Campus Improvement Plan 2022-23

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Demographics

Demographics Summary

Spring Branch MS (SBMS) mirrors the demographics and many of the academic challenges facing our school district, the City of Houston, and even the State of Texas; continuing the work the school did to reimagine and redesign the learning experience to better meet the needs of children at SBMS offers a proof point that it can be done elsewhere. It is a school with rich traditions and strong leadership in which many children are reaching their potential. Others, however, are not.

Enrollment: 1114 students enrolled
Feeder Elementary Schools: VOE, HCE, MDE, BHE, HME, SBE, WVE 
Feeder High Schools: MHS and SWHS

Demographics Strengths

Diversity is our greatest strength- we are able to leverage the strengths and resources of our population to serve our own school through our Bears for Bears Initiative. Our enrollment numbers also help provide us staffing that enables us to implement a wide range of electives.

Problem Statements Identifying Demographics Needs

Problem Statement 1: SBMS is a diverse learning environment with its own inherent strengths and challenges. Root Cause: Portions of our population have significant economic and learning needs while some of our population could benefit from working with diverse populations.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment

Student Learning

Student Learning Summary

Below is the data from STAAR comparing 2019 to 2021. While we recognize that last year was gravely impacted by a pandemic, our goal was to work to ensure the least academic impact was made on kids, regardless of instructional model. While numbers fell between the previous years at all levels, we did see some increases at the masters level for Math and Science.

Targeted Improvement Program (TIP)
SBMS is a TIP school-
Any campus not identified for comprehensive support and improvement that has at least one consistently underperforming student group identified for targeted support improvement

Our TIP area:

• Economically Disadvantaged Student Group (2%)

We need to better serve our Economically Disadvantaged and EL students through the identification of essential standards and tracking systems to provide timely intervention and ensure students are connected to school.

Student Learning Strengths

Our student achievement scores fell about 7-8% in areas, but we were worried about larger losses. We saw two improvement areas at the masters level of Math and Science.

Problem Statements Identifying Student Achievement Needs

Problem Statement 1: All students at SBMS need to perform at high levels. Root Cause: We must look at every student's performance level and aim to push them to the next.

School Processes & Programs

School Processes & Programs Summary

Overview: SBMS is a comprehensive middle school that runs a seven period day plus an advisory each day (Bear Pride Time). Advisory content includes: Preparation for the week, review of grades and missing assignments, character education programming, study hall and community circle discussions. Our programs are: GT, Advanced Academic, and  Academic Courses. Over the past few years, we have expanded our elective options to include: band, orchestra, yearbook, newspaper, art I, art II, art III, speech, theater, a few CTE courses, choir and technology applications.

Composition of Administration and Teams: We have three assistant principals who are paired with counselors who matriculate with the children. We have a few processes that monitor student needs and designate support- Counseling/Administrative Team Meetings, Student Support Meetings, Instructional Leadership Team Meetings and Interventionists who serve the needs of our students. Content and grade level teams plan together to align content across like courses and ensure all students receive a guaranteed and viable curriculum. We do this work, both planning and data disaggregation, through Professional Learning Communities. We have a DC team comprised of representatives of each of our departments who truly lead the school and help problem solve things as they develop through the   year.

Recruitment and Support of Personnel: Teachers are provided adequate instructional supplies, supportive planning structures and input to providing feedback on decisions that pertain to their work at SBMS. Teachers are involved in site based decision making committtees and assist with developing the focuses of the school year. Staff are provided an opportunity to be involved in the recruitment and hiring of new staff to develop strong teams at SBMS and encourage   retention.

School Processes & Programs Strengths

Our DC team represents our different departments on campus and is truly dynamic and open. They provide ongoing feedback to address student and staff needs and offer solutions as we work through the school year. Our counselors and administrators work very hard to support our teachers, and our students and their families.

Problem Statements Identifying School Processes & Programs Needs

Problem Statement 1: Limited time is an issue for meeting with teacher teams this year. Root Cause: COVID safety precautions have created some limitations that we must work around to provide meeting time for teams.

Perceptions

Perceptions Summary

Perceptions Strengths

Feedback, in relationship to our most recent survey, indicated appreciation for teachers' efforts to be consistent and clear in the work they designed and presented on our learning management system, teacher communication practices, the organization and communication practices of the leadership of SBMS and families feeling welcome on campus.

Problem Statements Identifying Perceptions Needs

Problem Statement 1: COVID has changed the manner in which we interact with families and students. Root Cause: COVID 19 has required two different models of instruction and serious safety precautions.

Comprehensive Needs Assessment Data Documentation

The following data were used to verify the comprehensive needs assessment analysis:

Improvement Planning Data

• District goals
• Campus goals
• Campus/District improvement plans (current and prior years)
• Planning and decision making committee(s) meeting data
• State and federal planning requirements