Academic Policies

🔷Student Responsibilities 

• Be proactive in creating their own safe learning while utilizing their student governments, counselors and all other student resources for support

• Do your part and be prepared and regularly do and complete assignments

• Evaluate and cite primary and secondary sources of information to include the title of the source, author information, name and location of the company of publication or website address (not the search engine), the date of publication, and page numbers if known. 

🔷Teacher Responsibilities

• Staff should provide agendas to assist the students with organizing their responsibilities

• Promotes and enforces Ensure there’s an environment that allows for dishonest academic honesty opportunities(cheating).

• Provide aid for evaluating and citing primary or secondary sources in student research. 

🔷School Responsibilities

• School should provide agendas for each student at the beginning of each school year

• All School Policies should be posted in the rooms. agendas

• Be consistent in reprimands and utilize positive rewards to honor students doing the right things

🔷Parent  Responsibilities

• Need more parent involvement on school teams(PTA, SLT) to be involved in policies and school improvement planning

🔷Procedures (reporting, recording and monitoring)

• Recorded at staff meetings but previously discussed based on matrix designed by site committees (SLT, FAC..etc)

Consequences of academic misconduct

• Rule 6 in CMS Rights and Responsibilities:Cheating UB: Honor Code Violation: Violating rules of honesty and Honor Codes, including but not limited to plagiarism or copying another student’s test or assignment, are prohibited. The superintendent has the discretion to punish violations of this rule as Level III if the student’s actions have a serious detrimental effect on other students or staff

Policy Distribution and Review

Academic Honesty Policy is located on the front table in the white binder, posted on the Marie G Davis website and is handed out to the parents at Open House at the beginning of the school year. Teachers will review the policy with students throughout the year. 

The Academic Honesty Policy at Marie G. Davis will be reviewed by staff at the beginning of every school year in August during IB planning meetings. 

How We Define Assessment

The process of documenting and using data on approaches to learning skills, knowledge, and social emotional learning to improve student outcomes and classroom instruction.

Purpose for Assessment

• To monitor student progress towards their learning goals

• To inform instruction for needed reteaching points and enrichment

• To use data to differentiate and meet each child’s individual instructional needs

When should we assess?

• Effective assessment should allow the students to analyze their learning and understand what needs to be improved. As teachers, we should base student learning on real-life experiences that can lead to questions to ask or problems to solve. Assessment should be an integral part of teaching. It should help us identify student strengths and weaknesses and the means of assessment should always be explained to the children.

• Teacher reflections and pre-assessments give us understanding of the students’ prior knowledge before we begin teaching a planner and are used throughout the planner to show a continuum of growth.

• Formative assessments are connected with daily learning and aid us in determining what has been learned. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked using data-driven strategies.

• Summative assessments take place at the end of each IB planner and at the end of the year.  It measures the students’ meaningful understanding of the central idea and is where the children demonstrate what they have learned. Students and parents are informed at the beginning of the planner what the summative will be asking them to do. Students keep a portfolio of works from the beginning of the Primary Years Programme to Year 3 of the Middle Years Programme.

Effective assessments allow us to:

• Assess different types of learning.

• Gather useful data to drive instruction.

• Create rigorous lesson plans based on the needs of all students.

• Help move students through the inquiry process.

• Show evidence that students are succeeding or if interventions are needed.

• Plan future further activities that drive inquiry and collaboration.

Assessment Practices

In classrooms throughout our school, a variety of different formative and summative assessments are used, including:

• Exit tickets

• Student discussion

• Teacher Observation

• mClass TRC and DIBELS (reading)

• Kindergarten Entry Assessment

• North Carolina End of Year exams

• enVisions End of Topic Assessments

• Student Portfolios

• Student Self-Assessments

• ACCESS test for English Language Learners

• MAP test

• End of Unit projects

• CogAT (2nd grade Talent Development)

• EL Performance Task

• EL Mid and End of Unit Assessments

• North Carolina Beginning of Year Exam (3rd Grade)

Individuals Who Benefit From the Assessment

• Students: Determine what they know and don’t know and set goals.

• Teachers: Create lessons that target instruction for set intentional academic groups.

• Parents: Understand where their child needs support and sets discussion points with the teacher.

• Administration: Creates an opportunity to get resources for their teachers.

• Support Teams: Determine specific growth points for students. Shows where students need assistance.

Data Collecting and Reporting

Teachers keep anecdotal notes and record grades in PowerSchool on all students which are both formal and informal.  At the end of each quarter formal report cards through CMS and magnet theme (IB Candidacy) are sent home. Teachers are required to document assessment data and grade level standard mastery on all their students. Progress reports are available for parents and students throughout each quarter for reference and updates. 

• CMS report cards (PYP & MYP)

• Magnet Theme-IB Candidacy report cards (PYP & MYP) 

• Inquiry Journals (PYP & MYP)

• Progress reports (PYP & MYP)

• Rubrics ( PYP & MYP) 

• Parent/Teacher Conferences (PYP & MYP) 

• IEP and EC meetings ( PYP & MYP- Students who meet the criteria for services)

• PowerSchool(PYP & MYP) 

• Mastery Connect( PYP & MYP)

• Navigator (PYP & MYP) 

• ELI ( PYP )

• Dreambox(PYP)

• i-Ready (PYP & MYP)

🔷Inclusion

Exceptional and English Language Learner (ELL)  students at Marie G Davis are taught through inclusion in the classroom and in the classroom and through pullout sessions.  Teachers of exceptional children and ELLs  meet on a regular basis with classroom teachers to ensure the learning needs are being met.  Students are taught through individualized, systematic goals that encompasses the student’s specific learning style.  Every effort is made to ensure that both teachers integrate the learning needs of the students with the information in the IB planner, the learner profile attributes, attitudes and key concepts.   

🔷Differentiation

At Marie G. Davis, differentiation is an ongoing practice. Teachers work to identify student strengths and weaknesses in order to meet each learner’s needs.  Student progress is continuously reviewed through formative and summative assessments, as well as teacher observations.  Exceptional teachers English Language Learner Teachers, general education teachers, parents and students meet annually to update student goals to better suit their needs.  Marie G Davis also utilizes the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) process to support students academically who are not on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 plan.  The tiered steps, created by the teacher, parents, students and support staff are reviewed each quarter.  The plan can be tailored to one or more specific content areas or concepts a student may need for additional support with leveled work.  

🔷Best Practice

Teachers and administrators highly value current best practices in teaching and learning.  A focus on the IB Learner Profile attributes are apart of the everyday curriculum.  Teachers use Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Ron Clark House (RCH) system, and other forms of incentive systems to highlight the IB Learner Profile attributes. The Exceptional Children and English Language Learner teachers integrate their teaching with the IB Learner Profiles and use grade level planners to guide their instructional approaches. 

Curriculum

Marie G. Davis follows the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for language instruction. And the Essential Standards (Interpersonal, Interpretive, Presentational, and Culture) for World Languages and EL Education Curriculum.

Professional Development

Professional development opportunities are available for staff.  The IB Coordinator supports IB instruction by facilitating planning and providing professional development. The Literacy Facilitator provides literacy professional development. The math facilitator provides math professional development (K-5). The Dean of Students facilitates math planning (6-8). The Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS) supports teachers with intervention strategies to support learning and growth. Special and Elective classes provide the support to foster the learning and development of skills in each content area by promoting active learning experiences by the department. 

Resources

Students and teachers utilize resources provided by the district such as Reading A-Z, Raz Kids, Discovery Education, Edgenuity, IXL, Leveled Literature Intervention (ILL) and Castle Learning.  In addition, the school, using its own discretionary funds, to purchase additional resources.  The school strives to ensure all students have access to additional resources to maximize instruction. 

Language of Instruction

Marie G. Davis’ daily language of instruction is English. The school incorporates a Balanced Literacy program modeled after the Center for Collaborative Classroom. The core principles of the Collaborative Classroom believes social and academic curricula are interdependent and integrated; fostering caring relationships and building inclusive and safe environments are foundational practices for both the student and adult learning communities; classroom learning experiences should be built around students constructing knowledge and engaging in action; and honoring and building on students’ intrinsic motivation leads to engagement and achievement. Additionally, target World Languages (French and Spanish) are taught to the middle scholars by the use of the communicative approach, creating in the classrooms a culture environment where students learn to read, write, listen and speak in both languages. 

Writing

Formal writing in English, French and Spanish instruction is standards based using a variety of instructional resources. Resources such as, Being a Writer, Lucy Calkins, Writing A-Z and Write On are used to support all types of learners in the writing program. Teachers instruct students to write skillfully, abundantly, using various genres, as well as teach students to work together to develop socially and ethically their written productions.  

Second Language Acquisition

All 6th to 8th grade students at Marie G. Davis are enrolled in French/Spanish. The students are immersed in the language as the teacher speaks in the target language.  The teacher follows the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for World Languages and includes the elements of listening, speaking, reading and writing in French/Spanish. The teacher also aligns the lessons with the grade level program (Exploratory, Level I PartA, and Level I Part B as a High School credit) of inquiry and includes the learner profiles and attitudes.  

English as a Second Language (ELL)

The purpose of the ESL program at Marie G Davis is to provide language support to non-native students as they work towards achieving second language acquisition.  English Language Learners receive English language instruction based on their English proficiency levels as determined by the W-APT and Screener as well as the annual ACCESS language proficiency assessment.  Students are serviced using a combination of push-in and co-teaching models on a schedule developed based on students’ needs, as well as, frequent collaboration between classroom teachers with support from the ESL specialist as needed.   

Exceptional Children’s Program (EC) 

The Exceptional Children’s Program at Marie G. Davis strives to help each student with disabilities reach their individualized academic goals and increase their global connections. Our students with disabilities are served through an Inclusion or Pull Out. In the Inclusion model the Exceptional Children teacher co-teaches with the regular education teacher or instructs a small group of students (regular education and students with disabilities together) in their math or reading classroom. In the Pull Out model, only students with disabilities (usually 1-5 students at a time) are taught reading, writing, math or social skills in a separate classroom.  This model is used with students who exhibit significant academic or social weaknesses. The determination of each student’s services is made by a variety of tests and an Individualized Education Plan team.  Each year this team reviews and updates the needs of each child and their Individualized Education Plan.  All students with disabilities are taught the curriculum on their academic level. 

Speech and Language

Students may be referred for a speech/language evaluation. Once qualified, students receive services by a licensed speech-language pathologist. The amount of time in which the student and speech-language pathologist meet is determined based on student need and is outlined in the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). In addition, speech-language pathologists conduct hearing screenings to new enrollments. 

Hearing Impaired

Hearing impaired students are mainstreamed with their peers.  Classroom modifications are executed based on the student’s IEP. 

Mother Tongue Language

The population at Marie G. Davis consists of 45% Hispanic, 52% African American, 2% Caucasian, 1% multi-racial.  The school provides interpreters during parent-teacher conferences, curriculum nights and as needed throughout the school year. When needed, bilingual staff members provide additional support for students and parents.  The school makes an effort to increase resources reflecting all mother tongue languages.  The school offers a cultural celebration once a year to highlight the diverse population. 

Expectations for Students/Parents

Students are expected to demonstrate conscientious academic effort by regularly completing assignments and by participating constructively in lessons, activities, etc.  Students must demonstrate a strong commitment to learning, be self-motivated and have a desire to excel. Families must actively support each student’s participation in the school’s program. 

Language Policy Review Process

The language policy will be reviewed by the staff and School Leadership Team prior to the start of a school year and will be revised if needed.

🔷The 5th Grade Exhibition

 The 5th grade students are expected to develop and present their own collaborative unit of inquiry that showcases the five essential elements of the PYP (knowledge, skills, concepts, attitudes and action). This is an opportunity for the students to exhibit the attributes of the learner profile which they have been developing throughout the Primary Years Programme.

🔷8th Grade IB Project 

Students will apply and evaluate the skills and knowledge they have acquired throughout their years at Marie G. Davis through International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme criteria. Students will generate new insight and develop a deeper understanding of the world in which they live through an in-depth investigation and communicate their findings to peers.