A Targeted School Improvement plan (TSI) is a designation assigned to Pennsylvania schools that have struggling student groups. The school was placed on this plan for performing in the bottom 25% of Pennsylvania Title I schools, and the school will continue to be on the plan until improvement is seen. At Big Spring High School, the struggling student group is “students with disabilities”, which includes any student who has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) or a SLD (Specific Learning Disability).
One avenue educators are taking is the path of progress monitoring. This year is the first year of using the new technology aimswebPlus for online progress monitoring, which is an adjustment from the pencil and paper progress monitoring that has been used in years past. The additional one-on-one instruction is useful in helping individual students improve in targeted learning areas. Christie Katora, head of the special education department, said, “There are a lot of moving pieces.” in response to all of the changes the department has faced this year. Katora mentioned that the most important part of the TSI initiative is seeing a year’s worth of growth in students, each year. It sounds self-explanatory, but a large problem facing students these days is a lack of academic growth. Student’s skills are stagnating, and administration is trying to figure out how to fix it.
Another attempt the school has made to solve this problem is a change to the Flex system. In prior years, students had three flex periods where they were free to sign up for a teacher of their choice and head to their room for A, B, or C flex. This changed though in the 24-25 school year, when students were required to return to one of their classes for A flex, changing corresponding to the day of the week. The change to A flex has been a controversial one, with critics stating that the removal of a free period from student’s schedules harms their ability to participate in clubs, or that the additional enrichment time is unfair to force even non-struggling students to participate. The change does have academic benefits though. By requiring students to spend additional time in their classes, they are able to spend more time working with a specific concept, which is extremely beneficial to those who feel left behind by their classes moving too quickly. Katora commented that, “Using the [A Flex] time to reinforce concepts that have been taught is absolutely worthwhile.”
Although most student groups are able to benefit due to these changes, one group still remains relatively unaffected; Cumberland Perry Area Career & Technical Center (CPACTC) students. CPACTC students are not in the building for A flex, and are therefore unable to receive enrichment in their fourth and fifth period classes. This detail also means that new material and graded work can’t be assigned in Flex, which may be inhibiting the effectiveness of the dedicated time. Overall, a solution has not yet been found to help these students, but it’s absolutely worth trying to make sure that they can get both of their educations, at the high school level as well as the career level.
The TSI most likely isn’t here to stay. Big Spring High School will be reevaluated for TSI status each year, and if the school does not improve it will be moved to a separate plan for more significant improvement. Even though the TSI has required educators to jump through hoops and hurdles, the purpose behind the plan is still a valiant one. Each year of school, students should experience a year of growth. Perhaps a 100% success rate isn’t feasible, but every attempt taken to help struggling students is a worthwhile one. Katora said, “Being on the TSI has been an eye opener.” Even if the success comes gradually, rather than instantly, the TSI has helped educators become even better at their jobs.
