EP Schools shares plan to improve student academic growth and proficiency

At the most recent school board business meeting on Feb. 26, Eden Prairie Schools shared updates on its progress toward Ends Policy 1.3, which reads, “Each student achieves individual growth and proficiency expectations annually in, but not limited to, Language Arts, Math, and Science.”

In its year-end performance review of Superintendent Josh Swanson at the Jan. 22 board meeting, the school board had determined that district progress in Ends Policy 1.3 had not met expectations. At that time, Swanson said he would report back in the first quarter of 2024 with a plan to improve things.

Robb Virgin, EP Schools’ director of learning and innovation, along with a team of district staff and teachers, reviewed 2022-2023 outcomes, summarized the district’s approach to ongoing improvement efforts, and outlined what actions will be taken to improve future outcomes.

Virgin said the district was setting a goal of a 2% average increase in Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) scores over the next year, as well as a one-point growth in grade point averages for both CMS and EPHS students.

He explained the district’s methodology for making these positive changes happen, called “Design Thinking for Leading and Learning.” This system uses a dynamic approach geared toward analyzing data and developing solutions in real time to make teaching more effective and improve student outcomes.

Key steps the district is taking to improve outcomes fall into four categories:

• Focus on math instruction via Building Thinking Classrooms.
• Enhanced professional development for supporting multilingual learners (ML).
• Increased triangulation of data.
• Family engagement through “I love to read month” (February) and other events.

Focus on math instruction

Elizabeth Stamson, EP Schools’ gifted and talented program coordinator, said the district is having great success in math instruction using a new method called Building Thinking Classrooms.

Stamson explained that this method focuses on getting students to think for themselves and engage directly with each other and the material rather than relying on the teacher, mimicking a process, or disengaging.

“What happens from that is that the students see the strength of each student in the classroom, rather than looking to a few who usually have the answers,” Stamson said.

Using this method, students are organized into “visibly random” working groups of three when they arrive at class each day. Each group shares one whiteboard with only one marker. Students take turns writing while others talk, which is intended to focus their connection and collaboration.

“The person doing the writing isn’t the one doing the thinking, and they can’t move on until everyone in their group can understand and explain it,” Stamson said.

The district provides professional development for staff to learn this method, including at conferences and coaching during and after school.

Alyce Price, an EPHS math teacher, said she has been using this interactive style of teaching in her classrooms this year, and “there’s no way I’d go back to a traditional style of teaching. I’m in math heaven. It’s amazing.”

Price said she starts each day with random groups. Students do warmup exercises and then begin the lesson. “One thing I have learned this year is that the less I talk, the better the lesson goes,” she said.

“I’ve had teachers say, ‘How do you know they’re getting it right?’” Price explained. She watches and listens closely, knows what the groups are doing, and can tell when they have made a breakthrough in their learning. If one group can’t figure out a solution, they are encouraged to approach another group for help rather than asking Price.

Price described the learning growth resulting from this method as “exponential” and “huge,” noting, “My (Calculus) 3 test scores were the highest they’ve ever been in 10 years.”

Enhanced professional development for supporting multilingual learners (ML)

Angela Fitzgibbons, who works with staff and students in the area of English language learners (EL) and multilingual learners (ML), spoke about the enhanced professional development (PD) EP Schools has done this year for educators of ML students. These have included updating their training standards so they can align their courses to state standards and adding literacy supports.

This year, regular classroom teachers received ML training for the first time, learning about updated best practices and how to look at students through an ML lens, Fitzgibbons said.

At the elementary level, she said ML teachers are providing ongoing staff PD, which is “empowering and helpful” as they collaborate on instructing these students. At CMS, there has been a “major revamp” to the programming model, which has improved teaching partnerships. At EPHS, the focus has been on strengthening the ML Collaborative Model and on partnerships overall.

Some of the focus has included helping ML students learn academic language, and providing more support and scaffolds to EL and ML students of all levels in the core classes. Fitzgibbons said the aim was to make more classes accessible to EL and ML learners in the future, even if their English proficiency is low.

CMS ML teachers Natalie Philbin and Lauren Scherer discussed how enhanced PD allows teachers throughout the school to adopt strategies that support ML students and erase misconceptions about ML. “It’s a real asset to be an ML learner,” Philbin said.

Thanks to this work, Scherer said many of her students have made “huge gains” in their English conversational proficiency over the past year.

Increased triangulation of data

Lisa Birno, EP Schools’ director of curriculum and learning, said her team pays close attention to how outcomes have improved via quarterly site visits and feedback sessions. Her team engages with teachers and students to hear about what they are doing, which helps them decide what tactics to use to achieve improvement.

Valora Unowsky, principal of Cedar Ridge Elementary, and Michael Ongie, Cedar Ridge’s associate principal, said their school has been using some of these new strategies.

To measure progress, Unowsky said they gather and analyze multiple important data points, including FastBridge and SET benchmarks, to check if students are meeting statewide proficiency benchmarks, rather than just using one.

“We want to see proficiency across the board,” Unowsky said.

Their instructional teams then make strategic instructional adjustments that can specifically address assessed needs. “What’s more important than that data is the conversation we’re then going to have around that data,” Ongie said.

He said that even when the overall result is strong, it’s key to focus on the students who still need help.

“Our kindergarten team noticed that 92% (of students) are on track, and the first thing they said was, ‘That means 8% are not on track, so what are we going to do to help support those 8%?,” he said.

Ongie said that strategic planning is led by the teacher teams rather than taking a top-down approach from the administration, thus increasing buy-in from the teachers. “Change happens best when it’s a grassroots effort,” he said.

Early reading assessments, including one-on-one “conferring” sessions, are key to this approach. Teachers can use these assessments to determine where students are in their reading ability and what skills they might be missing to demonstrate proficiency in statewide benchmarks.

Ongie said increasing individual daily reading (IDR) time and checking in regularly with students is another priority for increasing student progress.

“It’s our job then to go in, make sure (progress is) happening, and if it’s not, support our teachers, figure out ‘What do you need, and what barriers are in the way?’ to ensure our kids are getting what they need,” he said.

Family engagement

Virgin said the district is also making a concerted effort to engage with families and encourage and empower them to support their students’ academic progress in reading.

Instructional coordinators across the district are working to find ways to help families intentionally support student reading in easily attainable ways, Birno said. One way to do this is by sending weekly updates that sites can then share with families through their typical communications.

Activities included “I love to read month” to support reading at home. Other suggestions include creating spaces at home to make reading fun, accessing resources and spaces at the public library, and making a point to read things they see while out and about in the community.

Birno said the district also holds family engagement events, which are funded through a Title 1 grant. These include book fairs during elementary conferences with time to connect with a reading interventionist.

“Those are just a few of the ways that we’ve been working to more intentionally ensure that our families understand how they can effectively support, and are a critical part in this as well,” Birno said.