tracked in Google Drive.	NMS Administration Department Leaders NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Help students grasp the purpose of their learning. MCAS Scores	Google Suite of Apps Chromebooks
Action Plan/ Improvement Strategies	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline	Measurement and Outcomes	Resource(s) and/or Funding Source
Continue to utilize our 1:1 environment to improve learning through more advanced usage of: Chromebooks within the Google suite of Apps and other web-based resources.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff NMS Technology Teacher	School Year 2017-2018	Utilization of more Google Suite of Apps Academic assessments MCAS scores	Support from Administration, Technology, and PD Chromebooks
Continue to develop our DIAL periods to better integrate personalized learning.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Curriculum guides Academic assignments and assessments	“Book Study”
Develop, study, and utilize initial and on-going assessments of student readiness and growth with Scantron.	NMS Administration Department Leaders NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Virtual Data Walls Common assessments in core subject areas MCAS Scores	PLC and PD Time Support from Administration, and professional development
Incorporate “Makerspaces” and “Genius Hour” ideas into classes.	NMS Administration NMS Faculty and Staff	School Year 2017-2018	Giving students more chances to innovate on projects of their choice to learn.	Professional Development