Overland Trail Middle School

School Information

School Name: Overland Trail Middle School
School Address: 6201 W. 133rd, Overland Park, KS 66209
School Phone:  (913) 239-5400
School Fax:  (913) 681-4432
Principal:  Phoebe M. Lewis
Principal E-Mail:  PLewis@bluevalleyk12.org

Demographics

Number of Students:  550
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:   29
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  1.23%
Percent of Special Education:  12.1%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White  (80.7%)
• Black  (5.4%)
• Hispanic  (2.3%)
• Asian/Pacific Island  (11.4%)
• Other (.1%)

Present Student Achievement Data in at least three points to demonstrate trends – for example, three consecutive years or the first, third, and fifth years. The data report should always include the most recent school year and should always offer a basis of comparison (for example, state scores, national scores, similar SES schools)..  

	Math (Our School/State)	Reading (Our School/State)
2004	83.0%/65.2%	88.9%/75.0%
2005	88.5%/68.5%	92.9%/76.7%
2006	93.7%/74.7%	95%/80.2%
2007	95.5%/80.1%	98%/82.4%

	Science (Our School/State)	6th Grade Social Studies (Our School/State)	8th Grade Social Studies (Our School/State)
2001	76.7%/62.3%	82.2%/61.7%	77.5%/61.6%
2003	80.9%/64.7%	85.2%/65.3%	89.7%/65.1%
2005	87.4%/69.6%	90.0%/74.2%	92.4%/68.8%

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

 The data provided is comparing our building scores to the state scores on the Kansas State Assessments. Our PLC work has given our teachers and students a focused mission completely centered around student learning. The collaborative culture at OTMS has embraced early interventions before students start their school year and created common formative assessments throughout every quarter with a summative common assessment at the end of the quarter. Furthermore, sustained interventions and differentiated assignments ensure student learning and success. In the last two school years, due to implementing Dr. Richard DuFour’s Professional Learning Community School Improvement Model, we raised our proficiency scores in math by 10% and in reading by 6%. Because of this commitment to our Professional Learning Community and collaborative teamwork, we have received the State’s Standard of Excellence on every assessment taken in the last two years, and have narrowed the achievement gap by increasing our building math proficiency scores to 93% and our building reading proficiency scores to 95%. For the 2005-2006 school year, we earned the Governor’s Achievement Award from the State of Kansas by receiving a Building Standard of Excellence Award in both reading and math and posting scores in the top 5% of the state. For the 2006-2007 school year, we continued to show growth by increasing our building math proficiency scores to 97% and our building reading scores to 98%.  We again earned the Building Standard of Excellence Award from the State of Kansas in both reading and math, and also earned the Governor’s Achievement Award by posting scores in the top 5% of the state.

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

 As many other Professional Learning Communities, Overland Trail Middle School has garnered a “Whatever It Takes” attitude that is centered on personalized student learning. The most critical change brought about by our PLC work is a common focus. Our building has a common focus on student learning. We have a common focus on shared curriculum. We begin by identifying the Essential Learnings in every content area for every quarter. Based on a building consensus, we “draw a line in the sand” with these Essential Learnings, and EVERY student must be at 70% proficient on every indicator by the end of the quarter. We attain instructional focus and direction by the use of the data produced from the on-going formative assessments throughout the quarter. This drives our reteaching and reassessing efforts. To maximize their instructional purpose, teachers rely on their weekly, and sometimes daily, collaboration with their grade-level counterparts.

For teachers, this work has become job-embedded and continuous professional development. With this collaborative culture, and district level leadership, we are creating shared SMART goals, common pacing guides, curriculum maps, and assessments. Our collaboration time is embedded into the teachers’ schedules, and PLC meetings and focus groups happen on a daily basis. The culture of our building has changed from focusing on student responsibility to teacher responsibility. The Four Guiding Questions of a Professional Learning Community (What do we want them to know? How do we know if they have learned it? What do we do when they don’t learn it? What do we do if they already know it?) guide every decision that we collaboratively make as a faculty. Based on our common assessment scores, MAP scores, and state assessments, our students are reaping the benefits of our PLC work.

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.  

In the last two years, the crux of monitoring student work on a timely basis has become inherent upon our teacher-created common assessments. In 2004, the expectation for teachers was to create a common assessment at the end of every quarter. Each quarter the common group of teachers, called grade-level counterparts, would meet with the administration to review their data. At those meetings we discussed proficiency levels, best teaching practices, and students who needed immediate remediation or intensive interventions. This work has since driven our formative assessment work. Teachers are now using common formative assessment in their quest to monitor student learning on a more timely basis. They have created common formative assessments throughout the quarter, and then also utilize common summative assessments at the end of the quarter to continue to drive their instructional practices. Our work for the upcoming school year will be to incorporate student voice in the assessment process.

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

Early Interventions—At Overland Trail Middle School, we try to anticipate the needs of students before a student is ever at-risk of being unsuccessful. Every spring we study the MAP scores (Measure of Academic Progress) and state assessment scores of every child in the building. Once we generate that initial list of students who may need additional help, we seek teacher input to try to gain an understanding of the whole child. If they are still considered at-risk, then we place those students in interventions that are offered during the day, such as math strategies, Read 180, Language!, or Wilson Reading. All of this work happens in the late spring and summer, so that schedules are ready to meet students’ needs on the first day of school. This summer, we hosted our first summer school session for incoming fifth graders who struggle in math.  This took place in late July/early August, and this two-week session allows these students to have a “head start” in working with their teachers on the 6th grade curriculum in math.

Interventions—As stated earlier, our building interventions include Math Strategy classes, Read 180, Language! or Wilson Reading. All students are enrolled in a Guided Study hour. If students need additional math help, they are placed in a Math Strategy class in lieu of Guided Study. Students who need enrichment attend Guided Discovery in place of the Guided Study class. All students at Overland Trail Middle School write quarterly SMART Goals that they share with their Guided Study teacher. This teacher works to build a strong relationship with students and serves as their teacher advocate. At least once a week this teacher checks their students’ current grades to be sure that all assignments are turned in and students are being successful. We offer “Flight Time” which is an after school tutoring session that students can attend four days a week after school with their grade level teachers.  Overland Trail also offers a more focused math lab and communication arts lab before or after school several days a week, funded by our PTO.For classroom interventions, our teachers have realized that some children cannot stay after school because bussing is their only transportation, so many teachers offer a “Lunch Bunch” in which students can come in during lunch for extra support. Our cafeteria supports these efforts by bringing hot lunches directly to these classrooms! Finally, if both classroom and building interventions are still not working for a child, then our school psychologist facilitates problem-solving meetings in which different members of the school team (administration, counselors, special education teachers and general education teachers) collaboratively brain-storm other interventions that may help a child succeed.

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.

Team Planning Time--“Two heads are better than one” is our collaborative motto at OTMS. At the middle level, every teacher has a personal plan and then a team plan. The administration has assigned collaborative topics for daily team plan meetings. Two days a week, teachers meet to work with their grade level counterparts on their pacing guides, curriculum maps, common assessments, remediation efforts, differentiation, and other content-area needs. One day a week, they meet with their interdisciplinary team, with the focus on student progress or issues regarding the success of individual students. One day a week is set aside for special education needs, IEP meetings, and problem-solving meetings. Finally, the fifth day of the week is called “Collective Inquiry” and administration attends these weekly meetings to talk about best practice and school-wide initiatives and issues.

Leadership Team—At OTMS we have a leadership team that meets once a month with the administration. This leadership team is comprised of teachers from every grade level or department in the building, and includes a classified representative. These members are hand-selected by the administration because of their buy-in to our Professional Learning Communities work. These teachers serve as the “pulse” of the building and are expected to not only bring issues to the building administration, but also help the administration take new initiatives out to the building and present in a positive and supportive manner.

Site-Based Leadership (SBL)—This leadership team consists of teachers and parents who share a common goal in focusing on our School Improvement Plan and supporting these efforts in the building with community support. This year, this group helped organize our first “Battle of the Books” in which we promoted reading and aligned this with our building school improvement reading goals Parent-volunteer coaches met with students on a weekly basis for nine weeks to prepare them and help support our goal of promoting reading and making reading fun!

Early Release—Our district has built in these professional development times into our schedule. Students are released early so that teachers have professional development time to collaborate with other teachers. At Overland Trail Middle School, we have teachers collaborating together in vertical articulation meetings (content areas grades 6-8) as well as facilitating meetings so that our exploratory teachers can collaborate with exploratory teachers in other buildings. This year, we have coordinated collaborative meetings with our sister middle school (the two middle schools that feed into a common high school) and we have focused collaborative efforts in differentiation. We have organized a culminating activity in which we will have a “Differentiation Exhibit” and teachers will create exhibits of learning contracts and tiered assignments with products of student work. Teachers will have time to mingle and share their work with others.

Math and ScienceDifferentiation—All of the members of the math and science departments at Overland Trail Middle School and our sister middle school meet twice a month to collaborate with District Level Math Specialists to focus on differentiation activities to meet the needs of all students in math and science.

List any awards and recognition garnered by your school.

2005—Received Standard of Excellence from the State of Kansas in 6 th Grade Social Studies, 7 th Grade Math and Science, and 8 th Grade Reading, Writing, and Social Studies.

2006—Received Standard of Excellence from the State of Kansas in 6 th Grade Reading and Math, 7 th Grade Reading and Math, and 8 th Grade Reading and Math

2006—Received Building Standard of Excellence from the State of Kansas in both Reading and Math

2006—Received Governor’s Achievement Award from the State of Kansas for receiving the Building Standard of Excellence in both Reading and Math and scoring in the top 5% in the state.

2007—Received Standard of Excellence from the State of Kansas in 6th Grade Reading and Math, 7th Grade Reading and Math, and 8th Grade Reading, Math, and Writing.

2007—Received Building Standard of Excellence from the State of Kansas in both Reading and Math.

2007—Received Governor’s Achievement Award from the State of Kansas for receiving the Building Standard of Excellence in both Reading and Math and scoring in the top 5% in the state.