Colorado Springs D-11 is set to invest more into its schools and students most in need. The school district’s board of education voted unanimously to transfer up to $1 million to invest in additional support toward expanded tutoring and intervention services. These services will include ext ra-duty pay for teachers for before- and after-school tutoring, additional materials for this programming, teacher coaching and allotted time for them to visit and learn from higher-performing classrooms. The request was the first of its kind presented to D-11’s board with the intention of accelerating proficiency gains in targeted students who have skills gaps. D-11 Superintendent Michael Gaal explained that the proposal was the result of assessing midyear data to identify and address those most in need of greater support and instruction. The midyear adjustment aims to be a more immediate response to identified needs ahead of spring testing, using the freshest available data. “We are at a place now where we are down to by-student data,” Gaal said. “And, at this midyear time, we want to make an adjustment to make sure that we can extend resources to ensure that our students get the extra time and that our staff also gets the extra time and opportunity to continue to improve their craft.” The new funding will come from the district’s contingency fund. While it is not yet known how this will be distributed to each school, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Brandan Comfort told the board that they have identified concentrations of need and that the funds won’t get allocated until plans for each school are finalized. Any unused funds by the end of the year will roll back into the contingency fund. “Not moving on monies that are available when we see areas of need is exactly why people tire of the (public education) system,” Gaal said. “Because you feel as if you’re throwing the towel in. We are ready to be accountable for the things that work and the things that don’t work as we continue down this continuous improvement cycle.” While Comfort told board members that most funds will be allocated to current staff, external sources could be utilized as needs are identified. According to data from the Colorado Department of Education as of Jan. 7, two D-11 elementary schools, Adams and Carver, are currently ranked as “turnaround” schools, which is the lowest a school can receive on the state accountability system. The next lowest ranking, “Priority Improvement,” applies for seven D-11 schools: Rogers Elementary, Wilson Elementary, James Irwin Elementary-Howard, Jack Swigert Middle, Mann Middle, Galileo Middle and Mitchell High School. Upon receiving these two rankings, the schools are placed on the state’s “accountability clock” and have roughly five years to improve their performance and distinction before receiving intervention from the Colorado State Board of Education. Last year, the Colorado Board of Education approved improvement plans for Galileo and Mitchell, which received additional funding and resources and recorded improved framework scores over the past school year. Since the data is so defined and specified, the district administration plans to present a report to the board at the end of the school year, showing where these investments ultimately went, which students were targeted and what programs were ultimately implemented. This data will also be used to craft the district’s approaches in following years. “So we’re going to very easily be able to track what their (the students’) midyear-level data was, what the intervention is and what the end-of-year-level data is so that we can ensure that there is a return on investment,” Comfort said. “I’m hopeful, I trust that we’re going to see significant impact from this and that this will be a recurring process that we do.” ...read more read less