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Elmhurst administrators outline multi‑year plan and guided‑observation work at York High School
Summary
District administrators told the Board of Education at its Feb. 5 committee meeting that a three‑year literacy and instructional improvement plan for York High School is under way, anchored by leadership coaching, curriculum review and non‑evaluative guided observations tied to student data such as preACT results.
Doctor Campbell, a district administrator, opened the Committee of the Whole presentation by describing the district's strategic‑plan monitoring cycle and said "there are multiple moments throughout a school year that the Board of Education pauses to reflect on the progress that's being made as it relates to specific goals."
Carrie (district learning staff) and Katie (learning and teaching staff) then summarized work under Strategic Priority 1, student success, and said the district is focusing this year on York High School as an exemplar for applying leadership supports and a phase‑based literacy review. Katie described a three‑year, multi‑phase improvement plan for grades 9–12 and said, "student achievement will be elevated at each benchmark each year of this improvement plan."
Administrators said phase 1 focuses on auditing instructional materials and aligning texts and tasks to grade‑level standards in English and social studies. District leaders said division chairs, instructional coaches and building leaders are expected to translate the learning from district‑level reviews into teacher practice and that the next school year (phase 2) will emphasize classroom application and guided observations.
On classroom observation, district staff explained the guided observations are calibrated with external partners and are explicitly non‑evaluative. Katie said, "the guided observations cannot be used as an informal or formal observation," and described the sessions as learning labs for leaders to practice giving higher‑quality feedback. Administrators said they triangulate classroom observation notes with student work and formative assessments — including curriculum‑embedded “cool downs” — and the preACT, which the district is using this year as a new data point.
District staff said partners include an Illustrative Math vendor and Imagine Learning for math supports; they said the preACT is a new transition measure for benchmarking college‑readiness projections and that staff are monitoring how well it correlates to ACT outcomes. The presentation included a district plan for building leader biweekly coaching, attendance at leadership meetings and targeted professional learning for division chairs to drive instructional change.
Board members asked how guided observations relate to teacher evaluation. Administrators reiterated the distinction between learning observations for leaders and formal teacher evaluations but said leader supervision does incorporate follow‑up on action items generated by guided observations; they described accountability for principals when agreed actions are not completed.
The presentation closed with administrators and several board members saying the district has seen measurable gains in student achievement and that the York work is intended to accelerate improvement across the 9–12 band.
