Washington School Improvement Plan (2022-23)

• Washington Middle School Student Climate Survey
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey
• Panorama Survey

• Using the Washington Middle School Climate Survey data, students NOT feeling connected will decrease by 10% from December 2022 to May 2023. 
• Using the Washington Middle School Climate Survey data, students responding positively to the question regarding compassion and kindness will increase by 10% from December 2022 to May 2023. 
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding compassion and kindness.
• Using the October 2022 WMS Panorama data, the percentage of who can regulate their emotions will increase from 54% to 60% by May 2023.

Action Plan 

• • Blend Restorative practices into our school discipline philosophy
  • Evaluate personal prejudices and biases.
  • Reflect on personal practices inside and outside the classroom.
  • Engage in collaborative work to challenge and dismantle systemic inequities in our school.
  • WMS advisory classes will have optional lessons on equity and SEL (social-emotional learning using the Character Strong curriculum).
  • Clubs provide a great opportunity for expressing emotions, thoughts, and impulses in positive and beneficial ways.
  • Lunch Time Librayr Activities

• Engage students with a Social Studies curriculum that will promote awareness of, and appreciation for, other cultures. 
• Guided discussion of current events encourages the positive expression of emotions, thoughts and impulses as well as the promotion of listening and cooperation.

• Normalize the rejection of  judgements from the media and seeing things through a filter of kindness, acceptance, and humanity.
• Practice embracing others instead of stereotyping them through listening to the voices and stories of others.
• Facilitate regular group work to practice considerate and empathetic participation, and self reflection on how you contributed.
• Teach compassion and kindness through character and theme studies in literature choices.
• Teach students to be curious about others differences and experiences and how to ask questions respectfully
• Teach students how to be responsive and empathetic listeners.

• Encourage students to share varied approaches to problem solving to demonstrate the ability to engage in inclusive problem solving and have an appreciation for their different approaches.
• Building a positive classroom environment and culture where students listen and cooperate with others.

• Include and encourage the use of a self-reflection component following group work that emphasizes students’ contributions to their group’s performance.
• Students participate in group STEAM challenges to come up with group norms.  Students discuss what it looks and acts like to listen and cooperate with other students. 
• Students will respond favorably to the statement “I contribute to class group work in a meaningful way” in the Climate Survey.

• CTE club is open to all student grade levels attending the club.  Members feel connected with their peers.   
• Classwork includes group work and self reflection on how you contributed.
• TAE includes peer evaluations from company members. 

• Emphasize the idea of a growth mindset. Everyone comes in with different skill levels and experiences. As a class we often reflect on growth throughout the year. Often students will not see their own individual growth without help from others. 
• Health students are taught about healthy relationships and nonviolent communication skills.

• SBA data for math, science and ELA  
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey

• Using data from the spring 2023 SBA, students meeting the standard in science will be at least 80%.
• Using data from the spring 2023SBA, students meeting the standard in ELA will be at least 80%.
• Using data from the spring 2023 SBA, students meeting the standard in Math will be at least 75%.
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding support of their career goals.

• Use Social Studies curriculum  to analyze multiple causal factors that shape major events in history.
• Build understanding of issues that have local and global significance by engaging students in discussions of current events.

• Regular, frequent, individual or small group student feedback conferences (peer-peer and teacher-peer).
• Small-group instruction and pre-teaching on areas that students and teachers identify as needing improvement.
• Goal setting with students.
• Draw conclusions in order to synthesize information and use supporting evidence as justification/explanation.
• Connecting the importance of reading/writing skills to life.
• Activate and apply relevant schema to current task.
• Present and effectively argue a position on a relevant issue or topic using evidence from credible sources.
• Integrate technology into reading and writing tasks that build creativity and collaboration.
• Work collaboratively to communicate or present ideas and thoughts about a variety of texts.  
• Expand student representation in a variety of texts and situations to support students from a variety of backgrounds as they set meaningful career and reading/writing goals in order to see themselves in careers and positions where they have been historically underrepresented and marginalized.

• Metacognitive practices:  Students will be provided opportunities to think about their thinking, work to construct viable arguments, and critique the reasoning of others.
• Students will be given strategies to make sense of problems and to persevere in solving them.
• We will facilitate conversations around real-world situations to encourage deep thinking that will empower students to make a change in their world.
• We will encourage students to problem-solve using both creative and critical thinking skills, celebrating all accurate and diverse forms of problem-solving that they share. 
• Students will practice articulating how seemingly different strategies have the same underlying structure and apply those structures to various situations.
• Students will be encouraged to attend to precision and utilize mathematically appropriate vocabulary in order to communicate clearly with others.  
• Students will be encouraged to form a habit of asking “Does this answer make sense?” in the context of the problem.
• Students will be given opportunities to reason abstractly and quantitatively.  Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.
• Students will be given opportunities to share their thinking with a partner, with a small group, and with the whole group, allowing their confidence in their ability to understand and communicate mathematically to grow with these experiences.
• Students will be given opportunities to increase their consistency with completing their daily assignments.

• Work extensively with the NGSS crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices that address outcomes 2.2, 2.3, 2.6, 2.7.
• Facilitate classroom community norms and strategies for working effectively in lab groups.
• Offer the FOSS Variables and Design engineering unit in which students learn to manipulate variables in a controlled experiment and use the Engineering Design Process to solve a real-world problem. 
• Offer virtual field trips that teach students about science careers, conservation, and sustainability issues in our community.
• Continuously scaffold the use of student science notebooks to record observations, data, scientific thinking, and student sense-making.
• Students complete CER - claim, evidence and reasoning paragraphs.

• Identify career options using Programs of Study, Videos, WOIS, and other online resources.
• Identify technical skills and employee traits employers are looking for in related professions.
• Identify education options in high school and after high school to include CTE courses, certifications, 2yr AA or ATA degrees, Apprenticeship, or 4yr degrees.
• Guest speakers in CTE courses share their experiences in their professions & paths for achieving professional goals. 

• Explore careers in music, athletics and health fields. 
• Learn the skill of learning a new skill through various activities. 
• Understand how various activities can enhance your life even outside of your chosen career.

• Healthy Youth Survey 
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey
• Panorma Survey

• Using the Healthy Youth survey data, student responses to the question regarding hope will increase by 10% from December 2022 to May 2023. 
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding wellness support at WMS.
• Using the October 2022 Panorma Survey data, the percentage of students with Positive Feelings will increase from 64% to 70% by May 2023.

• Through discussion and written tasks, students build communication skills.
• Present ideas from different perspectives though the study of cultural diversity.
• Offer student choice in projects to promote the development of their personal strengths and interests.

• Use PLC time to discuss and address student concerns and needs. 
• Normalize mentor texts that provide for the study of mental health awareness. 
• Guide students to resources to help themselves, peers, or family members about SEL issues. 
• Use texts to build student skills in SEL-related strategies.
• Instead of using a transactional grading system, ELA uses feedback, growth, and reflection to cultivate a growth mindset.
• Cultivate a language to discuss healthy relationships and decision making with parents, friends, peers, and adults.

• Athletics - soccer, basketball, volleyball, track, cross country
• LAP support for students.
• Students and staff will be encouraged to create a broad spectrum of clubs to increase a sense of community and belonging with our students. Most of the clubs offered each year are student-driven so that they represent the interests of the students.
• Advisory classes allow teachers and students an opportunity to connect and build relationships.
• Grade Level Meetings
• Snacks available for students throughout the day from the nurse or counseling staff.
• Referrals to counselors for students who present a need for mental health support.
• Recognizing the potential for anxiety within math and working to encourage students to grow more comfortable with sharing ideas around math.
• Growth mindset emphasis throughout the year.
• Coaching students how to work cooperatively in a supportive and productive manner.

• Students build communication skills through STEAM group work and collaboration.
• Students learn about the interaction of their body systems, how their bodies take in nutrients and eliminate waste, and the processes that support life. 
• Students complete CER - claim, evidence and reasoning paragraphs.  This supports critical thinking and effective communication of ideas. 

• Watch and discuss Crash Course interpersonal skills videos to help work on soft skills in class and for the future.
• Opportunities to attend varying clubs contribute to students exploring many different interests. 

• Students read articles from Scholastic magazine that emphasize the importance of the different areas of health. 
• Students have meaningful conversations about the areas of health.  They evaluate how they are meeting these areas of health and how they can improve.
• 7/8th grade students complete the Lifelines Suicide Prevention curriculum to learn about warning signs and support for students experiencing depression.
• 7/8th grade students learn about body positivity, nutrition, how to read food labels, dietary guidelines for teens, and self-assess their own eating habits using Myplate.gov.
• 7/8th grade students learn about healthy communication and relationships.
• 7/8th grade students assess their own social, emotional, mental, and physical wellness and identify strengths and areas of growth.
• PE- Students will participate in a wide variety of workouts, recreational activities, and sports. Students will be engaged in at least 150 minutes of movements per week.

• Washington Middle School Student Climate Survey 
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey 

• Using the Washington Middle School Climate Survey data, students responding positively to the question regarding societal biases will increase by 10% from December 2022 to May 20223 
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding our work with equity.

• Use curriculum, discussion and research projects, students become well versed in local, national and world history and understand how prejudice, racism and xenophobia have contributed to conflict.
• Develop students’ ability to recognize bias through research projects and classroom lessons on evaluation of research sources.
• Identify discriminatory remarks and attitudes as presented during discussion that occur in authentic teachable moments.
• Analyze the validity, reliability and credibility of information from a variety of primary and secondary sources while researching an issue or event.

• Help students to make sense of themselves and the world as they navigate relevant topics in today’s society 
• Foster stronger student engagement and agency using the workshop model in literacy.
• Empower students furthest from educational justice to see themselves as agents of change in their world by incorporating a variety of diverse text.
• Bring the topics of racial justice, systemic racism, and LGBTQIA+ representation into the middle school classroom through student choice in books and nonfiction texts. 
• For BIPOC students, build a sense of belonging and safety in a learning environment where they have been historically underrepresented.
• Integrate lessons and utilize resources to help students develop skills and habits to serve them in the comprehension of social issues.
• Help students make safe and constructive choices about their social interactions surrounding the topics of  racial justice, systemic racism, and LGBTQIA+.

• Recognizing different world cultures as new math concepts are introduced through the history of the concept or the language of the concept.
• Prioritize discussion and interrupting discriminatory. remarks and attitudes over “getting through the lesson”.
• Through the teaching of statistics, helping students. recognize the validity of information and potential biases.
• DII 2.0 Committee
• Using math standards vocabulary of validity, precision, and attention to accuracy to and analyze information and recognize possible prejudice and bias in the world, not just in math applications.

• Introduce scientists from underrepresented groups monthly, to expose students to the diverse voices in science.  This will help students identify and combat perceptions, stereotypes and myths about who can be successful in science.  

• Digital Communications: Flags of the World (+ design in Photoshop)
• Computer Science: Discrimination in Machine Learning
• TAE  Gender & pay inequity in the workforce

• PE- Introduction of sports and recreational activities from different cultures around the world. 
• Music - Study music from around the world and explore the music of diverse composers. Explore how music is used to express cultural identity.

• Washington Middle School Student Climate Survey 
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey 
• Panorama Survey

• Using the WMS Student Climate survey, students responding positively to the question regarding after-school activities will increase by 10% from December 2022 to May 2023. 
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding encouraging professional growth.
• Using the October 2022 Panorama Survey data, students utilizing a growth mindset will increase from 56% to 60% by May 2023.

• Use Social Studies curriculum to expose students to new perspectives, particularly those areas that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable to find their interests.
• Encourage students to understand the value of becoming civic minded and engage in service in their community and learning by doing.

• Students will broaden their perspectives and seek out various opportunities to explore new ideas, particularly those areas that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable, to find their interests.
• Book clubs beneficially serve students in ways that mirror the adult world.  Discussing elements of literature broadens students’ interpretative skills, causing them to defend their own beliefs, incorporate others’, and find acceptance within the differing perspectives.  Books clubs bridge the gap between group responsibility and shared pleasurable pursuits, giving students a sense that neither is mutually exclusive. 
• Students are encouraged to reflect on their setbacks and disappointments and be able to move forward to challenge themselves.
• Reading and literacy are built as life-long pursuits through regular visits and exposure to the variety of print and digital resources WMS Library.

• Teach and encourage growth mindset.
• Students are encouraged to reflect on their setbacks and disappointments and be able to move forward to challenge themselves.
• We offer students the opportunity to retake assessments in order to meet standards.  This allows them to experience this important part of learning while giving them the ability to show their improvement. 
• Students can expect teachers to give consistent feedback on assessments, both formal and informal, and they will play a pivotal role in their own learning through participating in self-evaluation, correction, and reflection.

• The focus in science classes is on the learning, not the grade. Students are given the opportunity to retake tests.  During the retake process, students reflect on their mistakes and make corrections as part of the learning process.  
• An emphasis is put on giving students feedback to build metacognition about their own growth and progress. 

• (CTE) Club offers many opportunities for leadership and peer mentoring. 
• Create interdisciplinary projects & experiences that blend academic & CTE classes to create more interesting and engaging experiences for students.

• Provide opportunities for students to explore various activities and find their passions. Learn different ways of thinking, analyzing and learning through sports, music, etc.

• Washington Middle School Student Climate Survey 
• Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey 

• Using the Washington Middle School Climate Survey data, students responding positively to the question regarding compassion and kindness will increase by 10% from December 2022 to May 2023. 
• Using the May 2023 Washington Middle School Staff Climate Survey data, at least 85% of staff will respond positively to the question regarding collaboration beyond our building.

• Through the use of group projects and cooperative learning, students participate in groups and know the power of teamwork.
• Through CBA research projects, students gather, interpret and present information in culturally responsive ways.
• Design instruction using the Learning That Transfers (as presented in Julie Stern, et. al’s Designing Curriculum for a Changing World) model in order to move students into action.
• Analyze and integrate information from text in order to move from Vision to Action (Springboard 3.17)
• Embed questions of critical literacy to better understand the world around us.
• Explore and understand our Universe of Obligation as presented in Sara Ahmed’s Being the Change.
• Explore and understand the perspectives of others as presented in Ellin Keene’s Engaging Children.
• Learning focused on finding humanity in ourselves and others.
• Learning for Justice lessons based on Social Justice standards. 

• Use cooperative learning as an opportunity for students to participate in teams and learn the power of teamwork, as well as demonstrates the ability to engage in inclusive problem solving.
• Through department meetings discuss strategies for inclusive problem solving in the classroom.
• Utilize Kami, Desmos, EdPuzzle, and other digital tools to help students connect ideas.
• Encourage students to share varied approaches to problem solving to demonstrate the ability to engage in inclusive problem solving.

• Present videos about STEM organizations and careers in Thurston County using the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) lessons.
• Field trip to Watershed Park to familiarize with the local drainage basin, plants and animals.  Students discuss protecting and sustaining our local natural resources.
• 6th grade students receive presentations about stormwater runoff in urban environments from scientists from the City of Olympia.
• 6th graders learn about invasive plants and participate in removing english ivy from the WMS woods with the help of staff from the City of Olympia.
• 6th graders receive a three day workshop about marine organisms and factors affecting Puget Sound water quality from the Pacific Shellfish Institute, Puget Sound Estuarium, and South Sound Green.
• 8th grade field trip to an area of south sound with focus on ocean acidification and effects on local populations and how we as citizens contribute to OA.
• Students will respond positively to the question “Do your teachers connect classroom learning to protecting local and global environmental resources?”

• Bulldog News: Report on events & stories that connect our local & global community (news beyond WMS news).
• CTE club incorporates group work and specialized teams working on different skills.
• TAE Marketing & Manufacturing class reaching out to the community to supply products and services.

• Band/Orch/Choir students will collaborate on performances this year. Both within our music areas (different orchestra classes combined), as well as between music departments (orchestra and choir for example).
• PE Students work in groups and teams towards common goals.