Executive Summary. Southeast Career Technical Academy

Transcription

1 Clark County School District Kerry Pope, Principal 5710 Mountain Vista Drive Las Vegas, NV Document Generated On April 22, 2013

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5 Additional Information 6

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? (SECTA) was opened as Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center in The school is located in the east part of the Las Vegas valley and serves a diverse student population, meeting the diversity goals for magnet schools as outlined by the Clark County School District (CCSD). CCSD utilizes a Blind Review Database that automatically calculates an applicant's score and provides a report to assist with determining qualified applicants. Students are chosen by a lottery with variables for sibling, geographical, and feeder school preference. The process for selecting magnet students has allowed our applicant pool and students accepting seats for one of our programs to stay equivalent to that of the district demographics, successfully reducing racial, ethnic, or SES or Free and Reduced Lunch isolation in the magnet program. SECTA provides equal access to all students and serves a substantial number of Special Education, Limited English Proficient, and Free and Reduced Lunch subgroups. Over the past three years, SECTA has experienced facility changes. Two new buildings were opened this school year, which house the student commons, the career center, and state-of-the-art classrooms. There have also been changes to the availability of transportation to our school. As a result, SECTA has downsized the career and technical programs available, and student enrollment continues to drop slightly each year. Even still, the remaining programs continue to be a success. Most noticeably is the increase of our Free and Reduced Lunch student population. This increase has required our school to provide additional access to computers with internet, school supplies for home use, and social service referrals for our homeless population. Page 2

5 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. 's mission is to provide career and technical and academic instruction, which imparts technological, interpersonal, and entry-level job skills and enables students to meet the rigors of post-secondary education. In order to successfully fulfill this mission, SECTA offers twelve career and technical programs, which include the following: 3D Animation for Film and Games, Architectural Engineering, Automotive Service Technology, Collision Technology, CISCO/Cybercorps, Computer Graphic Design, Computer Science, Construction Engineering, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Health Sciences, and Media Communications. As a magnet program, students are required to complete an application for admittance. They must hold a 2.0 GPA, demonstrate proficiency on standardized tests, show above average attendance rates, and have excellent citizenship. Once accepted, students must maintain these standards. Graduates of SECTA are eligible to receive a standard, advanced, or advanced honors diploma and can graduate with certifications in many of the career and technical programs. For example, Cosmetology students take the Nevada State Board of Cosmetology exam in order to receive a complete certification in hair, skin, and nails. At the age of sixteen, students are eligible to take a board examination to become a Certified Nursing Assistant while still in high school. Students in the Collision Technology program graduate I-Car certified, which is the technology used in the collision repair industry. In every career and technical program, students are given the opportunity to complete internships as well as interview for jobs within their major. The core curriculum offered to students is rigorous and prepares students in every career and technical program for post-secondary education. Students can take various Advanced Placement courses, which include Spanish, literature and composition, calculus, biology, physics, and U.S. history. SECTA also offers many honors classes. With technical preparation credits and advanced placement classes, students have the opportunity to earn up to thirty-two college credits. With a continued emphasis on internships, job placement opportunities, college preparation courses, and certifications in various career and technical majors, SECTA stands by the motto "We Build Futures". continuously strives to provide students with a rigorous curriculum, which prepares them for a postsecondary education. Instructors closely align learning experiences with Nevada State Standards and are in the process of implementing the Common Core Curriculum. Technology is used in all classrooms to meet the needs of diverse learners. This includes but is not limited to the use of wireless laptops and computer labs, interactive white boards, responders, and the equipment within the career and technical programs designed specifically for the majors offered at SECTA. Most impressive is SECTA's ability to require students to take on many of the responsibilities the career and technical programs are preparing them for in the work place. For example, the SECTA website is designed and maintained by students, CISCO/Cybercorps students provide technical assistance for the school community, construction students build equipment needed by the school, culinary students run a restaurant on site, cosmetology students serve clients in the salon, and our auto technology students repair vehicles brought in by community members. These hands-on experiences provide students with the opportunity to put the skills they have learned to use. Furthermore, students in our career and technical programs participate in SkillsUSA, which allows students to competitively demonstrate the skills they have mastered in comparison to students around the nation. These experiences capture the interest of our students, motivating them to meet their goals. In order to bring about continued success and provide additional support to students, there has been a continued effort to increase teacher collaboration and provide professional development on the use of assessments and feedback for enhancing student achievement. Teachers have worked closely to ensure the learning activities and assessments provided to students are consistent between common subjects and grade-levels in order to ensure students are receiving the best possible education no matter what teacher they have. This collaboration has enhanced the professional dialogue among staff, which in turn has brought about a more reflective mind set among teachers. The ability for SECTA instructors to reflect upon their daily lessons and assessments has led to a higher level of learning among students and more meaningful learning experiences. Page 3

6 To further enhance the success of students in the classroom, teachers have been given professional development on the formative and summative assessments and the importance of providing meaningful and timely feedback to students. Teachers have spent time identifying the skills that are most important for students to master, redesigning lessons, and providing students with an opportunity to master a skill based upon the feedback from an assessment. This approach has led to an emphasis on learning rather than just earning a grade. The feedback individualizes instruction for students, allowing teachers to meet the needs of our diverse learners, which includes struggling students as well as those ready for a more challenging curriculum. Even more important, this approach has helped to build relationships among teachers and students, helping to bridge the gap caused by cultural differences, a proven element for producing a high achieving school. Page 4

7 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. SECTA was recognized as a Five Star School according the Clark County School District's School Performance Framework. Over 93% of our students graduate each year. Students consistently score well on the National Spanish Exam as well as placing first in Language Fair competitions. Students who take the AP Spanish Language exam have a 90% pass rate. We have had a National Merit Finalist, Harvard acceptance, and military academy appointments, as well as having earned millions of dollars in college scholarships as represented below. SECTA students and faculty continue to remain competitive in our ever-changing industry. Both athletic coaches and career technical advisors have received recognition in their respective areas; specifically, Coach of the Year, Nevada Skills Advisor of the Year and Region V National SkillsUSA Advisor of the Year. We have won medals and national recognition at SkillsUSA competitions both at the region and national level. Over the next three years, SECTA hopes to continue to be a Five Star School and maintain a high graduation rate. A Vision Team has been established, which enables staff to discuss and plan for school improvement initiatives. For example, the Vision Team hopes to implement an adjusted schedule to allow collaboration time each week. The team is also discussing the possibility of new career and technical programs as well as additional certification opportunities for our existing programs. Page 5

8 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. N/A Page 6