ATTENDANCE: Chronic absenteeism directly impacts student achievement, engagement, and long-term success. At our school, 18% of students currently miss 10 or more days, which hinders instructional continuity and widens learning gaps. Reducing this rate to below 12% is essential to ensuring all students have equitable access to learning and can fully participate in the school experience. Improving attendance also fosters stronger connections between students, staff, and the school community. 

To ensure every student thrives academically and personally, it is essential to implement a clearly defined and consistently executed Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Strengthening the fidelity of Tier 1 instruction—including access to grade-level curriculum, purposeful small group instruction, and continuous formative assessment—lays the foundation for success. Additionally, providing targeted, research-based Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions addresses individual academic and behavioral needs. Equally important is creating a safe, supportive, and responsive learning environment that nurtures the whole child across all areas of development—academic, cognitive, social-emotional, ethical, and physical—so that all students are equipped to reach their full potential. 

Implementing a high-quality, grade-level curriculum—particularly in early literacy aligned with the science of reading—paired with differentiated instruction is essential to meeting the diverse needs of our students. This approach ensures all learners are engaged, supported, and challenged appropriately, fostering an inclusive environment where every student has the opportunity to achieve academic success.

1. Create a Professional Learning Framework to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to implement differentiated instruction effectively:
2. Adjust Collaborative Learning Team time facilitated by the instructional coaching team to include: 
   • Differentiation Planning - Review and revise the curriculum to include differentiated activities and resources, starting with one differentiated independent task. 
   • Formative Assessment - Develop and implement regular formative assessments to identify students' strengths and areas for improvement.  Utilize data to inform instruction and provide targeted support to students.
   • Integration- Facilitate the planning and implementation of STEAM with dedicated time at the beginning of the CLT to include. Identify key science topics that align with EL and Math Standards to create lesson plans that incorporate relevant scientific content seamlessly into existing Math and EL curriculum. Additionally, identify one quarterly CLT planning session to allow teachers to effectively plan and implement STEAM PBLs. 
   • Professional Learning - Conduct bi-monthly learning walks with different professional learning teams to develop a culture of learning from peers to increase effectiveness of school initiatives. 
3. Create W.O.W. Days (Working on the Work) - Establish a 15-day rotation cycle for W.O.W. Days to define, design, and implement structures to facilitate differentiation and STEM integration. 
4. Family Engagement - Family Engagement Plan for Supporting Differentiated Literacy Instruction: 

   • Create a Three-Year Family Engagement Plan:

     • Create a partnership with the GCPS Title I Department to enhance family engagement.

     • Conduct a Needs Assessment to understand the current level of parent engagement, identify challenges, and gather input from families and stakeholders.

     • Survey staff and families on their practices with Family Engagement. Use the data to create SMART goals and tasks to increase family engagement.

     • Use survey data and analysis of current practices to map targets over the next three-year period. 

   • Differentiate Home Reading Resources for parents/families:

     • What: Provide students with take-home book bags, decodable readers, or access to digital libraries matched to their instructional reading level. 

     • Why: Ensures families have developmentally appropriate materials that reinforce classroom instruction. 

     • How: Teachers can share reading levels with families during conferences and provide guidance on how to use the materials at home. 

Through our needs assessment and instructional leadership team discussions, we identified the need to enhance our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) integration to better prepare students for future-ready learning. Although elements of STEAM are present, implementation varies across classrooms and grade levels. A consistent, schoolwide STEAM instructional model will deepen student engagement, promote creativity, improve problem-solving skills, and support interdisciplinary learning. Aligning with district and state initiatives around innovation, this focus will also support the development of 21st-century skills.