Executive Summary and Profile Vision

Overall Assessment
Operational: The school system implements a collaborative and ongoing process for improvement that aligns most functions of the system and its schools with the expectations for student learning. Improvement efforts are sustained and the system demonstrates progress in improving student performance, system and school effectiveness. New improvement efforts are informed by the results of earlier efforts through reflection and assessment of the improvement process.

Quality Assurance Methods

1. 
   What process does the district use to monitor and document improvement?
   

The commitment of the Tuscaloosa County School System to support sustainable, continuous improvement is evidenced through the Board of Education’s involvement in The Lighthouse Project, a school board instructional initiative. As one of nine school systems in the state to participate, school board members have committed to a two-year study of student achievement. Board members, the District Leadership Team, comprised of teachers, administrators, and community members, are working collaboratively on the project, which focuses on seven areas that are necessary for student achievement.

1. 
   Shared Leadership
   
2. 
   Continuous Improvement and Decision Making
   
3. 
   Ability to Create and Sustain Initiatives
   
4. 
   Supportive Workplace for Staff
   
5. 
   Professional Development
   
6. 
   Support for School Sites through Data and Information
   
7. 
   Community Involvement
   

The system’s capacity to implement educational improvement is enhanced through this study as board members commit to focus on student learning, high expectations, dynamic leadership, accountability, and shared decision making. The commitment to student achievement is also found in the following processes used by the district to monitor and document improvement:

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  Continuous Improvement Plans (CIP)
  
• 
  CIP Reviews
  
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  District Improvement Plan
  
• 
  System Title I Plan
  
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  ARI Regional Staff Partnerships
  
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  AMSTI Regional Staff Partnerships
  
• 
  Federal Programs’ Evaluation
  
• 
  System Professional Development Plan
  
• 
  ESL Plan
  
• 
  System Parental Involvement Plan
  

In addition to these processes, the system will use the results of the District Accreditation study and The Lighthouse Project to complete an updated Long Range Strategic Plan.

2. 
   How does the district provide meaningful feedback and support to its schools and across the district?
   

The Tuscaloosa County School System provides meaningful feedback across the district through the following methods:

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  Media releases
  
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  School Board presentations
  
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  Website
  
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  Newsletters
  
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  Professional Development Evaluations
  
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  Board meetings and work sessions
  
• 
  PTA/PTO meetings
  
• 
  Budget Hearings
  

Support for local schools is provided through the following efforts:

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  Continuous Improvement Plan reviews
  
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  Walk-through observations
  
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  Professional Development opportunities
  
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  Funding when available
  
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  New Employees’ Orientation
  
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  New Teachers’ Training
  
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  Local audits
  
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  Maintenance
  
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  Technology technicians
  
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  Internet accounts and email for all employees
  
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  Blackberry communication for all administrators and central office staff
  
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  Transportation scheduling for bus routes
  
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  Homeless funds
  
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  Inter-office Mail Service
  
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  ESL Teachers
  
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  Homebound teachers
  
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  Public Relations
  
• 
  District Leadership Team
  
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  District Problem Solving Team
  
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  District instructional leaders
  

3. 
   How does the district ensure that the AdvancED standards are met by all the schools and the district as a whole?
   

The Curriculum and Instruction Department of the Tuscaloosa County School System provided training during the 2009-2010 school year on the AdvancED Standards. The Standards’ Leadership Team met with their respective committees to solicit input regarding adherence to the standards. The committees evaluated each standard and responded to the focus questions. The team leaders compiled this data to create the Standards Assessment Report.
Presentations of the standards were made to the Board of Education, local school administrators, the Superintendent’s Advisory Council (SAC), comprised of teachers and administrators, and the Classified Employees’ Advisory Council (CLAC). Presentations were also made available on the system website for public review and to share with local school faculties and staffs.
Evidence of each AdvancED Standard is housed at the central office and will be available for review during the QAR visit. Additionally, the AdvancED Standards are embedded in the continuous improvement plans and processes. Each school will monitor adherence to the standards at the end of the school year during the last CIP Review. This information will be included in each school’s CIP Reflections and Projections documentation and submitted to the central office for review. The system will also collect evidence yearly to ensure that the standards are met.

4. 
   How does the district regularly collect, use, and communicate results?
   

The school system regularly collects results through the following methods:

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  Surveys
  
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  State standardized testing data from the State Department of Education
  
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  System Guidance and Testing Department
  
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  Stakeholder input (Leadership Tuscaloosa, The Literacy Council of West Alabama, the Parent Leadership Academy, the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama)
  
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  PTA/PTO meetings
  
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  Professional development evaluations
  
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  UA/UWA In-service Center Needs Assessment
  
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  STI Assessment data
  
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  DIBELS
  
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  Harcourt Reading Program assessment data
  
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  Adopt-a-School Partnerships
  
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  Principals’ meetings
  
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  PAC meetings
  
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  SAC meetings
  
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  CLAC meetings
  
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  Response to Instruction data
  
• 
  Federal Programs Advisory Council
  

Results are used for the following purposes:

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  Analysis of data
  
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  Informed decision making
  
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  Revision of goals, strategies, and plans
  
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  Plan professional development
  
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  Strategic planning
  
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  Implementation of improvement plans
  

Results are communicated through the following methods:

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  System website
  
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  STI Home
  
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  State Report Cards
  
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  Media releases
  
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  Board of Education work sessions
  
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  PTA/PTO meetings
  
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  Principals’ meetings
  
• 
  Reading Coaches’ meetings
  
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  Emails
  
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  Newsletters
  
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  Board presentations
  

Conclusion
The following focus questions reflect the school system’s overall analysis of its internal evaluation of the accreditation standards.
Focus Questions
As you review your responses to the standards, what major trends, themes, or areas of focus emerge that cut across the seven standards?
Several areas of focus emerged through a review of the responses to the standards. As the Standards Teams researched evidence and practices, the following major themes were found:

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  The Tuscaloosa County Board of Education continues to maintain that improved classroom instruction is our most important goal. This is evidenced through the Board of Education’s involvement in The Lighthouse Project.
  
• 
  The review revealed that communication regarding pertinent issues, including data and plans for improvement is found across the system and in the community.
  
• 
  Community support emerged across the standards through partnerships such as Adopt-a-School, the Parent Leadership Academy, the Alabama Consortium for Educational Renewal, and others.
  
• 
  Though finances impact student success, the lack of financial resources must not lower expectations for classroom instruction and student achievement.
  

Based on your review of these cross-cutting themes/trends and each of the seven standards, what would you consider to be your school system’s greatest strengths?
The system’s strengths can be found in the areas of leadership, teacher quality, collaboration among stakeholders, challenging curriculum, and community support and partnerships. Areas of need include financial planning in an environment of proration and reduced funding, continued improvement for student performance in the subgroup special education, implementation of practices for continued progress in reading and mathematics, and continuing the building of partnerships with students, parents, and community for increasing the graduation rate.

One of the strengths of the system is teacher recruitment and support. Sixty percent of certified employees in the Tuscaloosa County School System have earned Masters degrees or higher. Based on the Alabama Quality Teacher Standards, the teacher evaluation system created through EDUCATEAlabama, even in the current revision stage, establishes high expectations for collaboration within schools and across the system, as well as encourages innovation from teachers and administrators. The system also provides National Board for Professional Teaching Standards training support for teachers as well as instructional staff members that work with all teachers to improve the quality of instruction, reduce the perception of teacher isolation, and support teacher needs. In addition, mentor programs at the local schools give new teachers tools and support for successful classroom management and instruction.

The Tuscaloosa County School System implements the Alabama Course of Study as the basis for curriculum for student learning. Curriculum is further enriched and enhanced to enable students to exceed the minimum standard. Advanced placement courses produce high expectations of performance for students pursuing college. Challenging career technical courses, as well as academic classes, also set high expectations for students who are interested in business and industry after high school. Curriculum guides, pacing guides, and progress monitoring assure that the curriculum is implemented to build student success. Additional educational programs and opportunities for enhancing the learning culture offer clearly defined goals for a challenging curriculum, a safe and secure learning environment, and a plan for continued improvement. The system and each school have a Continuous Improvement Plan. The plan defines the needs for the system and each school and provides a framework for addressing performance standards for each grade level while continuing to connect scope and sequence of learning to a student’s successful completion of high school.
Through partnerships with business and industry, community services agencies, institutions of higher learning, and governmental agencies, the system is enhanced with financial support, human resources for contributions in our classrooms, and collegial relationships that provide institutional support for program development and implementation.
What would you consider to be your school system’s greatest challenges?
Despite recent financial challenges as a result of state budget cuts and lack of local support for increased taxes, the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education continues to maintain that improved classroom instruction is our most important goal. Because of state proration and the reduction of funds, financial stability remains an area for intense planning and focus. The leadership of the system will be making difficult decisions to ensure that financial shortfalls have as little effect as possible on the classroom and the system’s focus on preparing students for the 21^st century. With proration and a decrease in state revenue, all areas of educational support will be reviewed. These will include facilities, student services, curriculum and instruction, personnel, and general administration. The system continues to seek avenues to maintain enriching programs for all students to ensure a quality classroom environment and teacher quality.
Several schools in the Tuscaloosa County School System have a large population of children with special needs. Despite the inequitable national measurement of student progress, the system’s schools have made progress in working in an inclusive environment to ensure that all children have the same opportunities to learn, and their instruction is within the parameters of grade level standards. In addition, schools have had assistance in implementing intervention strategies for collaborative inclusion teams, using technology for interventions, employing outside consultants to refine best practices, and effectively executing regular progress monitoring to ensure a consistent pattern of improvement.
Through strategies such as the creation of an administrative professional learning community, the system will continue to train school administrators as instructional leaders who will work to assure the implementation of quality best practices in the classroom. The focus will continue to be on reading and mathematics. Student performance will continue to be monitored to assess progress, particularly in the area of special education. Both online and hands-on research-based resources will be monitored and evaluated for efficacy in supporting the curriculum. The leadership teams will continue to implement strategies that support system-wide goals for instructional practices.
The goal for having all seniors graduate from high school does not start when they enter ninth grade. It is a goal that begins from that first day in kindergarten. The system will continue to research paths for meeting the needs of students from the pre-kindergarten program through high school, providing additional academic support as needed. Addressing positive school-to-home relationships will continue to be a strategy in working with students who lack motivation for success. Partnerships within the community afford workforce experiences that provide students with school-to-work relevance. Evaluating the success of current programs and designing new patterns for the path to graduation, such as credit recovery, are strategies for increasing the graduation rate.
How will you use the insights gained from this self-assessment to inform and enhance your quality assurance and continuous improvement efforts?
The district accreditation process has given the faculty and staff of local schools, central office administration, students, parents, and community stakeholders the opportunity for self-reflection and for identification of areas in need of improvement. This review has shown that while finances impact student success through the provision of materials and personnel, the lack of financial resources cannot be allowed to restrict expectations for classroom instruction and student achievement. We must change the way we approach instruction across the system, from the Board of Education and The Lighthouse Project to the teachers in the classroom. Our goal is to motivate our staff and community to identify the global goals for our system and to facilitate strategies to ensure relevance for students, rigor in the curriculum, and relationships among stakeholders.
The relationship between teacher and student has the greatest impact on student success. Therefore, to lead students to individual success and schools to continued improvement, we must continue to employ a quality teacher force, ensure a challenging curriculum, provide engaging activities for learning, assure a safe and secure learning environment, and continue to build capacity for leadership. It takes a village to raise a child, as we know. We cannot do it alone. The Tuscaloosa County School System will continue to value and involve community partners in the educational process and work with parents and community to ensure that we have a system in which all students “Learn, Grow, and Achieve.”