From DrowningTo Treading..To Dog Paddling

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From Drowning To Treading Water
To Dog Paddling
Kenosha Unified School District
Disproportionality Improvement Practices 2008
DPI Summer Institute
Joe Kucak jkucak_at_kusd.edu Melissa
Werner mwerner_at_kusd.edu
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Big Picture

• KUSD identified for being disproportionate
• African American males CD
• African American males EBD
• Consensus Building
• Infrastructure Building
• Implementation

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Consensus Building

• Examined current district initiatives connected
  to Disproportionality
• District Strategic Plan
• District mission
• Beliefs, Parameters and Objectives
• 7 Strategies

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KUSD Strategy 5

• We will develop and implement plans to model,
  reinforce and recognize responsible, respectful,
  and ethical behavior by everyone.

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KUSD Strategy 6

• We will celebrate and embrace the rich cultural
  diversity of the student body and community in
  order to achieve our mission and objectives.

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KUSD Strategy 7

• We will work effectively with our disengaged
  students and those who are impacted negatively by
  social influences, which are interfering with
  learning in order to improve attendance,
  achievement and the graduation rate.

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2. Infrastructure Building

• Administrators can often be sensitive about
  sharing building data
• Data analyzed district-wide and individual
  buildings
• Special Education Referrals
• Suspensions
• Expulsions
• In School Suspensions
• Out of School Suspensions
• Data analyzed by race, gender, ethnicity,
  disability, and economic level

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KUSD Strategy 5

• Core Values
• Deep level student behavioral analysis
• See Special Education Referral data
• Disproportionality Plan Goal 2, 3 4

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KUSD Strategy 6

• Cultural Competency
• 5 year plan
• Awareness
• Deepen awareness
• Knowledge
• Application
• Further application
• All district employees receive training
• Disproportionality Plan Goal 1

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KUSD Strategy 7

• Increase attendance achievement, and graduation
  rate
• Bridging Special Education and Regular Education
  by developing interventions
• Response to Intervention (RtI)
• Involvement by all educators
• Involvement by all departments

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Professional Development is Key

• RtI
• 3 years of professional development
• Student Intervention Teams (SIT)
• Building level teams
• Regular Education teachers
• Special Education teachers
• Student Service personnel
• Administration
• Student progress monitoring

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3. Implementation

• Work in progress
• Keep refining and changing
• From invitational to more formalized expectation
• District level driven
• See funding form
• 9th Grade Academy at Bradford High School
• Interventions before, during, and after school

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Three Years of Practice

• Introduce RtI
• Develop a common language
• Develop an Intervention Model
• Workgroups

• Summer
• See Elementary Reading
• Tiered Interventions
• See SIT forms
• Broke down departmental
• walls
• Ed. Accountability, Instr. Services, Prof.
  Development, Regular Education, Special
  Education,
• Title I, Student Services

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Practical Tools for Graphing Student Progress
Monitoring

• See handouts
• Making an Excel graph
• Graphing WKCE data

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It truly takes ALL

• Community Conversations that
• Build Working Relationships
• Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)
• Juvenile Justice
• NAACP
• LULAC
• Presented district data to these groups

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This was a very natural process. We have been
open in dealing with problemsand working on
solutions by building bridges and sharing deep
level information.

• Please look at our district website kusd.edu and
  feel free to contact Joe or Melissa.

• Joe Kucak jkucak_at_kusd.edu and
• Melissa Werner mwerner_at_kusd.edu

Questions?