Honestly, I expected to make changes to my plan as the project progressed, but I feel they have developed naturally as I learn and grow along with the other Power Team members.
My Change Project has three goals. The first is to decrease time spent conferencing. The second is to increase parent involvement in attending conferences. The third is to raise our student standardized test scores (FCAT or PACE).
To verify the success of the first goal, I have asked the participating teachers to complete a form to keep track of how much time they spend per conference during this school year. This information is still being collected as we have our second Power Team meeting in January and the last meeting in early May. As for my own data, I spent less time conferencing with the seven parents who attended the Power Team meeting in September (an average of 17 minutes/conference) than I have with the other 13 parents (an average of 37 minutes/conference). in the past, I have spent from 45-60 minutes or more for conferences. *The results for Kindergarten conferences will be slightly skewed this year because we also have to take the time to discuss the Standards-Based Report Cards to our parents. **I will suggest we add that to our first Power Team meeting agenda for next school year.
To verify the success of the second goal, I have asked the participating teachers to provide a sign-in sheet for each Power Team meeting. I was very disappointed in the attendance rate for the first meeting. Only 28% of the parents attended. However, I am determined to entice more parents to attend the second Power Team meeting in January by changing the parent invitation letter. The first letter did not convey the importance of attending. I think a lot of parents just considered it another "activity" at our school. Even though the Power Team meetings are voluntary, I want the parents to look forward to attending and understand the importance of learning how to assist their children at home. *I will also provide a Google Forms survey as the sign-in sheet for each classroom. This will serve two purposes. First, I will be able to keep track of all parents who attend and second I will save myself some time in sending surveys to the parents to acquire their comments and input. (Thank you, Chris!)
One major change to the third goal is to use i-Ready scores for all grades K-5 rather than just the FCAT or PACE scores. To verify the success of the third goal, I will be making an Excel spreadsheet for each participating teacher. I will record all students in the class and group the students whose parents attended any Power Team meetings together. *We are just beginning the middle-of-year i-Ready assessments. Therefore, I can not verify any data at this time. **The final data will be based on end-of-year i-Ready scores.
