Achievement and SIP

Measures of Student Achievement and Success

Student achievement is measured in many ways at A. Lorne Cassidy. Our teachers have worked collaboratively to ensure consistency in our assessment practices as they work with the Ontario Curriculum. Student achievement is formally reported to parents on report cards three times a year and at scheduled parent teacher interviews and/or student achievement is measured in many ways at A. Lorne Cassidy. Our teachers have worked collaboratively to ensure consistency in our assessment practices as they work with the Ontario Curriculum. Student achievement is formally reported to parents on report cards three times a year and at scheduled parent teacher interviews and/or student‐led conferences. We are also using PM Benchmarks, GB+, DRA, CASI and Ontario exemplars to gather information about student progress and to refine the delivery of our program. We use these along with EQAO results to plan improvement initiatives for our school. We use multiple resources in mathematics. In both literacy and numeracy we use multiple data sources to ensure we have assessment tasks that provide the teachers with feedback on what and how their students have learned in the mathematics and literacy curriculum. Our students participate in both English and French public speaking. Each year ALC students have competed in both district and regional competitions. In the areas of arts, our band performs both in the school for our students and families and also takes opportunities to share their talents and support their community in ways such as visiting the community retirement home. In the area of athletics, our students perform consistently well at meets for crosscountry and track and field. We have won banners at regional tournaments in the sports of soccer, touch‐football, badminton, volleyball and basketball. Awards are presented to grade 8 students at the end of the year to recognize excellence in a variety of areas. Throughout the year, students may participate in a variety of measures, in consultation with their parents and other Board professionals as another measure to understand their strengths and challenges.

School Improvement Plans and Initiatives

In consultation with the staff, we have identified the following areas for our 2012‐2013 school improvement initiatives:

Critical Thinking

We will be implementing a School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement (SIPSA), that we feel will address all curriculum areas, grades, and programs. We will be focusing on "critical thinking". Our work will reflect prior work done throughout the OCDSB with Garfield Gini‐Newman and the Critical Thinking Consortium. The Critical Thinking Consortium "defines critical thinking as "...thinking through of a problematic situation about what to believe or how to act where the thinker makes a reasoned judgment that reflects competent use of the intellectual tools for quality thinking". More simply put, our goal is to embed critical thinking into our teaching while providing students with the tools to understand what they are learning but then formulate their own conclusion using these ideas. A student is only thinking critically if he/she is attempting to assess or judge the merits of different options in light of relevant factors or criteria. Our progress in this area will be assessed by first having the students complete a baseline assessment in October and then re‐assess their learning in December after explicitly teaching the necessary skills and strategies. We will then alter our plan based on what we he learn, and repeat another cycle.

Character Education

Character Education is a continuous process which includes initiatives related to Safe and Caring Schools, EarthCare and understanding our larger community. Issues related to cultural proficiency (diversity and equity in all its forms) are embedded in curriculum delivery as we address literacy, social studies, history and any other area that presents itself in our day‐to‐day learning journey. Our initiative is also designed to assist students to explore and raise self, social and global awareness and empathy. These initiatives will be achieved by:

• Basing our work on the ministry publication “On a Common Ground”;

• Integrating the Board’s “Safe and Caring Schools” curriculum.

• Using other resources and materials that have been provided by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

• Providing staff training and in‐service with respect to embedding character education in the curriculum through staff and committee meetings and examination of curriculum materials.

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