Park Crest Middle School

School Information

School Name: Park Crest Middle School
School Address: 1500 North Railroad Avenue
School Phone: 512.594.2400
School Fax: 512.594.2405
Principal: Denise Monzingo
Principal Email: denise.monzingo@pflugervilleisd.net
Web Address: http://www.pflugervilleisd.net/PCMS/

Demographics

Number of Students: 938
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch: 43.2%
Percent of Limited English Proficient: 7.2%
Percent of Special Education: 9.1%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White: 29.9%
• Black: 24.9%
• Hispanic: 33.2%
• Asian: 8.4%
• Other: 3.3%

Park Crest Middle School
Whatever It Takes …

“Whatever it takes” has become a way of working with students and with each other at Park Crest Middle School. PLC's impact on our campus it evident in all areas of operation. Three years ago, Park Crest Middle School had not met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) due to special education scores and was one student away from being rated as Unacceptable by the state of Texas. Anyone walking the building at the end of the 2008 school year would find students sitting in the hallways, the office lined with students and an atmosphere between staff and students that was not conducive to learning. Teachers were not meeting collaboratively to discuss students or curriculum. Teachers were shutting their doors and viewed teaching as an autonomous act. As the new administrative team came in, we had a sense of urgency to change an underperforming culture. Becoming a PLC campus transformed our school. In three years, we have become a collaborative campus, excelling in academics and extracurricular areas. We focus of the strategic use of data and implementing the PLC concepts. AYP is being met, the State of Texas regards Park Crest as a Recognized campus, more students are passing their classes, and the culture on the campus has changed much for the better. A study by Dr. Fuller at the University of Texas rates Park Crest Middle School as one of the highest performing middle schools in the state in regard to math. Park Crest is truly doing what is best for kids and is an example of a school that embraces Whatever it takes.

Student Achievement Data

Percentage of students passing: Overall School Scores/State Scores

Please list source of comparison data: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)

Grade:	Reading	Writing	Math	Science	Social Studies
Year 07/08	95/91	93/93	86/80	68/74	93/91
Year 08/09	94/91	97/93	89/82	79/78	96/93
Year 09/10	95/90	98/93	92/84	86/83	99/95

Percentage of students passing: Commended School Scores/Commended State Scores on TAKS

Grade:	Reading	Writing	Math	Science	Social Studies
Year 07/08	51/34	35/33	27/28	20/22	34/36
Year 08/09	49/31	42/33	33/28	24/26	58/44
Year 09/10	45/33	49/33	33/29	35/28	63/47

Percentage of students passing: African American/Hispanic/White/Economically Disadvantaged

Grade:	Reading	Writing	Math	Science	Social Studies
Year 07/08	93/96/95/94	90/91/93/91	77/85/90/78	51/60/84/50	86/92/98/88
Year 08/09	91/93/98/90	95/95/99/97	79/85/95/81	65/72/89/70	96/93/97/94
Year 09/10	93/92/98/92	98/96/99/99	87/89/95/88	77/82/95/75	97/99/99/99

The data we have shared addresses many areas. The first chart shows our scores on the state exam (TAKS) in comparison to the state. While writing, reading and social studies have remained in the 90's, the scores for math and science continue to increase in percentage passing with math making it to 92% and science barely missing the 90 percent range. Each year the state increases the standards for passing, yet Park Crest continues to excel. The second chart looks at the same test but shows students who received commended scores (above 90%). Seeing how far Park Crest is above the state average shows the level of dedication we put into students not just passing, but scoring in the 90%or commended range. Finally the chart we are most proud of is a comparison between African American, Hispanic, White and Economically Disadvantaged. While schools around the country continue to struggle with closing the achievement gap between the ethnic groups and the socio economic groups, at Park Crest there is no gap in reading, writing or social studies. The achievement gap in math and science the last two years has started closing with twenty percentage point gains in science for African American, Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged, and 10 percentage point gains in math for African American and Economically Disadvantaged. We are proud we are overcoming the variable of socio-economic determinism!

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

Three years ago we began our journey with building professional learning communities. Each year we have learned and improved on the process with the goal being student success. Through our collaborative team planning, the goal is always helping every student. The key is to never be satisfied with our results. Until we are at 100% passing, there are students that need our help and we will not be satisfied until they have achieved their goals. Through our communities we are striving for ways to support each child individually.

Looking at measurable goals the campus failure rate has decreased from the 20% range to single digit percentages. We attribute this to our campus wide grading policy, our intensive interventions and our Zeros aren't permitted (ZAP) plan. We have focused on what we expect them to learn, and how we will respond when they don't.

Data is a constant on campus. All teams analyze and interpret the data from many different sources. Examples of data include state scores, district benchmarks, campus assessments, attendance reports, discipline reports, and progress monitoring data. These techniques are how we know when they have learned it.

More students are taking PreAP classes and high school credit classes and succeeding. We are having conversations with parents and students after analyzing data about moving the students into advanced classes – we are responding when they already know it.

The other key ingredient is discipline. In order to provide the optimum learning environment, Park Crest created a campus wide discipline program. Procedures and a reward system for students have been implemented to allow the teachers to teach and the students to learn.

The first year of attending PLC the principal attended with a teacher representative, in year two we had all the administrative team, department chairs and instructional coaches attend and in year three we took all the team leaders and grade level subject leaders. Now we have a waiting list of those who can't wait for it to be their turn. As our district brought in Solution Tree, we were only allowed to send five, and we had fifteen ask to attend. This shows that the staff has buy in, has seen great things happen these last three years, and they all want more.

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

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Monitoring student learning is accomplished through different avenues.

Zeros Aren't Permitted
In regard to completion of assignments, at Park Crest we believe in not allowing students to receive a zero for their assignment. ZAP was put into place to help teach responsibility as well as improve failure rates of students. In order for students to understand the importance of completing the work and to make sure the reason it is not being completed has nothing to do with understanding, mandatory tutorials are held prior to attending Friday afternoon ZAP.

Data Folders
These data folders are kept by each student for each core class: Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. In these folders, the students set personal goals, monitor and track their progress on common three week assessments, curriculum based assessments from the district and the state assessments. Another major aspect of the data folders is for the teachers to meet with each child and discuss his/her goals and the progress that is being made toward reaching those goals. As we participate in parent conferences and the Response to Intervention process (RTI), these folders are invaluable for tracking data points, showing growth and highlighting areas that need attention. These folders are then moved to the next grade level in order for the student and teacher to assess strengths and weaknesses. These folders follow students throughout their middle school career and this year we are sending the folders to our feeder high schools to give them a better view of the students' successes and challenges.

Campus wide grading policy
After attending PLC for the second year, our team returned with a renewed goal of truly finding out what the students know. This was the year we implemented an 80/20 campus wide grading practice. Eighty percent of the grades for a student are to measure formative and summative assessment and twenty percent are practice opportunities for students. Open conversations between teachers on what a true assessment looks like compared to a practice assignment occurred and are still ongoing as we all strive toward assessing students on what we need them to know. This implementation changed the way our staff looked at grades and failure rates dropped from double digits to single digit percentages across the campus! Park Crest has the lowest failure rate of all the secondary schools in our district, with this year only 7 students needing to attend summer school for failing grades in math and /or reading. PLC helped our campus with the buy in and goes hand in hand with the three week assessments.

Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring of struggling students is completed throughout the year to gage progress and allow the academic teams to address student needs. While some of the more common progress monitoring of reading fluency, reading comprehension and math calculations are used, we also use our three week common assessments to monitor the progress of students.

Failure plans/contracts
Plans are created with any student in danger of failing. The student is required to meet with their assistant principal and counselor multiple times to discuss strategies for improvement. Should the student continue to struggle, a contract is created. Contact with parents is continuous to work as a team in helping students. We have seen in the past three years a drastic reduction of students who need to attend summer school.

Eduphoria – student management program
Eduphoria is used on our campus to track progress of state wide testing, common three week assessments, and district benchmarks. This program allows us to pull up an individual history on the student as we monitor them the RTI process, parent conferences and in our teams. This data can be sorted in so many ways, by teacher, by course, ethnicity, and socio-economic status to name a few. We are also able to view comparisons of our own scores with the other middle schools in the district. Having the data readily available allows for those tough conversations with each other. Questions like "Why are your students doing better than mine, what can I do to improve my scores, and why is that campus scoring higher in that area?" are common place in our PLC meetings due to having the data at our fingertips.

On-line gradebook
As the campus moved to the online gradebook, expectations were put in place that grades are updated by Monday morning allowing parents and students to have an accurate view of their standing. Parents are given access to monitor, but for the past two years we have given students access as well. We want to teach them the responsibility of checking their grades to complete make up work, retesting, and to know when they need to attend tutoring. The key is for the students to learn to advocate for themselves.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning. Intervention with students is a group effort. Teachers, counselors, administrators and parents all work together to help students be successful. Listed below are types of interventions that are provided at Park Crest.

EPIC Time
EPIC was created as a 30 minute class during the day to provide intensive intervention. These classes change every three weeks. For example, students who struggle with reading fluency attend a class that specifically addresses reading fluency. Through progress monitoring, decisions are made at the end of the three weeks as to whether the student remains in that intervention or moves to another. Not all interventions are based on academic need; we also offer behavioral and social skill interventions to address other needs of our students. Many of our Tier II and Tier III interventions are provided during this time. Another aspect of this class is for students who are doing well or excelling, we offer extensions or ways for students to excel in areas of their interest.

Succeed
Our Succeed class for 6th graders was created two years ago. This class teaches 6th graders how to transition from elementary to middle school. Some topics this class addresses: filling out their agenda for each class, organizational skills, how to study at home, monitoring their grades through our online system, and handling peer pressure and conflict. The class also does a book study of Sean Covey's, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. We have found this class extremely effective in handling that first year transition into middle school.

GAME/CARE
Intervention classes are required for any student who did not pass the math or reading state test the year before. Students are put in this class as one of their elective choices. GAME is structured for math and CARE is structured for reading. Last year, we also created a combo class for those students struggling in both. These classes are kept below 15 with the combo class maxing out at 10. Students receive intensive intervention to close gaps in learning. These students are progress monitored every other week to address needs.

Tutoring
Before and afterschool tutoring is provided that is specific to targeted objectives. With such a large population of low socio-economic students we decided to provide a late bus service to help our families. Tutoring is also provided during the day periodically. Students are pulled during team planning time for a writing or science camp.

Besides providing all these opportunities for students, we still have students who struggle. Other ways of intervening are through our counseling program, home visits, parent conferences, parent phone calls, and we are lucky enough to have a social worker once a week to help with the most severe issues.

What we hope you see from the interventions is the pure teamwork of the campus. It is all about kids, every decision we make and every intervention we provide is based on one thing – What is best for kids!

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

At Park Crest building teacher capacity and teacher empowerment is key to our success. We begin with the largest learning community and then branch off into multiple smaller communities keeping the same focus of student success in mind. Listed below are explanations of our various learning communities.

Faculty meetings
Everything begins with the entire group. We must all be on the same page when it comes to educating students. Our vision for the campus is set at these meetings - it has to be about the students. We use the EXCEL model in all our meetings: Engage, X-Plore, Communicate, Empower and Launch. Engage is to celebrate and affirm our staff for what they are doing. X-Plore is where we find out what their needs are in order to keep the staff working at their optimum level for students. Communicate is the structure for the instructional focus at the meeting. Imbedded professional development to address campus needs is communicated to the faculty. Empower is the opportunity to build that teacher capacity or empowerment within the staff through teacher presentations and feedback. Launch is our opportunity to have a powerful ending. We have found that these meetings set the tone and culture of the campus.

Grade Level
Learning communities at each grade level have been created. The grade level community meets twice a week to discuss students academically and behaviorally. This community is also the RTI team for that grade level. Members of this team include core teachers, special ed. teachers, grade level assistant principal and counselor. Each core subject has a learning community at each grade level as well. These teachers meet three times a week to plan, set goals for the six weeks, write common assessments, analyze data, and participate in professional development. Instructional coaches in both science and math meet with the teams to participate in data talks and three week common assessment planning. Students are called in at times to address behavior or academic concerns. This is also a time when parent conferences are held.

PRIDE Circle
PRIDE is the campus leadership team consisting of team leaders, department chairs, administrators, counselors, librarian and instructional coaches. The focus of this team is instructional with concentration on building teacher capacity, interventions with students, and data analysis. Academic goals are set at the beginning of the year and reevaluated/monitored through out. Professional development of the staff is planned, grading practices reevaluated, instructional supports discussed and campus goals evaluated.

Cabinet
We approach leadership as a concept. As this team consists of the principal, assistant principals and counselors we supervise all the systems within the school. This team works on the basic running of the school while still addressing needs from teachers regarding students and procedures. To provide an atmosphere that focuses on high quality teaching many of our discussions center on classroom walk throughs, best practices and building teacher capacity.

PAWS
The focus of this team is to collaboratively develop school wide procedures and systems which are then voted on by the campus. PAWS committee is made up of a representative from all grades, subjects, office, administrators, counselors and an educational assistant. Monthly meetings are to refine processes and answer any concerns of the staff. The staff is able to submit concerns to a committee member, and then it is discussed and brought back to the faculty at the faculty meeting. Sometimes a vote is required to make a change, and sometimes it is merely a tweaking of a procedure to fix a problem.

List awards and recognitions your school has achieved:

Recognition from the University of Texas in Austin

Park Crest was recognized by the University of Texas as one of 7 middle schools in the state that take students who enter in 6th grade having failed the state math test (TAKS) and leave in 8th grade having passed.

09–10
	Texas Education Agency Recognized Campus Gold Performance Award for Attendance Gold Performance Award for Commended scores in Reading/ELA Gold Performance for Commended in Writing Gold Performance Award for Commended in Social Studies Gold Performance Award for Comparable Improvement in Math Gold Performance Award for Comparable Improvement in Reading

08–09
	Gold Performance Award for Attendance Gold Performance Award for Commended scores in Reading/ELA Gold Performance Award for Commended in Social Studies Gold Performance Award for Comparable Improvement in Math

Awards for the past two years since becoming a PLC campus. Awards for 2010-2011 will not be awarded until Fall 2011.