EMES Continuous Improvement Plan

Click here to open the EMES Continuous Improvement Plan.
The plan was approved at the June 16th EMES School Board Meeting

"This Continuous Improvement Plan articulates the goals that will guide and inform our work as a school community toward the achievement of our vision for all students. The goals are grounded in our mission and values. This Continuous Improvement Plan serves as a coherent and focused plan that contains, at a minimum, the required elements of Action Plans, School Improvement Plans, and analyses of professional development needs. This plan will be reviewed and updated on a regular, and at least annual, basis." - from the linked document.

EMES Results for 2013 Fall Administration of NECAP Testing

Click here to see the results for the 2013 Fall NECAP Administration.  

The linked document shows the results for the 2013 Fall NECAP Administration.  
Included in this document are:

•EMES, State & SU  Comparisons Over Time
•Cohort Achievement Over Time
•Subgroup Comparisons: Gender, SES, Special Education
•EMES Local  Data
•Implications for the EMES Continuous Improvement Plan 

Note: These results are for the Results of the 2012-13 NECAP Teaching Year  

EMES Interim School Action Plan

EMES Mission: The purpose of our school is to teach all children to become competent, caring citizens and life-long learners through a challenging and relevant curriculum.

The interim Action Plan was developed with the EMES teachers, Marion Anastasia, Alicia Lyford, and Carole Freeman. The Final Action Planning committee will include a school board member and a parent of EMES for the March/April 2012 Adoption. This Action Plan represents what we value for our school. The EMES action plan allows for a strong focus on our purpose and goals and delineates steps and resources to move forward in our learning. Strategies and structures are carefully identified to increase and foster student achievement and ongoing professional development. There is a concerted effort and priority for collaborative learning and accountability for students and adults.

The framework for literacy and mathematics learning over the next two years include crafting a coherent, aligned curriculum. Embedded within the curriculum are assessments, Common Core State Standards, instructional strategies and professional development; driven by student data.

Technology learning is ramped up and expanded to include technology learning for students and adults while it is integrated into units of study.

EMES is working on school climate to ensure a safe learning environment including evacuation procedures, consistent behavioral expectations and family involvement.

Click here to access the 2011-13 Interim School Action Plan for EMES

What are 21st Century Learning Skills?

Did you know that today’s Kindergarten students will begin thinking about retiring in the year 2077?

The term “21^st century skills is generally used to refer to core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking,  and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach and help learners thrive in today’s world (edweek.org, 2010).  Conceptually, 21^st century learning requires ‘knowing how to learn’.  In order to do so, students (and teachers) must develop strong critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills; preparing for life-long learning.  This paradigm shift is from ‘knowing things’ (core knowledge in subject areas) to ‘finding out things’;  a habit of mind that allows people to think and reflect critically.   21^st century skills are learner-centered and personalized so that students can enter into a highly competitive, technology-driven global society.

“Retooling Schooling”

The framework in which to think about 21^st century learning falls into three areas: learning and innovations skills, digital literacy, and life and career skills.  Schools need to move beyond core subjects and include 21^st century skills to prepare citizens to work and compete in a 21^st century economy (P21 Framework Definitions, 2009).  According to the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills LLC, the essential 21^st century skills include:

• Accountability and Adaptability – set and expect students to meet high standards in the classroom and teach students to set standards and goals for themselves;
• Communication Skills – students need to be able to read, write and understand multimedia communication in a variety of forms;
• Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity – help students develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others, being open and responsive to other perspectives;
• Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking – exercise sound reasoning and understanding with your students to make complex choices, and help students understand the interconnections among systems;
• Information and Media Literacy Skills – help students to analyze, access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information in a variety of forms and media;
• Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills – help students develop teamwork and leadership skills, helping them adapt to various roles and responsibilities. Students need to learn how to work productively with others, respecting diverse perspectives;
• Problem Identification, Formulation and Solution – teach students how to frame, analyze and solve problems;
• Self-Direction – help students learn how to monitor their understanding and learning needs, locating resources, and transferring learning from one domain to another;

·         Social Responsibility – help students to act responsibly keeping in mind the community at large, to demonstrate ethical behavior in personal and school contexts.

What is 21^st Century Curriculum?

21^st century curriculum is interdisciplinary, project-based, and research driven.  It incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia, multiple literacies and authentic assessment (Hopper and Seaman).  The classrooms are expanded to include the greater community; students are self-directed as they work both independently and interdependently.  Instructional design will foster challenges for all students.  Curricula themes will include global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy.   Because today’s life and work environments require far more that thinking skills and content, students will have to pay attention to life and career skills in a globally competitive informational society.

21^st Century Professional Development

Teachers will capture opportunities to integrate 21^st century skills into their classroom practice.  This will require a balance of direct instruction and project based teaching methods.   This requires a deeper understanding of subject matter so that problem solving and critical thinking can be enhanced. Teachers will create environments that support differentiated teaching and learning.

What Needs to Change?

Significant curriculum changes are necessary, as evidenced by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These standards will ensure equity in education; students will have access to learning that prepares them to be productive citizens. The CCSS does not add to what is currently being taught, but rather approaching instruction differently for 21^st century learning. (Hooper and Seaman, 2009)

The Learning Environment

Preparing students for success in the 21^st century also requires a shift in the learning environment. It must foster student experimentation, exploration and peer interactions.  Rather than a single classroom serving as the individual unit, a learning community extends to involve several teachers and groups of students.  Students and teachers work together to enhance and amplify each other’s learning.  In addition, schools are environmentally friendly, energy efficient and ‘green’.

Randall Fielding, AIA,(2006) identifies six essential elements that define facility design for 21^st century learning.

1.       Supporting teaching and learning from ‘turf-centered” classrooms to collaborative, interdisciplinary centers. (Collaborative spaces, individual spaces, presentation areas, etc.)

2.       Maximizing physical comfort and well -being.  (Architectural elements can be designed to foster and define individual and small group spaces and to distinguish instructional spaces.)

3.       Connecting school and community. (Community learning center, upgrades libraries and media centers,  parent resource rooms, landscapes.)

4.       Leveraging best-practices. (Explore a large quantity of ideas makes a better solution.)

5.       Inclusive, outcome-based process. (Developing a vision linking learning and the facility, continuous evaluation of design, learning spaces are diagrammed with educators.)

Existing buildings can be transformed with creative solutions that are shaped by a vision for the future of learning!

“It is our challenge to match the needs of our learners to a world that is changing with great rapidity. To meet this challenge, we need to become strategic learners ourselves by deliberately expanding our perspectives and updating our approaches” (Jacobs, 2010).

Marion Anastasia, Ed.D.

Principal, East Montpelier Elementary School

 

Edweek.org  (2010). How Do You Define 21^st-Century Learning?

Fielding, R., (2006).  Best Practice in Action: Six Essential Elements that Define Educational Facility Design. CEFPI Planner, December

Hopper, J., and Seaman, J. (2009). Transforming Schools for the 21^st Century.

Jacobs, H.H., (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Alexandria, VA

A Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2009) PD21 Framework Definitions:  Learning for the 21^st Century.   (www.21stcenturyskills.org)

Common Core Standards

Online Common Core State Standards click here