Educational Goals and Objectives
- Raise achievement levels in reading and mathematics.
- Help students develop effective written and spoken communication skills.
- Provide opportunities for students to acquire a broad base of knowledge in science, social studies and Judaic/Hebrew studies classes.
- Improve student attendance.
- Provide a clean, safe and supportive environment for learning.
- Develop and maintain a positive working relation with parents, business partners and other stakeholders.
Goal: The school culture reflects norms, values, standards, and practices that reinforce the academic, social, emotional, and relational growth of each student and a commitment to the professional growth of all educators.
· A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school which addresses all academic areas and other factors that may affect achievement.
Goal: The instructional design and implementation are clearly and consistently aligned with common core.
· School-wide reform strategies that are researched based.
a. Provide opportunities for all children in the school to meet or exceed Florida’s proficient and advanced levels of student performance.
b. Are based upon effective means of raising student achievement.
EHA facilitates positive team relationship and ensure that best practices are shared by all. The principal and director will provide daily common planning time for each grade level to work on standards (aligning curriculum with standards), develop interdisciplinary/thematic units and share best practices related to academics and discipline. This will eliminate isolated instances of success that the school has experienced in the past. It is expected that success will be widespread and will positively impact student’s achievement as the staff works collaboratively in the best interest of all students.
Differentiated Instruction
The more current practices of differentiated instruction moves away from whole-class instruction to a more individualized instruction, based on student needs. Moreover, research supports the use of differentiated instruction in meeting the diverse needs of students. Recognizing, that the “one size fits all” approach has been found to be ineffective, the staff at EHA has found it necessary to embrace educational best practices to enhance student achievement. This will allow students with various learning styles and achievement levels to succeed in the classroom. Our computer assessment software automatically resets standard aligned content to fit the needs of the various learning styles. Teaching to the common core/Florida standards differs from the current practice of random teaching without a scope and sequence that moves students in a logical spiraling curriculum that builds from year to year. Differentiated instruction occurs through the implementation of MAP assessment Data, learning centers and small group instruction that allows for needs based and homogeneous groupings of students. Homogeneous grouping allows students on the same level to experience intensive instruction which allows them to develop the necessary skills to become successful students. Groups are monitored through weekly formal and informal assessments, daily teacher observations, rubrics that correlate with specific assignments and skills checklists. Results of these assessments are evaluated and daily instruction is adjusted accordingly.
Higher Order Questioning
During whole group discussion activities, teachers utilize anticipatory set activities to check for students’ prior knowledge about new concepts being introduced. This is done through open ended higher level questioning strategies. These strategies allow teachers to pinpoint the students’ levels of understanding and target higher order thinking skills. Teachers also implement the use of a variety of graphic organizers, visual multimedia equipment and demonstration strategies to gauge the understanding of the various learning styles. Information gained from questioning strategies will then allow teachers to differentiate the topic being taught. In addition, teachers will model self-questioning strategies as well as make inferences so that students can internalize and apply these skills to text content.
Exploratory Experiences
Students at EHA are offered opportunities to participate in a variety of exploratory courses. These programs extend the school's curriculum by engaging students' creative capacities through the use of visual, kinesthetic, musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical and spatial potentials. These complementary curricula which include, Music, Art, and Physical Education coincide with the Common Core/Florida state standards, as well as National Standards in the Arts. Students attend the Exploratory (specials) courses throughout the instructional day at various scheduled blocked times. Exploratory experiences are evaluated on student performances and ongoing informal assessments.
Instructional Resources
Students will use technology to reinforce skills, take tests, engage in research and produce quality work. Additionally, technology will be used to track the progress of students as they are assessed in intervals. Progress reports will be sent home to parents providing information about their performance. The use of technology will also facilitate the monitoring of progress by the administrative team and influence decisions relative to change. Keeping in mind that students have different learning styles and interests, the EHA staff will utilize a variety of resources to help them become highly literate. Each class will serve as a print-rich environment that promotes literacy. The instructional resources will include the following:
Common Core - Teachers across content areas will address Common Core, Florida Standards, and Judaic and Hebrew objectives in lesson planning and delivery of instruction to ensure coverage of all in a timely manner. All lessons will contain differentiated instructional strategies to reflect all that students need to master the standards. Classroom environments will support the implementation of instructional techniques that will reflect the standards teaching and learning.
Literacy Materials – The textbooks, workbooks, fiction and nonfiction, CD’s and other multimedia, smart board resources.
Classroom Library – Each library will consist of a variety of genre and trade books. The Reading Specialist will assist in making sure that the classroom library is kept updated and replenished.
Student Support Team (SST)
The Student Support Team is a support system to the teachers in the regular education setting. The team consists of the Principal and/or Director, Classroom Teacher, Reading Specialist, Counselor and the Parent(s). The Student Support Team provides alternative instructional strategies for teachers to implement over a specified period of time with identified targets for students. A Learning Educational Plan is developed by the team and monitored on an ongoing basis, using the TLE Personal Learning Plan. Examples of these strategies may include but are not limited to: tutorial, differentiated instruction, and peer tutoring.
Goal: The school reinforces the continuous improvement process through active and sustained involvement of student, family, and community.
- Use effective instructional methods that increase the quality and amount of learning time.
Block Schedules
To ensure optimal and efficient use of instructional time, EHA will allocate 60 minutes a day for Reading/Language Arts. Forty-five minutes of reading instruction will be provided daily. All certified staff members will teach reading, employing proven, researched-based strategies. The reading specialist will pull out specific students weekly to address areas of reading weakness. Reading will be integrated into all subject areas during the school day. All teachers are required to engage students in meaningful, relevant, and interesting reading activities related to specific content areas. Thus, the integration of reading/cross curriculum instruction will ensure that essential skills are not being taught in isolation. To establish clear and compelling standards, teachers will create and utilize rubrics to assess students' work.
Targeted Instruction
Creating rubrics, which target specific reading, language arts and math objectives, will enable teachers to use allotted time more effectively. Teachers will be trained to use assessment data to teach what students do not know instead of utilizing time to teach what is already mastered. By using the initial assessment scores of the computer aiding instruction/remediation software students who have not mastered a skill will be redirected to previous skill strands that will enable them to master the current skill. Also, reading, language arts and math will be integrated across the curriculum throughout the day. The principal will make sure that other activities (announcements, assemblies, irrelevant field trips, etc.) do not interfere with instructional time. EHA will utilize a plethora of strategies to enhance the learning of all students. For those students requiring more assistance to reach the performance standards, tutorial programs will be utilized during and after school. In addition, individualized instruction will be employed, along with peer collaboration, cooperative groups, partner reading, rubrics, hands-on activities, the use of manipulative, technology skills, and the re-teaching of skills that were not mastered.