April Update
March 31, 2010 by admin
Filed under School Bulletin
As-Salaam Alaikum,
FROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR/PRINCIPAL
REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY
Dear Community,
The “winds of March” are renowned for the cool winds they blow and being harbingers of the coming spring. So it was on March 10th and 11th of this year when we hosted the Quality Assurance Review Team from SACS/CASI. Those two days were the culmination of work begun in 2005 when we started afresh on our school improvement. For five years we have been actively striving to continuously improve what we do for students and now the fruit of our striving has come into sight.
What we accomplished came about through the efforts of so many people. A team of school staff, students, community members, and educational consultants accepted the task to lead the effort to ensure that the school was meeting the seven research-based standards that reflects a quality school. Sis.Jeanette Nu’Man, our leader, guided us through the daunting process as we navigated murky waters of the change process. Change meant looking at how we do business and whether we are effective at what we do. Change also means being willing to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses and working to create and shape the future we collaboratively envision as a comunity.
That being said, we dug in our heels and rolled up our sleeves. Everyone boarded the ship and in spite of rough and sometimes raging waters, we set sail for excellence, and here we are today.
The visit by the team was successful and these are the outcomes I want to share with you. These are some of the areas in which the Mohammed Schools received high commendations:
1. Strong sense of community and belonging with shared ownership.
2. Maintaining up-to-date school profile focusing on demographics and school and community data. This serves as direction for achievement.
3. Collaboratively developed measurable schoolwide goals and objectives in four priority areas with a clear focus on improving .
4. Commended for networking with Dekalb County Staff Development Program to participate in relevant professional development to improve student learning.
5. Having leadership that fosters an academic learning climate and promotes quality instruction with a culture of hig expectations for student learning.
6. Collaboration with stakeholders to support student learning, raise money for an effective school operation and access community resources, and also collaborating to mange finances.
Alhamdulillah for our accomplishments!!! We also received 4 recommendations that I would like to share with you, as well, to keep you abreast of our school-wide focus:
REQUIRED ACTIONS (RECOMMENDATIONS)
1. Make direct correlation between evaluation and goals: Correlate professional learning with staff evaluations and schoolwide learning goals in school improvement plan.
2. Expand distribution of information about student performance and school effectiveness to a broader range of stakeholders and the outer community.
3. Create annual achievement goals with in the school improvement plan sing Benchmarks to periodically review and monitor student progress and adjust achievement goals accordingly. (Develop an incremental timeline to more closely monitor student progress)
4. Develop a technology instructed plan by grade level using existing technology with a schedule for students to complete technology goals throughout the school year. Take what we already have and adapt to students’ use and manage this process.
As Sis.Qur’an has so eloquently stated on her WDMH English/Literature website: “In sharing the results of their visit, the team reported that they found our school to be “impressive” because we have a passion for teaching and learning, and especially for educating our own. They thought our “strong bond” among teachers, students, parents, and the Islamic community was also impressive and inspiring. They said they thought we ran an “amazing” and “impressive” program that had a system and process for getting things done and meeting our goals. They liked the way that we set high goals and how we worked together –all stakeholders (the Atlanta Masjid community, the Atlanta Muslim community, the national Islamic community, the parents, the students, teachers, administration, suppor staff –everyone) to make our dreams a reality.”
So, thank you to the staff, thank you to the community, thank you to the students, and thank you to the parents for all that you do to make our Mohammed Schools as amazing as it is!
Respectfully,
Safiyyah Shahid
Director-Principal
Mohammed Schools of Atlanta
