S.B.M. Meetings

Los Angeles Unified School District

District B

School Action Plan

to

Improve Student Achievement

Three -Year Plan

2001 – 2004

Table of Contents

MISSION/VISION/BELIEFS

Mission-

The Verdugo Hills High School mission is to provide students access to the tools necessary to be active, inquisitive, and successful participants in a rapidly changing world.

Vision-

We envision VHHS as a diverse learning community of responsible citizens.  VHHS will integrate technology seamlessly into an environment that nurtures students both as scholars and people.

Beliefs-

·        All stakeholders must be involved in a concerted effort to develop students both academically and socially.

·        The needs of all students, including non-English speakers and traveling students, must be recognized and accommodated.

·        Attendance is essential to successful student achievement.

·        An environment that encourages pride and respect is essential to school culture.

·        Community support is integral to creating a community-centered transition to post high school success.

·        A comprehensive curriculum that supplements an intense college preparatory preparation is important in developing the whole child.

·         K-12 articulation is necessary to properly understand a child’s journey.

COMPONENT 2: PERFORMANCE/ACCOUNTABILITY

STUDENT OUTCOMES:

Students will be expected to master the state standards in reading, writing, written and oral English-language conventions, and listening and speaking in language arts.

Students will be expected to master the state standards for at least algebra and geometry in mathematics.

The Verdugo Hills High School Expected Schoolwide Learning Results are intricately connected to the state standards, they are:

Upon graduation, students will be able to demonstrate their ability to be:

·        Effective Communicators

·        Complex/Critical Thinkers

·        Responsible, Self-Directed Learners

·        Collaborative Workers

Rationale for Student Outcomes:

Our data is grounded in our 2000-2001 WASC Accreditation process.  Our school community began a year-long analysis of standardized test scores, a review of current educational research, and program evaluation.  We included STANFORD 9 scores (dissaggregated), grade point average, attendance, departmental grading policies, advanced placement scores and enrollment, A-G requirements, and other baseline data.

Sat 9 Results

Final Marks of “C” or better.

Assessment:

All data has been disaggregated and shared with staff.  The school’s API targets have been established by the State.  Targets for other school performance indicators are in line with District goals.

Academic Performance Index

See the attached printout of school performance indicators for more information.

Actions/Strategies to Achieve Student Outcomes:

Restructuring efforts are organized around the concepts articulated in a report of the Rand Corporation entitled, "High Schools with Character". "Focus schools" concentrate on the long-term development of their students. By creating a more nurturing environment with feeder schools and the parents of traveling students; it is felt that we can positively affect students' academic performance; attitudes towards school; and behavioral adaptations that will lead to improved involvement in the educational process.

Verdugo Hills HS has secured a Smaller Learning Communities grant in order to provide an emotional and academic support safety net for students.  The ninth grade is configured into heterogeneous Houses with all grades to follow.  Interdisciplinary curriculum will be developed through team teaching.  Humanitas and the Multimedia Academy will be amongst the Houses. Each House will contain 150-200 students and be headed by a team of 4 teachers who will create thematic, interdisciplinary, project-based lessons.  Co-nect has been contracted to provide services in the areas of technology and project-based learning.

Success in programs will be greatly enhanced by having a stable student body and by focusing on identified problem areas and by articulation with feeder schools.

Students will be proficient technology users, able to use technology to acquire, evaluate, organize, manipulate, interpret and communicate data.

Other strategies being employed at the school include:  Jane Shaffer Writing program. TOPS (science accesses high tech lab equipment).  FIRST (a Robotics program), and Workforce L.A.s Multimedia academy.  Computer repair, LA-SI and clubs are also used as either academic or environmental setting strategies.  Bridge-Focus supports Impact Community Outreach and Homeless Outreach as well.

All identified ESL / LEP students receive supplemental services. The program assures that ESL / LEP students are monitored for progress to meet state and district standards. Supplemental services include personnel (Teacher's Aide), (electronic) equipment, instructional materials, parental involvement (BAC meetings), tutoring (extended teacher position), etc. All LEP students have equal access to the core curriculum.

Verdugo Hills High School utilizes EIA-LEP funds to provide supplemental resources and materials which support the core curriculum. Additional resources include:

·        Bilingual education aides

·        Spanish speaking teacher

·        Bilingual coordinator

·        Supplemental instructional materials

·        Parent and staff conferences/workshops and other professional development activities

·        Instructional technology, including Learning 2000 software

·        Extended teaching position (tutorial)

Verdugo Hills High School's Gifted Program is designed to meet the needs of all identified Gifted students as well as other students desiring, needing, or deserving of an enriched, differentiated curriculum. Faculty members regularly involve themselves in workshops and professional development to meet these needs. Gifted students are achieving, as evidenced by high marks in accelerated courses, their participation and pass rate on AP and Golden State Exams, and their acceptance into selective colleges and universities.

Currently, Verdugo Hills High School offers fifteen sections of AP courses in nine different subject areas. This reflects an increase of seven sections and three courses since 1996. In addition, there are Honors level courses in every academic area.

Verdugo Hills High School students who have been identified as State Gifted have access to the core curriculum and the following supplemental resources:

·        Gifted Coordinator

·        Extended teaching position

·        Enrichment materials and advanced technology

·        Curricular trips

·        Teacher conferences (AP Program)

The Special Education Program at Verdugo Hills High School encompasses all facets of a traditional educational curriculum into a matrix that meets the least restrictive needs of all students who attend. Though most students with special needs have been identified before they reach the secondary school setting, an atmosphere of awareness exists such that faculty and staff feel free to recommend evaluation for students believed to be struggling despite modifications and accommodations. Furthermore, parents of enrolling students complete a questionnaire in which they are asked if their child is in Special Education, was in Special Education, or is struggling academically. Currently, the Special Education Program consists of 5 RSP positions (3 English. 2 math) and 5 SDC positions (also Departmentalized)  Special Day students are mainstreamed in accordance with each student's IEP. Special Education students have access to and participate in a variety of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities and receive recognition through the school's Honor Rolls. In addition to individualized service within the classroom. Verdugo Hills High School provides DIS services in the following areas: Hard of Hearing, Language and Speech, Visually Handicapped, Adaptive PE, Career and Transition Services, and Psychological Counseling.  In-service training is provided for staff and parents based on an annual needs assessment.

Verdugo Hills High School students who have been identified as needing Individualized Education Plans have equal access to the core curriculum.  The following resources are provided by district and local school-site funding:

·        Off-norm teaching positions

·        School Psychologist time

·        Itinerant teachers (i.e. Language and Speech, Other Health Impaired)

·        Career Transition Counselor

·        Special Education Aides

·        Supplemental instructional materials

·        Special Programs Coordinator

To combat absenteeism, a new Senior Attendance Incentive Policy has been adopted by the School Based Management On-Site Council. This policy ties attendance to allowing the seniors the privilege of graduating on stage during the graduation ceremony.

A partnership with the Hillview Mental Health Center is a community service that VHHS facilitates.

COMPONENT 3 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Verdugo Hills High School has established a staff development program that aligns a standards-based curriculum with instruction and assessment on a continuous basis throughout the school year.

Due to the Staff Development Reform Program, Senate Bill 1193, VHHS is entitled to use three weekdays outside the students' instructional school year for eligible certificated personnel and one day for classified classroom instructional aides and certificated teaching assistants.

In addition to the three "Buy-Back" days and the districtwide common planning time, Verdugo Hills High School staff, under the Copernican Plan, have the benefit of 90 minutes of common planning time each day which can be used for collaboration and in-service training.

Individualized Learning Plans for technology training will be developed which will include: use of application software, hardware management, multimedia software and devices, integration of course specific software into the curriculum.

Smaller Learning Communities - Coordinating curriculum across subject areas, creating and building teams and counseling and mentoring of students.  Project based learning training will be provided by Co-nect in order to maximize student interaction with the curriculum as demanded by a Copernican schedule.

Components of this plan include:

·        The development of subject matter expertise, instructional leadership, teacher networks, and professional collaboratives.

·        The development of strategies to improve standardized test scores, improve A-G pass rates, expand our AP program, and accelerate the progress of LEP student redesignation.

·        Utilization of the Stanford 9 Guide for Organizational Planning to analyze test results and to plan for instruction, test-taking, and review strategies.

·        Expanding assessment to include the use of rubrics, performance-based measures, portfolios, and student-led conferences.

·        The integration of technology into the curriculum.

·        A focus on multiple intelligences.

·        The involvement of paraeducators to support instruction in the classroom.

Teachers will be supported in their efforts to articulate with feeder schools as well as colleagues on other campuses.  The opportunity for professional growth through conference attendance as it pertains to schoolwide goals will also be supported.

COMPONENT 4  PARENT/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Verdugo Hills High School is concerned about the lack of parental involvement school-wide. The Local School Leadership Council actively recruits parents that will increase and streamline the avenues of communication between the school and home, the council coordinates the development and distribution of the Verdugo Hills High School Parent Handbook that is currently being written.  A Parent Center exists on campus to welcome parents and provide a location for parent meetings and trainings.

In the past three years, communication between the school and the home has increased through monthly newsletters from counselors four times per semester.  The counselors also include parents in the educational process by requiring the parent's signature on all semester program planning sheets.  In addition, a street side marquee is being installed that will enable the community to view announcements.

Conferences are encouraged between parents and teachers and counselors. All parents are invited to Back-To-School-Night, Open House and are encouraged to set up meetings between themselves and their students teachers. Transportation is provided for parents in CAP areas to Back to School and Open House.  The College Counselor is in communication with parents in regard to all aspects of the college application process. There are college awareness activities as well as financial aid workshops to which parents are encouraged to attend. Math night is another interactive opportunity for parents.

In February 1995, Verdugo Hills High School implemented a Homework Hot Line, which presents a vast array of parent-school communication opportunities including voice mail, and 24-hour access to information regarding class activities and daily homework assignments.

During the past two years Verdugo Hills High School has acquired a bilingual office manager, three bilingual Spanish teachers and a bilingual social science teacher. The present English -as-a-Second Language (ESL) Coordinator is multi-lingual and the ESL Advisor is bilingual. The Attendance Office and the dean's office both have a bilingual aide/staff member allowing for communication with Spanish speaking parents in these two critical venues.  Two of the four counselors are bilingual and assist with communication between students and parents when necessary in the counseling office.

Newsletters and communications are sent home in both English and Spanish.  Since we have a number of parents who speak a language other than English or Spanish, there is a reason to hire school personnel who are able to communicate with these parents.

COMPONENT 5 BUDGET

The Budget is present in standardized format in the attached School Spending Plan Worksheet. The Budget is linked to the following goals:

Goal - Improved Student Achievement
Major components: Classroom costs (teachers, classroom aides, instructional
materiel, textbooks); school principals and assistant principals; special education nonpublic school costs.
•The achievement of this goal will be measured by standardized tests.

Goal - Staff Development And Improving Instruction
Major components: Substitute time for staff development; costs of professional experts and outside specialists in staff development activities; stipends paid to mentor teachers; staff development programs for teachers, administrators, and classified employees.
The achievement of this goal will be measured by the amount of participation of staff and its relationship to improved student achievement.

Goal - Engaging Parents In Education
Major components: Decentralized district offices; parent centers; school, district, and central advisory committee expense; Parent-Community Services Branch office expenses; special education student individualized education plans (IEPs); student testing; school principals and assistant principals; districtwide evaluation and assessment costs.

The achievement of this goal will be measured by a survey of employees and parent satisfaction with the decentralized program.

COMPONENT 6 EVALUATION

The Local School Leadership Council will review the action plan components each May to determine the need to revise implementation strategies. The school community will review District performance indicators as they become available to determine instructional focus and professional development needs.  All information will be disaggregated  for examination.

Other indicators that will be used at VHHS include:

·        Technology-assisted, interdisciplinary assessments.

·        Improvement of the 9^th grade retention rates, API and attendance.

·        Increased numbers of students enrolled in A-G and post-secondary education.

·        Additional AP courses.

·        Performance on the High School Exit exam.

·        Cross-disciplinary rubrics and subject area portfolios will used in the ninth grade Houses.

COMPONENT 7 GOVERNANCE

The Verdugo Hills Local School Leadership Council is configured in accordance with the UTLA/LAUSD Bargaining Unit Agreement, Article XXVII.  All specifics related to membership, term of office, decision-making, purview and other processes and procedures also follow the contract.

The composition of the council is 16 members, eight of whom are teachers, the remaining 50% are composed of the principal, five elected parent/community representatives, an elected non-certificated employee representative and a student representative.

Staff selection will conducted by a subcommittee of the Local School Leadership Council for the certificated positions only.  Teachers will be chosen by an administrator, department chairperson and a second teacher from that department.  Administrators will be chosen by an administrator, parent/community member, teacher, and student.

COMPONENT 8 WAIVER REQUESTS

Verdugo Hills High School requests waivers for:

The continuation of its Copernican (bell) schedule waiver

The continuation of its staff selection waiver.

Signature Page

We, the stakeholders of Verdugo Hills High School, wish to lend our support and approval to this Site Action Plan.  We will review the plan annually and revise as necessary.

Proposal made by: John Ralles.