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Marple Newtown High principal outlines TSI plan focused on students with disabilities
Summary
High school principal John Belchante presented a Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) plan after the students-with-disabilities subgroup triggered TSI status; the plan targets ELA, math, transition planning and leveling practices and calls for strengthened data review and department-chair roles.
John Belchante, Marple Newtown High School principal, presented the district’s Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) plan to the school board on June 9, explaining that data from the PTE and federal Every Student Succeeds Act monitoring identified the students-with-disabilities subgroup as the primary area of concern.
"The goal was 21.4 and our score was 20.66," Belchante said of the subgroup’s achievement metric, and he said the subgroup’s growth rate was "minus or negative 4.56." He said that, because Pennsylvania monitors four-year graduation rates, some students with disabilities who legally remain in programming through age 22 can skew the district’s four-year graduation calculations.
Belchante outlined four priorities for the high school: strengthening English/language-arts supports and classroom use of targeted practice tools; similar targeted work for mathematics with transition planning for students coming from middle school; clarification and strengthening of department-chair responsibilities to ensure data-informed instruction and intervention; and a review of the school’s leveling practices to make sure students are placed appropriately and that teachers receive targeted professional development.
The principal said the school has attended TSI workshops with the intermediate unit, developed working relationships with PTE staff, and has created specific action steps and professional-development plans tied to the priorities. Much of the plan centers on using assessment and diagnostic data, reworking department roles, and smoothing transitions for students entering high school.
Board members heard the presentation and offered no substantive changes at the June 9 meeting. The TSI plan will proceed through the district’s approval channels and the PTE review process as required by state and federal guidance.
