Through collaboration with faculty, parents, and students, the School Leadership Team has developed a plan for continuous school improvement with an emphasis on Rigor, Relevance and Relationships.

In addition, we are committed to creating a safe, orderly and caring environment where all students are able to learn and develop skills essential to becoming productive citizens. Accordingly, our goals are reflective of our desire to provide quality instruction to all our students, improve community relations and ensure school safety.

The Plan is aligned with the District’s Mission, Quality Standards, Strategic Aims and the standard course of study. Highlights of our school improvement plan are as follows:

• Laney’s school improvement team has become the School Leadership Team. This is a reflection of the schools need and desire to develop teacher leaders. Relationships

• Develop alternatives to suspension such as Project Re-Direct, Saturday School and more use of various detentions. These were all implemented in 2004-2005 and continue to function effectively. Relationships

• A variety of services will be available to facilitate learning, including Saturday Academy, after-school tutoring, and reading intervention classes. In addition, several teachers are being trained in Nova Net so that this can be used for tutoring as well as credit retrieval. Rigor

• An increase in parental contact will be accomplished utilizing intervention/referral process which requires direct parent contact by the teacher, Dean of Students or administrator. In addition, an automatic caller system has been installed, quarterly newsletters are published, bi-weekly progress reports are made available, open houses, and good news post cards are mailed. Relationships

• A reading specialist has been hired and a “Reading for Success” class implemented for students who score at low level III on the 8th grade EOG test. Rigor/Relevance

• Pre-testing and quarterly benchmark assessments will be used to monitor student mastery. Rigor

• Data spreadsheets are maintained by all teachers for tracking EOC and EOG data. Rigor

• Teachers are required to submit weekly and nine week lesson plans that reflect alignment of instruction with the State Standard Course of Study. Rigor/Relevance

• All teachers will integrate reading comprehension strategies into classes as reflected by individual departmental action plans. Rigor/Relevance

• All teachers will integrate writing strategies into classes as reflected by individual departmental action plans. Rigor/Relevance

• All Tenth Grade teachers will integrate word prefixes and suffixes related to biology terms. Rigor/Relevance

• Contact will be made with the UNCW Education Department and Science Department to seek help in closing the gap between black and white test scores in Biology. Rigor/Relevance

• Ninth Grade teachers, led by Assistant Principal, Ms. Deborah Reid will develop strategies to ensure that Ninth grade students have multiple safety nets to aid them in the transition to high school. Relationships

• A Small Learning Community has been created for 120 ninth graders. This “academy” is a pilot program. Additional small learning communities will be added during the 06-07 school year. Within three years all ninth grades will be involved in smaller learning communities. Rigor/Relevance and Relationships

• A mentoring program has been initiated with the ninth grade small learning community. All students in the group have an adult or a student mentor. This program will also be expanded to other groups in 06-07. Relationships

• A summer transition program for rising ninth graders was implemented in the summer of 2005. Relationships

• A literacy team has been created to develop and implement a school-wide literacy program. Rigor/Relevance

• Teachers will continue to develop and practice “Best Teaching Practices,” using a variety of instructional techniques by attending Quality Training, explore new methods, attend workshops, observe other teachers and by reading professional literature. Rigor/Relevance

• Professional learning communities have been established for staff development which includes the study of the book “Highly Effective Questioning” by Ivan Hannel and Lee Hannel. Rigor

• The School Leadership Team will develop strategies to improve the “Climate” of our school as outlined by New Hanover County Superintendent of Schools D. John Morris. Relationships

• Thinking Maps training will be provided for all Social Studies and English teachers. Follow-up Thinking Maps training will be provided for Biology Teachers. Rigor/Relationships

• Staff will be trained in the use of lexiles and students will be tested. Rigor/relevance

• Each Department will do a Rigor/Relevance Self Assessment (see attached) to analyze where they need to focus their efforts. This self assessment will be completed by Dec 16th, 2005. Based on this assessment, departments will list five strengths of their department and five goals with two goals to be implemented by May of 2006.

• Additionally, each department will address instructional planning using the rigor/relevance framework developed by the International Center for Leadership in Education. Staff Development will also be provided on an ongoing basis using this framework. (See Part III Priorities for Improving Student Learning) Relevance

• All departments will address relationships using the Relationship matrix developed by the International Center for Leadership. (See Part IV – Priorities for Improving School Performance) Relationships

As Laney High School works towards developing an educational environment which focuses on relevance, rigor and relationships, it will use the statements below to guide our efforts. We will use the school year 2005-2006 for self assessment, planning and initial implementation. In the spring of 2006, we will again assess our progress and adjust our plans for the 2006-2007 school year. Rigor, Relevance and Relationships

RELEVANCE: Goals and activities will focus on connecting the school curriculum to its real-world application through using the tools of curriculum, instruction, assessment, personalization, professional learning communities and school environment.

RIGOR: Goals and activities will focus on developing relevant school instruction for academic rigor implementation with a focus on use of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional learning communities.

RELATIONSHIPS: Goals and activities will focus on developing positive relationships among students, staff and community partnerships while focusing on school environment, personalization, collaborative leadership and professional learning communities.

School Leadership Team Members

E. A. Laney High School

2007-2008

Executive Committee

Kimberly Williams, Chairperson

Angela Mood, Recording Secretary

Melissa Jordan, Assistant Principal

Mr. Allen O’Briant, Principal