Amanda+Kasey+Langston+Wilson

Amanda Kasey Langston Wilson

__Performance Improvement Intervention Project __ **Name of Organization:** Ashworth Middle School

**Problem Summary:** Our school recently obtained the latest technology in all classrooms. Some of the new technology that every teacher has in his or her room are as follows: CPS remotes, document cameras, Dell Optiplex 755 teacher computer, smartboard, projectors, and four student computers. While the new technology is wonderful, there are still technology materials and equipment being requested by the teachers. There are currently over 600 students and only two labs available for flexible scheduling. This often poses a problem when teachers seek to schedule lab time for their classes to do class projects such as Prezi, work on Study Island independently, and technology integrated activities such as webquests. Technology is not accessible at home for many of the students, and the teachers want to provide their students with all of the opportunities possible. A request is being made to purchase three mobile laptop carts for the school. Mobile labs will allow for more flexibility and ease of access throughout the school.

**Background of Organization:** Ashworth Middle School, located in Calhoun, Georgia, serves grades 6-8 in the [|Gordon County Public Schools district]. It has made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the //No Child Left Behind Act// for the past five school years. (2007-2011). It is a desire to serve the stakeholders of Ashworth Middle School to work collaboratively to ensure that all students at Ashworth are achieving at high levels academically. As you will note from the accomplishments listed below, it is evident that students at Ashworth Middle School made considerable gains on the state benchmarks in math, language arts/ reading, and attendance.
 * **94.8 % of all students met or exceeded standards on the CRCT in the areas of language arts and reading combined.**
 * **85.7% of all students met or exceeded standards on the CRCT in the area of mathematics.**
 * **For attendance, fewer than 5% students missed 15 or more days of school.**

It has a total student body enrollment rate of 675 students. The student body composition is as follows: 79 % White, 16 % Hispanic, 2 %Multi-Racial, 2 % Black. .64 % Asian, and .03 % Limited English ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍Proficient. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[] **Stakeholders and Decision Makers:** The stakeholders that will be affected by this project include the faculty of Ashworth Middle, all support personel, administrators, and the IT department for Gordon County Schools. The Leadership Team will make the final decision on this project. The purpose of the Leadership team is so that the members of each grade level, front office, connections team, and administration to have some to relay information to and from the other faculty members.

Chair Person--Principal: Marc Feuerbach <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Assistance Principal: Gary Grubb <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Instructional Coordinator: Katie Vaughan <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology Director: Alice Mashburn <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Network Administrator: Jason Jones <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Hardware/Software Technician: Adam Fite <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Finance Director: Gail Farriba <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Purchasing Agent: Dian Richardson <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Leadership Team Members: <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">6th grade Team Leader: Ashli Schwartz 7th grade Team Leader: Deb Adcock <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">8th grade Team Leaders: Amanda Bryant and Edward Ryan  <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Gifted Team Leader: Cindy Earnest ESS Team Leader: Shannon Wyatt Media Specialist: Leigh Ann Hunt <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Counselor: Ashley Wood <span style="color: #f81b9b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Family Advocate: Connie Van Houten

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**The Organization** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ashworth Middle School is a Title One Distingushied School, 2009 SSAS Silver Award winner, and Superintendent's Distingushied Award winner. The mission of Ashworth Middle School is to nurture life-long learning in a secure environment. The vision of Ashworth Middle School is to provide a quality academic opportunities, to promote career exploration, and to produce successful, responsible citizens. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Highly Qualified Status://

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">At Ashworth, we are committed to providing quality instruction by highly qualified, skilled staff. 100% of our certified faculty members are highly qualified. You can access information on the qualifications and credentials of your student’s teacher on our school website. Please visit our website frequently, as we will make updates on a daily basis [|www.gcbe.org] and click on the link to Ashworth. You have the right to request information pertaining to the credentials of your student’s teacher and you will be notified if your student is taught by a teacher who has not met “highly qualified” standards in core academic areas as defined by the state.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Curriculum & Instruction://

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Georgia Performance Standards drive instruction and assessment at AMS. Educators teach to the designated curriculum using a variety of resources for reference. The performance standard incorporates the content standard, which simply tells the teacher what a student is expected to, and expands upon it by providing three additional items: suggested tasks, sample student work, and teacher commentary on that work. Performance standards provide clear expectations for assessment, instruction, and student work. They define the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards, enabling a teacher to know "how good is good enough." The performance standards isolate and identify the skills needed to use the knowledge and protocol to problem solve, reason, communicate, and make connections with other information. Performance standards also tell the teacher how to assess the extent to which the student knows the material or can manipulate and apply the information.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The workshop model is the primary instructional delivery model for Ashworth Middle School and Gordon County Schools. This model is comprised of three components. The __opening__ is a brief orientation that ties the learner to standards/elements and provides the opportunity for demonstration and/or guided practice. The __work period__ makes up the bulk of the lesson time. Individual and/or collaborative group work based on performance task(s) that is connected to standards/elements is presented. Effective research based strategies are utilized heavily during the work period. The closing provides the opportunity for students to discuss their learning and analyze their progress. Student work is used to illustrate individual progress made towards mastery of the standard/elements. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Programs:// <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ashworth Middle School provides students the opportunity to participate in chorus, band, art, physical education, weight training, health, career exploration, agriculture, and computer classes. A variety of extra curricular activities are available including sports (football, golf, cross-country, softball, baseball, cheerleading, track, basketball, wrestling, and soccer), Academic Bowl, Spelling Bee, Geography Bee, Young Georgia Authors, Student Council, Junior Beta Club, Junior Honor Society, FFA, 4-H, Chess Club, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Specialty programs to better serve students also included REACH (gifted) classes, Special Education (both inclusion and resource settings), ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes, and Speech classes. Ashworth Middle offers acceleration and remediation, depending on the individual needs of the student in every academic subject. In addition, students who have not met the state benchmarks in reading and math will be provided additional reading and math instruction through their connections class. Ashworth Middle also hosts Standards Night during the school year to focus on showing parents and the community the expectations of a standards-based classroom. PTSA and our School Governance Council are also in place to offer parents and other stakeholders the opportunity to be active participants in the school improvement process. Because we are a Title I school, it is our obligation to annually review, obtain feedback, and update our School Improvement Plan with parents and the community. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Technology Core Values:// <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should provide an information delivery system to support research and the educational process. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should be used to prepare students for higher education and meeting the demands to today's society. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should be used to provide practice of critical skills. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should be used to provide innovative classroom presentation and instruction in order to increase student enthusiasm and interest. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should be used to allow students to produce and publish works. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should be used to facilitate the administration of the classrooms and the school.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**School Improvement Plan 2011-2012**: [|AMS_SIP_2011-12.pdf]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**School Wide Plan 2011-2012**: [|School_Wide_Plan_11-12.pdf]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**The Problem** <span style="color: #f81b9b; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The number of computers available for student use is very limited. As a school, we need to give our students the opportunity to use technology to help further their advancement towards meeting standards in preparation for the CRCT. Since we use Study Island as an engaging learning tool in the classroom, we need to have enough student computers for each child to use to work on Study Island. Each teacher tries to promote different learning styles in the classroom which means that mulitple tasks are going on at the same time. Some students need to have access to high-speed computers when they need them to complete projects such as Prezi and powerpoint presentations. With having three extra mobile laptop carts, this will help by having one cart on each of the three grade level halls. The desired performance is to have one mobile laptop cart on each hallway for student use at any time. The existing performance gap is starting now where we do not have many student computers for their use and our desired outcome.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Cause-Analysis** <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: left;">The performance gap exist because of the use of the two computer labs and two laptop carts by the other teachers in the school. Each teacher is trying to prepare their students for state wide testing that occurs in April. With the computer labs, there are several computers that do not work properly and this causes chaos for a group of students that do not have access to their presentations or Study Island. The two laptop carts are getting used so much by the entire school that they are getting worn down and having technological issues.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Intervention Strategies (low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost)** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Low-Cost Strategy// <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">To keep cost at a minimum, buying a set of 10 laptop computers would be efficient to help students meet classroom and independent goals. Teachers could pair students to work on projects, and if there is not enough computers, then they could use the 4 classroom computers and 1 teacher computer to get their assignment completed. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Medium-Cost Strategy// <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Buying 2 laptop carts with 30 computers each for teachers that teach only reading and mathematics. Since students in the state of Georgia are required to pass reading and math sections of the standardized testing (CRCT), students in these classes would get more opportunites to work with the laptop carts to ensure the mastery of the grade level standards prior to the CRCT. Teachers that teach the other content areas would have access to the other laptop cart and computer labs when available. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//High-Cost Strategy// <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Buying laptop carts for each grade level is the priorty of this proposal. Students would have more time to work on laptop carts to master standards and complete classroom projects. Teachers on each hall would have a set schedule of the day of the week that they would have access to the grade level cart. If they need the cart another day then they can ask the other teacher if they need it on that day or they can check out the computer lab or one ofthe other carts.

<span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Intervention Strategy Decision** <span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I think that I will shoot for the high-cost strategy. Our school really needs the 3 seperate laptop carts to meet the needs of every student in every classroom in each grade level.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Justification for Intervention Strategy** <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The goal of Ashworth Middle School is to provide the best education to its students, so the possession of three laptop carts for each grade is the best proposal. This proposal will benefit the school, teachers, and the students. Students would have more time to work on laptop carts to master standards and complete classroom projects. Teachers on each hall would have a set schedule that they would be able to access the grade level cart. If they need the cart for an additional day then they would need to collaborate with another about needing the cart of check out the already existing cart or sign up for the computer lab. After discussing with the leadership about the three different strategies we could use, they felt the best would to propose the three seperate carts. They looked at the the three strategies and decided that option 1 the low-cost strategy would not be an option that the faculty at the school would like or benefit from. Option 2 the medium-cost strategy was one that was an option that was discussed with many debates. Looking at the new standards that are rolling out in 2012-2013 school year, and the need for technology to help master the stanadards the leadership team felt that option 3 was the best strategy to propse.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The low-cost strategy is a good solution to schools with low budget, but it will not benefit the students at the school. Teachers would still struggle with incorporating the needed technology in their classes to help students meet the new Common Core Standards that will be rolling on in 2012-2013.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The medium cost strategy is a better solution, but will only benefit the teachers and students in reading and mathematics. Other content area teachers would still notice that their subject is not important enough to have access to the carts for the success of their content area. Students struggle in all subjects not just reading and mathematics, so having laptop carts for reading and mathematics is not a good proposal.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">According to Chevalier, the cause-analysis questions will help the school's goals and create the vital solution needed to meet the proposed goals (2007). As the stakeholders and decision makers review the proposal, they need to be aware of the status of Ashworth Middle School in regards to student achievement in mastery of the GPS or Georgia Perfromance Standards (2009). District and School Annual Report Cards need to viewed by the committee to show the need to help the struggling students with meeting the standards especially with the new Common Core. Having the laptop carts will allow teachers to work with students using alternate teaching methods that can meet the needs of the students through their mode of learning.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Project Manager Responsibilities**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As project manager, I would work to make sure that each portion of the intervention plan is implemented. The money used for this plan would be tracked by the principal, finance director and the school bookkeeper. Once a budget is obtained from the budgeting coordinator and the principal, the bookkeeper, purchasing agent and myself would complete the purchase order for the items that were proposed. Teachers would need to sit through a proper training by the technology department to ensure that they understand how to properly work the computers, and are able to show the students how to use the computers. The librarian would help develop a notebook with a sign out sheet so that students have to sign out the computer at the beginning of class and sign in back in at the end of class to help prevent vandalism. The teachers would be required to check the computers to ensure that they work properly at the end of every class. Teachers that use Study Island would be able to create a spreadsheet to show student achievement. Teachers would record grades in their grade books showing improvements using performance tasks through technology.


 * <span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Financial and Budget Information **

<span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive;">Ashworth Middle School currently serves around 650 students, and there are about 45 teachers. There will need to be 30 laptops per laptop cart. These computers will be dell computers with a cost of $499.99 each ([|http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops.aspx?dgc=IR&cid=245874&lid=4236592#!tabId=A0A584DE]<span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">). <span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The laptop carts will cost $2538.34 and we will need three ( []). A detailed budget is shown in Appendix A.  <span style="color: #ff7c00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Project Assessment.

The purpose of this project is to incorporate technology into the classroom so that the students will have access to the needed technology to show their teachers what they have learned through different modes of assessment. The manger will create a formative assessment that will be a way for teachers to provide feedback on the problems, concerns, or successes of the project.The assessment is in Appendix B.

<span style="color: #ff7c00; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;">The manager will create a summative assessment that will summarize the results of the formative assessment and show specific concerns from the teachers that will need to be addressed by the committee. A form for this assessment is in Appendix C.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**References**

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Chevalier, R. (2007). //A manager’s guide to improving workplace performance//. New York, NY: AMACOM. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Georgia Performance Standards. (2009). Retrieved from Georgia Department of Education website: []

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ashworth Middle School. []

**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Appendix A ** //<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology Budget // <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Note--Ashworth Middle School is already setup for Wireless Internet.
 * Item || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Quantity || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Unit Price || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Total Price ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Dell Insprion 15R laptop || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">90 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$499.99 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$44,999.10 ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Bretford laptop cart || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">3 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$2,538.34 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$7, 795.02 ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Power Strip (3 per cart) || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">9 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$78.99 || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$710.91 ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Total cost ||  ||   || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$53,505.03 ||
 * <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">Total cost ||  ||   || <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">$53,505.03 ||

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">**Appendix B** <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: center;">//Formative Assesment//
 * 1) <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How are you using the computers to address students’ needs?
 * 2) <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What trainings do you need to be able to better implement the computers in your classroom?
 * 3) <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Are you participating in workshops to help better serve your students with the given technology?
 * 4) <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What are some stuggles that you have had this school year with this project?
 * 5) <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive;">What are some success that you have had this school year with this project?

**<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Appendix C ** //<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Summative Assessment // <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Share the results from the formative assessment and any other concerns that have been voiced by the faculty.