Principal: Real school transformation starts with a magical triangle

A Magical Triangle Approach with Discipline, Academics, and SEL
Once we were able to set proper expectations for our teachers, we turned our focus on the disciplinary issues and classroom management, which were impeding any efforts to improve student achievement.
First, we completely revamped of our disciplinary protocol to embrace a school-wide positive behavior support approach. Through a Response to Intervention-Behavior initiative, we set the stage for our disciplinary strategies.

On the academic side, we incorporated new approaches such as blended learning, problem-based learning, and personalized literacy solutions like myON. With those pieces in place, we believe that every student can achieve proficiency in reading and mathematics in every year of their educational experience.

We also believed that by accurately assessing and monitoring our students’ growth with our Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Rubric, we could help each student achieve proficiency in the “soft skills” they need. To this end, we implemented The Leader in Me program to provide a common focus, language, and platform for change. We also focused our efforts on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens to help our students grow in the SEL tier.

Finally, the collective and individual use of wildly important goals (WIGS) and leading measures for those goals has helped us begin to see the academic success that we envisioned. We’ve established our cadence of accountability by using scoreboards to monitor our progress and maintain focus on those goals and leading measures.

​Continued....

---