The School District of Palm Beach County Mr. Robert Hatcher 5949 140th Avenue, North West Palm Beach, FL 33411 Document Generated On October 15, 2013
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? Western Pines Community Middle School is located in the heart of the rural unincorporated Western Communities of Palm Beach County in, what used to be, the Callery-Judge Orange Grove but will become a densely populated single family home subdivision. The school serves 1120 students from the Acreage, Loxahatchee Groves and the Village of Royal Palm Beach. The surrounding community consists of single family homes on one acre lots which are also zoned for farming or husbandry. The school has nineteen buses bringing students in from around the area. The transportation infrastructure consists of both dirt and paved roads with many blocked by a myriad of canals used for both drainage and irrigation making point to point travel time consuming. The community has experienced economic decline over the past three years with the number of students receiving free and reduced lunches increasing to forty-two percent of the population. Western Pines has a racially mixed campus with a ratio of fifty-six percent Caucasian, twenty-four percent Hispanic, thirteen percent African American, and seven percent in all others combined. The school has an accomplished instructional staff with 76% of the staff having more than 6 years of teaching experience, over one-quarter of the staff (28%) have advanced degrees, more than one-third of the staff (35%) have more than 15 years of teaching experience, 8% of the staff holds National Board Certifications in their field, 24% are ESOL endorsed and 23% are Reading endorsed. Western Pines is poised for a change in boundaries through district re-alignment of feeder school patterns with community middle schools which will temporarily decrease enrollment. These changes will enable more students who were waiting for seats to become available in the Pre-IT and Pre-Med choice programs to make entry into their desired academic and professional track, as well as allow for expansion in our new Culinary Arts program. 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. The purpose of Western Pines Community Middle School is to serve as a vital link in the process of preparing students for a successful high school experience by creating and promoting a climate of high expectations in academic achievement fostered through a safe and secure environment. Our mission is to maintain a standard of high expectations designed to nurture and develop our students into literate, ethical, self-motivated, productive problem-solvers equipped for the challenges of the 21st Century. Our Pre-Medical, Pre-Information Technology and Culinary Arts Programs are the embodiment of the belief that students can make decisions to positively impact their future through personal growth and academic development. The training received in these programs allows students access to the high school of their choice and possible employment at entry level positions in their respective fields of study. Our advanced and accelerated courses provide the pre-requisites necessary for students desiring high level college preparatory programs such as the Accipiter program and the International Baccalaureate programs in high schools of their choosing. Western Pines desire to support struggling students is evident in our Read 180 program, school-wide reading initiative, school-wide literacy initiative and school-wide vocabulary initiatives. Students who are struggling in math are also scheduled in our daily remediation program for math pull-outs and tutorials. Struggling students also have the opportunity at Western Pines for free tutoring in our after-care program which is staffed by highly qualified instructors who provide assistance to any student needing support in math, science and reading. Students who choose to take advantage of the assistance have been shown to reach academic success on the statewide assessment test. Our after-care tutorial program is supported through grants by the district and the district provides free transportation for those students who participate in after-care. The schools safe and secure climate is facilitated by students trained in appropriate social and academic behaviors which are reinforced through the school-wide positive behavior support initiative. This initiative provides normative behavioral expectations for classroom, hallway, cafeteria, assemblies and transportation. The expected behaviors are directly tied to the Western Pines mascot, the Tiger, and are posted as an acronym ROAR in every classroom. (i.e.: R = Respect, O= Own your decisions, A = Always be considerate, R = Ready to learn.) The program is reinforced through incentives in behavior and achievement as students show evidence of positive behavior they receive a ROAR card by the teacher or administrators who witnessed the action. The ROAR card allows the student to have the opportunity to receive further awards. 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. The notable achievements at Western Pines is directly related to student achievements both in increases in academic proficiency as revealed in state-wide assessments but in individual academic achievement of students going above and beyond the classroom and engaging in contests and extra-curricular activities in application of their knowledge. Over the past three years Western Pines has seen student increases in student academic proficiency in reading, math, and science as reflected in the Florida A+ accountability score moving from 620 to 654. Student proficiency in the lowest 25% of those in reading and math has increased, as over 50% of students in that subgroup have made academic learning gains annually. Western Pines academic subgroups have been showing increases in proficiency as well, with between 93% and 97% of those groups making annual yearly progress over the past three years. Students at Western Pines have been applying their knowledge and desire to make a difference by entering their work in several writing contests and have been winners in the 'African - American Essay Contest' and the 'Do the Right-Thing Essay Contest'. These winners have been recognized at the state level and have influenced others to change their behaviors and put an end to bullying. Students in our advanced and gifted science courses have been a part of the 'E-Cyber Mission' program. Western Pines has had 6 winning ECYBERMISSION teams. The students won a total of $46,000. Gifted and advanced students participated and all but one team got at least honorable mentions and received other prizes such as T-shirts, STEM kits with calculators, electronic timers, flash drives, pencils, etc. Our students are planning for their future by taking courses preparing them for magnet high school programs of their choice. Western Pines has had an increase in the number of students taking; advanced courses, state EOC tested accelerated courses, and high school credit courses. These students have completed this academically challenging track and have applied to and have been accepted into special college preparatory programs of their choice such as the Accipiter program at Seminole Ridge High School and the International Baccalaureate program at Suncoast High School. Western Pines has a Pre-Medical Choice Program second to none and have students applying for and attending from outside our school boundaries. Students in the Pre-Med program are equipped with basic fundamental principles of health-care upon graduation and are ready for entry level positions at medical clinics and doctor's offices. Our Pre-Informational Technology program has been increasing in numbers of students participating annually with a significant number of students attending from outside our boundaries as well. Upon graduation our Pre-IT students have the pre-requisite knowledge for continuation in the field of Information Technology and are uniquely qualified for entry level positions in many technological fields. Upon completion of our program the students will be able to take the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Exams (Word, Excell, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook). Over the next three years our school will be expanding the Pre-IT and Pre-Med academies to allow more students entry into the programs. Western Pines will be developing the Culinary Arts program into building a comprehensive culinary school with the possibility of becoming a Culinary Academy. Some of our challenges will be in preparing students for the new high stakes assessment utilizing the Common Core instructional benchmarks. Additional strategies are currently being implemented which staff have been trained in at the beginning of this year and will continue to be carried out over the next three years to facilitate a successful transition into the newly modified writing parameters for Page 4
the Florida Writes tests. 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. x Page 6