Commendations:

• West Holt Public School’s relationship-based education vision is highly evident. 

  • Students and staff communicated that West Holt Public Schools has a family atmosphere where everyone cares about each other.

  • The district has committed resources to train staff members and implement relationship-based education school wide. 

  • Staff members have been given the opportunity to attend national conferences. (i.e. Ron Clark Academy and Professional Learning Community (PLC) Institutes). 

• Staff and students have created a welcoming, caring and collaborative environment. 

  • It was evident when walking through the halls that administration, staff and students are living The Husky Way. We observed smiling faces, friendly greetings and good manners. 

  • Survey and demographic data indicated a low staff turnover rate which contributes to the collaborative culture that has been established. 

  • Staff members indicated that one strength of West Holt Public Schools is their strong community support. 

• West Holt Public School’s Steering Committee developed a model district profile. 

  • The Steering Committee compiled a comprehensive school profile including all four required data sets: demographic data, program data, student performance data and perceptual data.

    • The Google site was easy to navigate and provided clear evidence for the external team to review. 

    • Student data was well organized and the visual representations were user friendly. 

  Recommendations

• Develop a formalized data analysis process to select and monitor school improvement goal(s). West Holt staff administer multiple assessments to determine student achievement and learning. It is essential to regularly analyze student data (perceptual, student performance, demographic and program data) and then use the data to improve instruction to meet the needs of all learners. It was evident that elementary teachers are reviewing student data; however, there was lack of information to indicate an ongoing high school and district data analysis process targeted to improve student learning. 

  • All staff should be involved in reviewing demographic, program, student performance and perceptual data when selecting a school improvement goal. 

    • A data committee or profile committee could provide guidance into creating a school improvement data analysis process. 

  • District data should be continually reviewed by the staff throughout the five-year continuous improvement cycle. 

    • Meeting times should be documented and notes recorded. 

  • The elementary school has developed a sound MTSS process that analyzes DIBELS student performance data and uses that information for interventions and student placement. The external team encourages the district to build on these processes to include all data types, at all instructional levels. 

  • Administration and staff should be monitoring implementation progress of the school improvement goals. 

    • All staff should know the school improvement goal(s) implementation expectations. 

    • Administration needs to develop a monitoring system to ensure all staff are implementing the school improvement goal(s) as intended. 

• Create a district-wide High Ability Learner Program 

  • Parent, student and staff survey data indicate that there is a need for the district to serve high ability students. 

  • Elementary learning opportunities are evident throughout the MTSS process but less evident for above and beyond readers. 

  • Review the Nebraska Department of Education Rule 3: Regulations Governing High Ability Learners. 

    • 001.01D Section 79-1108; Indicates that each school district shall identify learners with high ability and may provide programs that will address the educational needs of those students.