Executive Summary. Oregon City Service Learning Academy

Transcription

1 Oregon City School District 62 Tim Graham th St Oregon City, OR Document Generated On November 2, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5 Additional Information 8

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? The, or "OCSLA", is a public Charter High School in the Oregon City School District and is located in the former campus of King Elementary School. As a Charter School, OCSLA is open to students in the Oregon City School District and also to students who apply from neighboring school districts. Students that choose to attend OCSLA will receive a balanced high school education program and can earn a standard high school diploma. Enrollment at OCSLA is 194 students. A central focus at OCSLA is "service learning". Service Learning is an approach to teaching and learning that combines academic classroom curriculum and meaningful work and community service experiences in the community. Students can expect to participate in and complete assignments, projects and reflections related to community service and local work experiences as a regular part of school. Schoolwide service learning activities evolve into community internship placements one day a week for all junior and senior students. Internships provide "real-world" experiences that can earn high school credit and help transition students to post-secondary education or work opportunities. OCSLA offers a smaller more personable school environment where students get to know each other and their teachers. The staff not only provides instruction in core and elective subjects, they also mentor and tutor students as advisors to help them stay on a path of school success. OCSLA offers on-line curriculum and opportunities to "make-up" lost credits, while students are earning new credits toward graduation. Staff use technology as an integral part of instruction and all students have access to a laptop or PC computer. OCSLA offers unique and creative approaches to teaching and provides academic interventions and layers of support for students experiencing difficulty so that students can experience success and stay on-track to graduate. OCSLA is implementing a "modified" school calendar that is designed around four nine week grading periods and provides a short "intersession" break between each quarter. The school year is extended a few weeks longer into June, but the regular breaks from school routines provide students with opportunities to get extra help and return to school refreshed and ready to learn. Oregon Service Learning Academy Charter High School was created after the closure of a district alternative school and strives to serve and support students that had not experienced success in the traditional high school environment. OCSLA tends to attract students who are often behind in earned credits for graduation, students that have demonstrated poor attendance, and students that have not been successful in meeting the academic and/or behavioral expectations of the traditional high school. Consequently, the school's academic, attendance, behavior, and graduation data has historically been lower than most high schools. In the fall of 2011, the staff at (OCSLA) took advantage of the unique opportunity of being granted a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) that was offered to select schools in Oregon that were "low performing" and wanted to undertake significant reform efforts to improve student achievement and graduation rates. As a part of that process, the staff worked with the Oregon City School District Leadership to review previous improvement plans, recent and past achievement data, survey data, schedules, and all of their student related data to help identify areas of strength and areas needing improvement. The significant reforms undertaken by the staff and supported with the funding from the School Improvement Grant over the last few years have made significant positive changes in the culture of success at the school and OCSLA now better meets the needs of "all" students and Page 2

5 attracts a broader cross-section of area students. Page 3

6 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 mission of is to empower youth in grades nine through twelve to make positive transitions to school, life and community by facilitating competence in academic and life skills, connecting them to resources and external supports, and equipping them for post-secondary education and employment. OCSLA is designed around a service-learning theme and promotes several core philosophical tenets, including: - Students achieve at higher levels when they find meaning and purpose for their academic work; - Education is most relevant to students when academics are integrated into projects that meet real community needs; - Credit is best earned by demonstrating mastery of academic content and skills; - Students thrive when able to design their own project and work at their own pace, guided by individual goals that are jointly developed and monitored by teachers and students; - Work is most effectively assessed through teacher-developed common assessments clearly aligned to the Common Core Standards. 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. has a dedicated and creative staff of teachers and support staff that are committed to the success of OCSLA students. The small size of the school affords staff the opportunity to get to know their students well and develop positive relationships that enhance learning. Every Friday, the staff takes all freshmen and sophomores on educational service learning field trips that strive to make learning relevant, engaging and "hands-on". The community internships afforded to juniors and seniors offer a great opportunity for students to experience the expectations of the world of work and to see the relevance of school learning. More students are experiencing academic success in completing high school credits and being "on-track" to graduate, particularly students enrolling in OCSLA as freshman and sophomores. School climate, including the structures and consistent routines for teaching and learning, have improved greatly since reforms began and the culture of the school is characterized by increased academic focus and more respectful student behaviors. OCSLA has grown steadily in enrollment each year, which is a credit to their success with students. OCSLA moved to a new facility that was made available with the closure of King Elementary School. OCSLA shares the King Campus space with another high school level charter school, and the facility provides a gym, cafeteria, office and sufficient classroom space to grow in enrollment. Math curriculum and instruction has been evolving and improving with an emphasis on professional development, updated and aligned curriculum and cutting edge technology integration. Professional Learning Teams of teachers have begun meeting regularly within content areas to plan instruction and assessment. Common approaches to instruction are beginning to take shape. The Service Learning program and activities have improved with activities aligned to career exploration and coordination with community partners that come to campus as part of the program. Systems of intervention and support, including Academic Prep, Enrichment and a SST structure, are solidly in place at OCSLA. The OCSLA staff team is adaptable and willing to make changes as needed to meet the needs of students. Being a small school and a charter school allows the school to respond and adapt quickly to the needs of our students. - Significant improvements in Grade 11 OAKS Reading and Grade 12 OAKS writing data - Applied for and was granted a 21st Century Grant for before and after school programs - Enrollment growth, reaching grade level caps in grades 11 and 12 - Shifting our PLC focus to instruction and job-alike teamwork - District support for our programs and improvement and plans for sustainability Page 5

8 - Implementation of a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant extended learning time program - The success of the Student Support Teacher role in preventing failure - Progress in staff understanding and use of common approaches, language and strategies related to student writing - Training and early implementation of proficiency-based teaching and grading - Morrison Family Services counseling on site - The success of students in catching up and keeping up with credits, causing us to reduce Plato credit recovery classes and add electives - Students not on track to graduate recovering credits: 87% of all students increased their on-track status by earning additional credits 90% of freshman increased their on-track status by earning additional credits 82% of Sophomores increased their on-track status by earning additional credits 86% of juniors increased their on-track status by earning additional credits 89% of seniors increased their on-track status by earning additional credits We have too many students that have had significant adverse childhood experiences, a lack of prior school success, and who lack the skills to regulate their emotions and behavior to be successful in school. We need to continue our efforts to strengthen school wide structures and routines to provide a more stable and predictable environment for students, and to develop teacher knowledge and skills in this area to better align the demands of learning to the skills that students possess. We need to increase student academic achievement in all content areas. Math and writing are clearly the highest priority areas of need. Current seniors are required to meet academic standards in reading, writing and math in order to graduate in 2014, so a focus on intervention and the alignment of content to core standards needs to be a school wide effort across all content areas. We need to continue our efforts to provide a learning schedule and calendar that provides a consistent learning routine for students. We need to continue to implement a 4-day week with only one day of internships and community service leaning projects each week. We need to continue to implement a modified school calendar that better supports our students. Semesters are too long to sustain focus for too many of our students so we need to continue to implement a nine-week grading period that awards credit, and provides a weeklong break between quarters. The short "intersession" breaks provide a needed rest and can offer some students an opportunity to get extra helps or make-up work. The school year is then extended and summer is shortened to reduce summer learning loss. We still lack a consistent way to assess student skill levels and monitor progress and growth. We need to identify and use assessments as a tool to identify learning gaps and monitor progress of student learning. Since work samples are required for graduation, a system of regular "performance task" assessment needs to be developed. Implementing credit for proficiency grading systems is a goal this year and should strengthen the use of performance task assessment. In concert with assessments, we need academic interventions in reading and writing to build, reinforce and accelerate skills that are deficit. We need to strengthen parent and community involvement at OCSLA and continue to strengthen our community internships and servicelearning opportunities for students to better align experiences with career related learning standards. Page 6

9 As a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) Grant recipient, we need to extend the learning time and options available to students to enhance achievement. We need to engage in ongoing, job-embedded professional development in the areas of: - Student behavior management, regulation and redirection for success. - Effective use of performance tasks and proficiency-based grading practices. - Math interventions aligned to standards. - Literacy and writing best practice strategies that can be used across all content areas. - Technology integration. - Student engagement strategies. Key improvement efforts and strategies to be undertaken: - Training and implementation of proficiency-based grading practices. - Implementing a 21st Century Community Learning Center extended day program. - Continuing professional development in the development of student thinking skills to better align the skills of students to the demands of learning. - Developing a tracking system to allow close monitoring of student data. - Continuing implementation of a modified calendar to better align the structure of school to the needs of students and staff. - Continuing to refine Academic Prep and Enrichment periods to better meet our goals for the courses. - Designing and implementing consistent approaches to writing instruction across grades and content areas. - Exploring and identifying curriculum based "performance task" assessments that will allow staff to measure learning and monitor student progress. - Developing a structure and system of delivering academic interventions to strengthen student skills in all content areas. - Refining our student intake and orientation structure. - Refining the Service Learning component of the school program to encompass career related learning goals and experiences in a coordinated and articulated two-year program for freshman and sophomores. - Implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) focused on performance tasks assessments and strengthening student engagement strategies. - Working as a staff to implement strategies to increase student engagement. - Building upon current home/school communication methods to expand strategies for parent engagement and increase parent involvement in student learning. Page 7

10 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. At, we have excelled at providing high levels of support for our students in the areas of credit recovery, tutoring, attendance, social/emotional health and a strong PBIS program. As a result of the success in these areas, many of the students that choose OCSLA, prior to enrolling, have fallen behind in their credits and academic achievement. Over the past several years, our school has demonstrated outstanding growth in the number of students achieving greater academic success, especially in the areas of credits earned and attendance. We also provide many opportunities for those who are high achievers academically and are looking for a smaller school where they can build strong relationships with the staff and other students and take advantage of the academic enrichment opportunities found at OCSLA. These opportunities include service projects, internships with local businesses, our community garden, STEAM activities, our partnership with OMSI, before and after school programs, and Clackamas Community College courses. Over 100 students earned Clackamas Community College credits during the school year. Academic Enrichment/Support Opportunities Offered at OCSLA: - Internships/Community Partnerships Over 100 local business partners mentor our students through internships - Dual-Enrollment Courses/Access to College Courses: 52% of OCSLA students earned dual OCSLA/Clackamas Community College credits in Online Summer School Program for college credit - Before/After & Summer School Programs: Drama, Art, Cooking, Robotics, Basketball Club, Girls Soccer Club, Dance, Community Garden, Academic Support/Tutoring (licensed math & language arts teachers available before and after school), Homework Club, etc. - Community Outreach: Parenting classes offered weekly (meal provided) Community service projects every Friday - Bilingual/ESL model program: Support based on language proficiency and grade level skills - Special education program: Support for students with qualified learning disabilities Individualized support in resource room - Study skills strategies: Academic Prep class for all students Learning strategies program Student support program - Student to Work Programs: Over 100 Juniors and Seniors placed into internships with local businesses - Leadership and Mentoring Programs: Page 8

11 Outdoor school counselors Internships at elementary schools OCLSA Leadership Team Planning and implementing food drives Community service learning projects every Friday - Social/Emotional Support for Students: Access to Oregon City High School-based health clinic Access to teen parent program Onsite therapist for academic, emotional and behavioral issues (Partnership with Morrison, Child & Family Services) Bullying and harassment prevention program Weekly parenting classes through Morrison, Child & Family Services (meal provided). PBIS Positive Behavior Intervention Program - Career & Technical Education Content Guidelines: Over 100 weekly student internships with local businesses/organizations Partnership with OMSI for Career and Technical Education opportunities/instruction. Access to Clackamas Community College vocational education classes (i.e.: welding) Page 9