Board of Education set to review school improvement plans
Before the end of the month, Superintendent Beverly Emory and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education will have to submit plans to the N.C. State Board of Education on how to improve 23 low performing schools in the area.
The State Board of Education defines “low performing” schools as those that received a performance grade of “D” or “F” and a school growth score of “met expected growth” or “not met expected growth.” During the local Board of Education meeting held at West Forsyth last Tuesday, Nov. 14, district instructional superintendent Lionel Kato said the local school board has until the end of the month to modify, approve, or reject a plan to improve low performing schools and school growth scores. Kato said preliminary plans are being completed through the NCStar, a web-based tool that guides school improvement teams at each of the low performing schools in the district.
While speaking to members of the local board, Kato said, “We are going to submit a final plan to the state board within five days of your approval, which we hope to get before the end of this month after you’ve had a period of time to review these plans.”
Kato noted that each school is responsible for creating its own improvement plans and on Nov. 8 parents were notified that the schools were deemed “low performing.” Improving schools in the area has been the topic of many conversations in the community for some time now. Although the number of “low performing” schools is down from a year ago, the local school district is far from where it would like to be. Last year 39 schools were deemed below par by the state. This year 18 elementary schools, and five middle schools made the list.
School improvement plans are available on the schools’ websites and will be available online until Nov 28. According to instructional superintendent Karen Roseboro, each school is responsible for identifying three to five priorities to include in their plans. Roseboro said after plans are submitted they will continue to monitor success and growth.
