B2+Strengths.Growth

B2 Areas of Strength and Opportunities for Growth

//**Below you will find the results of the work done by Focus Group chairs and the Core Team to hone in on and prioritize dominant growth items that appeared across the category. In addition a DRAFT Action Statement was developed to encompass those dominant items- this will become part of the Schoolwide Action Plan in Chapter 5 of the Self Study document. Please review the prioritized growth items and the action statement. At the bottom of the page, you will see your focus groups original Areas of Strengths/Growth. Please make comments/edits/additions at the bottom of the page- not directly into the text.**//

__CATEGORY B: PRELIMINARY ACTION STATEMENT: (for October 22)__ Using a wide variety of learning modes, technology tools, academic support structures, and various assessment strategies, faculty will design and more consistently implement higher-order thinking tasks by which to develop and to assess student learning and achievement of the ESLRs across all of the disciplines. Category B: Areas of Growth

(Boldface indicates incorporation into ACTION STATEMENT.)

__B 1 AREAS FOR GROWTH__ 1. Ongoing recruitment of highly qualified students ( Also stated in CATEGORY D ) 2. Increase in inter-departmental communications 3. Greater progress in student learning outcomes using technology tools 4. More rigorous student academic support

__B 2 AREAS FOR GROWTH__ 1. Inclusion of a greater variety of modes for student learning 2. Greateruse of and consistency in higher-order learning tasks

__B 3 AREAS FOR GROWTH__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Greater and more transparent integration of the ESLRs into assessment of student learning. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NOTE: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This would be an <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__ACTION STEP__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> toward the fulfillment of the ACTION STATEMENT below.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Development of professional resources for instructional diversity/flexibility. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NOTE <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: This would be an identified <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__RESOURCE__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> toward the fulfillment of the ACTION STATEMENTbelow.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. More rigorous investigation of the connection between homework and student achievement. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NOTE <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: This would be an identified <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__ACTION STEP__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> toward the fulfillment of the ACTION STATEMENT below.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. More assessment strategies throughout the instructional process that focus on the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy and that shape the instructional process to that end.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(from B 1: #3, #4; B 2: #1, #2; B 3: #1, #2, #3, #4)

Instructions for Identifying Strength and Growth
Utilize the **Narrative** for the identification of areas of strength and areas of growth. These should be a bulleted list of noun statements.

For example, your list would look like. . ..
 * **Areas of Strength (a good thing)**
 * "what do we have. . . "** || **Areas of Growth (a thing we need)**
 * "what do we need. . . "** ||
 * * The use of a wide variety of research data in programmatic improvement || * Greater inclusion of higher order thinking skills across all content areas ||

Area B2 Chart for Strengths and Areas of Growth


 * **Areas of Strength (a good thing)**
 * "what do we have. . . "** || **Areas of Growth (a thing we need)**
 * "what do we need. . . "** ||
 * * effective use of communications tools across all publications
 * wide variety of hands on experiences
 * effective implementation of technology across the curriculum
 * development and usage of educational media
 * distribute results from student achievement studies


 * || * enhance the variety of modes for student learning
 * decrease the variability in higher learning tasks ||

**Focus Group Comments on Prioritized Areas Growth**

 * Comments from 11/14**
 * -another area of growth might be to find ways of assessing the efficacy of the different modes of learning. In other words, we want to include greater modes for student learning, but how do we know they are effective? (sort of like adding technology to the classroom)**