Wesley International Academy
Minutes
Academic Excellence Committee
Date and Time
Thursday August 24, 2017 at 4:00 PM
Location
The Kelley House
Committee Members Present
A. Pullen, D. Holloman, E. Buckner, J. Hansen, J. Marshall, K. Parker, R. Quartarone
Committee Members Absent
A. Chung, A. Terry, B. Gay, F. Butler, P. Hadley
Guests Present
Anita Lawrence, Anna Terry, D. Mason, Donica Johnson, Tim Fredrick, Tomiko Thompson
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
D. Holloman called a meeting of the Academic Excellence Committee of Wesley International Academy to order on Thursday Aug 24, 2017 at 4:10 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
II. Academic Excellence
A.
Review of expected data timeline
*The ACE goals for 2017/18 SY are:
1) We will use MAP and Milestones as measures of Academic outcomes. (Voted and Approved Unanimously)
2) To improve our academic outcomes by 3 percentage points in ELA, MATH, SS, and Science . We will also increase our CCRPI Score by three percentage points as a school. (Voted and Approved Unanimously)
3) Communicate data regarding our academic progress to the board each month following the MAP administration. MAP is used as a benchmark in preparation for Milestones. Months of reporting to the board this important benchmark data will be: September, February, and May.
4)To improve progress in the academic growth of our Chinese Program. The committee agrees YCT participation growth should be monitored and measured with a 3% participation increase . We will also monitor academic growth for the Dakao Exam.
Discussion Regarding the Goals and our Strategy:
A) The admin team currently has the plan to administer the MAP three times throughout the year in preparation for the Milestone.
We will administer the MAP K - 8. (It is optional in Winter for K-2).
A question was raised on whether or not MAP would effectively provide data to compare Cohorts.
We are hoping to prepare data that will look at the following subgroups:
- Race
- Gender
- SWD
- Cohort (MAP may be used for this to look 3 years out and how we have improved)
B) As presented by Jason, teacher retention should also be a priority for ACE to monitor. We have about 64 certified teachers on staff. It should be our goal to know who our core teachers are, their strengths, and retain them.
C) As presented by Mr. Frederick, we want to also keep track of retaining our top students. This may be a result of teachers leaving in the middle of the year. Can we track where are students are going and when they leave and the frequency of withdrawals.
This is something that we will measure twice a year.
D) Dr. Pullen has expressed the importance of supporting Academic Culture through teacher development.
It was agreed by the committee to move the committee meetings to 4:30 on the fourth Thursday of the month.
1) We will use MAP and Milestones as measures of Academic outcomes. (Voted and Approved Unanimously)
2) To improve our academic outcomes by 3 percentage points in ELA, MATH, SS, and Science . We will also increase our CCRPI Score by three percentage points as a school. (Voted and Approved Unanimously)
3) Communicate data regarding our academic progress to the board each month following the MAP administration. MAP is used as a benchmark in preparation for Milestones. Months of reporting to the board this important benchmark data will be: September, February, and May.
4)To improve progress in the academic growth of our Chinese Program. The committee agrees YCT participation growth should be monitored and measured with a 3% participation increase . We will also monitor academic growth for the Dakao Exam.
Discussion Regarding the Goals and our Strategy:
A) The admin team currently has the plan to administer the MAP three times throughout the year in preparation for the Milestone.
We will administer the MAP K - 8. (It is optional in Winter for K-2).
A question was raised on whether or not MAP would effectively provide data to compare Cohorts.
We are hoping to prepare data that will look at the following subgroups:
- Race
- Gender
- SWD
- Cohort (MAP may be used for this to look 3 years out and how we have improved)
B) As presented by Jason, teacher retention should also be a priority for ACE to monitor. We have about 64 certified teachers on staff. It should be our goal to know who our core teachers are, their strengths, and retain them.
C) As presented by Mr. Frederick, we want to also keep track of retaining our top students. This may be a result of teachers leaving in the middle of the year. Can we track where are students are going and when they leave and the frequency of withdrawals.
This is something that we will measure twice a year.
D) Dr. Pullen has expressed the importance of supporting Academic Culture through teacher development.
It was agreed by the committee to move the committee meetings to 4:30 on the fourth Thursday of the month.
III. Other Business
A.
Budget Update
A budget for the 2017/18 SY was presented to the Board and to the Finance department that yielded a new Data Manager and Math Materials and manipulatives.
IV. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
D. Holloman made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
R. Quartarone seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 5:38 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
E. Buckner
We had a total of 6 new members that will be added to the Board On Track ACE team via Board On Track after the meeting.
All Attendees introduced themselves and expressed their interest in the committee.