Santa Monica High School Progress Report Organizational changes In the face of budget cuts and a projection of declining enrollment, one of Santa Monica High School s small learning communities, A House, was dissolved beginning in the fall of the 2009-2010 school year. This meant that one House principal was relocated to another school in the district. In addition, two advisor positions, a Teacher Leader, and one student outreach specialist position were eliminated. All students that were in A House were moved to M House. Students in M House were then given the option of choosing a House other than M. The decline in enrollment did not materialize. As a result, the remaining five Houses have more students and are working with fewer resources. The quality of support to students has remained strong. In addition, House Teacher Leaders went from two periods of release time per day to only one. This had an impact on their ability to work with teachers to support instruction and their role in House leadership. In the past, Teacher Leaders met once a week and were also able to attend IPC meetings. Currently, they take turns and share other responsibilities to help support all programs. Administrative Changes Since 2006, Samohi has had the same lead principal. All Houses have new leaders. One House principal was relocated when A House was eliminated due to budget cuts. Two retired, two went on to lead their own schools, and one relocated out of the state. Two of the five leaders that replaced those that left came from within the school, a Teacher Leader and an Advisor. As a result of the combination of new talent and those with Samohi experience, the leadership has pursued new ideas and approaches to improving the support and achievement of all students. Outreach Specialists Two student outreach specialists were eliminated due to budget cuts. The three remaining SOSs that remain split their time and attention supporting, five tutorial classes, and the tardy room as they continue to reach out to parents and the community to help support struggling students and their families. Graduation/Intervention Counselor The Graduation/Intervention Counselor position was eliminated at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. This counselor s primary focus was to support students that had not passed the CAHSEE and/or who did not meet all their requirements for graduation. This counselor provided study sessions, CAHSEE preparation sessions, grade and credit checks, oversaw the use of online credit recovery programs, and organized outreach to parents. These responsibilities were redistributed to House Principals, advisors and teachers. Chapter III Progress Report Page 1
Summer Bridge Program Due to budget constraints, the Summer Bridge Program that provided intense instruction in study skills, critical thinking, and writing for students that were recommended to take AP classes was eliminated. Students of color comprised the majority of these classes. These six week courses focused on English and social studies skills. They were a support structure designed to help students gain access and success in higher level curriculum. School wide tardy policy Samohi continues to emphasize the importance of being on time to school. The school s tardy policy was implemented in 2007 and has resulted in a decrease in the number of students arriving late to class. This policy has been updated using a computer program that records, tracks and assigns consequences based on the number of tardies a student has accumulated throughout the day. Advisors and House principals follow up to make sure that students are serving lunch detentions and Saturday school hours. As a result of the new tardy program, the school has seen a decrease in the number of students tardy to class and an increase in the number of students serving their consequences. Instructional Planning Committee (IPC) IPC spent the 2008-2009 school year researching the achievement gap at Samohi. IPC analyzed the programs that exist to support students, the reasons behind the achievement gap and the latest research regarding solutions to this issue. A small group of IPC members visited local schools that had added a support period during the instructional day. This was done in order to investigate the possibility of changing Samohi s bell schedule to include such a period. Another small group also attended the College Board conference, A Dream Deferred, which focuses on African American achievement and reported back to the whole group specific strategies that have been effective in increasing participation in AP level courses by students of color. Measure BB Construction Ground breaking is scheduled for the new Science and Technology building in the summer of 2011. This will significantly impact the campus structure, organization, parking, and climate as this building project begins. The school is anticipating being under construction for the next few years as the campus is completely updated, renovated, and overhauled. Connect for Success summer program In an effort to connect some of our most struggling and at risk incoming ninth graders with some of our best Freshman teachers, the district teamed up with Facing History and Ourselves and Samohi staff members to create the Connect for Success summer program. The program uses experiential and project based curriculum that focuses on building math and literacy skills through a series of lessons and fieldtrips over the summer before the students begin their freshman year. The idea is to build positive relationships and experiences with the high school Chapter III Progress Report Page 2
as a way to transition to the new campus and to help ensure that students who struggle the most have at least one adult on campus they can talk to or rely on as soon as they get to Samohi. Equity Fund programs The Equity Fund was established about eight years ago and is intended to address financial inequities that happen across the district. These funds are to be used with the expressed purpose of closing the achievement gap. Equity funds are made available each October and voted on by Samohi s School Site Council. All money allocated must be spent within the school year. Equity funds currently support programs such as AVID tutors, Racial Harmony, Project Safe Zone, Career Day, professional development for departments and Houses, and our Personalized Opportunity Program (POP). They have also been used over the last six years to provide scholarships to students that are in need to take the California Literature culminating fieldtrip, Sojourn to the Past Civil Rights fieldtrip, and two special education fieldtrips to local museums. Personalized Opportunity Program (POP) In an effort to address the school s sophomores and juniors earning Ds and/or Fs in their core classes, math and English, the Personalized Opportunity Program (POP) was created. Last year, using the school s Equity Funds, the program funded three teachers. One teacher focused on math, one teacher focused on English, and one teacher focused on study skills. The students chosen for the program were taken out of an elective class and rotated each week through each teacher with the flexibility of spending more time with one of the teachers, if necessary. The student outreach specialists were also assigned to the POP program to help POP teachers follow up with parent outreach and support as well as communicating with the advisors. This year, POP is being staffed by six Samohi teachers who provide support to approximately eighty at risk students. Report on School-wide Action Plan Progress Area of Academic Need #1: To increase the enrollment in advanced level courses in order to more accurately reflect the school s diverse population. Since the last WASC self study and visit in the spring of 2005, the enrollment in honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses has seen a slight increase in the number of students of color and low socio-economic backgrounds. All of AP classes continue to have an open enrollment policy; there are no restrictions for enrolling in AP classes such as entry tests or minimum GPA requirements. In 2005-2009, Samohi offered a Summer Bridge Program that helped to recruit incoming ninth and tenth graders from subgroups not historically represented in honors and AP classes in Chapter III Progress Report Page 3
English and social studies, and prepare them to enter and succeed in those courses. Students were typically clustered into small groups in honors and AP courses for the following year, ensuring an informal support network surrounded the students. This program helped to increase the number of underrepresented students initially taking honors and AP courses. Some of these students dropped these courses after a few weeks or at the semester break. In an effort to deal with this trend, there was talk about reconfiguring the Summer Bridge program to continue throughout the year. Six weeks in the summer was a good start but did not provide the students ongoing support to maintain the same level of achievement as some of their peers that were more prepared or felt more comfortable in the AP classrooms. There was also talk about expanding the Summer Bridge program to include science and math. Due to budget cuts, the Summer Bridge Program was cut from the summer school offerings in 2009. Samohi is continuing to look into expanding the AVID program as a way to increase the numbers of students of color in honors and AP classes. While the AVID program is open to any students, the program has more Latino students than any other underrepresented group. The continued gains for Latino enrollment in honors and AP courses and achievement at Samohi may be attributed to AVID. A study of this possible correlation has not been thoroughly researched to date. Still, AVID is widely acknowledged as playing an important role in increasing the number of students of color in honors and AP courses. Since 2008, the Black Student Union (BSU) has held a series of panels and discussions for African American students that focus on African American student achievement. These discussions including a daylong forum called Too Black for AP? where the students looked at the informal social network that often sends a message that AP and honors courses are reserved for Caucasian, Asian and other affluent students. The leadership of BSU along with the AVID coordinator also attended College Board s A Dream Deferred conference in 2009 that focused on African-American achievement and successful strategies and programs that promote strong Black leadership, student achievement and overall success in school. These ideas were shared with the Instructional Planning Committee (IPC) and continue to help build the foundation for the discussion about what needs to be done to raise achievement for students of color. The Young Collegians program was developed in 2008 and will graduate its first cohort of students in June of 2011. The idea behind Young Collegians is to focus on non-avid students that have the ability and desire to attend college. This is a partnership with Santa Monica College and allows the Collegians the opportunity to take classes during the summer on Santa Monica College s campus that count for college credit and provides experiences and exposure to college life. The Young Collegians are supported throughout the school year and the expectation is that they will push themselves to be college ready and competitive in the college application process. Chapter III Progress Report Page 4
Area of Academic Need #2: To implement common semester assessments, benchmarks, and pacing plans in subject-alike classes in order to provide assessment information, in addition to CAHSEE and STAR data, for analysis and to drive curricular change. Since the WASC self study in the spring of 2005, Samohi s math, English, science, social studies, and languages departments have implemented standards-based common assessments. The assessments have been incorporated into a larger curricular focus on power standards (state curriculum standards). The common assessments, given at various intervals, are considered formative and help guide instruction and measure progress toward the standards. The school began its focus on common assessments in conjunction with the district s other comprehensive high school, Malibu High School. Although district personnel have supported this agenda and paid for professional development to create and administer assessments, funding for continued collaboration to examine and discuss results of common assessments has not been readily available. SMMUSD continues to support assessments through the availability and use of Data Director. The English department continues its practice of giving a baseline essay at the beginning of each school year and then having substitutes for half of the department for a day to norm and grade student work. This provides feedback and formative assessment data for each grade level. Each department develops their own common assessments that are unique to the subject area or course. The math department is still rewriting and continuing to adjust their assessments after going through a textbook adoption two years ago. They continue to align the content from the new textbooks into a workable assessment that addresses standards and mirrors questions on the STAR testing. From 2005 until 2008 the district offered two professional development days ( buy back days) to the staff that allowed them to develop power standards, revise the common assessments, look at testing data and align curriculum to the standards. Due to budget cuts, these two professional development days are no longer available. Presently, most time spent on common assessments and benchmarks is in the monthly department meetings or after school. As a result, less time is devoted to common assessments, data analysis and how this information should change our curriculum and instruction. Area of Academic Need #3: To enhance school culture at Samohi by increasing the involvement of students in the decision process. The impetus of this concern was driven in part by a large student disruption which occurred in April of 2005. Samohi has continued to successfully address this issue by proactively providing a safe learning environment for all students. For example, steps have been taken to increase Chapter III Progress Report Page 5
communication and student involvement in the school s decision making process. Since 2005, each House has had a Student Advisory Committee, which was created to allow students the opportunity to voice their concerns and their views directly to their House administration. Each House s Advisory group is unique, depending on how the House administrator oversees the group. While the idea of the advisory committee was initially to be a liaison group between administration and students, House Advisories have increasingly become an avenue for students to be part of the House leadership that organizes House events and activities. Since taking over as principal, Dr. Pedroza, continues to maintain accessibility through his open door policy and by interacting with students in the mornings in the tardy room and every day at lunch and dismissal supervision. Students continue to respond positively and the campus has not had any major disruptions since the initial incident in 2005. While there have been a few minor incidents of graffiti or fighting, the response from the staff and student body has been positive, always looking for viable solutions that involve talking and working through issues. Also since 2005, our ASB has really stepped up and taken a leadership role when working with issues on campus. The ASB leadership has met with the administrative team several times and has worked in collaboration with administration to tackle school issues. ASB has added two House based representatives to facilitate communication between the Houses and ASB and aid in the management of activities in their respective Houses. ASB has also added at least one representative from each homeroom to the House of Representatives that meets twice a month. Area of Academic Need #4: To develop and implement strategies to accurately assess disaggregated school data and distribute it to the staff in ways that may be used effectively by teachers to guide instruction. Since 2005, Samohi has continued to work on this academic need by using the district purchased web based program called Data Director. Site administrators, advisors, and teachers have been trained in how to use the program and have access to student data from any location that provides access to the internet. Data Director catalogs CST, CAHSEE, and AP test results as well as departmental common assessments. These data can be retrieved and analyzed at any time. Almost all departments and Houses allow for time in their meetings at the beginning of the year to analyze current data. These conversations and discussions continue to inform decisions about curriculum, placing students in the most appropriate classes, and provide support for the students who struggle. Teacher, advisor, and administrative feedback about Data Director has been generally positive. The challenge of finding time to properly analyze data and adequately address issues suggested by the data is ongoing. Chapter III Progress Report Page 6
Area of Academic Need #5: To increase communication between all stake holders and involved them in the decision making process. Communication on campus is frequent and happens at all levels of leadership. There are weekly administration team meetings, monthly Instructional Planning Committee (IPC), House, department, and School Site Council meetings as well as less frequent technology committee meetings. Other informal meetings and collaborations happen on campus daily as necessary. The school s improved email system also supports mass communication for all Samohi staff, teachers, departments, Houses, and parent groups. Samohi is committed to providing various avenues to improve communication and collaboration with all of its stakeholders. House principals and teacher leaders, department chairs, and lead principal meet once a month in the Instructional Planning Committee (IPC) meetings. This allows for a stronger collaboration among all stakeholders as the vision, mission, curriculum, instruction, organization, and climate of the school are discussed, defined, developed, and refined. In addition, the faculty and administration communicate in regularly scheduled House, department, and school wide faculty meetings. The lead principal meets with the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), which is a collaborative body designed to discuss important issues that directly affect teachers. Also, the lead principal meets with classified staff once a month to share and discuss pertinent issues. Samohi continues to use the small learning community structure of Houses to facilitate and improve communication and build stronger relationships with parents and families. Younger siblings continue to have the option of joining the same House as their older brother or sister which allows for the House and the advisors to enhance their working relationship with these families. Pinnacle, our online grading system, remains a powerful and easy tool for teachers and parents to communicate and check grades. Many teachers also created websites for their students to access and/or collect homework, handouts, and notes from class and/or podcasts. Furthermore, parent organizations like PTSA, African American Parents Student Staff Support Group (AAPSSSG), AVID, Immersion, and ELAC meet regularly to discuss issues, concerns and student accomplishments. PTSA, AVID, Immersion, and ELAC offer Spanish translation at meetings, and each organization includes members of the administrative staff and teachers to help bring the information and parent perspective back to the larger Samohi community. Samohi works to ensure that all parents get the proper notification about what is occurring with their child on campus. Emails and phone calls go out from administration, advisors, teachers, and other staff to update parents and families about deadlines, grade notifications, conferences, school events, etc. The school s website is also updated regularly to keep all the information relevant and current. Samohi recognizes that not all parents have access to computers or the Internet, so parents and families are also sent hard copies of progress reports, special Chapter III Progress Report Page 7
notifications and the PTSA Newsletter. Newsletters and bulletins that are sent home are translated into Spanish. In an effort to ensure that all parents and families get the most up to date and important information, SMMUSD purchased the Blackboard Connect-Ed program. This is web based system that allows phone messages and emails to be sent out to the Samohi staff and parents to keep them informed about upcoming events, policy changes or activities. Beginning in 2009, the district began to address its academic challenges from a pathway perspective. Pathways are families of schools that share the same students over their public school career. Pathway work provides educators at different school levels with opportunities to collaborate and better support students. These pathways meetings are intended to bring district office staff, administrators and teachers together to discuss aligning core curriculum and set expectations about skills and content to be taught K-12. Chapter III Progress Report Page 8