If you’ve seen the newest bulletin board near the office, you may be wondering . . . , and no, it’s not a spin-off of the TV series or a cloak-and-dagger operation.  It’s our current effort to improve performance and learning for all students at Maple Grove.

The federal legislation No Child Left Behind  has forced us to reexamine our results.  It is not by chance nor is it a surprise to us that Maple Grove students are performing well and will continue to do so in the future.   Each year, however, this legislation holds all schools accountable to Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which is based on ever increasing percentages in Math, Reading and Language. The state proficiency standards we must meet or exceed at grade levels 3-6th on the Spring '06 ISATs are:

Math = 60%     Reading = 72%    Lang. = 72%

Spring 2007 standards rise to:

Math = 70%          Reading = 78%    Lang. = 78%

Each year, these baseline percentages increase 3-5% so that, by spring 2013, all students will be expected to score 100% in all 3 content areas.  Maple Grove routinely scores much higher in these areas than the baseline percentages; however, as the years pass, the percentage increases will eventually catch up to our current level of performance on the ISATs.  This accountability and the fact that Maple Grove truly believes that all students can and will learn have caused us to look more closely at our daily practices.  We are working to respond to some areas where we could do better; this is CSI (Continuous School Improvement).

Maple Grove is a wonderful and unique school unlike any other, thus we do not want and will not use a canned CSI approach from another school or district or state.  We know our school, our students, our parents, our culture, our strengths and our weaknesses.  That’s why we are working on CSI: Maple Grove (style).

We have taken this opportunity to begin reading a well-respected book on school improvement and to study much of the research on high performing schools, including the Correlates of Effective Schools (which are posted on the bulletin board in the main hallway).  As a group the staff selected two of the correlates for our attention this year:

1. Clear & Focused Mission
2. Opportunity to Learn and Student Time-on-Task

We have identified some strategies, made some changes, and will continue developing our system throughout this year and in the future.

Time-On-Task means honoring our students’ efforts to learn - and our teachers’ efforts to teach - by providing them with significant, un-interrupted blocks of instructional time.  To that end, we have reexamined the interruptions we make from the office.  We have stopped delivering forgotten lunches, library books or phone messages when they come in, saving those until there is a classroom break.  We have stopped calling kids to the counselor’s office in the middle of math or reading, saving those important visits for another time during the day.  We have stopped making PA announcements any ole’ time during the day.  We are trying to honor students’ time-on-task.

This is where parents come in!  We ask for your suggestions, your help and your support.  How can YOU help us preserve time-on-task?  Some examples are:

• Schedule appointments after school or during a non-math or reading time in the day? 
• Save birthday celebrations for the lunch hour
• Send your ideas to Mark Jones

Please join us in making this great school even better!  Take the time to study the display near the office.  Learn about the Correlates.  Share your “learning-time-saving” suggestions and ideas with us and other parents.