LPS SIPs Critique Archive2

ICAN has initially reviewed all 24 (except Twain ES) of the complete 2006-2009 School Improvement Plans (SIPs) that were reviewed by the LPS Learning Support Team and the District Accountability Committee in November, 2006, and then submitted as excerpts (Executive Summary and Cornerstone Goal charts) to the LPS Board of Education.  Those excerpts are located on lower-level ICAN pages for elementary, middle, and high school levels.

We also had reviewed all 24 of the 2002-2005 School Improvement Plans before they were approved by the LPS Board of Education in November, 2002.  Refer to the ICAN LPS SIPs Critique Archive page for ICAN critique and other information about those 2002-2005 SIPs and annual updates, which were based upon the one-page LPS Strategic Plan 2001 [PDF 17KB] during 2002-2006.

Those previous SIPs had evoked the following summative criticism: ICAN believes that there will be little or no improvement in the below-grade-level performance of many LPS students as a result of the current 2002-2005 LPS School Improvement Plans.  Most are merely accreditation compliance documents with significant shortcomings:

• General lack of challenging objectives to improve academic achievement
• Cursory analysis of data
• Unclear problem statements
• Little identification of probable (or even possible) causes
• Little confidence in the likely (corrective-action) effectiveness of planned activities

Years later that prognosis was confirmed with regard to the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) performance.  LPS clearly has lost relative position compared to other Colorado districts.  A one-page tabulation [PDF 10KB] has been prepared for every CSAP test given in 2002, 2005, and 2006.  Relative changes in P+A (LPS - Colorado) show that the 2006 LPS average lags the state average by 3.3% for the same 23 tests four years ago (2006 - 2002) and lags by 0.7% for the same 25 tests one year ago (2006 - 2005).

A 51-page, year-by-year, CSAP tabulation [PDF 189KB] of the district as a whole and each of the 24 LPS schools is grouped by total district, elementary schools, charter schools, middle schools, and high schools.  CSAP results for the total district [PDF 24KB] and individual schools also are available as separate files on the ICAN LPS CSAP Schools page.

All LPS schools had been issuing annual updates to the original 2002-2005 School Improvement Plans.  The schools then entered a new three-year cycle in August, 2006 (rather than at the end of the previous SIPs in June, 2005).  On April 27, 2006 the Board received a presentation on the proposed SIP template revision and supported the continued development of an SIP template for distribution to the schools.  The training sessions with building principals were completed in August.  The latest template version was made available for public review on September 11.  The SIP Template [PDF 93KB] and associated 2006 SIP Goal Chart [PDF 25KB] can be excellent tools for school improvement.  ICAN believes that effects of the Board-approved strategic plan (core beliefs and focus areas) upon the buildings-implemented school improvement plans (using the districtwide SIP template) are uncertain.  A lot depends upon the levels of understanding of, agreement with, and commitment to the SIPs in each of the buildings.

The 2006-2009 SIPs are the school-based action plans for implementation of the one-page LPS Strategic Plan 2006-2011 [PDF 19KB] and accomplishment of the District Achievement Goal: "90% of all students will be on or above grade level in reading, math, writing, and science by 2011.  The achievement gap in student performance will be cut in half by 2009."  The following ICAN SIPs critique corresponds to the main sections of those SIPs:

• Executive Summary
• School Accountability Committee Information
• Student Learning Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis
• Equity/Access Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis
• Climate/Culture/Character Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis
• Data Appendices Section

Executive Summary:

• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Nearly all SIPs used only one or two pages.

School Accountability Committee Information:

• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Most SACs have non-staff majority.
• Only four schools reported any non-White members.
• Very few schools post SAC meeting minutes on their websites.
• Most SIP self-evaluation of SAC effectiveness is weak or nonexistent.

Student Learning Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis:

• The use of data for SIP decisions far exceeds that in the 2002-2005 SIPs.
• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Most elementary school SIPs focus on writing as greatest area of need.
• Most middle and high school SIPs avoid focus on math as greatest area of need.
• The literal sum of all SIP Student Learning Goals is far below District Achievement Goal.

Equity/Access Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis:

• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• The literal sum of all SIP Equity/Access Goals is far below District Achievement Goal.

Climate/Culture/Character Cornerstone: Rationale/Analysis:

• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Schools apparently are reluctant to disclose proportion of survey returns, which could affect credibility if return rate is low.

Data Appendices Section:

• Most SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Appendices total pages: 18 median, 14-26 middle half.

Other ICAN comments:

• The current SIP process is substantially better than that used for the 2002-2005 SIPs.
• The literal sum of all SIP goals is far below the District Achievement Goal.
• Most of the November, 2006 SIPs exceed minimum requirements for content elements.
• Many SIPs do not state targets for 2007 and 2008.
• SIP total pages: 30 median, 24-36 middle half.
• Some SIPs do not identify problem causes clearly.  What confidence can there be for proposed “corrective actions” (which may be a list of activities) which are not linked to probable causes?
• Many SIPs have careless, uncorrected errors.

Last modified: 08/24/2009

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