Nelson County
District Review Report

03/01/2009 - 03/05/2009

District Review Executive Summary
Nelson County School District 
3/1/2009 - 3/5/2009 
Janice Lantz, Superintendent 
Introduction 
     The Kentucky Department of Education conducted a review of Nelson County School District during the period of 3/1/2009 - 3/5/2009. This district's last combined accountability index was 81.8 and its classification was Non-Classified.  Here are the most relevant facts and next step recommendations from the review. 

District Deficiencies and Next Steps in Supporting its
Low-Performing Schools

1. Deficiency 	High academic expectations are not established for all students in all schools. 

Next Steps 	District leadership should ensure that school leadership maintains an unwavering focus on instructional improvement. District leadership should expect that all staff possess a sense of urgency to advance the achievement of all students.  Teachers should recognize and embrace their responsibility for the successes and failures of all students. District leadership should assist school leadership in planning and implementing professional development activities, follow-up, and ongoing support to increase the level of rigor in instruction and assessments.  They should also assist staff in examining student work and using the findings to modify instruction for all students and all schools. 

	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	Nelson County Schools’ “Non-Negotiables for Quality Instruction” was developed by the district’s Think Tank group in the spring of 2009.  This document provides the district guidance for the minimal, specific expectations for all educators in the Nelson County Schools.  The document is composed of five areas.  Those areas are: Rigorous Learning Objectives, Positive Environment / Culture, Assessment, Research Based Instructional Strategies, and Student and Teacher Engagement.  This document will be used as the basis for all district walkthroughs and will be integrated into the revised certified staff members’ evaluation documents.

The Professional Learning Communities process will continue with a focus on monitoring student data to attain proficiency, alignment of curriculum, analysis of assessments for rigor, determining next steps as well as monitoring the effectiveness of those next steps, and embedding the Response to Intervention process into daily instruction.  These processes will incorporate the use of pacing guides, common assessments, goal calculators, interventions, student work analysis protocols, assessment analysis protocols, content specific and researched based “Best Practices”.

The Nelson County Area Technology Center administration will be included in all instructional meetings for the district.  The intent for this involvement is to provide cohesive connections between the core content being presented to the students and their connections to careers.

Additionally, the district has provided a CRC / Interventionist at each school.  This staff member is to provide support to the teachers in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data regarding student achievement.  The intent is that this work will provide the monitoring necessary to move our students to proficiency.  The CRC / Interventionist will also work with teachers to provide instructional support / strategies as they are working to meet the students’ identified needs.

	
Timeline/Person Responsible 	To be initiated in the summer of 2009 and to be monitored throughout the school year with the intent of meeting proficiency standards by June 2010.

Greg Hash, Beverly Henderson, Mark Thomas

	
2. Deficiency 	All schools do not have an aligned curriculum. 
	
Next Steps 	District leadership should establish and implement a systematic, district-wide process to align the curriculum horizontally and vertically to eliminate curriculum gaps and unintentional repetitions and to develop pacing guides and common assessments. District leadership should ensure that staff are trained in the use of the aligned curriculum and understand the purpose of common assessments and pacing guides. District leadership should facilitate ongoing revisions using relevant data and monitor the implemented curriculum. 
	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	The district spent spring 2009 and summer 2009 developing pacing guides for all content areas Kindergarten through 12th Grades.  Common Assessments to be used for the district have been developed and will continue to be developed.  Those existing Common Assessments will be administered and the student performances will be entered into goal calculators in order to determine student performances, individual class performances, grade level performances for each school, district-wide performances, and student sub-population performances.  

Timeline/Person Responsible 	Completed in June 2009, however the curricular documents (Pacing Guides and Common Assessments) will be reviewed and revised throughout the year within the Professional Learning Communities at each school and at the district level.

Greg Hash, Mark Thomas
	
3. Deficiency 	High quality instructional planning does not occur in all schools. 
	
Next Steps 	District leadership should establish district-wide nonnegotiables and articulate expectations regarding how instructional planning is used. District and school leadership should ensure planning time is maximized and used to collaboratively plan high quality lessons and assessments. 
	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	Again, continuing with the Professional Learning Communities process focusing on monitoring data to attain student proficiency, alignment of curriculum, analysis of assessments for rigor, determining next steps and monitoring the effectiveness of those next steps, and embedding the Response to Intervention process into daily instruction.  These processes will occur during planning times, faculty meeting times, and early releases.  The processes will follow each school’s established PLC format.  The PLC work will be monitored by reviewing the products developed at these meetings.  

Timeline/Person Responsible 	Professional Learning Communities at each school and at the district level will begin in August 2009 and continue throughout the academic year.  The PLC will be reviewed and revised as necessary to attain the goal of student proficiency.

School Principals, Greg Hash, Mark Thomas

	
4. Deficiency 	Teachers are not consistently designing instruction that meets the needs of all students. 
	
Next Steps 	District and school leadership should design job-embedded, ongoing professional development activities that provide all teachers with a wide variety of research-based instructional strategies to motivate and challenge students. District and school leadership should establish non-negotiables and ensure instruction is designed to meet the needs of all students (e.g., differentiated instruction, cooperative learning, high level questions). 
	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	Principal Meetings will focus on enhancing instructional practices to meet the individual students’ needs as well as moving students to proficiency.  Each school has been provided with a CRC / Interventionist.  The role of the CRC / Interventionist will include providing assistance to staff enhancing their instructional strategies.  The district’s “Non-Negotiables for Quality Instruction” will be monitored through classroom walkthroughs throughout the school year.  Student achievement will be constantly monitored in order to make necessary adjustments to ensure proficiency.  The special educational program will work collectively with the regular educational program to provide instruction which will meet the needs of our diverse learners.
	
Timeline/Person Responsible 	This process has begun in the summer of 2009 and will continue throughout the academic school year.

Greg Hash, Beverly Henderson, Mark Thomas
	
5. Deficiency 	Technology is not routinely integrated into daily instruction. 
	
Next Steps 	District and school leadership should ensure that teachers and administrators have the knowledge necessary to maximize existing technology to challenge and motivate students. Technology should be used as an instructional tool for teachers and put in the hands of students to extend their learning. District leadership should monitor the use of technology to provide guidance to teachers regarding available technological resources (e.g., Websites, free software). 
	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	With the placement of a CRC / Interventionist at each school, the district will embark on a “trainer of trainers” initiative to provide on-going, job-embedded professional development with the focus of maximizing the use of technology as an instructional tool.  The implementation of “daily” technology use as an instructional tool will be monitored through walkthroughs focusing on the district’s “Non-Negotiables for Quality Instruction”.  A focus for the implementation of technology will be to provide specific differentiation to the students’ needs.  Technology will also be used as a tool to monitor the students’ progress.  The district will begin the use of KVHS in order to provide accelerated math students (specifically in the Middle Grades) the opportunities to attain instruction in accelerated math classes.  

The Nelson County Instructional Services’ web page will be revised by August 2009 to provide more accessible curricular documents, instructional resources, and formative assessments in a means to provide an unwavering focus on instructional improvement.
    	
Timeline/Person Responsible 	Addressing this recommendation will begin in August 2009 and continue through May 2010.

CRC / Interventionist Staff, Jeff Clements, Greg Hash, Mark Thomas
	
6. Deficiency 	Formative assessments are used inconsistency to modify instruction. 
	
Next Steps 	District leadership should provide ongoing, job-embedded professional development activities on the design and use of formative assessments. Teachers should use common, team and individual planning times to collaborate on the design of common assessments and to examine student assessment samples. District leadership should provide assistance to school leadership and teachers for coordinating and providing support and ongoing follow-up for designing, implementing, analyzing and using results from formative assessments to guide instruction. District leadership should provide training to all staff in the use of protocols for examining student work and monitor instruction and assessment practices to ensure that they are seamlessly paired. 
	
District Action Steps to Overcoming Obstacles 	Again, the development and implementation of district-wide Common Assessments will provide on-going formative assessments to collect student performance data.  The data will be used to make the necessary instructional adjustments.  The Professional Learning Communities process will also be implemented to focus on monitoring data to attain student proficiency, alignment of curriculum, analysis of assessments for rigor, determining next steps and monitoring the effectiveness of those next steps, and embedding the Response to Intervention process into daily instruction.  These processes will occur during planning times, faculty meeting times, and early releases.  The processes will follow each school’s established PLC format.  The PLC work will be monitored by reviewing the products developed at these meetings.  
	
Timeline/Person Responsible 	This process began in the summer of 2009 and will continue throughout the academic school year.

Greg Hash, Beverly Henderson, Mark Thomas