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Director's Report Presented to the GPA
Board of Directors September 23, 2008
Creating Greater Opportunities for Personal Success is a truancy prevention workshop that serves as a positive intervention for 8th and 9th grade students that have been identified as habitual truants and/or those students who seek negative attention upon themselves. The workshop was held for 45 minutes after school on Friday, September 19, 2008. The workshop was facilitated by our school counselor, Mr. Buhain, and Truancy Probation Officer Casey Ryan. Topics discussed were: The Importance of School, Choices and Creating Change. Parents Assuring Student Success (PASS) is a family self-help manual and class that shows parents what they can do to help their children succeed. This curriculum offers an easy to follow approach of seven essential study skills: concentration, listening, time management, note-taking, memory, thinking, and reading. PASS helps parents improve their ability to enhance a positive attitude toward learning and how they can provide a productive learning environment. This class is being offered weekly. Parents can choose from either a morning or evening session. The class will run for 6 weeks and is being facilitated by Family Services Program Coordinator, Ms. McCree- Cooley, and Parent Involvement Coordinator, Michelle Evans. Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) is a 10 week parenting course which focuses on: how to better understand your child’s behavior, how to help your child learn to be responsible for his/her behavior, how to listen and talk to your child, how to use discipline that makes sense, how to feel confident in your parenting approach, and much more. This course is offered weekly in both English and Spanish. Classes are facilitated by Family Service Program Coordinators, Ms. McCree-Cooley, and Ms. Garcia. Uniform Assistance Assisted 33 families with a total spent of $1,085.69. Families are required to complete one hour for every 10 dollars in assistance that is provided. These hours are in addition to the 15 hours required by the GPA Parent Commitment. Enrollment The student recruitment team of GPA is to be recognized for their efforts in ensuring that GPA surpassed their enrollment goal for the 2008-09 school year. The team consisting of parents, teachers, support staff and led by Ms. Shelly Buono, was active in developing school brochures for the community, attending community events, making school visits and conducting site tours in the Spring of 2008. The enrollment was 12 students more than the GPA projected enrollment under Prop 39 for grades 6-8. GPA is currently closed for enrollment and students attempting to enroll are placed on a waiting list by grade level. In the event another student drops from the school, then families on the waiting list are called on a first come, first served basis. 6th grade: 72 7th grade: 252 8th grade: 265 9th grade: 132 Total: 721 Proposition 39 This year’s Prop 39 process has begun with the collecting of family intent to enroll forms from all current GPA families for the 2009-2010 school year. New regulations for applications will go into effect this year and site staff will attend a training later in September to become better versed in the changes. Most notable among the changes is the application will not be due to the school district until November 1st which will allow one more additional month over previous years to gather the “intent to enroll” forms from current families. The new regulations also require the district to respond to initial requests of school’s by December 1st rather than the previous February deadline in the past. Special Education GPA has implemented the school district’s Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) to replace the previous Special Day Classes (SDC). The intent of SAI is to ensure that when ever a student has an Individualized Education Plan, they are mainstreamed into regular education classes and supported by specialized teachers in the classroom versus being pulled out to isolated classrooms. GPA was already on the forefront of moving students into the mainstream when it was considered the least restrictive environment and implementing a co-teaching model between special education and regular education students. This is only done when the mainstream class is considered the least restrictive environment for the student. As a result of SAI implementation, conversion charter schools will no longer be charged the Special Day Class fee for its students receiving SAI. Instead of the approximately $5,200 fee paid to the district per student in SDC previously, GPA will pay the district $715 per student per student which is the current special education encroachment for all students. GPA submitted our letter to San Diego Unified notifying it of our intention to leave the San Diego Unified SELPA for Special Education services in 2009-10. It has also submitted the required letter to the El Dorado Charter SELPA of our intention to join them in 2009-10. We will continue as a member of the San Diego Special Education Improvement Authority JPA and will spend the year dialoging with district staff and completing a more extensive financial analysis and quality review of current programming. The JPA has hired an Executive Director with the generous funding provided by the Girard Foundation that will be assisting the 14 charter schools involved in conducting a thorough analysis of needs and projected budgets in order to make individual site decisions that factor in financial, quality and liability risks associated with the move. Last year showed some impressive numbers in terms of the gains our students made in reading and math. In addition, our student suspensions continue to drop dramatically – now a sixty-four percent drop since 2004. We have fewer students being sent to a more restrictive setting and five students were able to progress to a less restrictive setting. These are just some of the successes we had last year. This school year poses some new challenges to the department. As we build upon our successes from last year, we also must adjust to the new District and State approach to serving special education students, known as Specialized Academic Instruction or SAI. This model focuses on individualizing student schedules based upon student need. Although GPA has been doing this for several years, what is new under this model is the District approach to staffing. Under this model there are fewer categories of special education programs. Students are now identified for service under Mild/Moderate and Moderate/Severe. This has allowed the District to view the allocation of staff from a ratio of teachers and aides to students and not programs. As a result, we lost some staff and are now trying to balance student needs with available staff. All special education teachers are required to attend content area staff development. Similarly, our department’s instructional goals align with those departments. Building on last year, there will be monthly staff development for all special education aides covering such areas as: • Classroom behavior • Students with autism – how to support • IEP basics • Collecting data • Classroom strategies for academic support of special needs students. Currently, we do not have a fully staffed department. We are looking to interview for one teacher and two special education aides. We are monitoring and minimizing the effect this has on our support for students. The department’s goals for this year are: • Use research-based teaching strategies to improve instruction • Increased use of data to determine classroom instruction • Continue to provide early intervention for our students • Build capacity with general education teachers to support our students • Use professional readings to inform and mold our practice English Department The GPA English Department is off to a strong start. Every English classroom provides a literacy-rich environment where students have an unmistakable awareness of the importance of reading and writing. The instructional goals for the literacy department are to teach students to analyze, synthesize and evaluate a variety of genres and text forms. Teachers implement a standards based curriculum through a balanced literacy approach with a heavy emphasis on teaching students skills and strategies to successfully read and comprehend increasingly complex texts. Similarly, students learn how to write in different forms for a variety of purposes and audiences. In addition to reading and writing, the English department believes that student discourse is an integral part of learning. Students are expected to talk about what they are reading and writing in small groups or partners and whole class discussions on a daily basis. One way the English Department is accomplishing these instructional goals is by ensuring that best teaching practices are present in every literacy classroom. This is being accomplished by building capacity with a core group of teachers. This core group of key educators evolved into an acronym CORE (Collaborative Organization of Reading and English). Teachers were invited to join based on levels of expertise, desires to fulfill leadership roles, and representatives of each grade level. The goals of CORE are to:
Additionally the English department is continuing the powerfully effective work in reading that was started in the 2007/2008 school year. Through providing extensive professional development in the areas of reading intervention and instruction teachers will build on their knowledge of assessing students reading levels and implementing effective, researched based strategies. Based on last year’s test scores, there will be a specific emphasis on reading comprehension. Lastly, the English department will continue to operate with strong communication and collaboration. Such practices will ensure that both teacher and student needs are clear and being addressed promptly and effectively. Math Department The math department was very fortunate to have the funding from GEAR UP to begin our professional work during the summer. Under the leadership of John Bartholomew and Karly Kerns, four math teachers learned about how to foster algebraic thinking and encourage meaningful discourse in daily math lessons. Throughout these three weeks, teachers researched, observed, developed and practiced teaching lessons which met the criteria suggested by Mark Driscoll, Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill. The four math teachers recorded their math lessons and will use these experiences in professional development with the math department during the first two months of school. In addition to the professional learning that took place during the summer, the entire math department spent two hours during Academic Camp learning about the non-negotiables of a math classroom at GPA. Teachers were able to see a math lesson demonstrated by Karly Kerns which showed how to conduct a summary of learning at the end of a math lesson. Lindsay Gomula showed how math students at GPA should organize their notes, assessments, current work and progress reports. Emily Fortunato displayed a sample of a math summary journal and how students can self-assess after each lesson according to a rubric. Tina Mascolino highlighted some of the changes in how we will be assessing math students. The math department has chosen to assess students based on tests and quizzes, summary journals, presentations of learning, summary presentations and specific classwork assignments. The department chose to assess this way to be more proactive with the interventions provided to students who may not understand the material. This decision was based on the reading from Learning by Doing from last year's professional development, which talked about the importance of using formative assessments to guide instruction. This year, the math department will continue to learn about ways to teach in a way that fosters algebraic thinking. This work will be led by the five teachers who worked this summer: Christian Colon, Emily Fortunato, Karly Kerns, Aly Kim and Tina Mascolino. Another area of focus will be implementing a constructivist lesson design with a heavy emphasis on student discovery and discussion. Robert Charlton will be demonstrating how the science lesson model can be implemented in a math classroom. Karly Kerns will be conducting a series of professional developments on how to conduct a student-led summary meeting during which students make generalizations and connections. The math department will be moving away from lessons during which the teacher explains how to do the math and towards lessons that allow students to experiment and grapple with the content and discover how and why the methods make sense. Research has shown that this approach will cause students to take more ownership of their learning. The math department is proud to have seven returning teachers who are all working collaboratively with the four new teachers in course level teams. Teachers have been planning rigorous and engaging lessons as well as common assessments for their students. The Geometry team has been working on creating discovery based lessons with real-world applications; the Algebra team has focused on assessment and creating algebraic habits of mind within their students; the Pre-Algebra team has already had students presenting their learning from the first two weeks of school; and the sixth grade math teacher Tina Mascolino has b een working with her students on identifying prime numbers and developing general number sense. Science Department The Science Department is working on devising lessons that elicit critical thinking. Through self-directed explorations and decision-making and through application of new learning, students will be led to "think like scientists" and to do so with greater independence. Independence in science will also be fostered through more meaningful, performance-based assessments, such as the practicum, laboratory demonstrations, and participation in a Science Fair. The Science Department continues to strengthen as a professional learning community by using common assessment as an avenue for discussion around student performance. Analysis of student work is recognized as a major factor in improving teaching and learning. Another vehicle for common assessment and discussion is the science notebook, which was implemented last school year. Used at first as a common means of assessment, the notebooks are being further developed to serve as learning tools, through which students demonstrate their critical thinking. Next steps for the department include development of rubrics for assessing work, beginning collaborative lesson study, and acquisition of materials for more engaging, hands-on lessons. As these areas develop, the professional learning will reach new levels, and the lens on student learning will move further into focus. Last year, GPA students who were tested in Science showed an extraordinary jump in proficiency, from 8% proficient in 2006-2007 to 22% proficient in 2007-2008. This year's work is expected to yield an even greater display of learning for GPA student-scientists. History Department This summer was full of professional development for the History Department. Three teachers attended AVID training in which the teachers were able to obtain numerous resources and meet with other History teachers and discuss project based learning and other ways to help engage our students and incorporate Language Arts in History class and vice versa. One of the department’s goals for this year is to increase the amount of project based learning. Last year the department hosted a great History Night and would like to see more of these events in collaboration with Language Arts and Science. An altered calendar of learning this year will maximize the time spent on Medieval Europe and focus on key aspects of U.S. History to make sure we cover the content we performed weakest on during last year’s CST. Professional Development within the History department will focus on three main topics. The first topic is to look at how to incorporate Socratic Seminars into history classes. Secondly, how to make sure the department is teaching reading in history classes. Finally, to focus our students to make connections with what they are learning in class to what is happening in our world today. Focusing on these three topics will better prepare our students for the CST and for becoming successful global citizens. ENS Department ENS is consistently meeting as a department since recently hiring two new, enthusiastic staff members. Recent staff development has focused on ensuring that the ENS culture is upholding the mission of the school, creating instructional goals and creating new ways for parent engagement and family fitness activities. Future professional development will focus on assessment in physical education, social development in ENS, and motivation for attainment of lifetime fitness. ENS is committed to fighting the plague of childhood obesity by teaching lifelong physical activities that meet the student’s needs. The role of physical activity on physiological, social and emotional well-being as well as a comprehensive perspective on the meaning of a healthy lifestyle will be clearly understood. The department is happy to open the newly furnished fitness room to students and staff. Weights and cardio-equipment will give the students new options for maintaining fitness. The freshmen are creating portfolios of fitness that they will present at the end of the year. The portfolios will follow their progress in improving their fitness throughout the year. Facilities Update GPA continues to look for ways to manage its facilities in the face of budget cuts. The recent cuts have resulted in reduced custodial services, landscaping, classroom supplies, painting, and purchases related to improving the physical environment. Reductions in these services places a strain on our teachers, as they take on some of the work needed to maintain their facilities. The budget cuts have had a more direct impact on students by forcing the school to modify its uniform policy. Prior to reductions, students who came to school out of uniform were able to borrow the needed article(s) for the day, and would return the items at the end of the school day. The uniform loan program cost the school over $10,000 in material costs, not including the human resources that were dedicated to the procedures. With reduced staff, we are no longer able to accommodate students with the amount of time and other resources that were required to document the uniform loans, ensure their return, and wash them for future use. As a result, GPA has implemented a more strict uniform policy, including “No loaners,” and seeks the support of parents as even more of the uniform responsibilities are placed on families. The opening of Millennial Tech Middle has impacted some of the operations of GPA. MTM’s dismissal time, which coincides with that of GPA, has greatly increased the amount of traffic on Hilltop Drive. Cars fill the street as students are dismissed, reducing visibility, and the sidewalks are crowded with increased pedestrian traffic. In response to the growing hazards for students on the way home from school, all GPA teachers are asked to participate in dismissal supervision. Suspensions Last year, GPA proudly reported a 55% reduction in suspensions. As we continue to build a positive, college preparatory school culture, suspensions should continue to drop drastically. So far in the 2008-2009 school year, there has been one suspension. Since then, students have undergone culture lessons, Zero Tolerance Assemblies, and class-size balancing, all of which contribute to an even more positive environment. |
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