Human Performance Improvement Report

Human Performance Improvement Report

Client Organization:

Sonoraville High School 7340 Fairmount Hwy SE, Calhoun, GA 30701

Point of Contact at Client

Organization:

Amy Stewart, Principal Email: [email protected]

Team Members: Team 1: Bonae Barrs, Ashley Brookshire, Madison Hardesty, Sanchetta Ferguson, Bethani McNelly, and Carrie Rigdon

Do not delete this text until you submit Assignment 4 Your instructors will make comments directly on this document throughout the assignment! Do not

delete/resolve these comments. You should incorporate this feedback into your assignment as you move from section to section (i.e., feedback made to Assignment 2 should be incorporated into your project

before you complete Assignment 3).

**Remember, if you have a question regarding a comment, don’t reply and ask your question. Instead email the instructors.**

Executive Summary

The performance problem identified and investigated for this project was conducted at

Sonoraville High School, a public school in Calhoun, Georgia. It was determined that teachers at

Sonoraville High School are not completing the required PLC meeting agenda paperwork in a

timely manner. While working with the school principal, the problem was identified.

Complete this section as the final component before you turn in Assignment 4! In this section, you will essentially summarize the entire report below in no more than 2 double-spaced pages. This condensed report should synthesize each of the below components (the other deliverables in this assignment). We recommend using the following outline/format:

Paragraph 1 – Description of the performance problem your project investigated Paragraph 2 – Description of the data you collected and why it was important Paragraph 3 – Description of the performance gap and the potential causes of the problem Paragraph 4 – Description of the proposed solutions and how they address the causes

Performance Systems Analysis Alignment Tables Data with Assignment 2

Data Collection Alignment Table

Problem Statement

Data

For quantifying the performance gap (e.g., Current and Ideal Performances)

For understanding the context or environment

For identifying potential causes to the problem

Ninth-grade English teachers at Sonoraville High School are not completing the required PLC meeting agenda paperwork in a timely manner.

In each cell, briefly describe the type of data you’re collecting. Make sure it is connected to the appropriate heading (Ex: Interviews with 8th grade science teachers).

In each cell, briefly describe the type of data you’re collecting. Make sure it is connected to the appropriate heading (Ex: Interviews with 8th grade science teachers).

In each cell, briefly describe the type of data you’re collecting. Make sure it is connected to the appropriate heading (Ex: Interviews with 8th grade science teachers).

In the following table, provide a high-level overview of the HPI process. You will complete the following sections along with the corresponding assignments as listed below.

Problem Statement with Assignment 1 Performance Gaps and Identified Causes with Assignment 3 Proposed Intervention(s) with Assignment 4

Solution Alignment Table

Problem Statement Performance Gaps Identified Causes Proposed Intervention(s)

Ninth-grade English teachers at Sonoraville High School are not completing the required PLC meeting agenda paperwork in a timely manner.

Include your identified gap from your Gap Analysis. (NOTE: One gap is fine. Include a maximum of two gaps.)

Identify the first potential cause of your performance gap. (Ex: Lack of WiFi)

Identify the proposed intervention that directly targets the cause. (Ex: Provide WiFi)

Assignment 1: Identified Performance Problem – Module 1

Organization Description

Mission and Purpose

Sonoraville High School is committed to educating and empowering all students for them

to become caring and contributing citizens in an ever-changing world. Sonoraville High School,

as an organization, also believes that teachers are designers and leaders of engaging work.

Communication, collaboration, and connection are essential, and all community members are

vital to the organization’s success.

Physical Setup, Location, and Context

Sonoraville High School is one of two high schools in the Gordon County Schools

system. Sonoraville High School is located off a major highway in a rural part of Gordon County

in northwest Georgia. The school campus consists of seven buildings. These include a renovated

former middle school, which now houses high school classrooms, district offices, and the

Gordon County Gateway Virtual Learning Academy. Other facilities include two gyms, a band

facility, a theater/fine arts building, a CTAE building, the former middle school building, and the

main high school building. Sonoraville High School has over 1,100 students and just under 100

faculty and staff members. Feeder schools of Sonoraville High School include one middle school

and four elementary schools. The High School has been open since 2005, when the county

opened its doors to residents on the eastern side of Gordon County. This gave residents another

high school option. To accommodate the growing needs of Gordon County, the school district

built a new middle school in 2014 which closed the doors of Sonoraville Middle School.

Sonoraville High School acquired the former middle school building to expand its classroom

needs.

Gordon County Schools is a one-to-one technology district, meaning every student has a

device for instructional use. At Sonoraville High School, each teacher has an Apple TV in every

classroom, a MacBook, and an iPad. Students are provided with an iPad with access to Microsoft

suite products, digital learning tools, and the district’s LMS.

Employees and Clients

Sonoraville High School employs a diverse, dedicated, and experienced staff. The

employees at Sonoraville High School are dedicated individuals who come from diverse teaching

backgrounds. Forty-eight percent of Sonoraville’s teaching staff hold higher education degrees.

Teachers are highly qualified and are encouraged to earn endorsements in certifications such as

gifted, reading, computer science, and other fields. Approximately 79.4 percent of teachers have

five or more years of teaching experience and plan to remain in education for many more years.

The administrative team consists of the school principal and three assistant principals.

Sonoraville High School also has two guidance counselors on staff, a lead instructional teacher,

and a lead special education teacher. The school also has a new media specialist who is making

positive changes to how the media center is being utilized by staff and students. Stakeholders of

the school include a local governance committee comprising local business partners, parents, and

staff.

Sonoraville High School meets the needs of students with diverse learning needs and

serves many students with special learning needs. Students who receive special education

services due to a specific disability consist of 10 percent of the population; gifted students

represent 13.98 percent of the population; and students who receive services due to limited

English proficiency make up 2.73 percent of students. Additionally, 66.67 percent of the students

at Sonoraville High School were eligible for free or reduced meals during the 2023-2024 school

year.

Sonoraville High School Student Demographics

Student Race/Ethnicity Percentage of Students

Asian/Pacific Islander 0.79

African American/Black 2.02

Hispanic 12.92

Native American/Alaskan Native 0.44

White 80.57

Multiracial 3.08

Student Sub-Groups Percentage

Students with Disabilities 10

English Language Learners 2.73

Gifted 13.98

Free and Reduced Meals 66.67

Problem Description

Current Performance

Ninth-grade English teachers at Sonoraville High School are not completing the required

PLC meeting agenda paperwork in a timely manner.

At the start of the 2018-2019 school year, the newly-appointed superintendent of the

Gordon County Schools System mandated all schools become acquainted with the PLC

(professional learning community) process and implement this collaborative effort. Sonoraville

High School’s principal assigned roles and responsibilities that each PLC grade level and content

area were expected to follow. As leadership at the district and school level changed within the

next five years, these expectations for the PLC process remained the same. However, within the

last year, fewer teachers have complied with the required procedures and expectations for

submitting PLC agendas and their accompanying minutes.

Problem Identification

Since her election as Sonoraville High School principal in 2021-2022, Mrs. Stewart noted

discrepancies in PLC engagement and participation from teachers. She has attempted to improve

engagement and participation in PLC meetings ever since. Mrs. Stewart has scheduled protected

time every Wednesday morning to be devoted solely to PLC meetings. She has also requested

teachers hold meetings in the media center, and that administrators attend these meetings to

support the teachers/answer questions. Furthermore, she provided a fillable PLC agenda template

for teachers to use, and created public submission folders on Schoology, the district’s LMS. In

the most recent school leadership meeting, she identified compliance issues related to proper

submission of PLC paperwork.

Parties Affected by the Problem Affected parties for the incomplete agenda PLC paperwork include teachers,

administrators, the school as a whole, and students.

Teachers

The ninth-grade English teachers at Sonoraville High School meet weekly. However,

these teachers have not submitted their agendas and minutes to the proper channels. As a result,

these teachers are not able to demonstrate evidence of their instructional goals/efforts to meet

these goals, plans for interventions and enrichment, and assessment practices. This lack of

documentation could lead to questions about the collaboration of the teachers, as well as give the

impression that teachers are not fully compliant in the PLC process. Participation and proper

documentation are often part of teacher evaluation. Failure to document these agendas could

negatively impact their performance reviews. Without clear documentation, tracking teachers’

efforts and growth, which limits their ability to improve instructional practices and receive

professional development.

Administrators

Administrators hold teachers accountable for the expected duties and responsibilities,

especially regarding instruction. The administration at Sonoraville High School relies on PLC

documentation to monitor teacher collaboration, assess professional development needs, and

ensure alignment with school goals. With proper documentation, administration may be able to

provide appropriate guidance or support for teachers. PLC documentation is also a part of

meeting compliance requirements for the district; administrators may face scrutiny from their

superiors for not properly maintaining records. A lack of detailed insights from PLCs might

cause administrators to misallocate resources, professional development opportunities, and

instructional support.

School

PLCs play a role in Sonoraville High School’s school improvement plan. Failure to

submit documentation can undermine the efforts to demonstrate progress toward improvement

goals. This lack of documentation could also impact accreditation and funding for the school. If

these issues with PLC documentation become public, the community’s view of the school’s

reputation as a place of learning and collaboration might be affected.

Students

Finally, proper documentation of PLC meetings could positively impact the students of

Sonoraville High School. With adequate collaboration and reflection documentation through

PLCs, teachers may share effective teaching strategies and show consistent instruction across

classrooms. Since PLCs often focus on data-driven decisions to support student learning, a lack

of documentation may hinder tracking student progress and addressing achievement gaps.

Documentation often leads to targeted interventions; without it, students needing the extra

support may not receive the necessary attention or resources.

The problem of ninth-grade English teachers not submitting PLC paperwork can

negatively impact teachers’ professional accountability, administrators’ ability to support their

teachers and students, Sonoraville High School’s school improvement efforts, and ultimately, the

students’ learning experiences. As previously stated, teachers can face negative consequences in

their professional development, as well as collaboration with other educators, as a result of a

failure to complete PLC documentation. Administrators in turn, can insufficiently support their

teachers and students, with this lack of professional development knowledge, affecting the

proper resources. As a result of lack of support from teachers and administrators, students will

also be negatively impacted.

Assignment 2: Data Collection Plan – Module 2

Restated Performance Problem Description Sentence: Ninth-grade English teachers at Sonoraville High School are not completing the required PLC meeting agenda paperwork in a timely manner.

Data Source Type of Data (Qualitat ive, Quantitat ive, or Mixed)

Method of Data Collection

Data Collection Purpose

Rationale for Data Collection Data Collection Completion Date*

9th Grade English Teachers (n=4)

Mixed Google form Survey

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Quantify Ideal Performance

Identify Potential Causes

Using a survey will provide the data we need in order to determine exactly why teachers in this category are not submitting proper paperwork on time. The use of an electronic survey for this small group of teachers will help us to quantify, anonymously, the reasoning for incomplete documentation. Since implementation is in the form of a focus group, our survey will incorporate traditional survey questions while also using open-ended questions. This will allow participants to answer questions employing more thoughtful input than a traditional survey. This will allow for better data collection and more qualitative responses to give better insight as to what might truly be causing the gaps we see. We will utilize questions that will allow us to determine if teachers are truly completing this documentation as parts of other groups or not at all. Some sample questions could include:

● What barriers prevent you from completing your PLC documentation?

● How often do you meet with your team (weekly, monthly, etc.)?

● What types of documentation do you complete while in the meeting/after the meeting?

This type of data collection will provide us insight into what might truly be going on inside the teacher’s classrooms/lives that might hinder their abilities to complete proper documentation.

10/27/24

Instructional Lead Teacher and Administration (n=3)

Mixed Survey 1:1 Interview

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Incorporating the administration is crucial to understanding the performance gap we are seeing. Administrators are the stakeholders who uphold the standards required for this task’s completion. Therefore, their input is key to understanding where particular gaps may occur between educators and administration. We will engage the ILT administrators in a survey that will incorporate both traditional quantifiable

10/27/24

Quantify Ideal Performance

Identify Potential Causes

data collection, and also open-ended questions to gather the qualitative information needed as well. This data source will assist us in understanding the environment that our performance problem is occurring and what context we might be missing. Also, the data will inform us of what is expected in the ideal scenario of PLCs and teacher performance and how this is explained/distributed to teachers. We will be able to quantify data through these survey interviews to understand if the environment is a positive one, where teachers feel comfortable sharing and submitting their concerns, and if their input is valuable to their superiors. This will provide invaluable information as to why these particular teachers may not be turning in their PLC paperwork.

Leadership Minutes

Qualitati ve

Document Analysis

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Quantify Ideal Performance

Identify Potential Causes

Based on the problem statement, looking at leadership minutes can provide insight into what the administration is looking for in these documented meetings, as well as the purpose for which this documentation is utilized. This documentation will provide us insight into the true requirements of teachers and the in-depth procedures required, and it might identify some potential causes for incomplete/not turning in paperwork. This could provide us with information to recommend some potential changes for our sample focus group of teachers.

10/18/24

Schoology folders

Qualitati ve

Document Analysis

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Quantify Ideal Performance

Identify Potential Causes

By looking at teacher Schoology folders, we can identify and locate teachers' lesson plans and curriculum. We can identify any time spent on coursework and what teachers may have on their course load to look at their current performance issues. By looking at this documentation, we can analyze the volume of materials that teachers are expected to maintain, along with how complex their coursework may be. This information could provide us with critical insight into a teacher’s everyday work and what exactly might be happening to prevent them from completing this paperwork. This could also provide some recommendations for potential changes for teachers.

10/18/24

PLC minutes document

Qualitati ve

Document Analysis

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Quantify Ideal Performance

By looking at the actual documentation required of teachers, we will be provided with the context and understanding of what is to be completed and what is required from the meetings (as well as how often these PLC meetings occur). Looking at the paperwork will provide insight as to the depth of volume needed to complete the required paperwork. We will also be able to determine how frequently this document is to be submitted by teachers. This instrument is crucial to understanding what questions and

10/18/24

Identify Potential Causes

documentation teachers must complete in order to meet administration requirements. It will provide data for potential causes as to why teachers cannot/are not completing this documentation.

Operations Guidance

Understand the Context or Environment

Quantify Current Performance

Quantify Ideal Performance

Identify Potential Causes

Documentation for the school year and its operations will provide insight as to what duties are expected of teachers throughout the entire school year. By looking at this piece of data, we can determine what the environment is like for our focus group, as well as the expectations set for them by the administration. This data will also be crucial for understanding if there might be any potential reasons why the documentation is not being completed by looking at the requirements set forth by the school.

10/18/24

*Remember, all data should be collected by the end of Module 3.

Assignment 3: Analysis Report – Module 4

In this section of the report, you will conduct three different analyses. These analyses should build directly on the data that was collected as part of your data collection effort. You should integrate your data into Assignment 3 and include charts and figures as necessary.

Restated Performance Problem Description Sentence: Ninth grade english teachers at Sonaraville High School are not submitting PLC documents in time.

Environmental Analysis The purpose of an environmental analysis is for you to get a better understanding of the context where the performance problem is occuring. When we consider the context of a performance problem, there are four levels to consider (i.e., world, workplace, work, and workforce). For this project, we’re just focusing on the last three. You should not conduct the environmental analysis only focusing on the performance problem (e.g., identifying resources/tools that are only used in the tasks related to the performance). However, you should be discussing these items through the lens of your identified performer group. We have provided you with the outline for completing this portion of the assignment below. Do not deviate from it.

Work Environment Sonoraville High School is a rural public high school located in northwest Georgia. The ninth-grade English teachers work in an environment where collaboration is essential, especially through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). However, despite structured time for these meetings, documentation and timely submission of meeting agendas are lacking.

Resources & Tools Describe the resources and tools available to your performers in the environment. This can include people, spaces, technology, etc.

Information & Feedback Describe the types of information and policies that exist in the overarching workplace. Also, provide a description of the feedback systems in place for the performers.

Consequences for Nonperformance & Incentives for Performance Describe the consequences for nonperformance and the incentives in place for exemplary performance within the organization.

Work

Give a high-level summary of the type of work that your performers complete as it relates to their overarching job (a few sentences).

Job Tasks & Processes The ninth-grade English teachers are responsible for delivering instruction aligned with the curriculum, engaging students in meaningful learning experiences, and collaborating with colleagues through PLCs to improve instructional practices. Their job involves preparing lessons, assessing student performance, and participating in school improvement initiatives.

Workforce Ninth grade english teachers at Sonaraville High School

Knowledge and Skills Describe the knowledge and skills of your performer group. This will include information like their education level, certifications, special endorsements, and so on.

Motivation Describe the motivation level of your performers. Consider these questions: How motivated are they to work? What motivates them to work? What does NOT motivate them?

NOTE: If you find that any components of this outline are missing, you should state that! Sometimes, the absence of a piece in the environment can help explain what is going on!

Gap Analysis Complete the table below. See the bullet list for details on what information should be included in each column. You are only required to identify at least one performance gap (i.e., one row). You should only include one or two gaps! If you feel like you’ve identified multiple (i.e., more than two) gaps and want to include them, please let us know prior to submission.

● Actual Performance: Quantify what is actually happening. Use apples-to-apples language. ● Desired Performance: Quantify what the ideal scenario would be. Remember: Leadership or

official policy should establish the desired performance. Not the performers! Use apples-to-apples language.

● Performance Gap:What is the quantifiable gap between what is CURRENTLY happening and what SHOULD BE happening? (Do the math! Desired – Actual = Performance Gap) Use apples-to-apples language.

● Data and Rationale: Explains which data sources you used to identify this gap and explain how each data source informed your process.

● NOTE: Please do not use the template text in the sample table below verbatim. This is an example. You are expected to draft content in your own words to populate the cells below.

Actual Performance

Desired Performance

Performance Gap

Data and Rationale

30% of teachers (15 out of 50) are incorporating technology into their classroom at least three times a week.

70% of teachers (35 out of 50) are incorporating technology into their classroom at least three times a week.

40% more of teachers (n=20) should incorporate technology into their classroom at least three times a week.

Teacher survey: The survey asked teachers to indicate how often they used technology in their classrooms. This established the Actual Performance.

Instr Coach interviews:We spoke with two instructional coaches. These conversations gave us insight to expectations of decision-makers and established the Desired Performance.<