Virginia Beach City Public Schools Dr. Nancy Farrell, Principal 1272 Mill Dam Road Virginia Beach, VA 23454-2322 Document Generated On January 10, 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 4 Additional Information 6
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. <br><br> 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
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?, home of the Patriots, is known as the real beach school. Opened in 1966, renovated in 1993, and later augmented with an eleven-classroom addition in 1996, First Colonial is one of the most established high schools in the City of Virginia Beach. First Colonial is the site for the Legal Studies Academy, a school within a school model. During the 2002-03 school year, the Legal Studies Academy began by adding 100 students within each year and was created to provide students who have an interest in the law, lawrelated fields, and legal and ethical issues the opportunity to extend their knowledge beyond the typical high-school program. Currently, First Colonial hosts 1,984 students, 350 of whom are Legal Studies Academy students. First Colonial casts a wide net including students from some of the wealthiest million dollar neighborhoods in the city to some of the most transient and impoverished areas. With such a vast contrast in student population, First Colonial has experienced increases in student mobility (22% to 25%), economically disadvantaged (21% to 25%), and limited English proficiency (.9% to 1.6%) populations. While increases were seen in the aforementioned areas, First Colonial has seen a 3% decrease in population of student with disabilities as well as a decrease trend with student drop out rates. Although there is great disparity in characteristics of the students attending First Colonial, most students find success academically (60% earn advanced studies diploma and over 30% standard diploma); develop and expand connections through interest opportunities by participating in the co-curricular programming (50 clubs/organizations, 34 Virginia High School League sanctioned athletic teams, and 4 VHSL academic teams), and engage in school and community service opportunities (over # number of hours), and seek post-graduate work (accepting $3.4 million in scholarships). First Colonial is fortunate to have the support of a successful and lucrative PTSA organization and supporting community who provide great opportunities for our students both inside and outside of the instructional setting. In addition, our Legal Studies Academy enjoys a robust relationship with partners in city, state, and federal government, academia, and the professional world; while LSA students interact with professionals from legal and business related fields during their course of study, professionals return to assist students with internship opportunities as well as the completion of an advanced senior capstone project. First Colonial is ranked in Newsweek's 2013 America's Best High Schools list amongst other schools proven to be the most effective in turning out college-ready graduates. Page 2
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. Recognizing that the long range goal of the VBCPS is the successful preparation and graduation of every student, the near term goal is that by 2015, 95 percent or more of VBCPS students will graduate having mastered the skills that they need to succeed as 21st century learners, workers and citizens. The mission of, in conjunction with the school division's strategic goal, is to ensure students are engaged in an innovative, rigorous learning environment while integrating academics with life skills so they can reach the achievement and respect necessary for post-secondary success. As exposed in our feedback survey data, all three stakeholder groups (parents/guardians, students, faculty/staff) support that the administration and teachers hold all students to well articulated and high expectations; these expectations provide the foundation for student success beyond high school. The following data suggests that First Colonial is on track to achieve goals set forth by the division and mission of : On-Time Graduation Rate: 84.4% Drop Out Rate: 1.73% Advanced Studies Diploma Earned: 60% Standard Diploma Earned: 30% Career and Technical Education Industry Certification: 157 students Scholarships Monies Accepted: $3.4 million Although has not reached the 95% graduation rate expectation to date, our students are well within reach to do so by 2015. Page 3
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. students are encouraged to not only achieve academically but also in areas supported by the school's cocurricular program. The following are a few awards, honors, and distinctions earned by Patriot students, faculty and staff: Certifications - Microsoft Office Specialist (23 students, 35% from 2011-12), Internet and Computing Core 3 (five students), NOCTI Accounting (10 students) Academic All-American - Boys' Soccer National Soccer Coaches Association of America - Boys' Soccer Team Academic Award Scholarships - 2012-13 graduates earned scholarships totaling $3,952,156 / accepted $3,301,856. United States Coast Guard Academy - FCHS student appointment Virginia High School League Championships - AAA District Champions: Boys' Varsity Soccer, Varsity Field Hockey, Pole Vault, Diving Individual, Swimming 100 Meter Freestyle AAA Regional Champions: Boys' Varsity Soccer, Varsity Field Hockey, Pole Vault, Diving Individual AAA State Champions: Varsity Field Hockey, Forensics Poetry, Wrestling Weight 182 World of 7 Billion Student Video Contest - FC Lead Producer, Conservation for Wildlife Vanguard School Identification (2010-2013) - Balanced Assessment National Board Certification - Hague, Debbie Lou (Fall 2013), Knoche, Carrie (Fall 2013), Kreider, Janet (2011), Myers, Caroline (2008) Faculty/Staff Honors, Awards, & Presentations - Kristin Hildum & Jennifer Kelly: Virginia Society for Technology in Education Presentation Janet Kreider: Southern Business Education Association, Secondary Teacher of the Year Donna Draeger: Project Management Professional Certification & WISE Financial Literacy Certification Nancy Farrell, Melanie Lee, & M. Angelique Phillips: ASCD National Conference Presentation Nancy Farrell & Melanie Lee: VBCPS Administrative Conference Presentation Melissa Sullivan: National Association of Gifted Children Presentation As per our Plan for Continuous Improvement, First Colonial has worked to strengthen academic programming for all students. The following details goals for the past three years - Page 4
2010-11: Focus 1 - Increase African-American male achievement in the following areas by June 2011 - Reduce referrals 5%. - Increase AP enrollments 25% (7 students). - Increase Advanced Studies Diplomas to 33% (5 students). - Decrease the gap in SAT scores between African-American and Caucasian students 5%. - Increase SOL pass rate and Passed Advanced scores in reading and math 5%. Focus 2 - Increase the on-time graduation rate to 90% in 2010-11, with incremental increases of 2-3% each year to 2015. Focus 3 - Increase the number of students earning an Advanced Diploma to 65% for the Class of 2012. 2011-12: Focus 1 - Increase African-American male achievement in the following areas by June 2011 - Reduce referrals 5%. - Increase AP enrollments 25% (7 students). - Increase Advanced Studies Diplomas 33% (5 students). - Decrease the gap in SAT scores between African-American and Caucasian students 5%. - Increase SOL pass rate and Passed Advanced scores in reading and math 5%. Focus 2 - Increase the on-time graduation rate to 90% in 2011-12, with incremental increases of 2-3% each year to 2015. Focus 3 - Increase the number of students earning an Advanced Studies Diploma to 65% for the Class of 2012. 2012-13: (same goals as 2013-2014 / listed below) Looking ahead, continues to work towards the division's goal of 95 percent or more of students will graduate having mastered the skills that they need to succeed as 21st century learners, workers and citizens. First Colonial has identified several key focus areas to assist in reaching this goal: Focus 1 - Reduce the on-time graduation failure rate by 10% in the class of 2013 for the following student subgroups: students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged, African-American, limited English proficient. Focus 2 - Increase African-American male achievement in the following areas by June 2014: Increase African-American male advanced studies diplomas to 37% (12 total students); increase African-American male AP enrollment 25% (8 students); and increase SOL pass rate in reading to 85% and in math by 20%. Focus 3 - Increase the number of students earning an advanced studies diploma to 65% for the Class of 2014. Page 5
Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. Leadership Structure Change - In 2009, we thought we could change the structure by changing the people or personalities within leadership positions - we opened department chair positions to the entire staff and interviewed interested candidates. Although the process was eye opening and allowed for teachers to display interest in leadership positions, the FCHS department chair role remained saturated by managerial tasks, primarily dealing with book counting, people managing, and inventory controlling instead of aligning instruction, developing learning outcomes and comparing student learning. Although we initiated minor changes with interviewing for leadership positions, we did not gain the momentum anticipated. A year later in 2010, we realized the need to take it one step further and look at our structure a different way keeping in mind that students were at the center of our work, we focused on making decisions that were in the best interest of student learning. We proposed splitting the department chair position and created two separate jobs: a departmental contact would manage inventory and people, while a team of instructional leaders would focus on instruction and building professional learning communities to strengthen student learning. In addition, administrators would split time the same, devoting less time on information dissemination and more time with instruction. For this new model, we split the stipend between the two groups - the larger sum going to the instructional teacher leaders. In addition, instructional teacher leaders would teach one less class while department contacts would teach the same as their colleagues. The money and time distribution would now reflect the true focus of - instruction. We are currently in year three of this leadership structure change. Common Planning Time / Common Assessments - In addition to the aforementioned leadership structure change, we also created a master schedule that included common planning time within the contract day for most core content areas (English, math, science, social studies, and other specialty groups). Other contents - mainly elective courses - arranged to meet during contract time but after school hours. With the advent of this additional meeting time, teams of teachers were also required to begin work on developing more common assessments. Master Schedule Process - Starting with the 2012-2013 master schedule planning process, the administrator overseeing the master schedule used a new program within the division's student data system, Synergy. With the new system, the master scheduler was able to create a schedule that started with student requests to develop a whole school schedule (as opposed to the traditional method of hand creating class sections based on allocations first). The new system uses a mathematical algorithm to maximize space, class meeting time, teacher resources, and student course selections to best place classes for all 2,000 students. This change shifted the starting point and focus of the master schedule, similar to that of the leadership structure change (teacher centered to student centered). Technology in Classrooms - Over the past three, instructional technology resources increased; Promethean and Smart technology was added to all classrooms throughout the building, including portables. In addition, internet support was improved in locations where it was weakest, impacting its use for instruction (for example, outside portable classrooms). In addition, student morning announcements, once conducted over a public address system, is produced and broadcast throughout the school. This technology has also been utilized to create programming to broadcast live student performances, guest speakers, and other information based platforms. In addition, the school has been issued additional ipads, ipod Touches, document cameras, and computer laptops to supplement our instructional technology resources. Tardy Procedures - Starting in 2011, First Colonial developed a 'Tardy Window'. Students arriving late to school/class report to the 'Tardy Window' before reporting to class; teachers do not admit late students to pass without a 'Tardy Window' specific pass. With this new Page 6
procedure, student tardies decreased significantly within the first month of its implementation; in addition, a decline in student referrals and discipline incidents was observed. With the advent of this new attendance procedure, time on instruction has increased. Page 7