Additional information / District SAIL Process and Student Achievement Data (Humanities)

Please accept the attached highlight from Humanities as it was missed in last week’s update.

On behalf of the Teaching and Learning team in collaboration with Student Services, I am happy to highlight all of our school and coordinator SAIL plans. This week, during our quarterly reviews, each Principal and Coordinator highlighted their SAIL team’s progress around their Theory of Action. Subsequent data around adult learning practices as well as student achievement data was celebrated throughout our organization. I am pleased to share a few things from each of their presentations this week in the attachment.

Jody Landish

District SAIL update - Humanities

Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Schools

This month, students who are eligible to earn the first ever Wisconsin Seal of Biliteracy will be demonstrating their GLOBAL Competency with a short service project.

You may have a need in your classroom or school community that one of these scholars might help to address.

Students are compiling proposals right now to help them demonstrate the 21st Century Skill of Taking Action by:

Acting responsibly

Understanding Diverse Audiences

Communicating with Diverse People

If you have a need in your department, office or school that could be supported by a multilingual and socio-culturally competent student-please contact D. Garcia at dmgarcia@

Below is the criteria students are planning to meet!

District SAIL Progress and Student Achievement Data

On behalf of the Teaching and Learning team in collaboration with Student Services, I am happy to highlight all of our school and coordinator SAIL plans. This week, during our quarterly reviews, each Principal and Coordinator highlighted their SAIL team’s progress around their Theory of Action. Subsequent data around adult learning practices as well as student achievement data was celebrated throughout our organization. I am pleased to share a few things from each of their presentations this week in the attachment.

Know thy impact,

Jody Landish

District SAIL information

UW-Whitewater Masters Program

The School District of Waukesha and UW-Whitewater are partnering to provide an opportunity to complete a Masters Degree in 

Professional Development, a Masters Degree in

Special Education (path to cross-categorical licensure)

or

 a Masters Degree in Special Education with specialist certificates in Autism and Transition. 

Exciting news!  We are more than halfway to our staff number 

needed 

to keep this opportunity available! 

If you are interested

in this program  

p

lease 

apply to

 UW

-

W

hitewater

 by April 15th 

here:  

http://www.uww.edu/

(

Click on Admissions

- 

apply to the grad program)

To view the course catalog click here.

Stumbling toward Coherence

This week some Waukesha teams met in the Dells to continue their learning on the SAIL process. To open the day teams were asked to read and reflect on a short article about coherence. I have included the link here, if interested.

Fullan's work mirrors the SAIL process, which is the commitment to systematically implementing the right "drivers" (high-leverage practices). Indeed coherence only comes about when people across an organization work towards a common outcome (Theory of Action). During the day, teams learned how to clarify and connect practices to outcomes be describing the Knowledge, Attitude, Skill, Aspiration, and Behavior (KASAB) one would expect to see if teams/organizations implemented the work with fidelity. The discussion around these five change area in relations to one of our high-leverage practices helped the team to clarify what actions we needed to put into our next 100-day plan.

As we go in the spring and shed the last remnants of winter (optimistic here), I am reminded that one of the goals of SAIL is to build a system that helps to build coherence within, and across, each school. As we work toward coherence, we should begin to see what Fullan calls the "right drivers":

• Focused Direction
• A Cultivation of Collaborative Cultures
• The Deeping of Learning
• Securing of Internal Accountability

This work takes time, patience, and commitment to the process. If you are seeing elements of these drivers within your teams, support and encourage their work. If you are seeing a team struggle, ask yourself which driver is needed to bring more focus to their work. We will all make missteps along the way and will need the support of each other as we stumble toward coherence. 

District Strategic Planning

With a successful launch of SAIL across all of our schools this year, the executive team has decided to use the SAIL framework as part of an overall district strategic planning process. The cycle of improvement and innovation as a continuous improvement framework will help guide our district goals and priorities. Using the SAIL framework, we will model transparency in our theory of action and subsequent leadership actions as we work collaboratively to build 100 day cycles that help us measure progress and results along the way.

The Assistant Superintendents' started the process this week together with Superintendent Gray. We are in the beginning stages of problem identification and root cause analysis. Our ultimate goal is to prioritize six or fewer foci upon which our organization can take action on over the next few years. As an executive team, we are excited about our synergy as we work towards more coherence across our entire system. We will continue to provide you updates along the way.

Do you want to be part of making Waukesha History?

Do you want to be part of making Waukesha History?

The School District of Waukesha is looking for faculty advisor/mentors for our scholars pursuing academic honors.   

The role of the faculty advisor/mentor is to support a student, or small group of students to meet deadlines and ensure that they are developing evidence to meet the criteria to earn the Waukesha Wisconsin Seal of Biliteracy (see below).  

ANY staff person could be a valuable faculty advisor/mentor no matter your role.

An Information Session for interested faculty will be held on Monday March 6th at 3:30PM, in room 203D at Lindholm.  The session will be recorded for your convenience if you cannot attend but would like to get involved or are interested.

First cohort to graduate with biliteracy credential

By Lauren Anderson

Freeman Staff

WAUKESHA — This spring, a few dozen Waukesha high school seniors will graduate with a credential that shows colleges and employers they are able to communicate in more than one language.

About 40 students in the Waukesha School District are poised to earn the Wisconsin Seal of Biliteracy, a recognition given to students who have demonstrated achievement in bilingualism, biliteracy, and multicultural competence in and through two or more languages.

This is the first year students are eligible to receive the biliteracy endorsement, which will be reflected on their diplomas and transcripts.

“The purpose of the award is to communicate to the community, to future employers and universities that we have bilingual, biliterate and globallycompetent students,” said Deirdre Garcia, director of multilingual and global education for the Waukesha School District.

The award was first offered in 2008 in California and has since spread in recent years to 23 states, Wisconsin among the most recent. So far, the Waukesha and Verona school districts are approved to offer the recognition, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

To earn the Seal of Biliteracy, students have to demonstrate proficiency in English on the ACT, as well as in a partner language by scoring proficiently on an AP test in Spanish, French,or another language; or on the SAT in that language; or on the Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages test.

Other requirements include writing an essay in both English and their partner language that demonstrates they are able to examine their own perspective, as well as the perspectives of others. Finally, they must develop their own service project and complete it.

Garcia said families of participating students are enthusiastic about the award, recognizing it could give their children an advantage as they enter college and the workforce.

And for many students coming from Spanishspeaking homes, she said, it’s a validation of their upbringing.

“These parents never expected they would be publicly recognized for a skill they gave (their children),” she said. “They’ve never heard ‘Your kids are scholars. Look at what they can do.’ So it’s been really validating for all kinds of kids, but validating for different ways.”

Those interested in learning more about pursuing the Seal of Biliteracy can contact Garcia at dmgarcia@waukesha.k12. wi.us.