School Improvement Plan Review: North Miami Beach Sr. High

Introduction

The school improvement plan (SIP) is a significant roadmap that guides a school in making changes and bringing improvements to areas of weakness. It is designed to enhance student achievement with the support of stakeholders (Escobar, 2019). The overall effect extends to community welfare, since parents, students, and the school itself benefit from the outcomes. This paper reviews the current SIP of a selected school and presents an improvement plan for academic achievement. The presumed weaknesses are discussed, and opportunities for academic upgrading are examined with evidence-based practices.

Analysis of the School's SIP

The school selected for this paper is North Miami Beach Sr. High. It has a large middle-class student population belonging to various ethnic groups, including Haitian-American, Jewish American, Black, Hispanic, and Asian students, among others. The current SIP entails a broad range of analyzed areas reflecting the school's current status, based on parameters such as academic excellence, staff strength, and teacher attitudes toward school management. School management can play a strong role in rectifying its leadership strategies to improve students' academic achievements (Msila, 2011).

The following analysis covers the school's vision, mission, goals, objectives, data analysis, key factors contributing to weakness, strategies, and activities for the action plan.

School Name and District: North Miami Beach Sr. High

Grades Served: Mid-level or ESE (Elementary and Secondary Education)

The school has a shared vision, mission, and goals supported by multiple measures of data. These are focused on equitable access, opportunities, and outcomes for all students, and are used to guide and monitor decisions, actions, and outcomes.

The school's mission highlights creating a safe and productive learning environment to enhance students' experience during their academic years. Career-related success is emphasized, and lifelong learning is intended to prepare students to become essential members of a technology-driven, global society.

The school's vision reflects a commitment to its instructional program, ensuring students are adequately prepared to meet the challenges of the outside world. The rapidly changing and competitive nature of modern society should not be unfamiliar to graduates; they will be fully supported by staff in achieving high educational standards.

The objectives stated in the SIP are directly related to low achievement and are measurable. The school aims to provide standards-aligned instruction so that student achievement in below-average subjects is improved. Effective instructional modes would be adopted to meet state standards, and data-driven decision-making would be enhanced across academic programs so that teachers can make positive decisions that directly affect student academic performance. This approach is intended to support students in meeting their academic needs, better understanding concepts, and exceeding district averages.

Words such as "small or large groups" indicate that the school intends to make amendments for all students. A variety of ethnicities are represented, and all are included rather than only one being singled out. The focus on "student achievement" broadly reflects a collective sense of all kinds of students rather than a select few.

Although outcomes are mentioned in the systems review and data reflection sections of the SIP, the weaknesses are not always clearly stated. After analyzing the school's SIP, it can be inferred that weaknesses may be caused partly by insufficient emphasis on staff needs and concerns. For example, it is evident that the school principal has not been deeply involved in taking special measures to reduce substance abuse or in making efforts to decrease class size. Class size has been increasing each year, potentially stressing teachers who must cater to each student's individual academic needs. Low teacher and student attendance are also causes for concern.

Priority actions have been devised to make improvements in the SIP, with primary essential practices highlighted. This indicates that the school has made efforts to detect weaknesses and wants to eradicate them in order to improve academic achievement. There is a high need for improvement in ELA reading, Mathematics, and US History. Although the school has not explicitly indicated these subjects in its systems review plan, the weak academic areas become apparent after careful analysis. These key factors show that the school has recognized the need for improvement and is devising correction measures to be applied quarterly, with implementation steps and evaluation timelines to assess whether the steps are producing positive changes.

Assessment Data and Identified Weaknesses

The following assessments are used in this school: Power BI Disciplinary comparison data, SESIR data, Power BI staff attendance data, School Climate Survey, Florida Department of Education State Biology EOC data, MYA data, Power BI school profile data, and Academic Program Data Map.

The assessment scores reveal several areas of weakness:

Through the School Climate Survey, the school's culture assessment disclosed a problem of substance abuse. The percentage was 20% in 2018–19 and remained the same in 2019–20, indicating that wellness programs for students need strengthening. The same survey also revealed a lack of concern from the principal, with a rate of 3% in 2018–19 remaining unchanged in 2019–20 — a weakness in management that requires greater attention to substance abuse issues.

Through Power BI attendance data, the assessment showed that teacher attendance decreased by 5% from 2018–19 to 2019–20. The School Climate Survey also revealed an increased concern about class size, which grew by 11%. This makes it more difficult for teachers to give adequate individual attention to each student, which may negatively impact academic achievement. Additionally, the survey showed an increase of 14% in students staying home when comparing 2018–19 and 2019–20 data.

The Academic Program Data Map assessment revealed that US History proficiency remained unchanged at 49% between 2018–19 and 2019–20, indicating a need to improve civic awareness and subject proficiency. English Language Arts (ELA) showed only a 1% increase over the same period, while ELA learning gains in reading decreased by 7% in 2019–20. This is particularly concerning given that FSA reading is a foundational requirement for many students. Furthermore, the ELL subgroup for ELA proficiency showed 0% improvement in 2019–20, and Math proficiency decreased by 2%, reflecting ongoing struggles with mathematical concepts and real-world application.

The SIP identifies all of these areas of weakness as reflected in local, district, and state assessments, confirming that the plan is grounded in data-driven analysis.

References

Escobar, I. G. (2019). School improvement plans, a tool to improve the quality of education. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(1), 440–450. https://doi.org/10.18844/prosoc.v6i1.4197

Mesmer, H. A. E. (2020, January 23). There are four foundational reading skills. Why do we only talk about phonics? Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org

Msila, V. (2011). School management and the struggle for effective schools. Africa Education Review, 8(3), 434–449.

Noureen, G., Irfan, I., & Awan, R. (2015). Assessment of students' problem-solving proficiency in mathematics at grade VI. Pakistan Journal of Education, 32(2), 1–28.

The Graide Network. (2020, April 13). The rise of teacher stress. Retrieved from