by Karen Ruple, Kent ISD

One piece of MDE’s system of statewide support for Title I high priority schools is a Process Mentor Team. This particular intervention has the focus of moving a building in any AYP phase back to the AYP phase of 0.

Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) and Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs) are the key partners in this initiative. Consultants from these service agencies have the responsibility of coordinating with their local district personnel in the formation of Process Mentor Teams.

For any Title I building in AYP Phase 1 or 2, Mentor Teams consist of a representative from the service agency and a representative from the district with the AYP phase school. In buildings in AYP phases 3 through 6, an MDE representative is added to the Mentor Team.

This Mentor Team meets with the building school improvement team at least quarterly in order to review the school improvement process, look at student achievement data and assist the school improvement team in setting short-term student learning goals to strengthen the weak AYP areas.

The focus is kept on student achievement by relentlessly keeping these guiding questions in front of teachers:

• What do you expect students to learn?
• How will you know when students have learned it?
• How will you respond when students do not learn it?
• How will you respond if students have already learned it?

The Process Mentor Team documents and training were developed through a collaborative effort with Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan School Improvement Facilitators Network, the Michigan Association of State and Federal Program Specialists and the Michigan Association of Intermediate Superintendents Administrators.

Trainings were held across the state in the fall. People who were unable to attend one of the sessions can find the training video was on MDE’s High Priority Schools website at http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-6530_30334-103288--,00.html