EMMAUS, Pa. — Lower Macungie Middle School has been targeted by the state for plans that will seek to improve outcomes for economically disadvantaged students and across the school.
The school was designated for Targeted Support and Improvement this year, and East Penn School Board on Monday approved final plans to send to the state.
- Lower Macungie Middle School was designated with a state Targeted Support and Improvement designation due to lagging performance by its cohort of economically disadvantaged students
- The East Penn Board of School Directors heard presentations from school officials on how they are looking to improve
- Curriculum and teaching strategy improvement, as well as the use of interventionists and other methods were discussed as part of an improvement plan presented to the board
The school initially was notified of the distinction in February, and at a June 12 school board meeting, there was a presentation on how the school got the designation and action items to improve the set indicators.
Superintendent Kristen Campbell said the approved plan is identical to the one presented June 12. Board members discussed wanting an update to the board at some point during the school year to monitor progress.
School Principal Sallie Yencho said that planning for improvement involved teachers, administration, school counselors and instructional support staff.
According to the district, a school-level TSI designation occurs when a subgroup of 20 or more students meets the criteria of:
- Achieving at or below the statewide average achievement rate of 36.23% on the Math and ELA PSSA exams and fall within a specified state-level proficiency-growth profile including both achievement and growth values measured by the state
- Performing below state averages for ESSA-required indicators of adjusted cohort graduation rate for high schools and progress in moving English learners to proficiency performing below state averages for regular attendance and career standards benchmarks
Designations are made annually by the state as required by the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Economically disadvantaged
The district said the school's economically disadvantaged students, as designated by the state, were reported to meet the criteria for targeted support.
Representatives from the middle school explained its achievement for Math and ELA Combined was a proficiency rate of 30.42%, while the growth rate for students was not meeting the set standard.
Regular attendance, or not missing more than 10% of enrolled school days throughout the year, was 72.4% — slightly below the set target of 72.51%.
Another indicator was that the economically disadvantaged group was meeting career portfolio development benchmark of only 59.13%, compared with the goal of having a rate above 75.87%.
The benchmark set is having six pieces of evidence in a student's career portfolio by May of his or her eighth-grade year.
Working toward improvement
Yencho said there are "over 200" economically disadvantaged students in the school who fall under what was referenced by the state's TSI distinction, but the plans will be for all students.
"Everything you see here is for all 1,049 students at LMMS right now," Yencho said.
"So we are not just focused on economically disadvantaged because when you look at the data, all of our students deserve these supports and need to grow, so we decided we weren't just going to focus on one group."
Actions taken at the school included the use of math and reading interventionists, moving a math teacher to a math standards position, holding weekly meetings to discuss data and meeting student needs, and a monthly meeting on special needs data.
Data from learning software and test scores also are reviewed for achievement and growth rates to improve strategies and practices.
Presenters discussed how time with the iReady learning software is being built into the daily schedule for students.
"While we will be focusing on a specific group of students ... I want to reassure you that the plan that we're putting in place is for all of the students at Lower Macungie Middle School for next year, not just those designated students."Lower Macungie Middle School Principal Sallie Yencho
"While we will be focusing on a specific group of students ... I want to reassure you that the plan that we're putting in place is for all of the students at Lower Macungie Middle School for next year, not just those designated students," Yencho said.
Working toward improvement
This upcoming school year, the school will have monthly "learning walks" for teachers to see others' classrooms and better learn from one another and share or observe teaching strategies, along with three days of department planning time focused on instructional practices.
Regarding absenteeism rates, presenters said there will be regular attendance monitoring by school staff, schedule and program adjustments as well as use of truancy prevention plans and potentially truancy court if needed.
"Our administrative team has been very forthcoming and saying that yes we have standardized assessment data including student achievement on PSSAS or Keystones and PVAAS data and we know we can do better and we want to do better for our kids."Superintendent Kristen Campbell
Additionally, a S.T.E.P. transition room teacher will reach out to chronically absent students to encourage students back into the building during challenging times.
Also discussed was using the East Penn School District social worker to provide additional support and utilizing K&S/MST as an outside agency to help wrap-around families with truancy efforts.
The district also plans to embed career portfolio assignments into required course curriculum and have teachers share responsibility for supporting students in completing career standard artifacts.
Curriculum work is continuing to occur during the summer of realigning some priority standards for math and ELA curriculum and providing a greater focus onto Social and Emotional Learning Support programs.
"As we all know, we can't learn until we have our basic needs met," Dennine Leschinsky, instructional support specialist at Lower Macungie Middle School, said.
'Never shying away from that data'
All staff members are required to evaluate their curriculum to find ways to support learning standards in each grade level.
Officials say targeted interventions in reading and math also are happening in Eyer Middle School, despite not having the TSI designation.
"Our administrative team has been very forthcoming and saying that, yes, we have standardized assessment data including student achievement on PSSAS or Keystones and PVAAS data and we know we can do better and we want to do better for our kids," Superintendent Campbell said.
"So we are never shying away from that data."
"At the at the same time I think tonight's presentation again really does reflect ... many — not all, but many — strategies supports, frameworks that we have put in place system-wide when we talk about MTSS and tiered systems of support."
Board members Levinson, Byrd, Bowen, Smith and Bowman thanked the group developing the plan for thorough work done on the issue.
The district reports that some growth was already seen, such as a cohort growth in ELA PSSA score proficiency from 2022 to 2023 of 4% for sixth and seventh grades and 6% for seventh and eighth grade.
"We may not be where we want to be, but we still see growth in each grade level with our proficiency levels," Leschinsky said.
Regarding career readiness benchmarks, the district reported a growth for 2023 in meeting its goal for students to have increased 17% to more than 95% in preliminary data.
Action items outlined on the plan will be implemented through 2024.
The plan was submitted to the state Education Department following the presentation, Campbell said.
