Academic achievement at Clairlea

At last week's School Council meeting, Mr. McGilvray presented a detailed account of the many things going on at Clairlea to help improve academic achievement. Minutes from that meeting will be ready next week, but in the meantime - here's some of what we heard:

The school is focused on “Finishing Strong” or delivering great learning experiences in April, May and June. To this end, there have been professional development sessions on focused planning for grade 3 and grade 6 math teachers given by a former math coach.

In addition, a professional from the Ministry of Education will be working with the staff for several days planning for next year. Staff members are also working on class organization for next year, considering special education needs and the best allocation of individual students to particular classes. A five-person leadership team has been given positions of responsibility (PORs) to lead this process. Existing teachers meet with receiving teachers to discuss the makeup of each class, considering student needs and affinities in deciding which student goes where.

Staff members are also working on collaborative teaching and resource sharing in an effort to improve academic achievement.

We also learned about something called the Learning Opportunities Index. This is essentially a ranking of Toronto schools based on socio-economic need. The lower the number, the higher the need. The index considers factors like median income, percentages of families under the low income threshold, percentage of families receiving social assistance, adults with low education, adults with university education, and single-parent families.

 To quote the TDSB:

The LOI ranks each school based on measures of external challenges affecting student success. The school with the greatest level of external challenges is ranked number one and is described as highest on the index. It is important to acknowledge that students in;all schools have some external challenges, even those schools that are ranked very low on the LOI.

The LOI measures relative need and compares all schools on exactly the same set of data collected in a consistent, reliable, and objective manner.

Clairlea's rank of 178 in 2011 buys us one additional half-day teacher, whose services must be applied to the English track, grades 4-6. Next year, it will be used to support the grade 6 English class, allowing it to be broken into two groups each morning and come together as a larger group every afternoon.