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2003-2004: AYP English Language Arts
2003-2004: AYP Math
2002-2003: AYP English Language Arts
2002-2003: AYP Math
2001-2002: AYP English Language Arts
2001-2002: AYP Math
Based on low statewide assessment results, Monache High School in California's Porterville Unified School District was required by the state to participate in the Department of Education's Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools (II/USP) Program in 1999-2000. This involved working with an approved external evaluator to develop and carry out a school improvement plan. It came at a time when a lot was going on. Monache was in the midst of a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation, a Coordinated Compliance Review, special education review, and was about to embark upon a $6 million building renovation project. The school's enrollment was also at its highest ever - far overcapacity. Being identified as an II/USP school also came as something of a jolt. Many of the hundred faculty members, who had been at the school for decades, actually believed Monache was doing well and felt resistant to the school participating in this process. So, in this climate of tension and community pressure, Monache began work with their external evaluator, who first showed the faculty that based on data analysis, some of their perceptions about the school were incorrect. While the community and the faculty thought of Monache as a college-bound school, in reality only about 10 percent of the students were going on to four-year colleges. In fact there was very little coherence or consistency in curriculum and instruction, and the curriculum was not aligned to standards. "The process was painful," said principal Shirley Houser, "but it got everyone focused and looking in a real way at the data." Assessment & Accountability Freshmen entering Monache come from six different feeder schools. The district assesses eighth graders and provides that data to the high schools. Now the new focus on data, central to the II/USP process, helped the teachers and administrators at Monache begin to use this data to make decisions about placement of incoming freshmen. Also, the school's new emphasis on standards helped them to push the district to align this eighth grade placement test to standards, thus making the information more useful. A key result of the school improvement process at Monache was consistency. With regards to assessment, that meant common finals. No matter who the teacher was, every student taking Biology I, or Algebra II, or 11th grade English would have the same assessment at the end of the year. As Houser noted, "This was painstakingly done course by course and set the focus for how courses were to be taught." The next step was to develop benchmark exams, which are common across every course and are administered each quarter. Some courses also have common unit exams. This is a process the departments continue to work on and each year these benchmark assessments are refined. Standards-based Curriculum & Instruction To begin with, Monache's external evaluator brought together a number of II/USP schools to a retreat site where they focused on identifying essential standards based on the blueprints of the state assessments, then began to backwards map curriculum to the standards. In the past, teachers had all developed their own curriculum and there was little consistency throughout departments. Students in different 10th grade English classes might read different books, focus on different concepts, and be assessed by different teacher criteria. Now in the summer of 2001 teachers met by department and grade level to continue to determine essential standards, then identified which state-recommended instructional materials would help them best meet the standards. This was a difficult process. Having taught the same courses for many years, teachers had become attached to their individual curricula. Looking closely at data, however, helped them to see that different teachers were having different results with the same students. This convinced the teachers that common curriculum, instruction, and assessment would be beneficial. Based on their data, the staff at Monache found that reading was a critical area for student improvement. In addition to students who were struggling to read, even the college-bound students at Monache were not reading much. In the past, English courses had been based almost exclusively on literature with no other texts, and varied greatly from teacher to teacher. Coming up with a consistent curriculum for the English Department meant in part adding a common grammar text and the Accelerated Reader program and choosing some core pieces of literature that would be consistent across each grade level. The Accelerated Reader program increased the amount that students were reading, from beginner to advanced, and the grammar text reinforced basics that some students had missed. Another result of the II/USP process at Monache was a decision to have two blocks of English and math for freshmen. After looking at the data, the staff decided the double block of math was not necessary, but freshmen continue to have a double block of English. This enables low-level readers to participate in an intervention called Learning 100 and non-readers to participate in a different intervention called Language! The staff at Monache also have support from a reading specialist and a library media teacher, both fully credentialed. The reading specialist keeps track of data, supports the reading interventions, and helps teachers with reading instruction. The library media teacher is responsible for implementing and maintaining the Accelerated Reader program and is instrumental in helping students and teachers with research. Monache has a strong English Language Development (ELD) program for its English Learners (ELs). All ELD classes have 30 students or less. Students in Level I or II take two periods a day and Level III students have one period a day. Since nearly all EL students at Monache speak Spanish as their first language, the school has developed a very strong Spanish for Spanish speakers program that goes all the way through Advanced Placement. This enables those students to continue to develop skills in their primary language. Moreover, in classes outside their ELD program, the students are placed in Specially Designed Academic Instruction In English (SDAIE) courses and have access to their mathematics textbooks in Spanish also. Principal Houser has also ensured that all of her teachers are Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development (CLAD) credentialed. Finally, one of the responsibilities of Monache's resource teacher, Mary Anne Miller, is to administer and monitor the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). She is consistently assessing students and working with guidance to make sure they are placed correctly and moving forward. Miller says this is a "day by day process." In addition, Miller makes sure to assess new students and get the results as soon as they arrive on campus. This way, Miller and the guidance department ensure that students can be immediately placed correctly. All these efforts have contributed to a healthy redesignation rate for Els, and Level III ELs at Monache are passing the California High School Exit Exam. Professional Development Porterville Unified School District has negotiated with the teachers union an extra 45 minutes after school every Monday. Departments at Monache use this time to analyze student work and performance data in ways they can use to improve instruction. Departments also use this time to ensure that all teachers are consistently delivering curriculum and instruction so that students are prepared for the common, standards-aligned benchmark assessments and final exams. The leadership team at Monache also uses data to focus the three professional development days before each school year begins. These days are now used in a targeted, coherent manner rather than trying to address too many things with little or no follow-up. Finally, the principal used every possible method to make sure that all of her teachers became CLAD credentialed, because not only was this important for the English Learners at the school, but also the strategies in the CLAD classes were just good overall teaching practice and have had an impact on the level of instruction at Monache. Leadership & Management A foundational change that the II/USP process helped principal Houser initiate was rethinking the master schedule. In the past, the master schedule was recycled from year to year. As a result of this reform process, Houser let the staff know that she would be building the master schedule each year based on data, needs, and teacher qualifications. This did not make some of the veteran staff happy since they were used to teaching the same classes and having their prep periods at the same times year after year. Now Houser sits down with each department head and discusses which teacher would be best for which classes. She makes sure that students who are struggling the most get the chance to have the strongest teachers. Decisions are made by the Academic Council, which consists of the principal, the two assistant principals, each department chair, the resource teacher, the reading specialist, the library media teacher, the head counselor, and the athletic director. With a faculty of over 100, the Academic Council ensures that decisions are based on input from key stakeholders and are communicated back to those stakeholders. School Culture The leadership team at Monache is trying to make this large, comprehensive high school less overwhelming for both students and teachers by implementing smaller learning communities. Now in their fifth year of an AVID Academy, last year they began a Multimedia Academy, and this year they are building a Science and Engineering Academy. Monache has a six-period traditional school day and a very strong music program in which many students participate, so scheduling is very challenging. They have added a "zero" period before school and a summer school program so that students can participate in academies and the music program. Monache's emphasis on consistency has even lead to the adoption of schoolwide instructional strategies. One essential element of the AVID program is the Cornell notetaking system. Teachers and students in the AVID program were finding this system so effective, the administrative team at Monache decided to implement Cornell notes schoolwide. During their professional development time in the summer of 2002, the entire staff learned how to use Cornell notes and that system is now used throughout the school. This consistency across grade levels and departments is extremely beneficial for students. Consistency has also gone beyond curriculum, instruction, and assessment to discipline and behavior management. As a result of the II/USP process, the faculty at Monache implemented the "step discipline process," which begins each semester. The teacher is responsible for the first three steps, which include a warning, a discussion with the student, and a call home. The guidance counselor is responsible for the fourth step, which includes another call to the parents and a meeting with the student and parents. If there continues to be a problem with this student, the assistant principal becomes involved, but this has become very rare at Monache. Houser says, "Now beginning and veteran teachers know how discipline is handled - there's no guessing." The emphasis on consistency has improved openness and communication at Monache. Now that department meetings are effectively used for analyzing student data and planning instruction, the guidance counselors participate in these meetings so they can be alerted to issues with students before they become crises and can place students in the most appropriate classes. As assistant principal Ray Strable notes, "This growing commonality has helped students, teachers, counselors, and administrators ensure that all students are expected to master the same knowledge and skills." Permission to Use Resources SchoolsMovingUp, a WestEd initiative, invites you to use our resources in your work. For uses that involve reproduction of more than one copy of the resource, please submit the online permission request form. We will reply immediately once we know your intended reproduction needs. All reproductions of the resource must include a full citation of the WestEd copyright. |
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