Middle Schools

Desert Skies Middle School has established its School Performance Plan for the school year. This plan was developed by the school’s continuous improvement (CI) team and informed by a comprehensive needs assessment that included data analysis and meaningful engagement with the school community. It includes the school's goals and process developed during Act 1. The CI team will monitor implementation throughout the school year and evaluate and update the goals at the end of the year.  Below you will find "Navigating Our Course At A Glance" to read our plan in its entirety, please click the following link.

Value Statement
Nevada Report Card
In compliance with federal and state law, Nevada’s K-12 Accountability Portal provides detailed information about each school’s student and staff demographics and school
performance rating, a star-rating system based on the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF). You can find our School Rating Report at (Add a link to the school’s School
Rating Report.) https://nevadareportcard.nv.gov/DI/nv/washoe/desert_skies_middle_school/2024 

Table of Contents
Comprehensive Needs Assessment 4
Student Success 4
Adult Learning Culture 5
Connectedness 6
Priority Problem Statements 7
Comprehensive Needs Assessment Data Documentation 8
Goals 9
Goal 1: Student Success 9
Goal 2: Adult Learning Culture 11
Goal 3: Connectedness 12

Comprehensive Needs Assessment
Student Success
Student Success Summary
Desert Skies Middle School continues to see an achievement gap between students that are designated as English Learners (EL) and receiving additional services under that designation and students that are not receiving those services.

SBAC scores for the 23-24SY show that 100% of DSMS students designated as EL scored as less than proficient (level
1 and 2) in ELA.

In math, 99% of our students designated as EL scored as less than proficient (level 1 and 2). In addition, only 45% of EL students met their annual growth targets in
iReady and 20% met their stretch growth goals.

iReady data also shows that 54% of the EL students at DSMS are three or more grade levels below their current grade level with an
additional 11% that are at least two grade levels below. Finally, ACCESS scores from the 24-25SY show that there has been a slight decline each year in the overall ACCESS scores from 21-22, 22-23, and 23-24 school years with only two students exiting EL classification this last school year. 

English Language students at DSMS are still not making the growth that we would like to see and therefore will continue to be the focus of our School Performance Plan in the area of Student Success.
Student Success Strengths
The listening and speaking domains continues to be an area of strength for our EL students; 40% of our students meeting the "bridging" or "reaching" targets of the listening domain and 57% are in "developing" or "expanding" in the speaking domain. Reading and writing are still considered areas for growth among the EL population. 

Problem Statements Identifying Student Success Needs
Problem Statement 1 (Prioritized): English Learners at DSMS are under performing compared to their regular education peers. Critical Root Cause: Desert Skies Middle School continues to have inconsistent implementation of appropriate (grade-level), evidence based strategies designed to help our English Learners with language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) and academic curriculum. EL instruction needs to target skills such as reading, writing, and speaking in order to increase the capacity of our EL students to success. 

Adult Learning Culture
Adult Learning Culture Summary

DSMS Staff continue to struggle on how to appropriately use student data to guide instruction. Administration will strengthen PLC practices by using our instructional coach to help shape effective PLCs and by providing staff with the opportunity to discuss student data and how it should appropriately guide instructional practices using the four PLC questions (What do we want student to learn? How will we know if they have learned it? What will we do if they did not learn? What will we do if they did learn?).

In addition, staff will be held accountable to PLC expectations by completing a weekly entry into their PLC binder that focuses on data and responding to the four questions.

Admin will attend weekly PLCs as well as check binders on a regular basis and provide feedback.

Adult Learning Culture Strengths DSMS teachers are already in the habit of meeting weekly for PLC and have started the process of working through the data and answering the questions. In addition, DSMS teacherscurrently utilize common weekly assessments and student assignments so that they are in a position to compare and contrast data. 

Problem Statements Identifying Adult Learning Culture Needs

Problem Statement 1 (Prioritized):

Teachers at DSMS are not consistently using student data to inform their instructional practices. Critical Root Cause: Approximately 50% of the teaching staff at DSMS have been in the classroom for 5 years or less. Many teachers are still learning how to navigate the teaching professional which includes utilizing student
data and the PLC process. 

Connectedness
Connectedness Summary
Our goal is to increase parent involvement and participation in the DSMS community. We host several parent/student events throughout the year and are continually seeking ways to increase attendance and build trust in the community. While participation has traditionally been low, we are seeing increased attendance in events like parent night and student led conference.

Connectedness Strengths
DSMS has been diligently working to increase overall parent participation in school functions and engage parents in the school community. We have added raffle prizes at our big events and parents receive raffle tickets when they attend. In addition, teachers are expected to reach out to a minimum of five parents per week via postcards or phone calls to make positive contacts.

Problem Statements Identifying Connectedness Needs
Problem Statement 1 (Prioritized): Low percentages of DSMS families participate in DSMS parent centered events throughout the year which leads to low engagement in the overall school community. Critical Root Cause: There is a general lack of trust in the school system for many parents in the community. Many parents are also unsure of how they can participate in the school community and help their child be successful. In addition, some parents are reluctant to engage with staff and attend events due to language barriers.

Priority Problem Statements

Problem Statement 1: English Learners at DSMS are under performing compared to their regular education peers.
Critical Root Cause 1: Desert Skies Middle School continues to have inconsistent implementation of appropriate (grade-level), evidence based strategies designed to help our English Learners with language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) and academic curriculum.

EL instruction needs to target skills such as reading, writing, and speaking
in order to increase the capacity of our EL students to succeed.

Problem Statement 1 Areas: Student Success
Problem Statement 2: Teachers at DSMS are not consistently using student data to inform their instructional practices.
Critical Root Cause 2: Approximately 50% of the teaching staff at DSMS have been in the classroom for 5 years or less. Many teachers are still learning how to navigate the teaching professional which includes utilizing student data and the PLC process.

Problem Statement 2 Areas: Adult Learning Culture
Problem Statement 3: Low percentages of DSMS families participate in DSMS parent centered events throughout the year which leads to low engagement in the overall school community.

Critical Root Cause 3: There is a general lack of trust in the school system for many parents in the community.

Many parents are also unsure of how they can participate in the
school community and help their child be successful. In addition, some parents are reluctant to engage with staff and attend events due to language barriers.

Problem Statement 3 Areas: Connectedness

Comprehensive Needs Assessment Data Documentation
The following data were used to verify the comprehensive needs assessment analysis:

Improvement Planning Data
District goals
School goals
Accountability Data
State assessment performance report
Student Data: Assessments
State and federally required assessment information
English Language Proficiency Assessment System results

Student Data: Student Groups
Race and ethnicity
Special programs
Economically disadvantaged
Male/Female
Special education
At-risk
EL

Employee Data

Professional learning communities (PLC) data
School department and/or faculty meeting discussions and data
Professional development needs assessment data
Evaluation(s) of professional development implementation and impact
Teacher evaluation

Parent/Family/Community Data
Parent/family surveys and/or other feedback
Parent/family engagement, opportunities, attendance, and participation

Support Systems and Other Data
Master schedule
Course offerings
Processes and procedures for teaching and learning, including program implementation

Goal 1: Student Success

Aligns with District Priority
Annual Performance Objective 1:

DSMS will decrease the amount of EL students testing at three or more grade levels below on the i-Ready diagnostic from
91% to 81% by the Spring diagnostic. DSMS will decrease the amount of non-EL students testing at three or more grade levels below on the i-Ready diagnostic from 52% to 42% by the Spring diagnostic.
Evaluation Data Sources: iReady