School Successes - Procedures/Policies

Below are the equity-promoting successes around procedures/policies that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Opening day packet (policies included, require signature)
• Current website with policies included
• Serving on district level team to develop consistent policies, timelines, forms to support the RtI process
• Participation of team to develop a process for ELL students entering the RtI process to assist with preventing disproportionality
• PBIS
• Parent, student, teacher handbooks
• School-wide assemblies
• Parent information nights (curriculum and procedures)
• Volunteer handbook (signature of agreement)

School Successes - School Environment

Below are the equity-promoting successes around school environment that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Knowing students well
• Learning from student work
• Interest inventories
• Student/staff survey once a year
• Advisories meet once in two weeks, we loop with advisory all four years
• Always make time for teachers
• Respect guides community
• Answer every phone call to parents before end of day
• Commitment ot yearlong theme (literature based) regarding positive behavior that is reinforced by all - daily announcements, bulletin boards, awards
• School community service day - extreme makeover
• Heterogeneous classess/teaming/looping
• PBIS program in place
• Advisory
• Bi-weekly deparment meetigs/daily CPT
• Full inclusion of special ed students into regular classrooms
• Prank by the principal (staff recognition)
• Invested in PBIS practices
• RtI team collaborative problem solving
• Looping
• Learning centers
• Responsive classrooms
• Created parent volunteer handbook to communicate clearly expectations and ensure confidentiality and professionalism
• CPT weekly
• District team level meetings every 6 weeks, quarterly for every grade level
• Re-define a positive culture

School Successes - Home school relations

Below are the equity-promoting successes around home-school relations that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• After school enrichment
• HS has PTO
• School has web-site and individual teacher emails
• School improvment plan contains a parent involvement goal, and the goal is to incresae the percentage of 'link to learning' activities and monitor
• Team newsletter/mid-quarter progress reports/websites
• Student led conferencing
• Team family events
• Breakfast with principal by grade monthly
• Development of family engagement committee - teacher led which stimulates teacher buy-in
• Calendar developed beginning of year with various volunteers to 'chair'
• Parent liaison working closely
• Home literacy/math baskets developed to at-risk
• Video of 'day in the life'
• Volunteer workshops
• Parenting classes
• Student museum nights
• Monthly parent cafe - topics include homework help, what to expect in grade 1, bfast with principal
• Bilingual story hour

School Success - Support Services

Below are the equity-promoting successes around support services that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

•  Inclusion - co-teaching classrooms
• Developing a framework for RtI
• Worked with RIDE technical support
• Received training in PBIS for 2 years establishing clear expectations for all and fostering a positive environment
• Initiated a pilot reverse-inclusion program
• Multi-cultural appropriate reading level books for classroom libraries
• Math specialist
• RtI process to identify students and design interventions
• Grant program that targets at-risk students including after school programs and a home-school liaison
• Peer support/social skills group open to all
• Math labs to support students who need intervention
• Have support staff share mini lessons at faculty meetings to make their strategies 'visible' to general ed teachers

School Successes - Professional Development

Below are the equity-promoting successes around professional development that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Differentiated instruction
• Advisory course/committee
• Disciplinary literacy model
• Collaborative scoring
• System wide PD for paraprofessionals
• Grade level benchmark scoring of written work
• Classroom walk throughs
• GLE tower building
• Looking at data by teams to inform instruction
• Coaches working with teachers to support core curriculum and interventions
• Showed all teachers how to use new NECAP web-based tools to examine and sort student data
• Sharing practice
• URI Diane Kern Literacy writing and Understanding by Design
• Facilitation
• Dana Center work
• Daily CPTs
• In school bi-monthly department meetings
• RtI
• Focus groups on job embedded PD specific to student learning
• Common planning with student work
• Faculty vertical articulation on essential outcomes
• Special ed/general ed collaboration regarding learning differences

School Successes - Instruction

Below are the equity-promoting successes around instruction that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Adopted collaborative model with special educators
• Heterogeneous classes
• Promoted differentiated instruction, methods and strategies
• Promoted student success by allowing for flexible student groups between grade level classrooms
• Use of a classroom model via videotape to share best instructional strategies
• Dedicated targeted instructional time (RtI) within each day for all grade levels
• Departmental common planning time
• SMART goals focused on greatest are of need across grade levels
• Teacher learning center (interdisciplinary) of shared practices
• Co-teaching
• Consultation teams - PD
• Facilitated PD for using ELMOS every classroom to teach 'response to reading' writing tasks
• Teachers encouraged to challenge students' depth of knowledge; for example, using more primary sources for investigation and questioning vs. text-based learning
• Look at student work to help guide and reflect on instruction during teaming
• Developing common formative assessments
• Fostering a culture within teachers that values commitment to learning and improving content knowledge and critical thinking: Journaling, Reflecting, Study Groups, and Focus Groups

School Successes - Curriculum

Below are the equity-promoting successes around curriculum that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Curriculum maps
• Scope and sequence for writing/math
• Using common planning time to create 9-12 curriculum aligned to standards
• Aligning department assessments to national subject area assessments
• Embedding common summative assessments into curriculum
• Review of MMAPP testing scores - individuals and grade levels
• Development of power standards by grade level
• Positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS)
• Defining essential outcomes
• Learning walks
• Grade level NECAP analysis and reflection on where in the curriculum the GLEs are found

School Successes - Vision

Below are the equity-promoting successes around vision that were shared  during our Gallery Walk at Alton Jones:

• Explicitly stated values and expectation, reviewed and reinforced
• Weekly bulletins to staff articulating vision and supports to school improvement
• Focus groups/PLC to support teachers implementing vision and learning from student work
• A focus on student strengths especially for those who are underperforming
• Learning walks and feedback
• Guided outline of professional development
• Strong leadership (IFL)
• Merged two school improvement plans
• Continual reminders via memos and periodically through faculty meeting activities - created a binder of current initiatives to celebrate evidence of best practice
• Transparent leadership
• Daily 'quotes' or 'reflective thoughts'