Past Reports

Special message from Louisiana SIG (LaSIG) Director Evelyn Johnson and Coordinator Margaret Lang

Louisiana has faced significant challenges throughout this past year. Many of our schools have experienced tremendous changes resulting from the two devastating hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. Despite the loss of property, turnover of staff and relocation of friends and family, our LaSIG schools have remained on an even keel supporting their students and communities. Many of the structures implemented by LaSIG schools are what have helped keep them focused. Schools and districts report that through the use of School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), ongoing family partnerships, and the effective collection and use of data helped sustain a sense of normalcy and stability during such an unstable time. We are very proud of our work thus far with LaSIG and invite you to visit the websites below.

A current article on School Matters reported the findings of an analysis by Standard & Poor’s which found that out of 68 school districts in Louisiana, 7 districts outperformed demographically similar school districts in reading and math proficiency for two consecutive years. Three of these 7 outperforming districts, Catahoula Parish, East Carroll Parish, and Plaquemines Parish are LaSIG districts. The complete article can be found at the following link: http://www.schoolmatters.com/pdf/error_band/EB_Louisiana.pdf

During the 2004-2005 school year, a group of LaSIG sponsored SWPBS Strategists came together to develop a document for new school going through SWPBS training. The Strategists were from schools with varying demographics, each with their own unique experiences implementing the process. Their examples, suggestions, successes and barriers were compiled into the Louisiana School Wide Positive Behavior Support Implementation Resource Guide. Please visit the link below to view and utilize the document http://www.lapositivebehavior.com/files.cfm?id=7

Also, the Louisiana Positive Behavior Website includes a list of SWPBS Demonstration sites. These sites have shown over 80% effective implementation of SWPBS strategies and are showing positive results on their campuses. Five of these demonstration sites are LaSIG schools. They are: Jonesville Junior High, JH Williams Middle School, Luling Elementary, Horseshoe Drive Elementary, and Denham Springs Freshman High. Please visit the link http://www.lapositivebehavior.com/demo.cfm

During the aftermath of the hurricanes, many of our students were displaced throughout the state of Louisiana . Schools in remote, rural areas were faced with the influx of students from a very urban area of the state. As cultures began to clash, many schools reported the implementation of SWPBS helped in this transition. Johnie Estes, Assistant Principal at Jonesville Junior High in Catahoula Parish says that the new students were scared to death; living in such a rural area was a significant change for them as well. Ms. Estes reports that it was SWPBS that helped get parents involved and helped ease the tensions that arose due to the clashes of cultures. “I give all the credit to PBS and my teachers.”

Vermilion Parish was devastated by hurricane Rita. Physical damage from water and wind nearly destroyed many of their school buildings. For many months schools in Vermilion Parish shared buildings and attended school on the weekends. Larry Gage, Director of Special Education in Vermilion Parish feels as though the support provided by LaSIG and the implementation of SWPBS made an impact on their success during this turbulent time. “LaSIG has had a tremendous effect in Vermilion Parish. I see LaSIG as a guide that has affected the way schools operate. LaSIG also brought about the turn around in our parish with regard to how discipline is viewed because of PBS.”

Family Partnerships

A significant piece to our LaSIG project is family partnerships. Much of our budget is allocated to support the Family Facilitator positions and the annual Family Leadership Academies promoted by the Facilitators. The role of the Family Facilitator is “Goodwill Ambassador” for each school district they support. These Facilitators are family members of an individual with a disability and work out of the regional Families Helping Families offices located throughout Louisiana and Pyramid Parent Training Center in New Orleans .

The Family Facilitators are reporting exciting, innovative ways that schools around the state are engaging families and building partnerships. LaSIG Family Facilitators are supporting schools to ensure meaningful family participation on every School Improvement Team. As a requirement of LaSIG, schools must collect and analyze local level data around placement of students with disabilities, attendance, and behavior referral rates. Families are reporting a new awareness of the Louisiana state goals around these issues as a result of their partnerships with schools. This collaboration is proving to benefit both schools and families.

Plaquemines Parish was devastated by both hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The storms destroyed six of its nine schools, left over half of the district uninhabitable, and displaced many of its residents. While on the road to recovery, Plaquemines relied heavily on the partnerships developed with families and community. Anne Templet, the Family Facilitator for Plaquemines Parish worked directly with the disaster recovery center collecting and delivering clothes and personal articles for displaced families. Anne worked closely in outreach, identifying families and their needs and worked to help meet them. The Special Education Director of Plaquemines Parish, Stewart Stanley recalled how Anne identified a family living in a tent with four children who were not in school. Anne’s resourcefulness helped get the family into a trailer and the kids back into school. As the district reopened its three remaining schools, it was important for everyone to be aware of what was going on. Mr. Stanley reflected on the value of having Anne and the relationships with families as it “Helped get us on the same page to get what families needed.”

Carolyn Short, a Family Facilitator from Families Helping Families Northwest Louisiana reported a unique way one principal is engaging families. Lillie Giles from Logansport High School in Desoto Parish has been utilizing the halftime period of sporting events at her school to get information to families. Ms. Giles understands the need for family partnerships but also understands that involvement doesn’t always mean families coming to campus.

Current LaSIG schools are also participating in the Family School Linkages (FSL) Project. The Family School Linkages Project of the National Institute for Urban School Improvement seeks to work together with schools and families to assist schools to think about and improve their relationships with all the families of their students. A growing number of studies show that when family members talk to their children about schooling, participate with school personnel, and support their children’s efforts, those students achieve more, attend more regularly, and are more motivated and engaged as learners.

Schools in Louisiana are working to:

(1) complete an assets map of the school, and later, the community;

(2) develop an inquiry focus in collaboration with the school’s leadership team;

(3) collect, compile, analyze, and interpret data to respond to the inquiry focus;

(4) share what the teams learn with other program improvement and governance structures in the school for action planning; and

(5) chronicle results of efforts by the school to make changes in family/school linkages through case accounts. Publications that you download here have come from ideas generated by families and school professionals working together.

A key element of the FSL Project is gathering information from families. Schools will make more informed decisions when they have input from their family members. One school in particular, Doyle Elementary in Livingston Parish responded to what their families told them. Results of a parent survey indicated that the school was not a very welcoming place, especially when families came to register their children for Kindergarten.

As a result, the FSL team at Doyle created a “Kindergarten Welcome Book” designed to acquaint new students with the school personnel and give families time to work through the paperwork of new student registration. A guide to developing this kind of book can be found in the “Let’s Try” series in the link below.

Below is a link to the FSL resources available. Many of the resources found here were designed and developed by Louisiana schools.

http://www.urbanschools.org/publications/family_school.html

The Louisiana Case Accounts include: Doyle Elementary, Bridge City Elementary, Green Park Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Live Oak Middle, Schneckenburger Elementary, and Denham Springs Freshman High. These accounts can be found at the following link: http://www.urbanschools.org/publications/cases.html

Effective Use of Data

One main, ongoing requirement of LaSIG has been the collection and analysis of data. Schools have been trained and supported in the use of data to drive decisions. LaSIG staff created tools for schools to collect data such as placement patterns of students with disabilities, attendance, and behavior rates.

LaSIG is also currently supporting another Strategist group around School Improvement and Data Based Decision Making. This group, representing Livingston Parish, Plaquemines Parish , and VermilionParish are working collaboratively with families to create a companion document to the current state school improvement materials. By incorporating their own experiences as administrators, curriculum specialists, and teachers, they aim to provide schools with a document that gives insight to and practical applications for effective school improvement.

Prior to their involvement in LaSIG, Eaton Park in Vermilion Parish was not using data to drive their decisions. They had a school wide professional development focus around multi-sensory education and were working in small learning communities around this topic but were not utilizing current data. With the advent of School Performance Scores and School Improvement Plans the school began to take a more critical look at their data and what it told them. As they became a Reading First School and eventually went through SWPBS training both academic and behavioral data became a focus for them.

Through the implementation of SWPBS, a LaSIG supported initiative, Reading First, and LaSIG data collection tools and guidelines; Eaton Park has become a data driven school. Both behavior and academic data are collected and analyzed by the faculty on a regular basis to guide their professional development and to identify needs and strengths. This ongoing collection and analysis has also impacted the level of collaboration at their school. Now more than ever, general and special educators are working together to identify needs and strengths of students and how they as a team can support positive outcomes for all students.

When asked what will endure after LaSIG is over, Paul Hebert, the Principal happily replied, “The data. Teachers are beginning to realize that they cannot function without it.”