Blue Valley School District

School Information

District Name:  Blue Valley School District
District Address:  15020 Metcalf, PO Box 23901, Overland Park, KS 66283-0901
District Phone:  913.239.4000
District Fax:  913.239.4150
Superintendent:  Tom Trigg
Contact: Sue Dole
Contact E-Mail:  sdole@bluevalleyk12.org
Web Address: http://www.bluevalleyk12schools.org

Demographics

Number of Students: 21,157
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:   7.6%
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  2.1%
Percent of Special Education:  8.9%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

White: 81.1%
Black: 3.3%
Hispanic: 4.0%
Asian/Pacific Island: 8.9%
Other: 2.7%

Schools in District:

Blue River Elementary
Cedar Hills Elementary
Cottonwood Point Elementary
Harmony Elementary
Heartland Elementary
Indian Valley Elementary
Lakewood Elementary
Leawood Elementary
Liberty View Elementary
Mission Trail Elementary
Morse Elementary
Oak Hill Elementary
Overland Trail Elementary
Prairie Star Elementary
Stanley Elementary
Stilwell Elementary
Sunrise Point Elementary
Sunset Ridge Elementary
Timber Creek Elementary
Valley Park Elementary

Blue Valley Middle
Harmony Middle
Lakewood Middle
Leawood Middle
Overland Trail Middle
Oxford Middle
Pleasant Ridge Middle
Prairie Star Middle

Blue Valley High School
Blue Valley North High School
Blue Valley Northwest High School
Blue Valley Southwest High School
Blue Valley West High School
Blue Valley Academy
Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS)

Student Achievement Data

K-12	2006 (District/State)	2008 (District/State)	2010 (District/State)
Reading	94/80	96/84	97/86
Math	90/74	95/82	96/83
Science*		96/86	98/88
History/Gobertnment		95/82

*The science assessment is given in grades 4, 7 and 11 and was first given in 2008.  The History/Government assessment is given in grades 6, 8 and 11, was first given in 2008 and is administered every other year. The History/Government assessment was suspended in 2010 for budgetary reasons. Writing is given every other year in grades 5, 8 and 11.

The following charts show percentage of students passing Kansas assessments in Blue Valley School District.

Grade 3	Math	Reading
2006	91.7	91.8
2007	93.2	93.9
2008	95.8	93.6
2009	97.6	95.7
2010	94.4	94.4

Grade 4	Math	Reading
2006	94.4	94.7
2007	96.4	96.0
2008	96.9	96.9
2009	96.7	97.1
2010	97.7	97.6

Grade 5	Math	Reading
2006	92.8	93.4
2007	95.5	94.9
2008	96.8	93.6
2009	97.0	96.1
2010	96.2	95.9

Grade 6	Math	Reading
2006	93.1	92.7
2007	94.8	95.0
2008	95.0	96.3
2009	97.5	97.8
2010	96.6	98.2

Grade 7	Math	Reading
2006	86.1	94.1
2007	91.4	91.4
2008	93.6	98.3
2009	96.8	98.4
2010	95.8	99.2

Grade 8	Math	Reading
2006	90.8	95.0
2007	92.4	94.8
2008	93.8	96.7
2009	94.6	98.5
2010	94.7	98.2

Grade 11	Math	Reading
2006	89.7	92.9
2007	95.0	92.9
2008	94.9	94.5
2009	96.4	97.1
2010	96.2	96.9

Despite the high degree of proficiency, scores continue to rise.  The difference in scores among schools, regardless of level, varies by less than 6 percent.  Scores at individual schools continue to increase and the percent of students scoring in the exemplary (highest) category is 45-50 percent in almost all schools.

Additional Data

The District also administers the Measure of Academic Progress exam created by the Northwest Evaluation Association.  The tests are administered twice a year, fall and spring, to students in grades K through 8.  Unlike standardized achievement tests that compare students to a national norm, MAP tests are diagnostic and are intended to determine a student’s instructional level and are scored on an equal interval scale (like feet or inches). Each unit of change represents the same degree of growth.  This allows a school to track a student’s progress from fall to spring and from year to year.  Once a student takes the test in the fall, an anticipated score is established to demonstrate a year’s growth for that student.  Every grade level in Blue Valley met or exceeded the anticipated growth in both reading and mathematics.

 

 

The ACT is America’s most widely accepted college entrance exam.  It assesses high school students’ general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work.  Eighty-six percent of our high school students completed the exam in 2010, and in 2010 they again earned the highest scores in the Kansas City metro area.

Composite ACT Scores for all Blue Valley High Schools

	Blue Valley	National	Kansas
2008	24.4	21.1	22.0
2009	24.3	21.1	21.9
2010	25.0	21.0	22.0

Advanced Placement Exams  

The Advanced Placement Exam assesses a student’s ability to complete college-level work in specific courses while still in high school. Advanced Placement examinations are considered among the most rigorous assessments available to high schools students. Since 2001, participation in the AP program has increased by almost 200%.

Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the data that you feel is particularly significant.

- A University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) study found the Blue Valley is the only district in the United States with more than 20,000 students to continually achieve AYP at all levels, district and school and grade, since the implementation of NCLB.

Please present any additional information that indicates your efforts to build a professional learning community have had a positive impact upon students and/or teachers.

PLCs are part of the monthly conversations with building administrators. At each principal meeting collaboration occurs around student learning. Teachers collaborate in teams, establish norms for their curriculum and assessment work and visit these norms each time the group meets. The teams vary to include vertical work as well as grade level or department work. It is important that we periodically go back to the foundation of our work to reaffirm that we are utilizing PLCs in the way they were designed and that all stakeholders understand the role they play as part of a team.

Leaders within the district have focused upon a research base for selection and implementation of school improvement and professional development initiatives. The district continues to build on the 2004 adoption of the Professional Learning Community model.  Blue Valley provides monthly opportunities for adminstrators to engage in professional development.  Through monthly district administrative team training, monthly principals meetings, and on-going interaction with executive directors of school administration, principals have acquired the knowledge and skills to implement PLCs in their schools.  The district’s approach to the implementation of PLCs involves staff in each school in the district.  Leadership teams of teachers from across the district are provided on-going opportunities to learn about PLCs during summer conferences in the district. Teams continue to participate in book studies and attend PLC focused conferences.  All new administrators attend PLC conferences as part of the orientation to Blue Valley.

Please elaborate upon strategies you have found to be effective in any of the following areas:

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

The Blue Valley district looks at data in several ways. Test results are one piece that is investigated. Grade levels and departments meet weekly to review student progress. Monitoring can be done through looking at completed classwork to sharing test scores from a common assessment. Several types of formative and summative assessment are used in Blue Valley. Some are district selected, others are teacher designed. A protocol has been provided by the district for staff to use when data is being reviewed. This allows for each building to review the data in a similar way. The second is instructional data. Discussions revolve around instructional strategies used as well as materials utilized. Teachers and administrators identify instructional strategies that are effective. Another piece of data that is used is curriculum data. This data helps teachers monitor what is taught and if it was learned. Having administrators and teachers monitor what, how and when concepts are taught help determine the effectiveness of the materials and content. Buildings spend most of their time looking at information regarding student performance and make adjustments accordingly.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Math and Reading have a comprehensive intervention piece kindergarten through high school. Continuums of services are offered at each level. Options are available to try to personalize the needed intervention. Our district also focuses on improving instruction in the classroom. Solid teaching is the best prevention for students who have been identified needing support.

3. Building the capacity of teachers to work as members of high performing collaborative teams who focus the efforts of their team on improved learning for students.

In an attempt to maintain highly functioning teams each building reviews what a high functioning PLC looks like. Teachers use a rubric to gauge where their team is and the needs they may have. The groundwork for this is set at the annual summer conference held with all buildings and their leadership teams. A district blog is also used to share new information learned about PLCs. Typically building administrators share the information with their staffs. A strategy that has recently begun is the use of software to record PLC agendas and the work the teams are completing. The notes are available to the whole district. This allows for conversation to take place outside the building with other content or grade level teachers.

 

Awards and Recognition

- The District has been designated an APQC PLC Benchmarking District.
- All schools and the district have met AYP for the seventh consecutive year. All schools received the Kansas Standard of Excellence award for Reading and Mathematics and fourteen schools, (6 elementary, 6 middle and 2 high schools) received the Governor’s Achievement Award for excellence in reading and mathematics. (To receive the Governor’s Achievement Award a school must meet AYP, have received the Standard of Excellence and must in the top 5% of all schools in the state in reading and math achievement.  Since the inception of the award five years ago, Blue Valley schools have been honored with 53 Governor’s Achievement Awards.)
- Dr. Tom Trigg has been recognized as the Kansas Superintendent of the Year and is an AASA finalist.
- Two new teachers are recipients of the Kansas Horizon Award.  The award identifies and recognizes exemplary first year teacher.
- The district has 45 staff members who are national board certified.
- Thirty-six students were named National Merit Finalists.
- One student was named a 2010 U.S. Presidential Scholar and 14 others were candidates. 
- Five students earned perfect scores on the ACT.
- All Blue Valley High Schools were included in the listing of America’s best high schools by Newsweek Magazine.
- The College Board cited Blue Valley North High School as the highest ranking school in the state of Kansas in terms of student access to and success in the AP program.
- Blue Valley Northwest High School was one of fifty in the United States to receive the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. The award is given to schools leading the nation in AP performance and participation in math and science.
- Blue Valley was cited as a “Gold Medal District,” one of the top four percent in the nation, by Expansion Management Magazine. (2006)
- Parent satisfaction in the district is the highest in its history. Ninety-two percent of parents give the district a grade of “A” or “B.”
- In 2006 Blue Valley was the only district in Kansas with more than 10,000 students to achieve AYP as a district and to have every school within the district achieve AYP.
- The Blue Valley School District received the Systemic Learning Award from Kansas Staff Development Council for 2006-2007. The award recognizes district level commitment to growth in professional learning and support for change. Specific criteria for growth include the time, money, management, materials, and authority allocated to the adult learning effort in the district to foster improved student learning. The district provided evidence of growth and achievement via the KLFA/KSDC/KSDE Staff Development Rubric. The rubric is based on the National Staff Development Standards (NSDC) and includes all of the NSDC Standards.