AEIS Overload

Even though I still need to get my project approved by Dr. Pan, I've gone ahead with discussing possible projects and ideas with Mr. White. There were a few ideas passed back and forth but finally the main thing we focused on was how to help Frankston Middle School (FMS) teachers understand the 2010-2011 Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) results for the campus.

To rephrase that, the goal is not to have the teachers understand the entire report. Mainly, we want the teachers to understand the data related to "economically disadvantaged" students. Many teachers do not understand what qualifies a student as economically disadvantaged. Honestly, until we started discussing everything and I started researching it, I didn't either.

Besides helping teachers understand what economically disadvantaged means, there are other goals in mind, also.

Mr. White's main long term goal for this project: to increase test scores in all three grades and in all subjects in the economically disadvantaged category for Frankston Middle School.

Our combined short term goals:
1) Educate FMS teachers on all aspects of economically disadvantaged students and the 2010-2011 Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) results for the campus.
2) Create an online technology-rich teaching resource for FMS Math, Reading, Writing, Science and Social Studies teachers.
3) Brainstorm or create more non-traditional teaching methods to assist FMS economically disadvantaged students.

One the things I first want to do is send a small questionnaire out to the teachers in order to see what their current perceptions are of economically disadvantaged students. I think this will help me determined what the teachers need to be taught. I will work on a rough draft this weekend and get it to Mr. White for review by the beginning of the week. Since school starts Monday, I know that the teachers will be too busy to complete it then, but hopefully I could have their replies back by the end of the first two weeks of school.

The main task I have taken on so far is interpreting the AEIS data for the campus. As I downloaded and printed out this information, I was horribly intimidated. It honestly took me about thirty minutes just to wade through all the numbers and figure out which columns belonged to which headers and what the percentages meant. I feel that I have a good grasp on the numbers now. I understand the data and what it means for the campus.

The only thing confusing me now is why the state hasn't released the AEIS 2011-2012 reports. I'm thinking maybe they haven't had the chance to put all the numbers together yet? Does this mean that school districts have to go off of numbers from two years prior whenever they set yearly goals? I'll be looking into it.