by Kate Evans
The Morgan County School Board heard an Instructional Empowerment presentation from Secondary Education/Career Technical Education Director Beth Golden, Warm Springs Middle School Principal Jamie Harris, Berkeley Springs High School Principal Mitch Nida and Instructional Empowerment Leadership Coach Gary Hess at their February 4 meeting. 
The presentation discussed the implementation of the program, along with professional development training for staff and administrators.
Golden said that background data from the 2023-2024 school year showed that the majority of instruction was at the retrieval and comprehension levels.
Golden said content standards and workforce needs mean that teaching should be on higher levels — the analysis and knowledge utilization levels.
A shift in teaching is required in teachers, administrators and students to reach the full rigor needed, officials told the school board.
Professional development
A workshop was held in April 2024 to focus on “determining your destination vision for instruction.”
Core instruction highlights included students self-managing in groups, students persevering through difficult tasks and creating an engaging environment for students and staff.
Staff also had professional development training on the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning. The focus is on student-lead learning along with forming student teams, learning targets, open-ended questioning and students sharing thinking.
Administrators and central office curriculum were also trained on “Rigor Walks” to measure implementation and identify strengths and growth areas.
The Instructional Empowerment program was launched in September with an instructional vision and communications plan, Golden said.
Executive Action Team meetings are four times a year. Instructional Empowerment faculty review data with the district team. Rigor Appraisals are also conducted by the Instructional Empowerment faculty.
Teacher-faculty support and coaching includes two full professional learning days, Model of Instruction toolkits, faculty coaching online, books, Empowerment Central online courses and the Look & Learn process, Golden said.
Middle school report
Warm Springs Middle School Principal Jamie Harris told the school board that they envisioned a dynamic learning environment with rigorous instruction where students master essential skills and knowledge, and students are guided from foundational understanding to complex analysis.
“By fostering critical thinking and problem-solving, we create an engaging atmosphere where students not only excel academically but also become responsible, self-directed learners equipped to apply their knowledge in meaningful, real-world contexts,” Harris said.
Middle school goals
Harris said the middle school exceeded its 45-day goal of showing more student interaction and showing more interaction with partners or groups by January 14.
Strategies for collaborative group work include structured group tasks, rotating roles to ensure active participation of all students, student-led discussions, debate activities, hands-on project-based activities, teaching questioning and summarizing techniques and arranging classroom desks and seating for face-to-face collaborative learning, he said.
Their 45-day Goal 2 to reach by March 20 includes achieving learning targets and focusing on interactions with partners and groups, showing enhanced student collaboration and engagement, Harris said.
Students self-regulate as they learn and work and collaborate while learning.
Berkeley Springs High School
Berkeley Springs High School Principal Mitch Nida spoke on the high school’s instructional vision and its goals.
“At Berkeley Springs High School, students achieve at high levels using student-lead teaming, critical thinking, and effective communication for an ever-changing world when teachers facilitate standards-based, learning opportunities using collaboration and rich learning tasks,” Nida said.
The high school’s 45-day Goal 1 was that by mid-December, 75% of their teachers would post a standards-aligned learning target as measured by Rigor Walk. Nida said 76% of teachers reached that goal. The 45-day Goal 2 focused on alignment of learning target and student learning.
Goal 3 is student collaboration, he said. Action steps include using systems to group students, implementing and reinforcing teaming structures for equal participation, creating and using standards-based independent tasks and all students participating and sharing ideas.
Improvement
Classroom learning levels grew from September until present with higher showings of knowledge utilization, analysis and comprehension.
Nida said that the school rose on two rigor standards as measured during evaluation.
Nida said he was very proud of the high praise that high school staff, students and administrators received from the Instructional Empowerment Coach with whom he has worked very closely.
