Chief Academic Officer

ACADEMIC SUPPORT

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY

Warsaw Community Schools’ purpose is our mission: to inspire and equip all students to continuously acquire and apply knowledge and skills while pursuing their dreams and enriching the lives of others.

To accomplish our mission, WCS educators are working together in our Professional Learning Community helping all of our students grow at high rates and learn at high levels.

As a Professional Learning Community, we are a focused on learning, collaboration, and results. Our vision is to be the best place for all students to grow, thrive, pursue dreams, and enrich lives.

3 Big Ideas

  • Learning

  • Collaboration

  • Results

4 Critical Questions

  • What do we want students to learn?

  • How do we know if they’ve learned?

  • What will we do if they haven’t?

  • What will we do if they have?

6 Essential Characteristics of a PLC

  • Shared mission, values, and goals

  • Collaborative teams focused on learning

  • Collective inquiry

  • Action orientation and experimentation

  • Commitment to continuous improvement

  • Results orientation

GUIDED READING

The following information is provided by the Literacy Coaches for Warsaw Community Schools. Feel free to print and use any of the forms you may need. If you have lesson plans you want to post, please email them to kmeeks@warsawschools.org.

Click Guided Reading to see the document library.

HIGH ABILITY

Warsaw Community Schools Mission:

OUR MISSION is to inspire and equip all students to continuously acquire and apply knowledge and skills while pursuing their dreams and enriching the lives of others.

Indiana Definition (Article 36. IC 20-36-1 Sec. 3) “High ability student” means a student who:

  • (1) performs at or shows the potential for performing at an outstanding level of accomplishment in at least one domain when compared with other students of the same age, experience, or environment; and

  • (2) is characterized by exceptional gifts, talents, motivation or interests.

Warsaw Community Schools recognizes that:

  • High ability students are found in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic populations

  • High ability students have different cognitive and social/emotional needs that must be addressed in order for them to reach their potential

Please see this document for Warsaw Community Schools definitions and procedures for High Ability identification.

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HOMELESS STUDENTS

Every Student Succeeds Act
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Indiana will create a plan to better align our local, state, and federal programs to help all students be successful. The Indiana Department of Education is committed to meaningfully engaging a diverse group of stakeholders through a variety of methods and opportunities to solicit thoughts, opinions, and recommendations concerning provisions in Indiana's state plan. In general, SEA's and LEA's must begin implementing the new McKinney-Vento Act requirements. As noted above, however, the ESSA amended section 725 of the McKinney-Vento Act, removing "awaiting foster care placement" from the definition of "homeless children and youths".

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Who Is Homeless?
Homeless students are those who lack a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime residence. This includes students who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or campgrounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals. The definition includes migratory students who live in the aforementioned situations. Beginning December 10, 2016, "those awaiting foster care placement" are not included in the definition.

The education provisions of the McKinney-Vento Act, which are now incorporated within No Child Left Behind, ensure educational rights and protections for children and youth experiencing homelessness. The law directly applies to homeless unaccompanied youth who also receive some special attention within the Act.

The Act's Key Provisions:

  • The McKinney-Vento Act (Section 725) specifies and protects the rights of children and youth in homeless situations. Highlights include:

  • Immediate Enrollment -The right to be enrolled immediately in school without immunization or academic records, and birth certificate, regardless of district policy.

  • Choice of Schools - A student experiencing homelessness has two choices in deciding which school to attend: The school of origin (the school the student attended when he/she became homeless) The school in the zone where the student is currently residing.

  • Transportation - Students in highly mobile or homeless situations are entitled to transportation to and from the school of origin, if it is feasible, in the student's best interest, and requested by the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth.

  • Services - Students experiencing homelessness are entitled to the same programs and services that are available to other children in the District, such as gifted and talented education, special education, vocational education, English Language Learners services, and tutoring. Students are automatically eligible for Title 1 services and Districts must set aside funds as necessary to provide services.

  • Dispute Resolution - If problems arise between the school and parents or between districts, the parent shall be referred to the school's homeless liaison. In the meantime, the student must remain in school and receive transportation.

For More Information Contact:

Daisy Hollon, Liason
dhollon@warsawschools.org

Deepali Jani
McKinney-Vento Homeless Education State Coordinator
Indiana Department of Education
115 West Washington Street, Suite 600
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-233-3372
djani@doe.in.gov
317-460-1340 (direct/text)

Additional Parent Resources Can Be Found At:

https://www.doe.in.gov/student-services/parents-resources and by clicking read more below.

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HSE (FORMERLY GED) TESTING

The state has changed who supplies the high school equivalency test in Indiana, so that was known as the GED is now called the TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion™). It is a state-of-the-art, affordable national high school equivalency assessment that assesses five subject areas including Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. It measures examinees’ levels of achievement relative to that of graduating high school seniors, and career and college readiness, as outlined by the Common Core State Standards. We just call it the high school equivalency, since that is the diploma you will receive when you pass it.

The TASC, or HSE, test is given once a month at Warsaw. The test takes place at Gateway Educational Center on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Beginning time is at 9:00. Each session could take up to 3 hours.

The tests are on-line and follow this schedule:

  • Mondays: Math and Science

  • Tuesdays: Reading and Social Studies

  • Wednesdays: Writing

To sign up for the test, email David Bailey dbailey@warsawschools.org

If you will need testing accommodations you may want to visit their website: https://tasctest.com/demo-home/test-takers/taking-tasc-test/locations/

HUMAN SEXUALITY INSTRUCTION

The following consent forms have been provided to students to take home and are provided here for parent convenience. These forms are in relation to human sexuality instruction in accordance with Indiana state law.

The corporation’s curriculum educates students about reproductive science, reproductive health and wellness, human development, childhood development as well as abstinence from sexual activities outside of marriage and sexual transmitted diseases, as required by Indiana law.

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LITERACY CURRICULUM

The following curricular resources are used in all K-6 Classrooms:

READING DYSLEXIA REPORTING

The Indiana General Assembly adopted SEA 217 which requires school districts and charter schools to develop and implement a plan to provide dyslexia screening and interventions for all students in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade.  This screening process does not diagnose dyslexia, but rather identifies deficits that may be characteristics of dyslexia.  Warsaw Community School’s universal screener is the NWEA Map Reading Fluency/Dyslexia Screener.  This screener provides a comprehensive assessment of the important literacy fundamentals that are predictive of future reading success.  The Map Reading Fluency assessments are designed to identify students in need of additional targeted reading instruction that is systematic, structured, explicit, and multisensory. 

Dyslexia intervention programs must have explicit and direct instruction that is systematic, sequential, and cumulative and include teacher instruction that follows a logical plan of presenting the alphabetic principle that targets the specific needs of the student .  Effective interventions incorporate the simultaneous use of two or more sensory pathways during the presentation of phonics and phonological awareness instruction and student practice.  The dyslexia program that is implemented to the struggling reader should be researched based.   Warsaw Community Schools have several researched based Phonics/ Phonemic Awareness based interventions that are provided to struggling readers.  

Researched Based Phonics/ Phonemic Awareness Based Interventions 

  • Barton Reading and Spelling System (Tier 2/ Tier 3), 

  • Roxie Reading Curriculum Tier 2/ Tier3), 

  • Equipped for Reading Success Program for Developing Phonemic Awareness Tier 2/ Tier 3, 

  • Heggerty Tier 1/ Tier2/ Tier 3.  

Number of students assigned the universal screener during the 2022-2023 school year.

  • Kindergarten: 493

  • First Grade: 489

  • Second Grade: 541 

  • Total Students:  1,523

Number of students found to be “at risk” or “at some risk” for the characteristics of dyslexia ? (Flagged Students)

  • Kindergarten:  120

  • First Grade:  129

  • Second Grade:  124

  • Total Students:  373 Flagged Students  

Number of students who received the dyslexia intervention 

  • Total Students:   471 students received a dyslexia intervention during the 2022-2023 school year. 

How many students were identified with dyslexia during the 2022-2023 school year?

  • 0 - with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia

READING INTERVENTION

Warsaw Community School uses the following programs for reading intervention for grades K-6

  • Barton Reading and Spelling Systems Level 1-5 - Bright Solutions for Dyslexia

  • Roxie Reading Levels A-4 - Teaching Basics

  • Heggerty Levels K, 1, 2, and Bridging the Gap - Literacy Resources

  • Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick - Casey and Kirsch Publishers

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