BURTON SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES TARGETED INTERVENTION PLANS, GOALS

  

The Burton School Board adopted targeted intervention plans and goals for the district’s Early Childhood and College and Career Military Readiness (CCMR) programs at its meeting Monday.

Elementary and High School Principals Melinda Fuchs and Matthew Wamble spoke on the goals for students in early elementary grades and high school.

According to Fuchs, the state looks at STAAR assessments for third grade through high school students, but the state now wants goals set from prekindergarten to second grade, to ensure students are ready for the third grade assessment.

Fuchs said she has met with teachers, who have agreed to set a goal of at least 70 percent of students being on grade level at the end of each year. She said the Early Childhood program wants to set high goals, but wants to be at least a 70 percent grade level rate.  She said staff will meet at the beginning of each school year to adjust the goals for students because “every group of kids is very different”.

Fuchs said the elementary school will use Istation as an assessment to gauge students meeting grade level standards for Pre-K through second grade. For third grade students, Istation data will be used along with STAAR data.

For the Early Childhood targeted intervention plan, Fuchs said the elementary school is trying to increase the number of teacher walkthroughs to monitor instruction and give good feedback. She said it will continue to use multiple data sources to look at student growth and mastery, and will assess the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) taught to students every six weeks.  She said if the students do not master the TEKS, they will be retaught.  She also said staff are looking at data every month and changing interventions as needed.

Wamble said the goal for the CCMR program is to ensure all students from grades 7-12 will be college-and-career ready by graduation. For the 2018-19 school year, he said Burton High School received a 74 percent rating for CCMR.  He said he expects this year’s numbers will go up fairly high, as the high school has already taken care of many things on this year’s CCMR report.

Wamble pointed out several objectives of the CCMR program, one of which is to provide opportunities for students to achieve CCMR indicators through Dual Credit, OnRamps, and the SAT/ACT, ASVAB, and TSI tests.

Another objective, Wamble said, is to give students the opportunity to meet with various military and college recruiters throughout the school year, as well as visiting area college campuses on trips or bringing college representatives to Burton to talk to students.

During the principals’ reports, Fuchs introduced new kindergarten teacher Kristine Schock. Meanwhile, Wamble congratulated band students Jeremy Quinton, Mitchell Hensley, and Xavier Morgan for their performances in a recent competition.  Hensley and Morgan will advance to Area for a chance to earn a spot in the All-State Band in January.

Also in session, the board approved a staff incentive gift of all-weather jackets for all staff members.