Executive Summary. Raisbeck Aviation High School

Transcription

1 Highline School District Mr. Bruce Kelly, Principal 9229 E Marginal Way S Tukwila, WA Document Generated On November 10, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 5 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 6 Additional Information 9

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? School Location (RAHS) is situated in the principle industrial area of the city of Tukwila, Washington, south of downtown Seattle. This part of Tukwila is a core hub to many commercial and industrial businesses with a well-developed transportation infrastructure and a close proximity to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the port of Seattle. (formerly known as Aviation High School) was founded in 2004, and is operated by Highline Public Schools, serving as the only college-preparatory, aviation-themed high school in the Northwest. Original funding originated from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Port of Seattle. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation provided further resources to develop a Career Readiness program. With the opening of our new facility at The Museum of Flight, we are now the only aviation-themed college preparatory school in the country to share resources with an aerospace museum. RAHS is located adjacent to the Museum of Flight near King County International Airport. Designed to support a rigorous education in "STEM" (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects, the building offers direct views to the adjacent Museum of Flight's airplane static outdoor exhibit which includes a Concorde and pioneering Boeing jet aircraft. The location of the school was selected to provide ready access to the Museum of Flight's resources, located across the street at Boeing Field and to the approximately 200 flight-related businesses nearby. The museum has a long-term plan to enclose the Museum's Airpark with a roof covering currently exposed aircraft from the weather. This roof will span the gap between the high school and the newly built Space Gallery and also allow aircraft, which are seasonally shown, such as the Museum's B-17 and B-29, to be put permanently on display. School Size RAHS is a small public school in the Highline School District but open to all students through application. Students who wish to attend the school apply for admission in eighth grade. Each year the school invites prospective students and their parents to its Information Night to meet with current students, staff, parents, mentors, and alumni, tour the amazing school facility, and answer questions about school programs and the application process. More than three applications are received for each seat the school is able to offer. Applicants come from the Puget Sound region and beyond and represent a diverse cross-section of socio-economic and ethnic groups. Each applicant is interviewed by a panel for 90 minutes, and must complete a twelve page application where they demonstrate their writing abilities. Greater consideration is given to an applicant's passion for aerospace than to previous grades. This school year, students are enrolled from 27 school districts. The current enrollment of the school is 433 students: 107 freshmen, 106 sophomores, 110 juniors, and 110 seniors, which is an increase of 19 students compared to last year's school enrollment of 414 students. The school enrollment has remained consistent from year to year for the past three years: 414 students (2013), 426 students (2012), and 429 students (2011). It is the desire of the school to enroll motivated and committed students that will spend all four years of high school at the RAHS because it is necessary to maintain the sequence of instruction that is designed to prepare students for college, career, and citizenship over a four-year Page 2

5 period of time. The school does not generally accept students who do not begin in their freshman year. Student Demographics - The RAHS male (70%) - female (30%) ratio has been consistent from There is a slight increase of girls this school year, which presents a possible and positive trend of girls' interest in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, especially within aviation and aerospace industries. - The students are ethnically diverse: 57.7 % Caucasian, 18.8 % Asian/Pacific Islanders, 18.4 % Asian, 10.4 % Hispanic/Latino, 5.3 % Black/African American, 0.5% Native Hawaiian, 0.2% American Indian, and 7.5% mixed race. The ethnicity ratio has remained the same for the past three years, though there is a slight decrease of American Indians by 0.5 %, Native Hawaiian by 0.3 %, Black/African American by 0.3%, Hispanic/Latino by 0.9%, and mixed race students from school year. Concurrently, there is a slight increase of Asian students by 2.6%, Asian/pacific islanders by 2.3%, and white students by 2.5% from school year. - Currently, 16.3 % of the students at the school qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program. This is a reduction by 4.4% from school year % students receive specialized instructions and 6.6% students receive accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment. In school year, there were less students (1.2%) qualified for Special Education services, but more students (10%) received learning accommodations according to their 504 plans. - Presently, there are no English language learners at the school; however, three students were identified exiting a Transitional Bilingual program within the last two years: thus, an instructional intervention support in building strong academic language is provided for the former ell students. In school year only 1.7 % of students received services from the English Language Learning program. School Community RAHS has already established itself as a statewide leader in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The culture of our school is enhanced by sports teams of the mind versus traditional athletic teams. Students apply their learning through participation on our For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) or First Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics teams, Science Olympiad, Speech & Debate, or Airline Career Experience (ACE) teams. Culture Club, Honor Society, and Film Club are also big draws for many students. Our students are inspired by the aviation and aerospace field, fascinated by science and mechanics of it, interested in its history and impact on society, and curious about working in the aerospace industry as an engineer, pilot, astronaut, researcher, medical specialist, business leader, or owner. RAHS has a low dropout rate, which is most unusual for high schools across the United States. The school discipline record is outstanding involving only a few minor violations of the school dress code and student tardiness. In the area of student suspension and expulsion by race/ethnicity: five students were suspended last year. The graduation rate in 2012 was 97.9% and in %. The Post-Secondary Plans survey indicates that 84.4% of class of 2014 graduates are planning to enter four-year college immediately after high school graduation (34.4% students plan to enter the University of Washington, 13.6% students plan to enroll to Washington State University, 8.3% students chose other in-state colleges, and 28.1% students will enroll in out of state colleges); 10.4% students will continue their education in two-year colleges for financial reasons and later transfer to four-year colleges to obtain their Bachelor and higher degrees; 5.2 % students will explore employment and military opportunities. The Career Plan survey confirms that RAHS students aspire to become scientists (4.2% social science, 8.3% physical science, 8.3% life-science, 10.4% computer science), engineers (45.8% engineering), astronauts, pilots, aviation technicians(6.3% commercial aviation), business leaders (12.5% business) in the fields of aviation and aerospace, or join the United States Air Force unit (1% military). RAHS offers many opportunities to students in exploring various career options in engineering, science, mathematics, and technologies by designing, building, and testing structures, robots, and rockets. Page 3

6 Our parents are vital to the success of the school. On average, parents contribute 20 hours of time as volunteers in ways of their choosing, E.G., assisting in the office, advising a club, providing professional feedback on student work, or chaperoning field trips, dances, or other extracurricular activities. Our very supportive PTSA annually holds an auction that supports student scholarships and provides enhancements to technology, field trips, and other educational experiences. Community Demographics RAHS is situated in the large suburb of Tukwila. Its population is comprised of 18% black, 1% Native American, 19% Asian, 3% Pacific Islanders, 17.5% Hispanic/Latino, 37.5% white, and 6% mixed race. 37& percent is foreign born, 50% of households speak a foreign language, and 20% hold a Bachelor or higher education degree. RAHS is located in the industrial area of Tukwila with over 45,000 blue and white collar employees commuting from the Puget Sound region to work in the aviation and aerospace industries, trade, and technology related businesses. There is huge community support from aviation and aerospace industry for RAHS. The school currently has two boards of directors: Highline Public Schools Board and the RAHS Board of Directors. The RAHS Board of Directors include Peter Anderson, President of Galvin Flying Service, Ron Bozarth, Businesman from Ixio Corporation, Douglas King, CEO/President of Museum of Flights, Kelley Dobbs,Vice President of Employee Services/Alaska Airlines, Erik Lindbergh, Director of Lindbergh Foundation, Mark Reis, Managing Director of Sea-Tac International Airport, John Sibold, DOT Aviation Division, Harold Taniguchi, Director of King County Department of Transportation, Gary Oertli, President of South Seattle Community College, and Mark Schuster, Chairman and CEO of the Schuster Group. Staff Demographics The students attending RAHS are served by 21 Full Time Equivalents (FTE) of certificated faculty: one principal, one dean of students, one counselor, and 0.2 nurse. - There are three FTEs of secretarial staffing. - The average years of teaching experience for faculty is ten years, most of whom have been with school since its opening in Seventeen faculty members have Master's and two possess Doctoral Degrees. - Five teachers are nationally board certificated. - Several have experience in the aviation and aerospace industry in addition to the education field, e.g., four teachers are pilots, two engineers, and one has a background professional technical writing for an airline company. - Five staff members fluently speak at least one foreign language. - Eighteen teachers teach core classes and total of 147 core academic courses are offered to RAHS students. Changes for the Past Three Years In 2013 Aviation High School moved to a new campus changing its name to. Major donors who contributed to building our new school on the campus of The Museum of Flight included James & Sherry Raisbeck, Scott & Linda Carson, Mike & Melinda Hallman, The Boeing Company, Alaska Airlines, Esterline, Norcliffe Foundation, the Bruce & Jolene McCaw Family Foundation, The Museum of Flight and the State of Washington. After serving for three years as an Assistant Principal Bruce Kelly was appointed as the principal of the The original founder of the, Reba Gilman has assumed role of the Executive Director for Lighthouse Education Initiatives at the Museum of Flight. The position of dean of students was established August, Page 4

7 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. The vision of RAHS is to be the premier public high school of choice for students in King County and the region who wish to pursue their passion for aviation and aerospace in a learning environment that prepares them for higher education, citizenship, and work. The mission of our school is to prepare all students for college, career and citizenship through a personalized, rigorous and relevant learning experience that is facilitated in the context of aviation and aerospace. The school's guiding principles emphasize the following strengths: - A diverse learning community that builds on powerful relationships and ensures meeting the emotional and intellectual needs of students. - Learning occurs in a coherent manner through challenging inquiry and project-based curriculum. - Students, teachers and other stakeholders spend time together in a joint intellectual effort. - High expectations and continuous assessment encourage students to meet high academic standards through a rigorous course of study. - Partnerships inspire learning to take place inside the school and out in cooperation with community, business and higher education partners. RAHS fully aligns with the Highline Public Schools' vision and mission as well as successfully meets the goals of Highline Public Schools. A world-class Career Readiness program has been developed, which includes students being mentored by professionals in the aviation/aerospace industries and interning in high-demand workplaces. The program was recognized by Women in Aerospace as being the country's foremost program for inspiring and preparing young women for STEM pathways. Last summer 170 students interned at various aerospace companies, including The Boeing Company, Planetary Resources, Raisbeck Engineering, Aerotec Engineering, Dynon Avionics, the Federal Aviation Administration, Clay Lacy Aviation, Galvin Flying Service, Erin Air, and a host of other sites who recognize the value of inspiring and preparing students to follow a STEM education. We believe that students learn best when they explore, investigate, analyze, reflect, perform, debate, work with others, solve problems, build, design, test ideas, visit places, and interact with mentors and experts. We also believe that students are more likely to think and work hard when they are passionate about the context in which learning takes place. For us, the context is aviation and aerospace. Flight inspires all of us who work at RAHS. Because the staff of RAHS is committed to preparing all our students for college, career, and citizenship, we focus on measuring our students' work and thinking against both academic and workplace standards. Students use technology to design, to produce, and to communicate, and they demonstrate their understanding and competence through products and performances. This project-based learning approach make concepts in math and science challenging, meaningful, and fun in an environment that encourages students to think creatively as well as logically. Page 5

8 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. Highlights of Current State of Student Achievement - RAHS students consistently perform in the top two to five percent on state assessments. The Washington State Legislature has recognized RAHS as an Innovation School, a Washington Achiever School, and a Lighthouse Model of STEM Excellence. Last year, U.S. News & World Reports bestowed gold status recognition for outstanding performance in preparing all students for college, naming RAHS as the 6th top performing school in Washington State and 252nd out of more than 22,000 high schools in the country. This year RAHS was ranked #2 on Puget Sound Business Journal's list of Top Washington High Schools. This recognition places RAHS in the top 1% of all schools in the nation. - HSPE (High School Proficiency Exam) results are superior, with students meeting or exceeding standard: Reading 97%; Writing 98%. High achievement was also shown in End of Course (EOC) exams in Math: Algebra 100%; Geometry 98%; Biology 94%. In % RAHS students met and exceeded Reading and Science HSPE standards. 100% of students met and exceeded standards in Math EOC 1, Math EOC 2 and Writing in By student demographic group: 100 % of Asian students met and exceeded standards in Reading and Math in 2012; 100% of white students met and exceeded state standards in Reading in 2011, Math in 2011 and 2012; and 95% students met and exceeded standards in Reading. 85 of students from low-income families met and exceeded Reading standards in 2011; however, 100% of students in the same socio-economic category met and exceeded Math standards in the same school year. The difference in student academic performance between RAHS and the other high schools in the Washington state for is 12.2% in Reading, 14.4% in Writing, 45% in Science, and 20.8 in Math EOC 2. - RAHS students also performed well above the state and national averages on PSAT, SAT, and AP exams. 80% of juniors and seniors took two or more Advanced Placement exams in Physics, Language Composition, Literature, Chemistry, U.S. History, Spanish, Japanese, Computer Science, and Environmental Science. - We graduated 96 students, 96% of whom met college readiness standards and have been accepted to colleges & universities across the state such as WSU, UW, Central, Western and Gonzaga and out-of-state institutions, e.g. Purdue, Harvey Mudd College, University of Southern California, Oregon State, the University of North Dakota, Pepperdine, Cornell, Cal Poly, Grand Canyon University, Arizona State, and various community colleges. - 40% of graduates in the Class of 2014 are Washington Honor recipients, placing them among the top 10% of all graduates in the state. Collectively they earned $1.4 million in scholarship awards and performed 9,000 hours of community service. - 1/3 of our graduating class of 2014 is fluent in two or more languages. - RAHS was again recognized as a Washington Achiever School for overall excellence with special recognition in Reading Growth. - Through partnerships with universities, numerous students will benefit from attending specialized summer camps at Purdue, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of North Dakota, and University of Washington. - We implemented a successful 1:1 laptop program for all students, providing them with a portable workspace to extend their learning beyond the classroom. - Our FIRST Robotics Team won the Inaugural Washington/ Oregon District Championship and District Chairman's Award & placed in top 24 out of 3000 high school teams from 16 countries. - Science Olympiad had over 80 students participate this year. Our teams finished 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th at Highline Regional Science Olympiad tournament, and 12th at State tournament. Notable achievements included a 4th place in MagLev, 5th place in Anatomy, Technical Problem Solving, Water Quality, and Mission Possible, and 6th place in Astronomy, Boomilever, Geologic Mapping, and Mag Lev. - Speech & Debate Club had a banner year resulting in sixteen students competing at the Harvard National Invitational Forensic Tournament. Page 6

9 - The school's Ultimate Frisbee team, sponsored by the PTSA, made a spectacular showing finishing 2nd out of 13 teams in their division. - Fifteen outstanding senior projects were selected for the annual showcase event. Projects were viewed and judged by community members, and over $5,000 was awarded in scholarships. - Students also participated in numerous large-scale, interdisciplinary projects such as an Environmental Challenge sponsored by the Port of Seattle. Students presented their findings in a variety of public formats, including museum performances and presentations to aviation industry experts. - Sophomores were matched with a mentor in an aviation or aerospace-related field; 160 students will intern this summer in various STEM companies such as Boeing, Blue Origin, Planetary Resources, the FAA, Galvin Flying Service, Clay Lacy, and various engineering firms. Students begin gaining work skills as soon as they enter RAHS by volunteering in various positions at the Museum of Flight. In our initial year of operating on the Museum campus, 17% of the RAHS student body participated in a Museum internship, contributing over 5,000 hours of service. - Forty-Six students participated in the Boeing Junior Achievement Job Shadow day at the Boeing Kent Facility. - Five seniors attended the Bob Hoover Tribute in California where they met aviation icons, celebrities and other high school and college students from various aviation-centric universities across the country. - Over 100 students attended the Pathfinder Gala at The Museum of Flight to honor local leaders who have made significant contributions to aviation. - Eighteen juniors were selected to participate in the Washington Aerospace Scholars program sponsored by The Museum of Flight and the WA State Legislature. Six are participating in the summer residency. - Students developed and honed their leadership skills through a variety of school clubs: ASB, Culture Club, Honor Society, ACE (Airline Career Experience), AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), and others. At the beginning of the current school year staff analyzed the Staff Climate Survey resulting in establishing four staff leadership teams to actively engage in the school decision-making process. The vision and Mission Leadership Team will work on developing a new school vision and mission statement defining the purpose of the school for the next ten years along with strategies and an action plan to reach this goal. The Staff-Directed Professional Development Leadership Team will organize and coordinate learning opportunities relevant to teacher practices and student learning. The Prevention and Intervention Leadership Team will investigate the issues of drugs and alcohol use among RAHS students as well as number of incidents concerning student depression and suicide ideation due to the rigorous courses at RAHS, demanding curricular and extra-curricular activities, competition in high achievement, and family and peer pressure. This team would like to teach staff to recognize first signs of student depression or suicide ideation and strategies to prevent these instances. The Calendar/Marketing Leadership Team will be working on building master schedule for all school events. Four areas of school improvements were identified as a base for three SMART goals for Goal 1: Vision and Mission By the end of school year, the Vision and Mission staff leadership team will develop a new school vision and mission that will define a new purpose of RAHS for the next ten years. Goal 2: Instructional Focus By the end of school year, the Staff-Directed Professional Development staff leadership team will design and implement a series of relevant professional development for teachers to improve instructional focus that will be measured by the quality of professional development, curriculum, and assessment tools. Goal 3: Prevention and Intervention By the end of school year, Prevention and Intervention staff leadership team will build a school-wide system in place for at-risk students. Page 7

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11 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. ADDITIONAL PLANS FOR Support and challenge our students to become stronger thinkers and doers by creating new and refining existing courses and projects. - Connect our students with our community through service, events, mentoring, job shadows, and internships, and engage our community in our school as project consultants, judges, mentors, guest speakers, etc. - Move towards the successful usage of the RAHS professional learning center by engaging teachers in classroom observations, professional conversation, assessment review, collaborative project development, etc. - Collaborate with our key partner, The Museum of Flight, to align educational programs that synergize and bring light to the visions and missions of our two institutions. Page 9