2013 Pathways to the Prize - District Winners | Page 16

Pathways to the Prize
Lessons from the 2011 SCORE Prize District Winner

Student
responsibilities
and supports.
Maryville teachers believe in developing their students both academically
and behaviorally, and push students
to take responsibility for their own
learning. All high school students
hav e planners and keep notebooks
that track their test scores and
other measures of performance and
progress. The district also publishes
grades for students in grades 4
through 7 online so that they and
their parents can review them at any
time. If students are falling behind in
any way, they are expected to go to
a teacher, counselor, or other adult
and ensure they get the assistance
they need. Every student at risk of
failure also has an adult assigned to
watch over them, helping them to
bond with the school and understand
that seeking assistance is encouraged
and valued. High school students
often attend the after-school tutoring
sessions and Saturday schools. Most
believe it is a great way to keep up or
get ahead.
Maryville recognizes that students
need behavioral and academic supports and provides them with both as
prevention measures and remediation. Teachers, counselors, and administrators develop action plans with
any student who is underperforming
or at risk of underperforming in their
coursework or on the TCAP. The plan
sets out the specific activities the
student will undertake to address the
concerns. For example, if the concern
is absenteeism or tardiness, the
student will be tasked with signing
in with a specific adult first thing
every morning. If lack of mastery in
a content area is the concern, the
student will participate in after-school
or Saturday programming, work with
a National Honors Society student or
other higher performing peer, or complete online course modules.
High school students may be referred
to one of the two alternative education programs where they receive
more personalized instruction. One
program, the Maryville Academic
Success House (MASH), provides a
therapeutic, safe learning structured explicitly around a student’s
academic and behavioral needs.
Over the past four years, up to 52
students per year have been served
by MASH. MASH also provides credit
recovery and tutoring after school
and during the summer. To ensure
that the educational programming of
the alternative programs is rigorous,
several administrators and teachers
review the programs annually.

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2011 SCORE Prize District Winner: Maryville City Schools

Pathways to the Prize
Lessons from the 2011 SCORE Prize District Winner

Principals are also held to high expectations in
terms of their performance as leaders and managers. Their responsibilities lie not only in helping
individual teachers succeed, but also in nurturing an environment for success. To that end, buildings are run efficiently
and effectively, and administrators create safe, orderly environments
that strongly encourage learning. Disciplinary infractions are relatively rare and,
when they occur, are dealt with swiftly.
The district allows principals to focus on important areas by taking other concerns—such as human resources—off their plates. “We have helped the principals with personnel management by creating a code of conduct,” Thompson
said. “The code is a good tool that creates a fair playing field for expectations.
Principals just need to follow it and not get involved in nuances around professional behavior. This gives principals the time they need to support instruction.”

weekend food bags for students who report little or no food at home.
Resource referral: The center has made local families more aware of free
programs, such as those offered by the Child and Family Counseling Center of
Tennessee. Families have been connected to appropriate agencies for utility assistance, medical services, and housing, and the center has distributed information about
events that addressed substance abuse, mental health, and suicide.

The center collects data from surveys and analyzes referral forms to plan its services. The most recent survey,
conducted in 2010-11, gathered data from principals, assistant principals, school counselors, special education
staff, school nurses, and Adventure Club directors. Evaluations of the Center show that the Center made 660
referrals during 2010-11 and provided more than 2,400 services. Ninety-eight percent of those responding
to the evaluation survey rated the services as very effective. Young men in the center’s Teens Need Training
(TNT) middle school program engaged in homework assistance, career exploration, community clean-up,
outdoor activities such as camping in national and state parks, and team and self-esteem building activities at
the Maryville College Mountain Challenge Program. This last program resulted in 43 percent of students becoming employed because of the relationships that they had developed through interviews with local business
leaders. More than 86 percent of students enrolled improved their grades and school attendance.

The Family Resource Center. The district has created a Family Resource

Center, which offers:
Educational services: The center helps high-risk families use the
school and community resources necessary to meet human needs
for educational success. Over the past several years, the Family
Resource Center has provided backpacks, school supplies, and
calculators to children in need, arranged for access to computers
and tutors for after-school homework assistance, raised funds for
students to participate in extracurricular activities, such as music
and summer programs, paid for college placement examinations,
books, and courses for students who qualified for college admission,
and assisted families in locating housing within the school district so
the student would not have to transfer to another school.
Parent training services: The center helps parents address problematic behaviors, such as truancy and anger management. Staff
members visit homes to encourage parents to address their children’s needs and become more involved at schools. As needed, staff
members have accompanied parents to service providers to assist
them in understanding procedures or requirements for services
and helped with translation for Spanish-speaking referrals. Family
Resource Center staffers have facilitated meetings between school
personnel and parents through calls, home visits, and other correspondence. The center also provides transportation, in addition to
monthly newsletters and calendars.
Health and social services: The center also helps parents become
familiar with and enroll in community programs. The Maryville City
Schools’ Children’s Fund, opened in 2003, provides clothing and
other basic needs. The fund is staffed with volunteers trained by the
Family Resource Center. More than 1,000 students and their families have received assistance. The Family Resource Center also
connects families to sources of food, clothing, toiletries,
furniture, and appliances. It also provides emergency
assistance, supplied items and instruction for treatment of head lice, and prepared and distributed

Using data to enhance student learning
Assistant Director of Schools Dr. Mike Winstead conducts analyses of data after every benchmark or summative assessment test. He provides local, regional,
state, and national comparisons and identifies
patterns, trends, and contributing factors that
“I cannot imagine what some of these students
may have influenced results. He routinely meets
would be doing in life without the positive and conwith groups of teachers in grade levels or destructive influence that TNT has provided for the
partments in each of the schools to share results,
last 18 years,” said teacher Jay Malone, as quoted
helping schools identify and target students in
in the MCS Annual Report.
need of interventions. In addition, Dr. Winstead
trains faculty and staff members at each school
to use the state DVALT website where test scores
are housed. He helps them understand how to download and analyze the data on the website, how to track
the extent to which schools are meeting annual learning goals, and assists principals with strategy planning
for their Title I and other school improvement plans. The district also deploys Dr. Winstead in helping school
board members, parents, city council members, and community members become familiar with and interpret
the test data for the district.
The district utilizes PowerSchool—software that resides on the district’s website—to generate high-level reports.
Using benchmark information, the staff can accurately predict how well a student will perform on state assessments about 98 percent of the time.
In addition to the data analysis resources provided by the district, each school
has a data team and conducts an in-depth analysis of both the benchmark and summative test results. The principal and the other
members of the data team scrutinize the data for trends
and to identify individual teachers and students who
may be facing challenges in reaching proficiency.

2011 SCORE Prize District Winner: Maryville City Schools

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