HOPKINS COUNTY, KY (2/9/12)—Hopkins County Schools and Hopkins County Central High School will be working to develop plans to implement the recommendations listed in the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Leadership Assessment reports issued on Tuesday, February 7th. The assessments were conducted because HCCHS was designated by the state as a persistently low-achieving school.
The KDE team determined that district leadership has the ability to manage the intervention at HCCHS.
To view the Hopkins County District Leadership Assessment report in its entirety, click here.
To view the Hopkins County Central High School Leadership Assessment Report, click here.
The KDE school team concluded that HCCHS Principal, Tommy Burrough has the ability to lead the intervention and should remain in his position. However, the team decided that the Site-Based Council should be disbanded. Decisions at the school will be made by the principal and superintendent through 2012-2013. An advisory group of teachers and parents/community members will be appointed by the Kentucky education commissioner.
The District’s Summary of Next Steps includes:
• The superintendent should lead the district team in the development and implementation of a clear set of roles and expectations for all leadership personnel that will directly support student achievement.
• The superintendent and school board should lead an active, aggressive and comprehensive campaign to promote the value of education throughout the community.
• District leadership should develop and communicate a culture of high expectations for themselves and all stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, community).
• The superintendent should ensure that district leadership provides training in the development of effective and varied classroom assessments.
• District leadership should oversee the development of a systematic professional learning committee process with a formal protocol that includes curriculum development and analysis of formative student data.
• District and school leadership should collaboratively develop a walk-through instrument that monitors instructional practice to ensure use of rigorous, relevant and effective strategies.
Clear job descriptions and responsibilities for all director positions will be developed before the start of the next school year, Superintendent James L. Stevens said. Plans will also be developed to promote the value of education and communicate high expectations, he said.
“It’s about student outcomes and student performance,” Stevens said.
These changes will be implemented district-wide.
Central office staff and school principals will be involved in more professional development sessions on the use of assessment results to improve instruction and student learning.
“The central office needs to be more visible in the schools, working with teachers and helping to improve the quality of instruction for all our students,” Stevens said.
HCCHS’s Summary of Next Steps includes:
• The principal and the superintendent should initiate discussions among district and school leadership on what it would take for the two entities to work together in creating a high-performing school.
• The principal and leadership team should provide support and training to staff in creating learning environments where students are active participants and are empowered to participate in engaging, rigorous activities and inspired to learn.
• The principal should clearly define procedures to raise the bar of the work of the professional learning communities.
• The principal should engage all stakeholders in a systematic process to collect, analyze and evaluate data to make decisions on programs and academics.
• District and school resources should be allocated to recruit and train family, business and community members as partners.
“The things that are in this report and in our exit interview are things we told them on the first day,” said Burrough. “We knew the community involvement was a missing piece. We want to get the community into the school.”
The school has started using data results in instruction so the process is more rigorous, he said. Departmental professional development sessions have also focused on increasing rigor.
“We have started this, and we’re on the right track,” Burrough said.
Information provided by the Hopkins County School District
Posted by Luke Short—SurfKY News
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