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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

A School Safety Message from the Superintendent

Excellent Teachers - a feature on Linda Dudley, Red Canyon High

Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) - part 3 of a 4-part series

Adequate Yearly Progress - ECS hits 95% of targets

All Star Alumni of Eagle County Schools

“The safety of your children in our schools is a responsibility we take very seriously.”

Dear Parents & Community Members,

September was a tragic month for our nation’s schools. In the wake of three school shooting incidents, we want to assure you that the safety of your children in our schools is a responsibility we take very seriously.

Eagle County Schools work closely with the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department and town law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of our students. Together, we have developed responses to a wide variety of potential threats. In light of recent events, our Administrative Team is meeting with the Sheriff’s Department to review and update all safety procedures.

Each of our schools has safety and security plans in place. These plans include procedures to respond to critical incidents and school personnel practice these drills regularly. However, all of the experts agree that the most important thing we do to protect our children is to have conversations with them about the events of the past month. Increasing awareness of our surroundings will go a long way in ensuring school safety.

All of our schools have engaged in discussions with students about reporting any unusual behavior on the part of an adult or another student. If students see someone in their school that they don’t recognize, they should tell their teacher or principal immediately. It is vital that we do this in order to keep our schools safe.

We would like to thank our parents, students, and staff for continuing to work together to help maintain a focus on teaching and learning in our schools, while also remaining diligent about safety issues. Thank you in advance for your cooperation as we work to ensure the safest environment for our students, staff and community.

If you have questions about your child or about your school’s safety and support responses, please contact your principal. As always, feel free to contact me at 328-6321 or at jbrendza@eagleschools.net with your questions, concerns or comments.

Best regards,

John Brendza

Superintendent

Excellent teachers make the difference!

In her quaint Texas classroom, sixth grader Linda Dudley had an epiphany: she was destined for teaching. Linda had even nailed down the details: she would attend Texas A&M and study Math. An over-achiever at heart and true to her word, Linda received her Bachelor’s Degree in Math and Elementary Education from Texas A&M in 1994. Her adventurous spirit then lead her to Colorado, where she would embark on an amazing teaching career and soon meet her future husband, Troy Dudley, now a Master Teacher at Red Canyon High School.

Linda officially joined Eagle County Schools in 1995 at Meadow Mountain Elementary School as a Teacher’s Assistant. Shortly thereafter, while working on her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Assessment at Adams State College through a cooperative extension program, Linda helped open Avon Elementary School and assumed the role of a Third Grade Teacher and Literacy Coach. Little did she know that this particular career path would soon take a positive, yet dramatic, turn in the road.

These days, Linda is teaching Language Arts at Red Canyon High School and absolutely loving every minute of it. She helped to open the alternative high school in 2001, which now boasts 2 locations, 104 students, 9 teachers, and a spectacular Expeditionary Learning (EL) program. When asked if the transition from elementary to secondary education was hard to adapt to, Linda responds, “Change requires adjustment. My ultimate goal as an educator is to instill a love for life-long learning in each and every student, no matter the age of the child or content of the material.”

Principal Wade Hill couldn’t be happier with Linda’s performance. “Linda is a model of excellence. She continually strives to take new ideas from Cluster Meetings and our EL program, and then put these to work in her classroom. Linda does an amazing job of creating compelling expeditions and strives to challenge and engage the students of Red Canyon High School.” Tom Gladitsch, Career Coordinator at RCHS, adds “Linda is Ms. Enthusiastic in her classes. She is constantly looking for new ways to make her class interesting and relevant to the students.”

In Linda’s mind, much of the academic achievement at Red Canyon High School can be attributed to constant team collaboration, staff development training, and successful implementation of the EL program. Expeditionary Learning is a nationally-recognized model for comprehensive school reform for elementary, middle, and high schools that emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork. EL schools focus on core curriculum skills while basing the class on in-depth investigations. Learning includes authentic products, fieldwork, service learning, and inviting experts into the classroom.

Linda incorporates the EL program in her classroom by challenging her students to read, write, think critically, and partake in a variety of in-depth discussions on compelling, and sometimes controversial, topics in history and present-day. Past student Elle Marcum, who is currently a freshman at Mesa State, had the pleasure of being taught by Linda both in 3rd grade at Avon Elementary School and again at Red Canyon High School. “You won’t find a more dedicated teacher than Mrs. Dudley,” states Elle. “She is one of those teachers who knows it all, at an elementary and a high school level. She expects nothing less than your best and works hard to ensure each student succeeds, both academically and personally.”

Linda’s ultimate goal is to spark curiosity about the world within her students. Her unique teaching style and commitment to each student’s academic success is just one reason students are hungry to learn at Red Canyon High School.

Evaluation - a part of life for Eagle County Teachers

This is part 3 of a 4-part series of articles about Eagle County Schools’ on-going efforts to have a highly qualified and well-trained teacher in every classroom, everyday. This fall marks the fifth year of implementation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), a school reform effort which is designed to increase student performance through effective classroom instruction.

TAP is comprised of four key elements, and each of these elements will be highlighted from August through November.

1. Multiple Career Paths (August)

2. Ongoing, Applied Professional Growth (September)

3. Instructionally Focused Accountability (October)

4. Pay for Performance Awards (November)

If you would like to receive copies of past issues of this newsletter, please email communications@eagleschools.net.

Instructionally Focused Accountability

Eagle County Schools utilize a comprehensive system for evaluating teachers, providing them with support to improve their skills and rewarding them for how well their students learn. Each teacher is evaluated four times a year by trained and certified evaluators using a comprehensive rubric developed to measure teaching skills, knowledge and responsibility.

Teachers are evaluated 4 times each year

Two of the four evaluations are announced and two are unannounced. Announced evaluations include a pre-and post-conference with the evaluator. The pre-conference allows the teacher to explain the lesson objectives to the evaluator and to discuss the teaching strategies they plan to use. The post-conference is designed for the evaluator to share his/her feedback on the lesson, the teacher to reflect on the lesson, and to discuss areas for improvement.

Master and Mentor Teachers and Principals evaluate teachers

Mentor Teachers conduct the first evaluation of the year, which is completed by October 31st. Completing the evaluation early in the year allows the Mentor Teacher to gain a baseline understanding of the teacher’s skills and knowledge and enables him/her to tailor coaching to the individual needs of each teacher. The three remaining evaluations are conducted throughout the year and include one conducted by the Master Teacher and one conducted by the Principal. The fourth and final evaluation is conducted by either a Master Teacher or the Principal. In determining a teacher’s annual score, the Principal ratings are weighted at 50 percent, and Master and Mentor evaluations are weighted at 25 percent each.

Evaluator certification is required

New Master and Mentor Teachers and Principals are required to attend four days of training on how to evaluate teachers. The training is aimed at providing an in-depth level of understanding of each component of the evaluation rubric and includes video-taped sample lessons for Masters and Mentors to score and then discuss their ratings. The goal is to achieve a high degree of consistency among evaluators.

Teacher evaluation measures instructional excellence

The Eagle County Schools evaluation rubric was developed and adopted based on the latest research-based teacher evaluation practices. The rubric is made up of four domains: Designing and Planning Instruction, Instruction, Learning Environment, and Teacher Responsibilities. Within each domain are very specific indicators of performance which are scored on a 5-point scale.

The evaluation rubric continues to be improved based on input from teachers and principals. Since the TAP program began, we have changed several of the indicators for performance to make them more targeted to the specific student achievement goals of our district.

As the TAP program continues to evolve, instructionally focused accountability is an area that will be reviewed for effectiveness and revised to best meet our goals. Specific areas that we are monitoring include:

• Mentor Teachers’ role as an evaluator
• Timing of evaluations throughout the year
• Number of evaluations conducted each year
• Mix of announced and unannounced evaluations

In the November newsletter, we will be discussing how the evaluation scores a teacher earns affects his/her performance pay award.

Q&A

Why are teachers evaluated so many times?

By having more evaluations, teachers are able to gain a deeper understanding of their teaching skills, including strengths and areas for improvement. In the past, teachers who had been with us for three years or less were evaluated one time a year by the Principal and non-probationary teachers were evaluated every other year. Unless the evaluation was done early in the year, it was not a useful tool for guiding coaching and professional development throughout the year. Also, because evaluation scores count towards a teacher’s performance award, more evaluations give the best chance for a score that is truly representative of the teacher’s skills and knowledge.

How can you make sure that all evaluators are judging teachers consistently?

Prior to performing evaluations that are scored and used to determine financial rewards, evaluators attend training sessions and spend time conducting practice classroom evaluations to promote consistency between evaluations as well as to build and improve their skills. Annual evaluator certification is required and is conducted by the National Institute of Excellence in Teaching. Training is supplemented by an extensive videotape library of classroom episodes and teacher conferences graded against the instructional scoring rubric. Inter-rater reliability is continuously monitored by administrators and evaluators.

Does having teachers evaluate other teachers create conflicts?

Mentor Teacher evaluations are one of the greatest areas of controversy within the TAP program. One school of thought says that it is important for a Mentor to evaluate in order to be able to specifically target their coaching to the teacher’s greatest areas of need. Another school of thought is that having a Mentor evaluate the teachers they coach places stress on the mentor - mentee relationship. It is an area that is constantly being evaluated. Two of the changes that were made this year to make Mentor evaluations more effective include:

• All Mentor evaluations take place before October 31st so Mentors can focus on coaching the rest of the year.
• All schools are required to hire the proper number of Mentors needed to ensure that a Mentor only supports 4 to 6 Teachers. In the past, some Mentors have had too many teachers to effectively mentor.
  

Here’s what teachers have to say

“The most positive aspect of TAP is the evaluation rubric. I am a life-long learner and the rubric has helped me focus on areas of improvement. I like the feedback I get from the evaluations. In the past, you didn’t get this much feedback on your teaching.”

Middle School Teacher, 14 years experience

“Evaluations have been helpful, especially from my Principal. The feedback is very thorough and it felt good. She is always on target. She gives me more focus and it isn’t too stressful.”

Elementary School Teacher, 1st year

“The rubric is a huge benefit. It defines clear parameters for performance. The feedback you receive is very specific and more valuable.”

Elementary School Teacher, 11 years experience

Eagle County Schools meet 95% of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Goals

What is AYP?

The federal ‘No Child Left Behind’ law requires that schools and school districts make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) towards achievement proficiency. In Colorado, AYP is defined by the number of students who score Advanced, Proficient or Partially Proficient on the CSAP test. For 2006, that target for proficiency was set from 60.25 to 84.74 percent of all students depending on the grade level and content area. By 2014, the expectation is that 100 percent of students at all grade levels and in all content areas will attain proficiency.

Rather than looking at the averages of all students in a school, the law mandates that students be broken out in sub-groups based on ethnicity, socioeconomic risk factors, learning disabilities and English language proficiency. In order for a school to attain AYP, each sub-group of students must hit the performance target. The larger the school district, the greater the number of target performance groups.

Eagle County Schools make progress

Eagle County Schools made progress in 2006 over 2005 by hitting 95 percent of our targets, versus 88 percent of our targets last year. We did not attain our performance targets in sub-groups of limited English proficient or special education students. The CSAP test is in English and if you are not proficient in the language, it will be impossible for you to perform well.

12 of our 16 schools make AYP

Four of our schools with large populations of second-language and/or students with special learning challenges (Avon Elementary, Berry Creek Middle, Battle Mountain High and Red Canyon High) did not reach their performance targets with sub-groups of students. It is particularly difficult for a large high school to hit all of their targets. Eagle Valley High was one of only 22 out of over 100 4A and 5A schools that made AYP.

By hitting 95 percent of our AYP targets, we are similar to many of our neighboring school districts and on par with some of the top school districts in the state.

ECS ALUMNI: WE ROCK!

Kathy Chandler-Henry

NOW:

• Owner and President of Black Diamond Research
• Research Director for Eagle County Economic Council
• Senior Analyst for the Austen Group
• Co-owner of Brush Creek Electric

THEN:

Eagle County Schools:

• Old County Building in Downtown Eagle
• Eagle Valley Elementary
• Eagle Valley Junior High
• Eagle Valley High, 1973

College:

• Fort Lewis College (BA in Political Science), 1978
• Duke University (MA in Political Science, MA in Health Administration, ABD in Political Science), 1980

“Mr. McCollum, Mr. Zimmerman, and Mr. Burke were all memorable teachers in my time attending Eagle County Schools. We spent our senior year in math (2 of us!) learning “field math,” such as surveying. Classes and clubs were small, so everyone had a chance to practice leadership skills, and we all left with the feeling we could achieve anything we wanted. It’s great to be back in Eagle after all these years -- and I think EVHS, under Mr. Strakbein’s leadership, is promoting those same qualities in today’s students.”

Do you know Eagle County Schools’ alumni? Let us know how to get in touch with them. Email us at communications@eagleschools.net.

DID YOU KNOW?

Wild West Day - another huge success! This year’s event raised over $19,000 for each Elementary School!