Guiding Questions:

• What actions were successfully implemented?

Echo Glen School prepares School Improvement Plans for both OSPI and the Issaquah School District. Each entity requires goal-setting that is similar in most areas but also requires elements that are different to each organization. The following is a combination of what has been requested by both organizations:

OSPI SIP:

Goal 1:  In the 2021-2022 school year, Echo Glen students will increase academic participation and successes through meeting credit accrual goals.

• 100% of all students who have entered Echo Glen campus have participated in the orientation process. All students collaborated with staff to set learning goals and pick classes to support their credit accrual.
• All 7 cottages are participating in after-school programming (67 students). This programming takes place Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and are 2 hours and 30 minutes in length. After-school programming consists of cooking classes, Magic the Gathering Club, Astrobiology (in partnership with University of Washington), Bridge Music Project, UPower (physical fitness), and Screenwriting. When students participate in after-school activities, their participation and attendance increased.

Goal 2:   In the 2021-2022 school year, students attending Echo Glen School for 90 or more days will improve reading comprehension by 1.0 grade level as measured by monthly assessments beginning at intake and continuing throughout enrollment.

• Every student entering Echo Glen School takes the Star Test within 2 weeks of entering the program and then continues to taking assessment every 2 weeks during their stay. This data is collected by the Educational Advocate.
• The school has purchased the online program i-Ready to assess and support students who are 2 years or more behind in their reading abilities in comparison to their grade-level peers. This program will start in the month of March 2022.

Goal 3:   In the 2021-2022 school year, students enrolled 90 or more days will attend and participate safely in class.

Data is collected on all YES Team and Security calls. Data is analyzed monthly with representatives of both Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and School teams.

• Data collection system is currently being run in one cottage (Chinook) as a pilot program to support students in reflecting on their school behaviors throughout the school day. This data is then communicated with cottage staff to support in full program consistencies on a daily basis.
• Leadership team has completed 3 total walk-throughs using the Classroom Structure and Management Checklist. The goal to complete the walk-throughs weekly has not been feasible at this point but will increase in the month of April.  Staff trainings on Re-Education practices continue through the school year during twice-monthly staff meetings.

ISD SIP:

Goal 1: In the 2021-2022 school year, 100% of Echo Glen students will increase academic participation and successes through meeting credit accrual goals.

• 100% of all students who have entered Echo Glen campus have participated in the orientation process. All students collaborated with staff to set learning goals and select classes to support their credit accrual.
• All 7 cottages are participating in afterschool programming (67 students). This programming takes place Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and are 2 hours and 30 minutes in length. After-school programming consists of cooking classes, Magic the Gathering Club, Astrobiology (in partnership with University of Washington), Bridge Music Project, UPower (physical fitness), and Screenwriting. When students participate in after-school activities, their participation and attendance increased.

• What impact was observed (or not)?  What evidence did you use to determine impact?

Since the implementation of all above goals and activities, students are participating in class and earning credits while they are serving their sentences at Echo Glen Children’s Center and School. Data used to determine these successes includes attendance, the orientation process/checklist, credit evaluations.

• How did actions impact disproportionality and/or engagement with families of disproportionally impacted population?

The students of Echo Glen School do not live with their families. This makes parental/guardian contact and engagement challenging and at times, not appropriate. It was identified by the teaching and support teams that the families, when engaged, needed additional parent supports/training. This school year, our Educational Advocate has launched a “Parent University” which is a parenting group that follows the Parent Project curriculum (evidence-based and nationally normed) to build skills and community in working with our youth exiting juvenile rehabilitation programs. Currently, 6 families have participated and 10 families have signed up for our second session.

• What actions would you continue?  What actions would you change?  Why?

All actions will maintain through the 22-23 school year with the addition of all students participating in a daily Check-in/Check-out program and data collected through the SWIS system, the addition of a student council, and the implementation of a facility-wide MTSS program (currently in year one at Echo Glen School and in the planning year for Echo Glen Children’s Center.)

The Washington School Improvement Framework (WSIF) is provided by the state as part of the OSPI School Report Card to inform and guide school improvement goals and action plans. School SIP teams use additional data sources to inform their planning. Progress toward school improvement in overall achievement and disproportionality is monitored using state and district measures using a common School Improvement Data Dashboard, aligned to the WSIF.

Describe your SIP team process for studying the SIP data dashboard and other available data and selecting SIP goals.

The OSPI School Report Card does not give accurate information on the current student body of Echo Glen School because of the transiency of students moving in and out of the program based on length of the student’s sentence. Because of this, the team pulls data from three sources:  SWIS, i-Ready  and STARs. In addition to these data sets, the team also invested in the participation of the PEER-EBD (Participatory Evaluation and Expert Review for Classrooms Serving Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities) and identified areas of growth based on the results.

Describe your observations regarding overall achievement and disproportionality that informed your SIP goal(s) and actions. Include possible root causes of disproportionality (i.e. if you were to address the causes, it would likely result in a decrease in disproportionality).

The student body of Echo Glen School is from the entire state of Washington. At Echo Glen, there is a higher percentage of black and brown students, students who are experiencing poverty and homelessness, and a higher percentage of students with special education services than the students in the Issaquah School District. Also, all students are experiencing the trauma of incarceration. At intake, only 4% of students were on track to graduate with their class. Many students had previously dropped out, experienced a series of suspensions or expulsions, or did not attend regularly.

School-Wide Achievement Goal(s)

Goal 1:  In the 2022-2023 school year, the school team will pilot implementation of assessment tools for academic levels, graduation progress, behavioral, social/emotional, physical and mental health needs.  

Goal 2:  In the 2022-2023 school year, Echo Glen School will adopt and implement a Social-Emotional Curriculum that is in alignment with DCYF social-emotional programing and state standards.

Goal 3:  In the 2022-2023 school year, the Echo Glen Children’s Center team (partnership of ISD and DCYF) will develop and implement a comprehensive behavioral data collection system.