Executive Summary. Ohio Virtual Academy. Dr. Kristin Stewart, Superintendent 1655 Holland Rd Maumee, OH 43537

Transcription

1 Executive Summary Ohio Virtual Academy Dr. Kristin Stewart, Superintendent 1655 Holland Rd Maumee, OH 43537

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary Introduction 1 Executive Summary 2 Section 1: Introduction 2 Section 2: Student Performance 3 Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities 4 Section 4: Conclusion 5

3 Executive Summary Introduction Executive Summary Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and student 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 school leadership considers how to organize, maintain order, and stay faithful to the school's vision. A description of the level of stakeholder engagement, trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that the school implements to support student learning also contributes to the overall narrative. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to give schools an opportunity to tell their story, to describe their context both strengths and challenges so that the public and members of the school community have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and what it is deliberating as it engages in the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This report is structured into 4 sections that give context about what the school faces on a day-to-day basis in providing teaching and learning in its community: Section 1: Introduction Describes the community in which the school is located. Identifies the unique features and special challenges of this school community. Provides brief demographic information with regards to both students and staff and the community at large. Section 2: Student Performance Gives a brief description of the school's vision about students and their performance. Provides a brief summary of student performance in this school. Identifies the school's goals and how the school will know they have achieved them. Describes the variety of the school's student performance assessments. Identifies how the staff engages in meaningful analysis of student work in order to modify instruction. Describes the school's student support programs and services. Identifies the ways in which the school ensures community/parent involvement in the life of the school. Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities Identifies the major challenges the school has faced in the last 3 years and how it has addressed those challenges. Section 4: Conclusion Identifies what the school is most proud of and why. Relates other information the school would like to share with the public and the school community. Page 1

4 Executive Summary Section 1: Introduction Provide the school's mission statement. What process was used to create the mission statement? Describe how the school engaged its stakeholders to parents and community members in the development and fulfillment of the mission statement. Describe the community in which your school is located. What are the unique features and special challenges of your school community? Briefly provide demographic information with regards to both students and staff and the community at large. The vision of Ohio Virtual Academy is to create a high-performance school that equips teachers and parents with the tools of tomorrow, thereby giving our students all the opportunities they need to succeed in life and creating a new model for the twenty-first century public school. The vision statement was created by the administrative team and then submitted to the board of trustees for discussion, revisions, and approval. Teacher leaders and members of the parent advisory committee provided input and suggestions to the original draft prior to the vision statement being introduced to the board of trustees. Since our school is only in its tenth year of existence and our enrollment has averaged an increase of over 1000 to 1500 students per year, we have had to move quickly to keep up with all the changes necessary to operate efficiently. The mission statement process evolved through an informal process to one which included many people and lots of discussion time. As our school continued to grow we realized the need for and benefits of establishing a clear vision for the future. The decision to seek accreditation through the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges was an important step in reviewing where we had been and helped us take a serious look into continuous school improvement as we moved forward and experiencing rapid growth. During the accreditation process we reviewed and revised the vision statement to make it more applicable to what we do as a virtual school, but even more important it became an critical part of how we planned as we have continued to experience rapid growth. Community is extremely important as part of the OHVA formula for student success. Our students come from a variety of geographical, economical, and ethnic backgrounds. Even though our 12,500 plus students and their parents are scattered across the 88 counties of Ohio, we work very hard to make sure our families know they are part of a "community school" in the true sense of the words. Teachers and support staff reach out to parents on a daily basis using multiple forms of communication. All teachers are required to participate in school outings and functions to interact with parents and students several times during the school year. Parent volunteers and mentors reach out to other parents to provide guidance and support to new families or others who need assistance. Selected high school students mentor other students to provide support, and help them feel accepted in our virtual environment. Some members of the OHVA Board of Trustees are parents of students who attend the school. In addition our school provides many of the traditional support mechanisms such as counselors, parent conferences, and support from school psychologists, special education services, and other related services to students. Rapid growth may be the biggest challenge our school faces, however, it is a welcome challenge because it indicates the need for an alternative educational plan for each student. The growth forces our school to operate at a much faster pace in the daily operations of securing highly qualified and licensed teachers, providing students with the computers and materials, assessing new enrollees to determine ability levels, collecting student records, and many other important tasks that are necessary to provide all of our students with a quality educational experience. Page 2

5 Section 2: Student Performance Give a brief description of your school s vision about students and their performance. Provide a brief summary of student performance in your school. What are your goals and how will you know you have achieved them? Describe the variety of your school s student performance assessments. How does your staff engage in meaningful analysis of student work in order to modify instruction? Describe the school s student support programs and services. In what ways does your school ensure community/parent involvement in the life of the school? Our vision for our students at Ohio Virtual Academy is to grow at least one year academically each year and be challenged while they are developing educationally. We also desire for students to reach personal academic goals while succeeding and meeting goals set by the Ohio Department of Education. We want our students to attain 21st century skills so they will be successful upon graduation from Ohio Virtual Academy. Our school continues to be in the Continuous Improvement ranking for not reaching AYP goals set by the Ohio Department of Education. However, we were ranked Effective due to the value added growth measures also set by the Ohio Department of Education. Our goal is to continue to provide value added growth for each student. We would like to reach AYP in all subgroups and have been successful in all categories except African American and Students with special needs. We will know our success through constant monitoring and through our annual report card. OHVA uses the following assessments to screen performance: Scantron Ohio Achievement Assessments Ohio Graduation Tests Aimsweb State Diagnostic tests in grades 1-3 K-RAL Study Island Benchmark Tests The staff uses the data from Scantron, Aimsweb, K-RAL, Diagnostic tests and the Study Island Benchmark tests to provide individualized learning plans for each student. Students are monitored throughout the year for growth and to provide needed adjustments to the students individual learning plan. Teachers work in POD groups to provide students with focused instruction. Three teachers are assigned to each POD. The teachers meet weekly to review student progress and assessments to regroup student academically if indicated. Lead teachers and principals also participate in these meetings throughout the year. The POD teachers are divided into homeroom, reading specialist, and math specialist and each provide specific large group, small group or individual instruction where needed. Additionally, OHVA has a schoolwide Title I program. Ohio Virtual Academy has a strong relationship with its parents. The primary learning coach for day-to-day learning is the parent. The teacher supports the goals of the parent and offers suggestions and interventions for the daily and weekly instruction. Teachers also provide lesson instruction throughout the week and the parents are invited to participate with the students. Our school has several opportunities for parents to be involved. Our Parent Support Coordinator works with a group of parents from our Parent Steering Committee. This group provides the administration with feedback pertaining to the parent perspective surrounding policies and school structure. OHVA also has a Booster Group that helps foster a positive culture among parents through Yahoo and Facebook groups as well as through virtual meetings with the Parent Support Coordinator. Parent Mentors are also available to help support other parents and help families be successful in our model. Page 3

6 Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities What are the major challenges your school has faced in the last 3 years and how have you addressed those challenges? Ohio Virtual Academy continues to experience rapid growth in enrollment. In the past three years we have grown from 5,500 to over 12,500. This rapid growth has challenged administration in continuing to hire Highly Qualified Teachers and staff members and make sure each employee has the needed training to be successful in the virtual world and assuring success for OHVA students. This has been particularly difficult in certain content areas in high school and in the area of students with special needs. These two departments have experienced the most rapid growth. K12, OHVA s management company, has developed a recruitment department to assure that staffing needs are met. To maintain high quality teachers, OHVA has worked steadfastly to provide professional development to our staff that is meaningful, current and scientifically based. Since Ohio Virtual Academy has a 60% economically disadvantaged population focus has been on working with students who may not have the needed background to be successful in our school. Professional development has been designed around the RTI process, engaging low engaged students, differentiated instruction, working with higher order thinking skills, understanding the core standards and developing a vast tool base for teachers to use while instructing students. While OHVA has achieved the Effective rating through the Ohio Department of Education due to value added growth, we still continue to be in continuous improvement due to missing Annual Yearly Progress markers. OHVA misses the goal for African American and students with special needs subgroups. To try and improve our performance in these areas, professional development has been developed to better understand the needs of students who fall in these subgroups. Ohio Virtual Academy also does not meet the Ohio graduation goal. Many of our students come to OHVA credit deficient and not able to graduate with their cohort. The goal for Ohio Virtual Academy is to help students graduate with a diploma and to assist the students in graduating on time. A plan to assist students through flex credits and credit recovery is being developed. Page 4

7 Section 4: Conclusion What is your school most proud of and why? Is there any other information you would like to share with the public and the school community? Our school culture is very important at Ohio Virtual Academy. The staff discovers from the very beginning of employment that they will be supported and mentored by the entire team. Even though every teacher is busy the team understands the importance of supporting each other and takes the time to do so. The support also reaches out to the students and families. Staff members know in order to help families connect with Ohio Virtual Academy they themselves must first connect with each family. We are also very proud of achieving Effective ranking from the Ohio Department of Education. Often the students come to OHVA with academic deficiencies. We achieved our Effective ranking through academic growth. This is a very important accomplishment. Ohio Virtual Academy is now the largest online school in Ohio. However, we have managed to keep a small school culture. We realize the importance of our families, students and staff and work to make sure academic achievement is an ongoing goal. Page 5