What has the DAAC accomplished in recent years?

Durango School District 9-R relies on the DAAC to provide valuable community input on issues facing our schools. The DAAC’s recent projects have included:

• Bylaws and Handbook. The bylaws have been realigned with state laws. In addition, the DAAC and SAC handbook have been revised and were reviewed at orientation. All schools have been provided copies of the handbook for reference.
• School Improvement Plans (SIP). School Improvement Plans are a vital component and charge of DAAC. To help implement current best practices in education and have this reflect in the progress schools have made, the School Improvement Plan template has been refined. An expanded training for principals, SAC, and DAAC representatives on the SIP requirements has been implemented. SIP plans are now submitted electronically and the review evaluation process is collaborative.
• Use of assessment data: For many years the primary source of assessment data has been CSAP status data. Schools now incorporate the status data and are able to include CSAP growth data. These data make it possible for schools to have an overall understanding about whether the scores are growing, declining, or remaining relative stable. This helped a number of schools understand that while the performance of many of their students was high, little growth was being made. All schools used student growth or lack thereof when writing their School Improvement Plans this year. As a result, achievement goals were written with this focus in mind.
• Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)/MAPS Tests. Last year, the district purchased a new assessment measure called NWEA. NWEA tests are administered electronically in the content areas of reading, language usage, mathematics, and science. They are administered in fall, winter, and spring and the results are highly correlated with CSAP. The turnaround time on test results is overnight so teachers are able to have immediate feedback on student performance and incorporate the data to differentiate in their classroom instruction. The results of these tests make it possible for teacher to monitor student growth more frequently and within each subject skills that are specific to the content area. Use of NWEA growth data was incorporated into the SIP goals.
• Professional Development. Our district has established a professional development plan that includes teachers and administrators at all levels. The training that has been provided is based on the work of Harvey Silver and others and focuses on how to better identify student learning styles and implement strategies that address those styles and make classroom differentiation more manageable.
• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). During weekly PLC meetings teachers are more intentional in using CSAP status data, CSAP growth data, NWEA results, and the strategies that we have been integrating from the work of Harvey Silver and his colleagues. For the first time we have aligned assessment data, professional development, and classroom practice across the district.
• Parent Survey. Implementation of a district wide parent survey to provide individual schools and the district with consistent information about school climate, school safety, staff performance, and the educational program has continued.
• Budget. The committee members review recommendations for budget expenditures. This information is analyzed and patterns are noted. Recommendations are then taken to the FAC committee that we have been working collaboratively with on budget areas.