Liberty Junior High School

School Information

School Name: Liberty Junior High School
School Address: 600 W. Kansas Liberty, MO 64068
School Phone: 816.736.5380
School Fax: 816.736.5384
Principal:  Scott Carr
Principal E-Mail: scarr@liberty.k12.mo.us
Web Address: http://ljhs.liberty.k12.mo.us/

Demographics

Number of Students: 780
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 22%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: NA
Percent of Special Education: NA
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 91%
• Black: 5%
• Hispanic: 3%
• Asian/Pacific Island: 1%
• Other: 1%

 

Present Student Achievement Data (% proficient and advanced)

	2011 (School/State)	2010 (School/Stae)	2009 (School/State)
Reading	59.4/NA	65.1/52	62.6/50.2
Math	68.6/NA	68.0/53	66.7/46
Science	58.5/NA	67.7/48	65.4/45
Other	Goal-<3% D/F	3.8% D's and F's	5.1% D's and F's

 

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

At LJHS we work hard within our collaborative teams to identify areas of need on our state test. These teams are able to identify trends together and create classroom assessments and lessons geared towards addressing these needs. Because of this team focus, we have seen our scores consistently improve over the past 8 years. This past year we were disappointed to see our scores go down in two areas- communication arts and science. The strength of our teams came through when each team asked to sit down over the summer and begin developing success plans to make sure this did not occur again. If these teachers had been working independently, it would be much more difficult to identify trends and needs and to create an effective plan to impact the school as a whole. Our teams have learned how to learn together and how to improve each other.

Even though we saw a dip in our scores, LJHS continues to achieve well above the state average and is consistently in the top 20 schools in the state. This year our Math scores met all AYP indicators for the first time in four years. This included students with IEP’s, all ethnic groups, and socio-economic disadvantaged.

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.

After 8 years of developing our Professional Learning Community, we know we still have many areas of improvement and that we can always grow stronger as a staff.  I am proud of our staff and the way they continue to create a “stretch” culture of professional growth, positive risk taking and support for all students. This year we created a Student Culture Committee that has focused on how we model and train students on procedures and expectations so that students see a clear and consistent way of operating each day in a successful and safe way. We have learned that it is difficult for a student to learn in class if they are unsure about a teacher’s expectations or if they are worried about getting in trouble. The consistency we are creating will hopefully allow students the ability to focus on “learning” rather than “schooling”.

Over the past two years we have implemented two programs to help strengthen our professional learning as a team. First, we have started plan period staff development. Every other week we trade collaborative team time for an opportunity to focus on growing in strategies that directly impact our building goals. These include sessions on standards based grading, common assessments and data analysis, and reading comprehension strategies across all curriculum areas. These sessions are done in a variety of ways by using in house staff experts, videos, article studies, and whole group interactive discussions. The second part of this program is to conduct peer walkthroughs twice a semester. Teachers travel in small groups around the building to witness first hand their team members in the classroom modeling various strategies in a variety of content areas. Every once in a while they are lucky enough to stop by Family Consumer Science for fresh baked cookies! After a walkthrough, teachers are asked to write a personal note to the teachers they visit so they can receive some positive feedback on what they do each day. This has been a great culture booster and has helped to blur the line between content areas.

We have continued our Renaissance program through the support of Josten’s, to create a building wide recognition program. Over the past seven years, our student led program has completely changed our student culture. Before this program, most celebrations, assemblies and spirit weeks were focused on athletics. Although we respect our athletes these kinds of celebrations only focus on a select group. Now all events focus on our academic teams and student achievement. All students have access to this kind of celebration and recognition. Not to mention, it is a ton of fun! Our student team actually turns our building into a haunted house as a major fundraiser for the program. This has become a major event for our community.   

Student support and intervention continues to be our main focus. We have worked hard to create a structured Response to Intervention program to systematically identify and support our at-risk students. Our students receive a variety of tiered support from improving classroom management to small group tutoring programs; computer based interventions, and guided study halls to improve student accountability.

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Our content based collaborative teams have developed several common formative assessments aligned to specific learning goals and outcomes. These are given frequently and quickly scored so that the results can be used to make instructional decisions about strategies in the classroom. These assessments are scored with a common scoring guided decided on by the team so that there is consistency in what they consider to be proficient. Many times our teams will use electronic assessments such as clickers, Quia assessments, and even cell phone survey systems to gather responses.

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

Our Response to Intervention model has been greatly influenced by the book, A Pyramid Response to Intervention by Mike Mattos, Austin Buffum, and Chris Weber. We continue to improve our model by researching and trying new strategies. Our goal is to increase interventions at each tiered level so that anyone on staff can easily know the next step when a student is struggling. I believe we have successfully created a culture where all staff and students know that our purpose is to pursue kids and make sure they have every available opportunity to be successful. We take away excuses so that success becomes an expectation, not just a good idea for those willing to advocate for themselves.

Some of the interventions that work well for us include:

Tier One- Classroom adjustments that impact all students each day.
*Classroom procedures training and structures based on ideas from First Days of School by Harry Wong and Classroom Tools by Fred Jones.
*Staff training on using assessment data to differentiate instructional strategies when possible.
*A building commitment to expose all students to non-fiction text above just the textbook to create an awareness of the importance of reading in all areas and to identify students that struggle with using skills outside the English class.
* Teams work together to create academic success plans for students that struggle in multiple classes.

Tier Two- Students identified as needing more support beyond the normal class time.
* Students are identified through state standardized testing, local standardized testing, and common assessments to be enrolled in our Reading Lab. This lab uses a computer based program from Scientific Learning called Reading Assistant. Students are in there a minimum of 2 days a week for 30 minute protocols.
* Students identified for additional math support are assigned to Math Lab during our seminar time two days a week. This lab is run by our math teachers and utilizes a program by PLATO that prescribes intervention modules through frequent assessing.

Tier Three- Students at this level need a more intense smaller group or one on one intervention for an increased amount of time.
* Labs above are increased to more days per week.
* Advisory – This program assigns students to the last hour of the day. This class is run by one of their team teachers that they already have a relationship with. A student in this program is expected to work on current work and complete it before they leave for the day. If not, they are expected to stay after hours and complete the work. This helps to create a habit of keeping up with their work. These students have not created this habit on their own. We have seen significant results with this program.
* Scheduled tutoring occurs after hours utilizing teachers and A+ students from the high school. These are set up with the family.

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.

We have two types of teacher teams that function in our building. Since we are a middle level building, we have the traditional interdisciplinary teams made up of Science, Math, Social Studies, and English. This team has the same group of students that they can focus on. This team has evolved into a student support team by focusing on the social needs of students. They create behavior plans, academic success plans, celebration time, and parent contact in order to ensure that each student is surrounded by support.

The second type of team is our collaborative content teams. These teams are focused on common content at a common grade level. Examples would include 8th grade Math, 9th grade Science, etc. These teams meet twice a week to un-wrap objectives according to the Larry Ainsworth model. They then create learning goals in kid friendly terms, focused common assessments, and methods for analyzing student results to improve their instruction. All information is shared in a non-competitive team environment so that results are addressed together to improve every member of the team. This enables us to make sure that every student receives the same depth and breadth of knowledge no matter who they have for a subject.

List any Awards and Recognition Garnered by Your School

Identified as a Top 10 School in the State of Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the 2006-2007 school year.
Named School of the Year by the Missouri Center for School Reform in 2007.
Proud to be a part of the allthingsplc.org website.
Renaissance National Sponsor of the Year in 2010.
Renaissance National Media Wow School Award in 2011. Given to the school that has used its program to create a positive image in the community.