5-Year Improvement Plan Update for Granby Memorial High School Heard by Granby Board of Education

Granby Memorial High School Principal Patricia Law presented the state of her school's five-year plan to the Granby Board of Education Wednesday night, charting progress and discussing plan goals.

Law explained the standardized testing data that helps drive the plan and talked about development on the less-standardized components, like making students into effective collaborators and compassionate contributors. The plan began in 2010 and ends in 2015.

The ultimate plan goal at the high school is to “enable students to demonstrate powerful thinking by systematically solving problems through analyzing and synthesizing information and articulating and defending a position.”

The plan uses results from six sub-sections (called strands) of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), administered to sophomores each school year, to measure progress.

The main measurable goal of the plan is for 100 percent of GMHS students to reach a set of internally developed standards in six low performing strands – response to literature, reading for information, algebraic reasoning, scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary writing I and II – by 2015.

The current state of those goals ranges from 53 percent of students reaching the reading for information standard to 87 percent of students reaching the standard in scientific inquiry.

Overall, the school’s weakest subject is reading, with CAPT scores the lowest on the whole among the test’s four subjects of reading, writing, science and math.

In the 2011-2012 school year, which showed an overall drop in all categories but doesn’t reflect a multi-year trend, 60 percent of sophomores were at or above the CAPT reading goal level (CAPT goal levels are distinct from the district’s own internal standards, but provide an overall view of student performance).

The five-year plan’s own action plan revolves around improving the weak subject of reading. Action plan items include increasing the use of non-fiction reading in classrooms, special education teachers consulting with classroom teachers and the school’s literacy specialist helping teachers emphasize best practices for reading and writing in the classroom.

GMHS students did their best during the past five years on writing, with 82 percent of sophomores in the 2011-2012 school year at or above the CAPT writing goal level.

But the plan is more than just measurable scores and other numbers.

“We don’t want to just look at standardized test scores,” she said.

Law was very enthusiastic about the efforts of students as compassionate contributors, noting the strong participation in food drives, student teaching, nursing home volunteer work, exchange programs and much more.

Students are also showing good effort in working together as effective collaborators. Many clubs and extracurricular activities, collections for veteran’s gift boxes, the school art show, fundraising efforts, collaborative teamwork in classrooms and much more were mentioned.

While there is much progress to be made on reaching the internal standards, Law said that, overall, the school is producing effective students who can move on to the next stages of their lives.

“We are graduating students who have the skills to be successful in college and in careers,” Law said.