Henry M. Gunn High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

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HENRY M. GUNN HIGH SCHOOL

MID-CYCLE PROGRESS REPORT

780 Arastradero Road

Palo Alto, CA 94306

Palo Alto Unified School District

March 19-20, 2018

Accrediting Commission for Schools

Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Henry M. Gunn High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

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CONTENTS

I: Student/Community Profile Data....................................................................... 1

II: Significant Changes and/or Developments .................................................... 15

III: Ongoing School Improvement ........................................................................ 20

IV: Progress on Critical Areas for Follow-up/Schoolwide Action Plan ................ 24

V: Schoolwide Action Plan Refinements ............................................................. 72

Appendix

Appendix A – 2015 Visiting Team Report: http://www.gunn.pausd.org/sites/default/files/WASC%202015%20-

%20Visiting%20Committee%20Report.pdf

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I. STUDENT/COMMUNITY

PROFILE DATA

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School Profile

Henry M. Gunn Senior High School opened in 1964 as the third high school in the District with a class of about 600 juniors and sophomores to relieve an overcrowded Cubberley High School (now closed). The first graduating class was in 1966. Once Cubberley was closed, friendly rivalry with the remaining high school (Palo Alto) became a feature of life at Gunn. With an initial full size of about 1,200 students, the enrollment at Gunn is now 1,988 students with the expectation that the enrollment will grow to 2,200 in the next few years as “bubble population” moves through the PAUSD schools. The infrastructure of the original campus has been expanded considerably. Bond issues passed by highly supportive local residents in the district have resulted in the construction of first-class facilities: a new library, new classroom space for science, math, English and world languages, and outstanding athletic facilities, including a new gymnasium and athletic facilities. Another new construction project currently underway adds an instrumental music building, a choral music building and a two story building located in the center of the campus. This new building will house the Guidance Office and Wellness Center on the second floor and the Student Activities Office and classrooms on the first floor. The student body reflects the community’s socio-economic status and educational level. The ethnic/racial makeup of our student population is 44.2% Asian, 1.1% African-American/Black, 38% Caucasian, 8.7% Hispanic/Latino, 0.7% American Indian/Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. 8.3% of the student population is enrolled in Free/Reduced Lunch Program; 10% are first generation college students.

In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on supporting the social and emotional health of our students. Special programs such as Sources of Strength and ROCK (Reach Out. Care. Know.), a strengthened Counseling Department, and a new Wellness Center have put a focus on creating a strong and welcoming Gunn community. Our most recent and wide-reaching effort to date is a new social emotional program, Social Emotional Literacy and Functionality (SELF), which is currently being piloted for all 9th grade students during Thursday Flextime. Additionally, in any one semester over 80 student-initiated clubs are operating on campus, each with a staff advisor. These clubs provide an opportunity for like-minded students to explore their own interests in areas such as community service, business, singing a cappella, politics, etc.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the City of Palo Alto includes a dynamic mix of business and residential development. Hewlett-Packard and Stanford University and Hospitals are the City’s largest employers. Palo Alto’s population is approximately 67,042; the median household income is $137,043; the median home price is $1,702,000 (2016 US Census Data); 80% of adults hold a four-year college degree; and 43% of adults over 25 have at least one graduate degree. PAUSD is a basic aid district and does not receive state funding based on Average Daily Attendance.

Students who attend Gunn typically live in Palo Alto’s southern and central neighborhoods, including parts of Los Altos Hills. Recent demographic shifts in northern Santa Clara County have brought new families and increased ethnic and linguistic diversity within Asian, East Indian, and Middle Eastern populations. In addition, the Voluntary Transfer Program (VTP), also referred to as the Tinsley Program, brings students from Ravenswood School District to PAUSD.

In the spring of 2015, Gunn received a six-year accreditation from ACS WASC with a two-day mid-cycle visit.

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School’s Vision, Mission and Learner Outcomes

The Mission of Henry M. Gunn High School is to foster a community of creative thinkers who will acquire knowledge, skills, values and integrity to: be resilient, responsible, respectful, contributing citizens; lead rewarding lives which pursue personal excellence and life-long learning.

We are a comprehensive public high school that unites our students, teachers, staff, and parents to deliver on our collective vision by offering a rich and challenging academic experience to all students within a supportive community dedicated to preparing our youth for the challenges of living in a fast-changing world.

The core purpose of our school is to affirm the potential of every Gunn student in an environment of support and inspiration where people work together and lift each other toward great personal growth.

At Gunn, everyone values and benefits from our collective effort to grow and to develop our human potential. Guiding this effort is our belief in the following:

● Promoting personal integrity and respect

● Providing a nurturing environment characterized by teamwork and collaboration

● Caring for and believing in every individual

● Encouraging creativity and independent thinking

● Understanding that growth and learning are essential parts of life

● Acknowledging great effort and great fun in work and play

Our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLOs) are universal elements of good instruction that are relevant and easily applicable. Our teachers incorporate many SLOs in the classroom on a daily basis.

Our District-based Schoolwide Learner Outcomes:

To achieve our mission, the Board of Education has adopted the following competencies as the basis of what we expect our students to know and be able to do when they are graduated from PAUSD:

SLOs to Be Measured by Report Card Grades:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, principles, processes, facts, and skills in the disciplines of language arts, history-social science, mathematics, science, physical education, visual and performing arts, foreign language, career-vocational education, and health / practical living skills.

SLOs to Be Measured by the Rubrics:

1. Effective Communication Through Listening, Speaking, and Writing

2. Strong Research Skills

3. Ability to Integrate Knowledge Among Disciplines

4. Reading with Understanding

5. Critical and Creative Thinking to Solve Problems

6. Effective Use of Technology

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Student and Faculty/Staff Demographics

Gunn student enrollment has grown by 91 students since 2014-2015 and an enrollment “bubble” in our district has us projected to continue to grow through the 2020-2021 school year. The present student enrollment is 1988 and is expected to increase to 2200 within the next few years. In both the 16-17 and 17-18 school year, the other high school in the district, Palo Alto High School, was “closed” to new enrollment in May prior to the start of the school year and students were overflowed to Gunn High School.

ENROLLMENT BY GRADE

Year Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Ungr Sec Total

Enroll # % # % # % # % # %

2014-2015 478 25% 464 25% 496 26% 447 24% 12 1% 1,897

2015-2016 489 25% 470 24% 464 24% 495 26% 21 1% 1,939

2016-2017 469 24% 484 25% 487 25% 456 24% 23 1% 1,919

2017-2018 503 25% 497 25% 488 25% 477 24% 23 1% 1988

Figure 1 – California Department of Education – Dataquest

The student body reflects the community’s socio-economic status and educational level. The ethnic/racial makeup of our student population is 44.2% Asian, 1.1% African-American/Black, 38% Caucasian, 8.7% Hispanic/Latino, 0.7% American Indian/Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. 8.3% of the student population is enrolled in the Free/Reduced Lunch Program; 10% are first generation college students. Over the last fifteen years, the student body at Gunn has become more ethnically and linguistically diverse. The white student population has decreased from over 80% in 1993 to less than 38% in 2008. The largest percent increase in the last fifteen years has been in the Asian population, which has increased from 15% to over 44% since 1993.

In numbers, Gunn has:

● 130 students on IEP

● 124 students on 504 Plan

● 67 students who are classified as English Learners

● 166 students who receive Free or Reduced Lunch

● 3 students who are homeless

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CERTIFICATED STAFF DATA

CERTIFICATED STAFF DEMOGRAPHICS BY ETHNICITY

2014-2015 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 ETHNICITY # % # % # % # %

Hispanic 14 9.8% 5 4% 3 2% 14 10%

American Indian or Alaska Native 0 0.0% 3 2% 3 2% 0 0%

Asian, Not Hispanic 12 8.4% 1 1% 4 3% 14 10%

Pacific Islander, Not Hispanic 0 0.0% 2 1% 1 1% 0 0%

Filipino, Not Hispanic 2 1.4% 1 1% 4 3% 2 2%

African American, Not Hispanic 2 1.4% 1 1% 11 8% 3 2%

White, Not Hispanic 111 77.6% 11 8% 5 4% 105 75.5%

Two or More Races, Not Hispanic 2 1.4% 2 1% 1 1% 1 1%

No Response 0 0.0% 115 81% 109 77% 1 1%

Total 143 142 141 139

Figure 2 – Certificated Demographics – Infinite Campus

GUNN CERTIFICATED – GENDER

85.1 FTE Female 60.5%

55.5 FTE Male 39.5%

Total: 140.6 FTE

GUNN CERTIFICATED – YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Total Female Male

1 - 5 37 22 15

8 - 10 26 17 9

11 - 15 36 26 10

16 - 20 23 14 9

21 - 25 18 9 9

26 - 30 10 8 2

Above 30 3 0 3

GUNN CERTIFICATED – EDUCATION LEVEL*

BA only 43

1 MA 129

2 MA* 22

Ph.D. 5

NBPTS/CCC 11 * = employees w/2 MA’s are also included in the 1 MA category

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CLASSIFIED STAFF DATA

GUNN CLASSIFIED – POSITION BREAKDOWN

Total Female Male

Secretaries/Clerks 13 12 1

Aides 26 18 8

Custodians 11 0 11

Other 21 16 5

GUNN CLASSIFIED – ETHNICITY

Total Female Male

Asian/Asian Indian 5 4 1

Chinese 0 0 0

Black 8 3 5

Hispanic 12 6 6

Other Asian/Pacific Islander 4 3 1

White 39 29 10

Multiple 3 1 2

GUNN CLASSIFIED – GENDER

Female: 46

Male: 25

Student Achievement Data

Student achievement data since March 2015 provides evidence that many students at Gunn continue to perform above the national average on standardized tests. ACT and SAT scores continue to show an increase in performance.

SAT Results – OVERALL MEAN SCORES GRADE 12 STUDENTS

2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016

# Tested Critical Reading

Math Writing # Tested Critical Reading

Math Writing # Tested Critical Reading

Math Writing

Gunn 383 636 675 645 330 642 686 646 340 646 680 652

District 761 639 671 646 700 634 671 634 689 642 671 645

County 10,531 546 578 551 10,690 547 576 550 20,395 548 575 549

State 204,848 492 506 489 210,706 489 500 484 214,262 484 494 477

Figure 3 – SAT Results – California Department of Education – Dataquest

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ACT Results - OVERALL MEAN SCORES

2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017

# Tested Rdg Eng Math Sci # Tested Rdg Eng Math Sci # Tested Rdg Eng Math Sci

Gunn 230 28 29 30 28 238 29 30 30 29 293 30 29 30 29

District 465 28 29 30 28 501 29 29 29 28 581 30 29 29 29

County 4,749 25 25 26 25 5,054 25 25 26 25 5,663 26 26 26 25

State 97,607 22 21 23 21 104,230 22 22 22 22 108,679 22 22 22 22

Figure 4 – ACT Results – California Department of Education – Dataquest

AP Results - PERCENT OF EXAMS TAKEN ACHIEVING A SCORE OF 3 OR HIGHER

2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017

# of

Exams Taken % Passing with

a 3 or Higher # of

Exams Taken % Passing with a 3 or Higher

# of Exams Taken

% Passing with a 3 or Higher

Gunn 2,040 94.6 1,970 93.8 2,377 92.0

District 3,530 93.7 3,457 93.5 n/a n/a

County 42,301 69.6 44,812 70.4 n/a n/a

State 620,878 58.5 665,071 56.2 n/a n/a

Figure 5 – AP Results – California Department of Education –

Dataquest and College Board

Gunn continues to have a high number of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists:

2016 National Merit Scholarship program semifinalists: 46

2017 National Merit Scholarship program semifinalists: 36

2018 National Merit Scholarship program semifinalists: 33

Gunn’s graduation rate has maintained at 94.4% (California School Dashboard).

GRADUATION & DROPOUT RATES

# of Students # of Grads % Grad # of Dropouts % Dropout % Still Enrolled

2014-2015 493 474 96.2% 16 3.2% 0.6%

2015-2016 498 470 94.4% 23 4.6% 1.0%

2016-2017 468 462 98.7% 6 1.3% 0%

Figure 6 – Graduation and Dropout Rates –

California Department of Education – Dataquest

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SCHOOLWIDE GRADUATION & DROPOUT RATES BY ETHNICITY

2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017

Race/ Ethnicity

# Students

# Grads

% Grad

% Dropout

# Students

# Grads

% Grad

% Dropout

# Students

# Grads

% Grad

% Dropout

Hispanic or Latino of Any Race

48 44 91.70% 8.30% 45 37 82.20% 13.30% 42 39 92.80% 7.14%

Asian, Not Hispanic

205 198 96.60% 3.40% 221 214 96.80% 2.70% 205 204 99.50% 0.48%

Filipino, Not Hispanic

< 10 students

< 10 students

100.00% 0.00% < 10

students < 10

students 50.00% 50.00% 8 8 100% 0%

African American, Not Hispanic

< 10 students

< 10 students

100.00% 0.00% 11 10 90.90% 9.10% 8 8 100% 0%

White, Not Hispanic

211 204 96.70% 1.90% 185 176 95.10% 3.80% 173 172 99.40% 0.57%

Two or More Races, Not Hispanic

21 21 100.00% 0.00% 33 31 93.90% 6.10% 31 31 100% 0%

Figure 7 – Graduation and Dropout Rates by Ethnicity –

California Department of Education – Dataquest and Infinite Campus

An important measure of student achievement is the UC/CSU a-g minimum requirement met.

STUDENTS COMPLETING A-G REQUIREMENTS BY SUB GROUP

Class of 2015 Class of 2016 Class of 2017

# of Grads

Meeting A-G

% # of

Grads Meeting

A-G %

# of Grads

Meeting A-G

%

Special Education 56 25 44.6 72 48 66.7 56 45 80.4

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged

44 18 40.9 28 12 42.9 44 32 72.7

American Indian/ Alaska Native

* * * * * *

Asian 189 142 75.1 221 200 90.5 209 197 94.3

Black * * 10 6 60 12 10 83.3

Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander

* * * * 11 10 90.9

Hispanic 34 19 55.9 37 23 62.2 37 26 70.3

White 188 117 62.2 198 183 92.4 177 160 90.4

Total 403 283 66.9 471 415 88.1 447 404 90.4

Figure 8 – A-G Completion – California Department of Education – CalPads

Gunn is considered a high-performing, comprehensive high school and while we have made some steady improvement in the number of our “Historically Underrepresented” (HUR) students who meet CSU/UC minimum eligibility requirements, we continue to have an achievement gap. This subgroup consists of students who are African American, Hispanic/Latino, socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or students with a learning disability.

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Schoolwide data reveals there continues to be a:

● Low proportion of HUR students enrolled in Honors/AP classes

● High proportion of HUR students identified as Special Education

● High proportion of HUR students suspended

PAUSD high school students who are considered English Language Learners attend Henry M. Gunn Senior High School to receive ELL services, we have 67 students who are classified as English Language Learners (DataZone). Approximately, 415 students are designated RFEP (DataZone).

Gunn’s special education reintroduced Functional Academics and Vocational Training classes (also called the Futures program) for moderate/severe special education students in 2016-17. Gunn now offers a continuum of special education services serving:

130 students with an IEP with 7 students enrolled in the Futures program.

As we look at the CAASPP results, please note: fewer than 23% of 11th grade students participated in CAASPP testing last May, and only 46% did so 2016. Because of the low participation caused by an “opt-out” movement in our community, we do not consider the data from these reports to be reliable in making yearly comparisons and/or measuring our students achievement in obtaining the Common Core State Standards.

CAASPP RESULTS

2015 2016 2017

English Language

Arts/Literacy Mathematics

English Language

Arts/Literacy Mathematics

English Language

Arts/Literacy Mathematics

% Standard Exceeded 59% 69% 76% 74% 61% 56%

% Standard Met 18% 12% 18% 18% 23% 16%

% Standard Nearly Met 12% 8% 4% 5% 7% 14%

% Standard Not Met 10% 11% 2% 4% 8% 13%

Figure 9 – CAASPP Results – California Department of Education – Dataquest

Analysis of Student Perception Data

Challenge Success Survey Data Analysis – Key Takeaways:

Student perceptions of their experience at Gunn High School have remained fairly consistent over the last two Challenge Success Surveys conducted in the Spring of 2015 and Spring of 2017 (full survey results available in Section 4). Students perceive that Gunn High School is a challenging academic learning environment. The top three words students used to describe Gunn in 2017 were: stressful, competitive, and challenging.

Perceptions of homework have not changed significantly over the last two Challenge Success Surveys:

● There has been a 6% decrease in students feeling many or all of their classes assign homework that is meaningful and helps them learn the material.

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● On average, 10th and 11th graders reported to have significantly more homework than 9th and 12th graders. As expected, students taking at least two AP courses and/or Honors courses reported to have significantly more homework and spend more time participating in extracurricular activities compared to peers who do not take AP and/or Honors courses.

Overall, student health and well-being Challenge Success Survey results also have not significantly changed although we were disappointed in the results around students having at least one adult they can go to if they have problems. We believe the slight decrease may be due to the time of year (last spring) in which the survey was administered.

● 70% of students reported in 2015 and 66% of students reported in 2017 that they have at least one adult in school they can go to if they have problems. Students reported that their most frequent and first source of support has been a current teacher on campus, followed by a counselor and then a former teacher.

● 62% of students reported they often or always feel stressed by schoolwork and 52% of students reported that schoolwork often or always keeps them from having time with family, friends and getting enough sleep.

● 42% of students report missing more than one day of school due to a stress-related health or emotional problem. 30% of students reported exhaustion, headaches, and difficulty sleeping.

California Healthy Kids Survey Data Analysis - Key Takeaways:

● Overall, Gunn students feel safe, are engaged, and want to be at school. The 2015-16 survey results reveals 9th and 11th grade students have a high safety perception of 85% and 91% respectively.

Additional data:

o “I feel like I am part of this school,” 69% and 68% (agree and strongly agree)

o “I am always trying to do better in my schoolwork,” 79% and 79% (agree and strongly agree)

● Gunn students feel connected to teachers and staff on campus. While more work continues to be done on school connectedness, 9th and 11th grade students agree and strongly agree “feel[ing] close to people at this school”, 75% and 76% respectively.

Additional data:

o “happy to be at this school,” 72% and 69% (agree and strongly agree)

o “an adult who cares about me,” 62% and 71% (agree and strongly agree)

o ‘an adult who tells me when I do a good job,” 68% and 77% (agree and strongly agree)

o “safe at school,” 79% and 85% (agree and strongly agree)

o “try hard [to be] good at my school work,” 88% and 87% (agree and strongly agree)

o “a teacher or some other adult who listens to me when I have something to say,” 76% and 82% (agree and strongly agree)

YES Program Feedback – Key Takeaways:

Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) is a program provided by the International Association for Human Values that combines the teaching of core social-emotional principles and mindful breathing techniques to equip students with tools to manage relationships and distressing

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emotions. Gunn began implementing this program in the 2015-16 school year as a 3-week unit in the fall to all 9th grade PE classes. It was taught again in 2017-18, this time reduced to two weeks with some alterations based on feedback from the previous year. YES administers their own pre- and post-survey to students receiving the curriculum and shares their data and analysis with us. Below is a summary of findings/perceptions based on those results:

● The program appears to significantly benefit a subset of our students, while being met with indifference or some antipathy by others. Post-survey results indicate 75% of students using YES! Techniques outside of class with many reporting some benefit (at least in the short-term) to their feelings of calm, happiness, and/or ability to sleep, focus, handle stress, and/or manage their emotions. Taken individually, each of the aforementioned benefits had 40-50% of students responding in the affirmative. Open-ended feedback from students ranged from having very positive regard for the value of the skills taught in the program to strong feelings that they were a waste of time. Interestingly, while perhaps only 51% stated they believed these skills were of benefit to themselves, 89% reported believing these skills would be of benefit to others. The belief that “I don’t need this but others do” is not atypical when it comes to assessing the perceived benefit of social-emotional skill building for oneself vs. others. Overall, about 18% of students felt it was not a good use of their time, while another 36% felt relatively indifferent. That said, for a significant segment of students (46%), the program was perceived to have strong benefit and was well-worth their time. So, at least half of students felt they learned skills and attitudes that effectively increased their overall sense of well-being - skills and attitudes that could potentially last a lifetime if practiced and reinforced.

Student Behavior Data

DISCIPLINE

Year Total Students # of Referrals # of Suspensions Suspension Rate # of Expulsions Expulsion Rate

2014-15 1,934 0 20 1.00% 0 0

2015-16 1,977 0 20 1.00% 0 0

2016-17 1,984 0 33 1.60% 0 0

Figure 10 – Discipline – Infinite Campus

We have a low number of suspensions and expulsions. Primary reasons for suspensions at Gunn include:

● Causing, attempting, or threatening physical injury

● Bullying

● Disruption, defiance

● Possession, use, sale, or furnishing of a controlled substance

● Harassment, intimidation of a witness

● Possession or use of tobacco products

● Property theft

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Mental Health and Wellness Data:

A tremendous amount of work and resources have gone into improving the health and well-being of our students and staff. We are starting to see signs that the effort is having an impact on our campus. In 2016-2017, our mental health team conducted 62 risk assessments, down from 75 in the 2015-2016 school year. We are still seeing students being referred for IEP’s and/or 504 Accommodation plans for reasons related to social, emotional and/or behavioral concerns/deficits. In the 2015-2016 school year, nine out of nine initial IEP assessments were for those reasons. In first semester of 2017-2018, of the eight initial IEP’s , seven of them were for social, emotional and/or behavioral concerns/deficits concerns. Gunn has two ERMHS therapists who serve 48 students.

Since its opening in August of 2016 through the end of the Fall 2017 semester, the Wellness Center has had 7315 documented student visits. There were a total of 4957 Wellness Center visits during the 2016-2017 school year. Of the 4957 visits, 934 visits utilized a 15 minute break, 1284 visits were for an appointment with a counselor or received a call slip, and 215 visits denoted that the student dropped in to speak to a counselor. The remainder of visits indicated that they were accessing health/nursing services, came in for snacks and/or tea, were "checking the place out," and other miscellaneous reasons.

During the 2016-2017 school year, 145 students were formally referred for Wellness services. These services include: counseling and consultation provided by contracted mental health agencies (ACS, AACI, Stanford School Mental Health Team, ASAT), PAUSD District Social Worker, Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator, and referrals to outside community agencies.

During the Fall 2017 semester, 69 students were formally referred for Wellness services provided by contracted mental health agencies (ACS, AACI, Stanford School Mental Health Team, ASAT), PAUSD District Social Worker, and referrals to other outside community-based agencies. The following are the most common emotional/behavioral reasons for referral to Wellness that were indicated by the referring party:

Anxiety: 14%

Behavioral Issues: 12%

Depression/Withdrawn: 25%

Family Conflict: 17%

Grief/loss: 7%

Social difficulty: 6%

Stress (general/academic) 19%

The Wellness Center had 2358 documented visits during the Fall of 2017. Of the 2,358 visits, 548 visits indicated that they were accessing Wellness to take a 15 minute break, 634 visits indicated that they were accessing Wellness because they had an appointment with a counselor or received a call slip, and 199 visits denoted that the student dropped in to speak to a counselor. The remainder of visits indicated that they were accessing health/nursing services, came in for snacks and/or tea, were "checking the place out," and other miscellaneous reasons.

In response to the 2015-2016 suicide cluster, administrators and members of Gunn’s Mental Health and Wellness Teams have worked to improve processes and systems to better serve students in mental health crisis. Gunn staff have continued to work with outside agencies (for example Palo Alto Police Department and Stanford Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) to improve

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communication, streamline protocols, and better meet the immediate needs of students requiring hospitalization. Most of Gunn’s School Counselors, ERMHS therapists, and Wellness Team members have been trained in the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) model. ASIST teaches participants to recognize when someone may be at risk of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety.

In order to better support students upon their return to school from hospitalization, Gunn also developed a standardized re-entry process. Additionally, several key members of Paly and Gunn’s Mental Health and Wellness teams worked extensively during the Fall 2016 semester to develop a coordinated postvention protocol. This included creating a Crisis Response Team (CRT) made up of administrators, counselors, psychologists, therapists, Wellness Center staff, the school health technician, and TOSAs; each member of the team has a designated role. This team helps to ensure Gunn’s response to crisis is thorough, deliberate, and comprehensive.

Gunn continues to find ways to improve ongoing efforts to not only respond to student mental health crises but to support students and staff to prevent crises from occurring. The Mental Health and Wellness team has received feedback from teachers on how to better equip staff to recognize warning signs related to mental health concerns and has been working with student groups and administration to implement comprehensive programs, trainings, and tools.

Attendance Data:

ATTENDANCE DATA

2015-2016 2016-2017

9 10 11 12 9 10 11 12

Student Count 502 482 469 502 501 499 493 464

Membership Days 87519 84265 82559 88207 85008 86947 86851 81972

Absent Days 2242.83 2705.49 3157.35 5690.63 2268.32 2640.23 3521.33 4581.8

Present Days 85276.17 81559.51 79401.65 82516.37 82739.68 84306.77 83329.67 77390.2

ADM 488.95 470.77 461.23 492.78 472.25 483 482.48 455.39

ADA 476.48 455.65 443.52 461.06 459.77 468.36 462.98 429.95

Unexcused Absences Days

748.13 983.78 1078.07 2677.26 608.45 829.43 1107.38 1823.43

Unexcused Avg. Daily 3.91 5.11 5.87 14.94 3.08 4.39 5.94 10.14

Percent in Attendance 97.44% 96.79% 96.18% 93.55% 97.33% 96.96% 95.95% 94.41%

Figure 12 – Attendance – Infinite Campus

There are two important factors to consider when looking at the attendance data: 1) Gunn is an open campus; 2) we are a basic aid district.

While our attendance rate for full-day attendance remains high, single period absences continue to be our biggest issue. Two categories of students who miss class have been identified in the past. One group we refer to as “strategic cutters” who will miss a class for time management purposes, i.e., not being prepared for an exam, needing time to study for a test in another class, finishing a project. Parents often “Health Excuse” students for single period absences, most notably when students are up late at night studying or show other signs of mental health

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concerns. In most cases, these are often high achieving students who are experiencing academic overload.

The second group we refer to as students who are “chronic truants.” These students are frequently disconnected from their classes, not fully engaged, and often struggling overall in school. Interestingly, we often find these students still on campus or coming to school, but not in class where they should be. Many of these students are on the D and F list and feel there is no reason to attend class anymore since they do not see a path towards success. “Why bother?” or “No one notices when I’m absent” are often given as their response when asked why they chose not to attend class. Many of these students are in special education and have attendance goals on their IEPs. This group does not have parents health excusing their absences and this group is often overrepresented in receiving consequences.

While attendance data has not shown a significant improvement over time, one positive is that our teachers are taking attendance consistently, especially during class, which has continued to improve over the past several years. Attendance data is more accurate today than it has ever been in the past.

Overall analysis of the above data sets indicate that many students are performing well above average at Gunn High School, but for some students, it comes at a cost. Academic and co-curricular overload, lack of sleep, fatigue and exhaustion, and mental health issues are prevalent in what has been described by some students as “a stressful competitive environment.” (Challenge Success survey results) Of the relatively small percentage of students who are underperforming or struggling, many are a) referred for special education or a 504 accommodation plan, b) more often referred for student discipline issues, and/or c) have attendance issues that negatively impact their learning.

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II. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES AND/OR

DEVELOPMENTS

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There have been a number of important staffing changes and developments at Gunn over the past three years. What follows below is a list of the most impactful of these staffing changes, relative to the student experience at Gunn. Please note that many of the major changes and developments here are described in brief—a more detailed description of many of the items below is contained (with associated evidence and analysis) in Section 4.

● New Principal and two new Assistant Principals in 2017-2018: In June of 2017, we bid farewell to Dr. Denise Herrmann, who is now working as an Assistant Superintendent in the Fremont School District, and warmly welcomed Kathie Laurence, who had spent many years as a teacher and then as an Assistant Principal at Palo Alto High School. Her leadership has emphasized listening and learning about Gunn, and bringing research-based practices to the school to help support all students. Assistant Principal Mike Heffner, formerly the Chief Academic Officer in the Carmel Public School District, focuses on counseling and wellness at Gunn. Assistant Principal Pier Angeli LaPlace, formerly the Principal at neighboring Terman Middle School in PAUSD, focuses on athletics, attendance, diversity, equity and discipline. A recent Oracle article highlighting the leadership styles and interests of both new assistant principals can be found here.

● Reduction in classified staff: For a variety of reasons, the current operating budget at Gunn is no longer able to sustain classified staffing at the 2015-2016 levels. Cuts will be determined in coming months after a long and difficult process of evaluating different classified tasks and their impact on students and other staff.

● New Superintendent: In September 2017, Dr. Glenn “Max” McGee resigned from his post as Superintendent, and was replaced by an interim, Karen Hendricks (formerly the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources).

● ACS to CASSY: For mental health services, PAUSD began contracting with CASSY rather than ACS.

● Intervention TOSAs: Intervention TOSAs have been added to our staff in the area of reading intervention and math intervention. These positions were created in order to provide more support to our teachers in being able to make their classes accessible by all learners. The Intervention TOSAs are also heavily involved with our PLC process, the creation of our MTSS, and all professional development.

● Asian American Community Involvement (AACI) therapist onsite: This is a large community based organization which provides culturally sensitive mental health support for our students.

● The Family Engagement Specialist: Created in order to provide more support to our Spanish speaking families. The Family Engagement Specialist actively works to make connections with those families in order to make them a larger part of our community.

● Mental Health Coordinator and Wellness Outreach Worker (WOW)

● PLC Leads: The goal is for every PLC to have a Lead. Leads may apply to receive additional training on the PLC process beyond what the entire staff receives, for a small stipend (from Site Council Spring 2017). The PLC Leads will help us continue to refine our PLC process and, ultimately, improve student outcomes and the effectiveness of MTSS (see additional information in the section directly below)

Since the previous WASC visit, Gunn has also introduced a wide variety of new programs, many of which focus on wellness and equity. There have also been substantive improvements and additions to existing programs (many of which, again, are described in much greater detail in Section 4 of this report). Some of these additions and changes include:

● Wellness Center was opened on campus in the 2016-2017 school year. The Wellness Center is staffed by our Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator and our Wellness

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Outreach Worker. All students are able to drop in to take a break, as needed. Counseling and other services and resources are available at the Wellness Center.

● PLCs and PLC Leads: PLCs have been at Gunn since before our last WASC cycle; however, they are much stronger and more effective since the last WASC visit. Teacher teams have more experience with the four-step PLC process. We completed the 40-day PLC Challenge at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year so that PLCs could practice completing an entire cycle. By the end of last school year, every administrator and TOSA had attended the PLC at Work conference at some point in order to better support the PLC process. When a small group of teachers, one administrator, and one counselor attended the RTI conference in May 2017, the idea of the PLC Lead was born and an application was made available to the staff. This year, PLC Leads are responsible for attending trainings, guiding their teams through the PLC process more effectively, and connecting with Instructional Supervisors about their department PLCs. This year almost every PLC on campus has a Lead. The PLC Lead data from this fall shows the progress of the PLCs, and an even more recent self-assessment (see here, from January 2018) shows further progress still.

● AVID: In 2016 - 2017, an AVID team was created at Gunn, made up of teachers from every subject, one administrator, and one school counselor. This team was created in order to help launch one period of AVID for freshmen in 2017-2018. The class was successfully launched this school year and has a full enrollment of twelve freshmen. AVID hopes to provide students with skills for academic success and ultimately a pathway to a 4-year university. Moving forward, we will continue to grow AVID into a full, four-year program.

● AAR: AAR stands for our Advanced Authentic Research program, which allows students to complete a rigorous and authentic research program of a chosen area of interest. This program, jointly developed with teachers at Palo Alto High School, is very popular with students and continues to grow. All different types of students join the program and are assigned a mentor who help them with their projects ranging in subjects from math, creative writing, biotech, and so on.

● SELF: Social Emotional Literacy and Functionality was launched in the 2017-2018 school year and is currently being piloted for all freshmen at Gunn. All freshmen are assigned a cohort of 24 students and one mentor teacher with whom they meet throughout the four years of their high school experience. SELF features direct instruction on social emotional skills, helping Gunn to continue to meet our goal of educating the whole child. Moving forward, SELF will expand into a comprehensive four year program.

● New Courses: Applied Math, Positive Psychology, U.S. Foreign Policy Honors, combined Alg 1 and Alg 1A, Mandarin Civilization and Culture, The Art of Visual Storytelling, AP Human Geography, BEAM, AP CSP, Revised Video Production Pathway, CS Capstone.

● Analysis of the Writer’s Craft: Enrollment for this popular course is now open to Freshmen and Sophomores.

● Student Input: The district partnered with Palo Alto Educators Association (PAEA) in December 2015 to create standardized course surveys that would collect student input. Students have the opportunity to evaluate each of their courses by answering the same 12 questions for each class. Student input is completed at the end of the first and second semesters. Data is released to teachers and administrators after semester finals have occurred.

● DataZone: A new data tool available through the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Training for all staff members is on-going.

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● Standards-Based Grading: There has been an increase in assessment based on standards, especially in the college prep lane. PLCs identify Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) and then write formative and/or summative assessments that directly assess those standards. Instead of a student getting an overall chapter score for a test, for example, they would receive a score for each ELO. This is one example of how standards-based grading can be used. Some courses allow students to re-assess missed standards; grades can range from replacing the original score to averaging the old and new score, etc. Students comment that they appreciate being able to re-assess. This type of evaluation encourages a growth mindset.

● Open AP Enrollment: Before the 2016-17 school year, some AP courses had requirements for enrollment such as writing samples, placement tests, or performance on state tests. Now students may enroll in AP courses as long as they have completed the prerequisites and meet the age requirements (e.g. you must be a junior or senior and have completed an Algebra 2 course to be eligible to take AP Statistics). The goal is to increase the proportion of HUR students in these courses.

● Using AP Potential data to recruit HUR students into AP classes: Beginning in Spring 2015, the Assistant Principal conducted an individual review of PSAT scores (which has an AP potential section) for 10th and 11th grade College Pathways students and used that data to help guide course selection for HUR students for the following year.

● Bell Schedule Transformations (two): The bell schedule was originally changed to create time for teachers to work in PLCs and to insert Social-Emotional Learning time into the schedule. Monday afternoons were designated as PLC time, Tuesday mornings had 50-minute Flextime, and Tutorial was Thursday after school. The bell schedule was changed for a second time, starting in the 2017-18 school year, to convert Thursday Tutorial into Thursday Flextime. The goal with the new schedule is to have one academic Flextime and one SEL Flextime per week.

● Increase in Co-teaching: Co-teaching is offered in every core subject with the exception of World Language (Mathematics up to graduation requirement - Alg 2, English and English electives, all levels of Social Studies, Science up to graduation requirement, World Language had a co-taught section in 2016-17 but it was not maintained for 2017-18). Though the number of co-teachers increased from 27 to 35 in 2016-17, the number reduced to 29 for 2017-18 due to a loss of FTE. This is still a significant increase over 2014-15, when the number of co-taught courses was 20 (and professional learning, structures for collaboration and implementation of best practices were far less robust).

● Significant increase in blended learning course offerings: From 5 courses and 9 sections in 2015-16 to 15 courses and 25 sections in 2017-18.

● Significant increase in the use of Schoology (calendar and gradebook): According to Gunn’s Instructional Council (IC), Schoology use has increased appreciably in the past three years in terms of both volume and functionality.

● 1-to-1 Chromebook Implementation: See Oracle article here.

● COST: The Care of Services Team (COST) is made up of guidance counselors, CASSY, administrators, the Special Education Instructional Supervisor, both Intervention TOSAs, school psychologists, and a Stanford fellow. COST meetings started as bi-weekly meetings for counselors, etc. to problem-solve about struggling students. Half of the counselors and the rest of COST would meet one week and the other half would meet the next week. This year COST meetings occur weekly but, as opposed to every counselor at every biweekly meeting, only the counselors with students on the agenda to be discussed are in attendance. An additional purpose of COST is to help identify needs and gaps in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Interventions.

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● MTSS: Formerly known as RTI, the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) has helped us streamline our systems and determine which supports need improvement and which supports are missing. As a school, we have more coordinated efforts due to our work thus far on MTSS. Also, at every staff and Instructional Council (IC) meeting that involves MTSS, the mission of our work is stated: We want ALL students to master essential content and feel emotionally connected at school. MTSS is still very much in process; we are just beginning. We need to continue this very important work of coordinating our schoolwide efforts and improving our Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 interventions. Forming PLCs, using the four-step PLC process, utilizing academic Flextime based on the results of that process, and carefully tracking and addressing student attendance are crucial for all students to succeed at Gunn.

● No Zero Period: Zero period was eliminated in 2015-16 school year (with the exception of Physical Education) in order to support student health and well-being. This decision was based on data from the Challenge Success survey, which indicated that Gunn students were not getting sufficient sleep.

● College Pathways expansion (including ACT offered to all HUR students at no cost): In 2016, we piloted a mentoring program for College Pathways Juniors and Seniors which paired a staff member with two students. Mentors assisted students with college searches, test prep/registration, scholarships, applications, college essays, etc., and the program ran for two cycles. Additionally, GPA and the program cap of 25 students was removed in 2016 – the program has grown slightly since then.

● Greater individualized attention from school counselors: As of 2017-18, the counseling team now meets with each individual student in the 10th-12th grades to discuss progress towards graduation and college and career interests.

● Wellness Team: Asst. Principal Mike Heffner, Mental Health Coordinator, the Wellness Outreach Worker, a counselor, two SEL TOSAs, and three faculty members (including two leaders of the Sources of Strength program) meet weekly to discuss wellness efforts on campus. This team is new since the last WASC visit.

● Staff Trainings: QPR, Title IX, Kognito, ASIST, increase number of staff that are Safety Care Trained.

● Puppies!: See Gunn TBN spot here

● Grade Level Parent Nights: Are taking place with increasing frequency, and greater efforts have been made with respect to offering translation at parent events and in written communications (both Spanish and Mandarin).

Other significant changes include:

● The school has grown, and we are preparing for even more rapid growth in coming years due to an enrollment bubble (see Section 1).

● Gender neutral bathrooms and facilities: On every area of campus, we have added additional gender neutral bathroom(s) in order to promote the safety of all students. Our gyms and other facilities are fully equipped and accommodating of gender neutrality.

● Testing Resource Center (TRC): Is open daily from the beginning of school until an hour after the last bell of the school day. The TRC helps us provide our testing accommodations to students with IEPs and 504s. Additionally, the TRC is a place where a student can take a test in a supervised area after they have missed a class.

● Updating existing facilities to be ADA compliant

● New paint!: See Oracle article here.

● No homecoming king and queen, only court; see Oracle article here.

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III. ONGOING

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

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The development of this WASC report has been a positive process for the Gunn community, and especially for the new leadership at Gunn. The new administrators, as well as the returning administrators who are now working in the context of a new team, have found the experience to be an enlightening process that allows for a much deeper understanding of the school and the exciting opportunity to shape the way the school pursues its goals for the next three years.

With regard to process, the Site Council has annually reviewed the Action Plan/SPSA since 2015, as updated by former Principal Denise Herrmann, and offered feedback. Under Principal Hermann’s tenure, WASC goals were frequently referred to in presentations to staff and the wider community, progress towards WASC goals was frequently discussed by the Site Council, and many initiatives were clearly linked back to the WASC cycle of inquiry (PLCs, SEL, and MTSS, to name only a few).

The most recent leg of the WASC cycle has been an expedited but fruitful one, given the extent of the turnover from the previous administration to the current one--only two of the school’s five administrators from 2016-17 remained part of the team into 2017-18. In the necessary process of gaining their footing in the leadership of a new school, the three new administrators and the rest of the admin team began ruminating about and loosely planning for the process from the very start of their tenure. In fact, student achievement data pertinent to this report was reviewed in a staff meeting in September (analyzing progress report data), and that exercise was very much in keeping with the data analysis that stakeholders would continue performing as the process evolved.

Efforts to put together this report began in earnest in October, with the designation of a WASC Coordinator Tara Firenzi who, with the Principal, began designing a process for data collection (detailed in a later paragraph). Large group discussions around WASC began on October 25th (results here), when a staff meeting was devoted to brainstorming strengths, questions, and potentially useful data sets. The IC-Professional Learning meeting the previous week (October 20th) had previewed the same exercise in a smaller group setting. Finally, the Site Council engaged in the same process on November 6th, with similar results, and on November 9th, we worked with the PTSA Exec Board, who also came up with a list of questions and feedback related to the previous Action Plan.

In late October, students were also getting involved in the process in new and exciting ways. We went and spoke to the AP Statistics classes on October 23rd and 24th, asking them to help with the WASC data collection and analysis process. With guidance from their teachers, Daisy Renazco and Rachel Congress, groups of students then formulated research questions primarily connected to Goal #1 and gathered their data sets, culminating in a public presentation of their findings on December 7th (see file of projects and pictures of the event here, also discussed in Section 4).

After these preliminary efforts with staff and students had taken place, departments began collecting data for the report. Using these spreadsheets (goal #1, goal #2, and goal #3) and these data repositories (goal #1, goal #2, and goal #3), every department at the school offered supporting evidence and analysis to help provide an accurate snapshot of the current state of our progress on our WASC goals. The specific actions in the spreadsheets referenced above included not only the goals, strategies and specific actions listed in the most recent WASC Action Plan but also some specific actions listed in earlier iterations of the Action Plan, so that most major efforts over the three year period could be captured. The WASC coordinator also met with nearly every Instructional Supervisor and attended several department and PLC

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meetings to help work through what types of evidence and analysis were needed to create a coherent, consistent, complete report, and one that centered as much as possible on the students and their experience at Gunn.

As teachers were compiling evidence at department meetings, PLC meetings and as individuals, the Principal and the WASC Coordinator continued to meet with students and hear their perspective on current issues at Gunn. The Interim Superintendent of PAUSD, Karen Hendricks, came and spoke to the Student Executive Council on November 15th to hear students’ perspectives on a wide range of issues relating to the student experience at Gunn (student’s commentary here). The WASC Coordinator listened in and took notes in order to capture the ideas and current opinions of students, especially those that would be pertinent to the WASC process. The following class period, on November 17th, we also went to the SEC (Student Executive Council) classroom and SEC students also engaged in the same strengths/questions/data exercise that other groups had performed in late October (notes here). The WASC Coordinator also interviewed Advait Arun, a Gunn Senior and prominent member of student government and Gunn’s representative to the PAUSD School Board; his commentary helped to point some of our research for the report in the direction of the Gunn Oracle, which proved overall to be a very useful source of information and data. Importantly, our College and Career Counselor, Myesha Compton, also held a focus group with College Pathways students in early December. Specifically, she facilitated a conversation about the effectiveness of current supports available at Gunn and what the school could do to improve the student experience for students in the College Pathways program (results available in Section IV). This conversation illuminated critical data that related directly to WASC Goal #2.

Since the nature of the WASC mid-cycle process is both to collect and evaluate data as well as to look towards future goals, in late November/early December we began to turn the focus towards the new WASC Action Plan and what it should include. At an IC meeting on November 30th, about an hour was devoted to reviewing and evaluating the current Action Plan, making sure that the goals still resonated with the educational leaders of the school. The ideas brainstormed during that meeting (here) informed the new iteration of the Action Plan, and also informed the approach that we would take in gathering feedback from the wider community.

On December 11th we were both prepared and excited to bring in about 50 members from the wider community to participate in the ongoing process of data analysis. After collecting a significant amount of applicable data pertaining to all three WASC goals, students (including a cohort of College Pathways students), parents, staff (mostly Instructional Council members) and administrators sat down for two hours to have meaningful conversations about the data that the process of inquiry had produced (presentation slides here). Looking at nine different sets of data (three per goal), small groups with representatives from each of the four constituencies were asked to spend 25 minutes coming up with 1) what they saw in the data (observations), 2) possible areas of need and why (interpretations), and 3) next steps to consider based on the data (recommendations). After a first round, each group made two more rotations, so that every group was given an opportunity to look at data for each goal (though perhaps not fully at all three data sets within a goal). The notes taken during each one of these conversations and the data sets themselves have been embedded in Section 4, but all of the results can be found here as well. Near the end of the meeting, the nine small groups consolidated into three bigger groups, and each of these three groups came up with goals to recommend for inclusion in the new action plan, based on the data they had reviewed (these goals are at the end of the document containing the session notes).

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After this illuminating and productive meeting, we felt we had enough data and analysis from our most important constituencies and could fully engage with the process of writing the report. In addition to the work of administrators and the WASC coordinator, TOSA Rachel Congress contributed heavily to Section 2, given her direct experience with so many of the major changes described (these changes were brainstormed at an IC meeting in early November by the whole group to try to ensure that we didn’t miss anything important); she also reviewed Section 4.

Much of the other writing for Section 4, the bulk of the report, had already been composed in the process of collecting and analyzing data. From there, the task was mostly one of integrating, editing, organizing the contributions of teachers themselves. The majority of these contributions carefully focus on how students at Gunn have been impacted by various curricular innovations, programs, and initiatives, and are intended to demonstrate that, indeed, We Are Student Centered!

Section 5 continues this theme and was written chiefly by Ms. Laurence. This section takes heavily into account all of the various suggestions, contributions and observations of the whole community throughout this reflection process, but is also derived from Ms. Laurence’s own vision of how Gunn can best support its students moving forward.

The report, in draft form, was then circulated to the district, IC, and Site Council. The Site Council extensively reviewed and commented on the Action Plan at a meeting on 1/22; the recommendations were duly incorporated into the current WASC Action Plan/SPSA.

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IV. PROGRESS ON CRITICAL AREAS FOR

FOLLOW-UP/SCHOOLWIDE

ACTION PLAN

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GOAL #1 Develop a culture that broadly defines and promotes multiple paths to success, embraces self-discovery and social emotional well-being and values the love of learning beyond traditional metrics of achievement.

STRATEGY 1: CULTURE – Develop a culture that broadly defines and promotes multiple paths to success.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● Homework policy guidelines have been updated

● Basic guidelines for AP/honors course enrollment have been developed (parent approval needed, etc.)

● Middle College

● Research/pilot interdisciplinary programs like SLCs for older kids

● Research/pilot alternative Senior Project programs (other than AAR)

● More project-based learning (less emphasis on tests)

● Change messaging around community colleges: alumni visits, etc.

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

Since the last WASC team visit, the students, staff and administration at Gunn have been working hard to incorporate more ways to help students define success, and to allow students new opportunities to develop and pursue individual passions.

The Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) program, launched in 2015-2016, is a districtwide initiative in which Gunn participates, and is designed to fulfill PAUSD’s mission of “nurturing student interest and igniting student passion through real world, hands on research enabling students to explore career pathways.” Now in its third year, the AAR program has nurtured the development of approximately 111 distinct projects, directly speaking to our WASC goal of developing multiple paths to success, and valuing a love of learning (for AAR’s most recent newsletter, click here).

For 2016-2017, the complete districtwide list of projects can be found here, and the current status of the 2017-2018 projects can be found here. Some projects are fully interdisciplinary, allowing students to explore a broader academic experience and opportunities for more flexible thinking (for instance, this project, described here by an art teacher who offers her view of the impact that the AAR project had on the student). Generally, students explore projects relating to their own interests, and so the program encompasses a wide diversity of projects from STEM, sports, business, the humanities, and social science to unique creative projects like student-written novellas. We have also seen the work that students have done in AAR influence and improve other classroom environments in many different ways. For instance, one student undertook an AAR project in the 2016-17 school year applying a specific technology (Kalman filters) to sophisticated vision control for robots; this year she is designing the technology into robotics projects in the Engineering Technology class, and teaching her classmates how to apply the technology to their own projects.

Another important project developed in AAR that has had an impact on many different students is a student-designed report on alumni life trajectories, which not only serves as an example of project-based learning and the opportunities for creative research afforded by the AAR program, but also as a data point regarding how students feel about how they can define “success”

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outside of strictly academic metrics, looking at job satisfaction, quality of life satisfaction, and income satisfaction. The student who developed the research formally presented to all six of her classes this past spring as well as the entire faculty in May 2017, and also presented at the Gunn TedEx Talks in January 2018. Her report not only served to provide the community with valuable data, but had an impact on the student population as well. A student who wasn’t even in the AAR student’s classes said that his teacher showed him the AAR student’s presentation, and “he said it helped him to calm his fears, and he wanted his parents to see the presentation. He also said he now knows all the different things that he could do for a job after high school.”

In Spring 2017, AAR was recognized as an innovative program that significantly impacted student success by being honored with the Glenn W. Hoffman by the Santa Clara County School Boards Association. More recently, PAUSD was awarded a “Districts of Distinction” award for advancing career readiness through the Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) program. Additionally, AAR has been featured in several local video productions (Khan Academy and Silicon Valley Talent Partnership) that highlighted its distinctive approach to learning. The Khan Academy video production featured several 2015-16 AAR students reporting back on how the program had personally impacted them and given them insight into their own learning as well as career paths. One student reported that, “my favorite classes were always chem, or physics. In a classroom, when you’re doing labs, you know that there’s a solution, and you know what the solution’s supposed to be and you kind of work towards that solution. But, in doing research, no one really knows what the solution is, you’re exploring a completely dark field that no one knows about, and you’re shedding light into it. And that's a pretty cool, pretty rewarding feeling. I think it’s a good experience of what research might be like if I choose to pursue it, which, right now, I think I really would like to.”

Another said, “I realize there are a lot of fields within science that I have absolutely no idea about. And even if I don’t know about them or even if I’ve never heard of them, it doesn’t mean that they’re not interesting. And that there’s so much more to the world than I originally expected. There are so many more fields that I could go into and so many things that I can do, having had this program... to explore and learn about things that I never thought I’d be interested in. Climate change is not something I ever thought I’d be studying. It doesn’t seem like a very interesting field, but [is] still really important and relevant. And, I’d like to continue thinking about that and maybe contribute to that field someday if I could.” Additional student feedback (from survey results) showing the impact of the program on students can be found here. These results show us that our efforts to allow students to authentically pursue their interests are paying off and, though we continue to evaluate the program in real time as part of a cycle of continuous improvement, we are proud of the work this program has done in service of this WASC goal. Also, though the specific actions for 2016-17 listed under this particular strategy call for the exploration of other project-based programs besides AAR, we feel that as the AAR program has evolved it has served the needs of so many students; looking into other programs is probably not the best investment of our time.

The school is also helping all 10th grade students to develop a better sense of their own interests and personal academic and career goals via a series of surveys administered while the 11th grade students were taking the PSAT in October of this year. 10th graders used Family Connection (part of Naviance) to determine potential career interests, and to explore possible college majors related to career interests generated by the survey. Anecdotal responses from the students and their parents has been extremely positive. During a PTSA meeting following the career inventory survey, both parents and students commented on the survey impact. Counselors then used the career inventory as part of individual 10th grade student

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appointments to refine student four-year plans. We are looking to continue with this program in future years, based on the responses and overall utility thus far, given its potential to help students discover varied paths to personalized conceptions of success.

One of these varied paths is the Middle College program, which allows students to take courses at Foothill Community College to satisfy their high school graduation requirements and earn college credit simultaneously. Middle College teachers present to juniors and seniors, as well as communicating about the program through tweets, the counseling department, Titan Talk, Schoology and IC. Since the last WASC visit, Gunn has implemented the practice of having a Gunn administrator review student applications with the Middle College lead instructors, allowing for conversation about individual students and their unique support requirements. This additional step in the program has been helpful to both Gunn and the Foothill College administrators, as well as successful; in the past three years, no students have had to come back to Gunn having been unable to complete the Middle College pathway to graduation.

Moving more specifically to work being done in departments, the strategy of developing a culture that broadly defines and promotes multiple paths to success is a natural fit for the English department, corresponding naturally with the themes and Essential Questions associated with English courses and prompted by the literature students study, the skills students hone, and the self-reflection they perform. The English department’s rich, diverse elective program allows students to explore and pursue interests and passions within the discipline, allowing them to discover different ideas of “success” (see example of a lesson around this topic here) and encouraging a love of learning. Each year, the English course offerings are reviewed and revised to consider the interests of the students and the expertise and passions of the teachers. The English Department offered a new elective, “The Art of Visual Storytelling,” for the first time in 2017-18 with enough students enrolled for two sections. Gunn is offering a revised English/Social Studies interdisciplinary course next year, “American Studies,” along with a new interdisciplinary “Women’s Studies.” These courses, along with the continuously revised English/Theater “Dramatic Literature in Performance” and “Shakespeare in Performance,” (see students rehearsing here, students’ written work here, final project photos here and active participation rubrics here) allow students to find new passions across disciplines, an important way to learn to succeed in an increasingly interdisciplinary world. Having a small cohort of students that work together across multiple periods of each school day also helps students to find a greater sense of community in their school experience, much like the SLC (Small Learning Communities) program that exists for 9th graders. The department has also opened up the course, “Analysis of the Writer’s Craft,” to 9th and 10th graders as well as upperclassmen, allowing these students to develop and self-reflect in important ways, and offering them opportunities to develop and pursue their individual passions earlier in their academic careers. Finally, students have many opportunities to explore their passions through projects created by their English instructors; an example of project-based student work and analysis (and subsequent refinements to the assignment) can be found here.

The most significant progress around defining multiple pathways to success in the Math Department has been in the implementation of the two new courses: BEAM (Business Entrepreneurship and Mathematics) and Applied Math. The motivation behind both of these classes was to give students a chance to apply what they've learned in mathematics and to find real world context for the content they've been exposed to. One piece of evidence that these classes have been successful is their enrollment numbers. In BEAM's first year (2016-17) there were only enough students for one class. This year, there are two classes. Here is a video summary of BEAM's successful first year with descriptions and testimonials from students and

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people in industry about how important the program has been. Applied Math started last year, and even though it is only a semester long class, 33 students signed up for the class (please see sample work from students here). Both teachers of Applied Math felt strongly that they wanted the class to be accessible to all levels of math students, not just honors students.

BEAM especially has attracted a wide variety of students from all lanes and given them an opportunity for internships with local companies and the skills to start their own business; it also builds in opportunities for self-reflection as they learn (see examples here). While Applied Math’s enrollment is predominantly from the honors lane, the department has brainstormed ways to attract a greater variety of students in the 2018-2019 school year.

The other notable achievement in the math department is a significant increase in the amount of project-based learning (examples and analysis of project-based learning in math classes: Deggeller, Paley, Hexsel). Some type of project is part of the curriculum in every class, and most classes have at least one project per semester. The motivation for this change is twofold. Firstly, students have told math teachers over and over again in surveys that they would like to see an application of the math they learn in the classroom. Every year, when the math department instructional supervisor asks seniors, "what is the most meaningful academic experience in your Gunn career?" inevitably, students will respond by discussing a project that they've worked on in one class or another. The other motivation behind increased projects in the classroom is that it provides an alternate pathway for students to demonstrate understanding of a topic. In the evidence, we’ve provided many examples of projects used in the classroom, and in many cases, they are from students who are not typical "A" students. Knowing that not all students excel in the art of test taking, offering projects allows them a way to express their understanding in an alternate way. Having said that, the math department is committed to the goal of increasing professional learning around writing, implementing, and grading projects.

An important foray into project-based learning was spearheaded by the two AP Statistics teachers this year at Gunn. As part of the WASC process, Daisy Renazco and Rachel Congress assigned their students a project in which they would investigate, using statistical data, an area of focus for Goal 1. Using techniques learned through professional development with the Buck Institute, the AP Statistics students researched their topics, refined their data, and presented their findings to the wider community at a special event (photos here). Teacher Rachel Congress reflected that, “by requiring that their surveys connect to WASC or school improvement goals, students see the value and importance of their research. By having a showcase open to the community, students feel that their voices are heard. Students feel that they have a say in school academics, culture, and policies. They use concepts learned in AP Statistics such as graphical displays, survey writing, data analysis, regression, and error analysis for this project, directly connecting their knowledge to their product. Many students commented to me that they really enjoyed being given a chance to change their school for the better and to have the community listen to them.” Student presentations can be found here, and student feedback on the project can be found here.

These student projects had another dimension, which was to provide the community with valuable information about Gunn’s progress towards its WASC goals; they also fulfilled a need by acting as a mechanism for incorporating the WASC-identified critical area of need pertaining to student voice in ways that could impact the wider school population. One of the of the projects focused on the effectiveness of the Wellness Center. The student indicated that the Wellness Center is being underutilized. The student recommended that when the new location opens in the center of campus (Central Building Project), more advertising should be

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used to attract students to the space. The project also concluded that the environment should be made even more welcoming by having, for example, a writeable wall and more couches. Another student project addressed Goal 1.1 by investigating whether students would be interested in a mandatory school research project. The data collected showed that students at Gunn believe that research is critical for their success in future careers and that students appreciate research projects. However, the project concluded that students prefer to choose how and when they do a research project so they can have more voice and choice in their learning. Students also indicated that they do enjoy research projects but they would like to have more opportunities for this type of assessment in their classes.

Social Studies has also been focused on incorporating more formal projects with a community presentation component (based on the model developed by the Buck Institute--this also speaks to the WASC-identified need of developing more research-based schoolwide instructional practices). For the second year, US History students have presented projects about immigration to the community; examples can be found here. Student feedback about the second year of the project is also available here, along with analysis and next steps for the project. One important point is that the 47.1% of the students said that they would like to do more of this kind of project in their other social studies classes, and 39% said that they would maybe like to do more of these kinds of projects, highlighting student support for a greater alignment of pedagogy in the department that is, in fact, already underway. The 9th and 10th grade teachers are creating two project-based units around absolutism and decolonization, both of which will hopefully roll out later in the 2017-18 school year. David Bisbee and Brian Miguel also collaborated to introduce a new project into 10th grade Contemporary World History where students designed a highway through Africa (see assignment sheet/rubric here, and examples of projects here), which produced this feedback from the students. Based on the positive feedback from these projects, one of the department’s goals for the next three years is to continue to send department members to PBL training and develop PBL projects that will be used by all teachers in each Social Studies subject area.

The Social Studies department has also considered the needs of students with respect to their interest in a broader selection of courses within the department. In fact, a group of students met with the IS three years ago to request more AP classes in the Humanities (WASC-identified critical area of need pertaining to student voice). At the time, the department offered APUSH for Juniors and AP Econ and AP Psych for seniors. The department extensively discussed whether or not students would take an additional AP humanities course because they were genuinely interested, or because they simply wanted another an AP course, adding more stress. The department decided that if the district would limit the number of APs a student can take, it would make sense for the department to add another choice, but after three years, it didn’t seem like the district was going to take that step. Accordingly, the department decided in 2017-2018 to begin the process of offering AP Human Geography for students as a course option in 2018-2019. Once course requests are in, the department will examine and analyze who took the course - if students take it in place of another AP instead of simply adding yet another one, it is likely that the course will continue to be offered. The Social Studies Department also offered U.S. Foreign Policy Honors for the first time in 2017-2018, with enrollment in the course largely driven by students themselves, according to multiple students who spoke with the teacher about what prompted them to sign up for the class (WASC-identified critical area of need pertaining to student voice). In general, AP and honors courses at Gunn across the board have become more accessible, and more driven by student demand and the varied needs of a diverse population. This accessibility is due to the fact that

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all AP and honors courses at Gunn dropped grade and/or test score thresholds for entry to advanced courses (other than passing required prerequisite courses) in 2016-17.

In Gunn’s World Language department, in order to more fully leverage the impact of assigned projects, the Spanish 1 classes have also implemented the use of online portfolios that will stay with the students throughout their years of language study. Portfolios are collections of student work that allow students and teachers to analyze work over time. The department has used paper portfolios for more than 15 years, but in order to increase the impact of these portfolios on students, it is in the process of transitioning to digital portfolios in order to more easily share progress with other stakeholders.

One area of progress in the past few years in the World Language department has been to explore grading practices based on the proficiency a student demonstrates. The World Language Department is making progress toward no longer significantly determining grades through such things as homework, participation, and simply turning things in; rather, they are learning how to skillfully grade students on what they know and are able to do in the language they are learning. This requires teachers in the department to create and use projects far more often than in the past (like this Spanish 2 project assignment and student work here), and to modify tests so that more emphasis is placed on communication rather than memorization. Some of the inspiration for these changes has come with increased professional learning: a number of people in the department are participants in the Stanford World Language Project (SWLP), which provides in-depth long-term PD for WL teachers. Course topics include standards-based lesson planning, unit planning, assessment, and integration of instructional technology, all specific to world-language teaching. The courses are aligned with the CSTPs, CCSS, and the CA WL Standards. And, as demonstrated in evidence provided for this report, such as this student-generated evaluation form for Spanish 2, the teachers in the world language courses are using multiple measures of evaluation in order to ascertain proficiency.

Beyond traditional metrics of achievement, the World Language Department has also made significant progress in the past three years in promoting and nurturing multiple paths to success through study abroad for Gunn students, through partnerships with Amigos de las Americas, the CIEE Global Navigator Scholarship Program, Neighbors Abroad, the Japan Foundation and the GAPP Program. The study abroad programs have a tremendous impact on students, as is clear in this student reflection. As you can see from the example, the student was changed through study abroad. But his ability to integrate with his host family at the level he did was caused by the level of proficiency he brought with him when he went to study--he had an Intermediate to Advanced proficiency when he went, and was therefore able to take full advantage of the opportunity. He thought he was ready to stop Spanish--but the time abroad showed him that he actually wanted to keep studying it--in another class here at Gunn, and then in college. The study abroad opportunities Gunn offers its students are key to this cycle--and to their eventual high-level proficiency in the language--which will also lead to further opportunities to work abroad, participating in a Global Community.

The Special Education department at Gunn, having long understood the benefit of establishing multiple pathways to success for its students, has also researched, evaluated, selected and implemented new grade-level common transition assessments (such as this College Survival and Success Scale) to promote student exploration of aptitudes and interest. This information is then used to assist in the development of the student's Individual Transition Plans (ITP). Assessments focus on a variety of jobs, occupations, interests, training opportunities; once the assessments are complete, the Special Education team works with the Transition Partnership

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Program to provide instruction on job related skills, job coaching, and job placement opportunities. PAUSD SHINE publication highlights the impact that these programs have on our graduated students. Through the implementation of the assessments, the department realized that student needs may be met with shifting what grade level assessments are given in, and replacing some assessments with different ones. The department is currently in the process of evaluating and possibly updating assessments.

Also, the Special Education Department has increased the number of students participating in the VA vocational training program through Vocational Training Course and the Academic Communications class (see photo of students here). To help students in this program, Education Specialists teach and reteach skills through direct participation and picture boards created to provide step-by-step visual instructions for work tasks. 60% of the Futures students are working at the VA in a job training program. Additional opportunities to explore potential areas of career and postsecondary interest are being provided through off-campus field trips to community colleges, job and career fairs, job shadowing opportunities, and increased participation in vocational training opportunities.

Finally, as part of the new Futures program (re-introduced to Gunn in 2016-17, after the program left Gunn and migrated to Palo Alto High in 2015), students have developed and implemented “Coffeeology,” a coffee shop, open 2 days a week, selling coffee and baked goods to staff, which requires the application of course curriculum in math and functional living skills. This accounting sheet demonstrates students applying skills learned in class (ie: communication, vocational training, cooking, math). Students have also learned to make and sell Dog Biscuits.

In addition to the vocational and daily life skill training Coffeeology and the Dog Biscuit business provide along with students’ work at the VA, functional academic skills are taught in the classroom, and reinforced/generalized during weekly Community Based Outings. Students learn to ride public transportation (VTA bus, train), shop from a list, use the Dollar Up Strategy, order from a menu, navigate the community and practice social skills. Data is taken across all settings, and goals are developed to address areas of need. Social skill training is embedded in the program, and opportunities for inclusion and interaction are advanced and modeled by staff.

As the students become more comfortable in the production aspect of Coffeeology and Dog Biscuit Business, breaking down the cost vs. profit of the businesses would be a functional academic goal going forward. Expanding vocational opportunities outside of the VA to coincide with areas of interest would be another area of growth for the program. Finally, growing the Best Buddies program will be of importance next year, as graduation nears for the seniors enrolled in the Futures program.

STRATEGY 2: TIME – Improve the quality and quantity of instructional time to support learning in order to increase the number of students reporting satisfaction with the workload of their academic program / work-life balance.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● Implementing standards-based assessments

● Flextime has been successfully implemented -- looking at future options for increasing Flextime

● Initiated consistency in class size, expectations, common assessments (PLC)

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● More time for clubs at Gunn, easier access to the list of clubs (online), etc. (online list available here)

● Develop and promote better integration of work/study opportunities

● Connect curriculum (even classic) to relevant issues.

● Continue PLC work towards course consistency

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

Many WASC-related initiatives at Gunn are aimed to produce beneficial student impacts by improving instruction in multiple ways. As with many of our goals and strategies, the progress that we’re making on strategy #2 of goal #1 is, in part, a byproduct of some of the larger initiatives that overlap with other goals and strategies.

For instance, project-based learning, PLC work and work-study are larger efforts that have many beneficial impacts on student learning, including the improvement of students’ work-life balance and overall academic workload. For more information about these efforts, please see goal #1, strategy #1 (project-based, relevant learning), goal #3, strategies #1 and #2 (PLC work around alignment and consistency), and goal #1, strategy #1 (work-study, particularly with respect to SPED populations). In discussing goal #1, strategy #2, this report will focus mainly on Challenge Success data, standards-based grading, and Blended Learning Classes.

The main source of data that we can look at in order to examine how we are doing with respect to work-life balance and overall workload comes from Challenge Success, a Stanford-based program in which we have participated for several years. The most recent Challenge Success survey, administered in Social Studies classes in May of 2017, yielded the following data with respect to this question:

56% of the 1,561 students who took the survey reported that they had “too much” homework.

42% of the 1,561 students who took the survey felt they had the “right” amount of homework.

This represented very little change from May of 2015, when the following data was collected:

56% of the 1,594 students who took the survey reported that they had “too much” homework.

41% of the 1,594 students who took the survey felt they had the “right” amount of homework.

The 1,152 students who took the 2017 Strategic Plan Survey through PAUSD revealed more encouraging data:

Negative Neutral Positive

Homework assignments are useful and appropriate this year 15.0% 43.2% 41.7%

The amount of homework assigned to you is reasonable this year 12.7% 36.2% 51.0%

Even with this better outlook from the District data set, in order to better determine why the Challenge Success numbers are staying the same, this (and other data) from the Challenge Success data was reviewed by multiple school constituencies in the context of our current WASC cycle of inquiry. In December of 2017, the administration assembled a wide range of community members from four constituent groups: administrators, Instructional and Site Council members (representing teacher voice), parents (including PTSA members), and students,

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including students from our College Pathways program (part of the effort to further address the WASC-identified critical need regarding student voice). The large group of about fifty people reviewed nine carefully targeted sets of data, all of which will be included in this section of the WASC midterm report--below are the responses to the Challenge Success Data set (pages 5-9 and 22-26 only) that participants reviewed (responses in bold indicate multiple responses along these lines, although all comments are represented, and comments in italics are those made by students in the College Pathways program):

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #1

*Academic worry is less in 12th

*Junior year devotes more time to homework

*29% of students are “purposely engaged”

*22% are fully engaged

*The rest are not very engaged! Just “do school” but don’t find school fun or valuable

*Student Engagement: 1) Topic interesting (76%) 2) Enthusiastic teacher (55%) 3) Group work (16%)

*Schoolwork stress:

62% always/often stressed

52% kept from time with family and friends

54% kept from enough sleep

53% had to drop an activity

*56% reported too much HW and 21% are solely doing homework during homework time

*Females spending significantly more time on schoolwork and have more worries about academics

*Parent expectations and performance increase student worry

*Junior year stress increases (hours on HW, well-being)

*Students of color more worried and spending more time on HW

*53% reported they had to drop an activity b/c of amount of schoolwork

*Correct data on those who have jobs or other responsibilities (sports, volunteer work, babysitting)

*In Bio A & H, students are sometimes learning everything twice, and doing two assignments in one night (pre-learning and reviewing) i.e., spending lots of time on homework. They are burning out!

*Students don’t find some classes relevant and interesting to them.

*[Alleviate schoolwork stress by] promoting, communicating, and accepting more balanced lifestyles

*[Alleviate schoolwork stress by] multiple definitions of success

*[Alleviate schoolwork stress by] the purpose of HW

*[Alleviate schoolwork stress by] the purpose of taking a class

*[Alleviate schoolwork stress by] the purpose of performance in the class

*Communicate data to the parents who have trouble accepting

*Emphasis on classes other than AP and honors

*Provide opportunities for SAT and ACT testing during school

*Integrating choice in humanities classes

*Addressing parent pressures on students

*General goal: change homework to be more about critical thinking and more relevant and engaging and less about volume of homework.

*Specific ideas/steps: ● Have a staff development day

focused on homework-- making it engaging and relevant. Set aside PLC to focus on creating engaging homework

● Have a panel for teachers and students to discuss creative homework ideas/identify needs (listen to student perspectives too)

● Give students “choice homework:” let them choose which of three homework options is relevant to them

*More flexible homework policies (optional/flexible due dates/varying amounts of problems)

*Define purpose of HW

*Incentive for parent-student communication

*Incorporating aid for non-school work (SAT/ACT)

*Free practice SAT/ACT tests

*Hire and maintain more culturally diverse staff and more culturally relevant teaching

*Look at class structure of classes-how much independent work time?

*Offering more pathways-- vocational?

As will be true for all subsequent data sets generated at this meeting, the analysis in the third column provided important content, context, and inspiration for the adjustments to the Action Plan, found in Section 5 of this report.

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Another initiative undertaken in fall of 2015 to help students with work/life balance and academic workload was the implementation of “Flextime,” a 50 minute period on Tuesdays (and, in 2017/18, Thursdays) where students can get help from teachers (in the form of remediation or enrichment), work on projects and homework, and/or take time to exercise in the gym or in a classroom dedicated to yoga. The initial aims of Flextime were laid out for students in the Oracle in an article from August 2015, here. Students continue to value the time, and teachers find it useful as well, but limited data exists to enable instructional leaders at the school to ensure that the time is being used in a maximally effective way. The Instructional Council has begun discussing the major aims of Flextime and how it can best be used to support students (see IC-PL notes, below), and plans to continue the conversation in tandem with a renewed focus on implementing a coordinated Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) for all students.

Some of the math teachers have begun to experiment with highly targeted and creative uses for Flextime to help student achievement (also envisioned as part of our Multi-Tiered System of Support, or MTSS, efforts at Gunn). One problem that many teachers and subjects experience at Gunn is that Flextime for some teachers/subjects can be very crowded with students with very different needs; to address this, some math teams have begun "specializing" their Flextime (Chemistry teachers are doing this as well--see below, in the discussion of Standards-Based Grading). For instance, Jess Hexsel has submitted this piece of evidence showing how the Geometry A teachers each offered a different topic for review in each of their sections. Students then could choose their Flextime room based on topic rather than teacher. While progress here is encouraging, teachers are finding it hard to do consistently. With each teacher teaching two or 3 different courses, specializing in only 1 of them during Flextime leaves the rest of their students with nowhere to go (potentially). This is an example of one of the challenges that our examination of the intention and support around Flextime purpose and best practices will hopefully address.

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Another way that teachers at Gunn have been addressing student stress associated with heavy homework loads and studying for high-stakes test has been to introduce standards-based grading, which is starting to emerge as a Research-Based Schoolwide Instructional Practice (WASC-Identified Critical Need). In particular, the Science Department, the Math Department, the World Language Department and the CTE Department having begun using Marzano’s 1-4 scale for determining formative and summative scores, pertaining to the mastery of relative levels of difficulty. And, though some departments are mostly experimenting with standards-based grading and using a 4-point scale, some teachers are currently implementing the system far more robustly.

As an example of this more fully developed implementation scheme, the Conceptual Physics team and part of the Chemistry team began this shift from traditional grading to a standards-based grading system in the 2016-17 school year. They started by defining levels of mastery based on the scale presented by Marzano (0 to 4 with 0.5-pt increments), and attempted to use a grading program that implemented the Power Law. However, the implementation of the new scale was slow to shift student mindset because:

● The Power Law was still averaging student progress, even though the emphasis was on the latest assignments.

● The grade program took into account the order that teachers entered scores for the same target on the same date/time, which wasn’t useful.

The teams ended up having a Skype conversation with Ken O’Connor, a Toronto-based educational consultant specializing in assessment, regarding his method of standards-based grading – logic rule. After a great discussion about the Logic Rule and how it would work to try to transfer rubric scores into grades at the end of the semester, the teachers switched from the Power Law to the Logic Rule for determining letter grades at the end of the term for the second semester of 2016-17 (for the full reasoning behind the shift and a more complete explanation of both approaches to standards-based grading, see the Science Instructional Supervisor’s comments here).

Teachers continued to use the Logic Rule in 2017-18, and this type of calculation is working well. The explanation of the grading system for Conceptual Physics can be found here, and the list of “Power Standards” (aka “buckets”) for the chemistry classes is here.

In order to improve the impact of standards-based grading on student achievement, the department is currently working on is coming up with a better system for students to understand where they stand, what assessments need to be remediated, and in which areas they could improve. For instance, the teachers in Conceptual Physics tried this grade tracking sheet in 2nd semester 2016-17, but ultimately, they found that it was too much work for the students to keep up with. In 2017-18 they developed a better sheet, but because it was toward the end of the semester, the students were not inclined to fill it out on their own. (This sheet was designed by a teacher on the chemistry team, but the link is for the one the conceptual physics team designed for their students.) The teachers think they will have better luck during second semester if they have the students fill out the sheet right when they get their assignments back -- they can then fill out the sheet with the scores from their rubrics.

Finally, one of the chemistry teachers worked on an extraordinarily useful Excel spreadsheet that can calculate the overall “big standards” (aka “buckets”) scores using the logic rule. Here is a copy of one student’s sheet already populated and scores determined. This type of sheet will be very beneficial, as teachers will be able to produce status updates much more often and not

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have to use the “logic rule” in their heads. Here is a sample of feedback from students given after going over the tracking sheet with some of the chemistry students.

Meanwhile, both teams were using their findings from the assessment data to help students with remediation. The Conceptual Physics team had a lot of difficulty in 2016-17 with getting work graded with rubrics back to students in a timely manner. This delay made it difficult not only for students to work on remediation, but also for teachers to design remediation tasks to help students before allowing them to reassess. This year, with rubrics only needing a bit of tweaking, the CP team was able to get assessments (labs and quizzes and tests) back in a much more timely manner. Students were allowed to make corrections on lab analyses and change their standings as related to the standards; however, in order to have a standard score changed for a quiz/test, students needed to complete corrections, discuss them with the teachers, and then take a new assessment for the standard upon which they wanted to improve (retakes). Some examples of one student’s work in this area are located here. (There is no scan available of the Unit 1 assessment, only the assessment rubric. There is a scan of the unit 2 assessment and rubric. The “retakes” for both assessments are attached and the new scores are in orange on the assessment rubrics.) What is noteworthy in this student’s work is that this student was disengaged, and sometimes even adversarial, during the first ⅔ of the semester. When the student started coming in to get extra assistance, help with corrections, and practice on standards he hadn’t mastered, his attitude in the class also shifted. His questions were less attacking and accusatory and more in line with an openness to learn. His writing became more detailed and he started paying more attention to small details that showed he fully understood the concepts he was addressing. For the teachers, this felt like a big win, and the goal is now getting more students to have this change in attitude. Mostly, the students need the confidence to see that they can learn “hard” things if they just put a bit of effort into their learning.

The Chemistry PLC also made great strides in the area of remediation in 2017-2018. They designed targeted “remediations” that the students needed to complete and check before being allowed to retake problems related to specific standards. Here are some student examples of remediations. Teachers found that students were more successful after completing the remediations. At first the students did not want to complete the video lessons, especially; however, after completing the lessons many realized exactly which concept they were missing and were able to complete the retakes showing improvement in understanding.

Another thing that was decided in the Chemistry PLC was that during Flextime in the last three weeks before final exams, teachers would present targeted reviews on the different topics that were presented during the semester. All but one teacher led two Flextime periods each. They worked together to arrange for students who wanted to finish remediations or get help on other topics to see different teachers from the chemistry team when their own teacher was leading review. They posted the review schedule outside the doors of the classrooms, and the PLC lead sent an email to support teams (FOS, SpEd) so students in those classes could be encouraged to attend the review sessions. This was a great example of how the PLC worked together to determine which topics were most important for review and how to get students from multiple classes to receive targeted review/practice during Flextime. It’s also one of the strongest examples the school can offer thus far of using Flextime for the remediation of students who are performing below standard, which has long been a goal of the Flextime system.

Finally (and anecdotally), with the implementation of standards-based grading, both teams are seeing shifts in conversations with students regarding their standing in class. The shift has been from talk about grades-specifically to talk about improving on standards and specific learning

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targets, an outcome that was one of the primary goals of switching over to this type of grading. Unfortunately, in our school’s climate, the students are still grade-focused, and with the current tools we have for recording and reporting grades (Infinite Campus and Schoology), there is no way for the students to get their in-progress letter grade. This causes stress in many students (and some parents). Ideally, they will learn to focus more on their learning than on their grades, but this mindset is difficult to shift. Hopefully, the more we are clear in our expectations regarding mastery and remediation, the more students will see what they need to do in order to master the concepts for the course. The science department has made tremendous progress in this area.

Another example of progress toward this goal is the implementation of some form of standards-based grading in many math classes, including the entire College Prep (regular lane) pathway. The motivation behind this is twofold. First, standards-based grading will hopefully allow for students to engage in less unnecessary homework, improving students’ work-life balance. Perhaps even more importantly, though, the math department is determined to instill a "growth mindset" in students rather than a "fixed" one. Many teachers in the department have attended trainings or read research on this topic, and have long observed that many students in the College Prep lane consider themselves "bad at math." Applying standards-based grading and allowing for some reassessment is one way of addressing this, and there is evidence to show this has been successful.

Math instructor Carlos Martinez has evidence of one student’s journey throughout the year, showing all of the times that they have failed a standard on the first attempt, only to find success on a later attempt. In a traditional grading system such a student would likely be failing. Another math instructor, Emily Pinkston, has similar evidence. Instructors Danny Hahn and Michael Bautista have submitted the SBG approach here that they use in AB Calculus where students take each assessment twice, giving them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Implementation of this system has not been painless. Math teachers have a received a lot of pushback from students who have concerns about the system. One common complaint was that their system paradoxically reduced motivation. Each year they have tweaked their system based on student and parent feedback. One growth area for the Math Department is that all of the teachers in the College Prep lane are implementing SBG in a slightly different way. It is a goal of the Math Department to seek out training on designing a better system, and devoting time to a departmentwide discussion on best practices.

The World Language Department has also begun to implement standards-based grading in the belief that grading practices can significantly impact learners, and world language teachers have made strong progress in the last three years in exploring and implements proficiency-based grading their classes. Every world language teacher uses “communication” as the most weighty category of their grading scale, meaning that instead of having categories for tests, quizzes, etc., the categories are: Interpersonal Communication, Interpretive Communication, and Presentational Communication. Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) piloted SBG in the 2016-2017 school year, and currently, the grading system in that class is hybridized. Spanish 3 instructors allow students to retake assessments until they meet the standards for a given unit. French 2 is exploring and adapting SBG among the teachers on the team (course guide referencing SBG for French 2 here). With this shift has come a shift in understanding of just what is being measured – i.e., proficiency in the language. This has led the department to have conversations and to shift practices for how they perceive students who are struggling, and to make it about the communicative proficiency, and not so much about whether they have fantastic ‘student skills.’ All of this learning and growth on the department’s part is aligned with

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CCSS and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and has been a result of extensive work and professional development (including attendance by four department members at a recent assessment workshop through the Stanford World Language Project).

Another way in which Gunn has implemented new strategies for reducing workload and improving work life balance is through the Blended Learning program. Gunn currently offers the following Blended Learning classes: Advanced Digital Filmmaking, Broadcast Journalism, Multimedia Journalism, Basic College Skills (3 sections), Philosophy through Literature, Reading Between Lines (2 sections), AP Economics, Algebra 2/Trigonometry A, AP Computer Science A (4 sections), AP Environmental Science (4 sections), French Civilization Culture H, Sports Nutrition, Advanced Drawing and Painting 2, AP Studio Art Drawing and Painting, and English LL 28. Since the last WASC visit, our Blended Learning program has gone from a small pilot to a Research-Based Schoolwide Instructional Practice (WASC-Identified Critical Need). The Blended program also directly addresses Strategy #2 of Goal #1, as teachers partake in 60+ hours of ongoing professional development to improve the quality of instructional time in blended classes. During release periods, teachers provide students with individual and small group instruction. According to survey data, students express overwhelming support of the modality and explicitly state that Blended courses provide them with better work-life balance. Moving forward, we hope to make this option available to more students (see Action Plan).

STRATEGY 3: Create a comprehensive Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum that will allow students to develop awareness and skills to improve their emotional wellness and foster emotional growth as measured through the California Healthy Kids Survey.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● Not in Our Schools week

● Sources of Strength (SOS)/Reach Out, Care, Know (ROCK)

● TitanConnect (now, SELF)

● Longer time for clubs

● Flextime

● Unity day

● YES!

● Positive Psych class

● Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to be implemented during Flex for 9th/10th grade

● Mindfulness Elective; Yoga Elective

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

This strategy is a major priority at Gunn. A large number of students and staff are involved in numerous wellness efforts on campus, all of which are designed to aid students’ Social and Emotional development. One effort undertaken by the Wellness Team in 2017-2018 (comprised of Assistant Principal Mike Heffner, the Mental Health Coordinator, the Wellness Outreach Worker (WOW), both SEL TOSAs, Counselor David Leftwich, and three teachers: Kristy Blackburn, Paul Dunlap, and Jacqueline Selfridge) is to identify all of the Wellness efforts on campus, and define what purposes they serve in terms of a common language. The specific goals of the Wellness Team can be found in our Theory of Action statement (here). While the list of Wellness Programs on campus is not complete yet, here is what has been compiled so far. Once we have more information about what programs currently exist, and what their various purposes are, we can better ascertain the real impact that these programs have on students, and what gaps need to be filled.

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One of the biggest SEL initiatives at Gunn in the past three years has been the development of the TitanConnect program, which then evolved into the Social and Emotional Literacy and Functionality (SELF) program for 2017-2018. The SELF program specifically is the product of a full year of research and consideration undertaken by the PAUSD Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum Committee (SCC) between 2016 and 2017. The report (here), presented to the Board in February of 2017, recommended the following:

1. PAUSD should adopt as its framework the Washington State SEL framework proposed in October, 2016 by the Washington State SEL Benchmarks Workgroup.

2. The district should use the PAUSD SEL Framework for transforming district and school-wide culture and practice, not just as a guide for SEL curriculum and programming in the classroom.

3. Evidence-based SEL programs should be fully researched before any districtwide SEL program is recommended, adopted or implemented. While the process of researching and selecting districtwide SEL programs is in progress, SCC supports the continued implementation and expansion of site-based SEL efforts.

4. In establishing a PAUSD model for SEL curriculum, assessment and evaluation, the district should prioritize the importance of cultural sensitivity, respect for diversity, and support for vulnerable populations, and provide opportunities for students and families to practice SEL skills in the community.

5. The SEL curricula chosen should address the needs of all PAUSD students as shown by data collection and should be evaluated after implementation based on how well the curricula meets such needs.

Shortly after presenting the report to the Board, and the Board’s subsequent adoption of the recommendations, Gunn’s Creative Bell Schedule Committee reworked the bell schedule for 2017-2018 to include a 50-minute period on Thursday to be dedicated to SEL instruction. Parents and students were invited to presentations, and asked for feedback (see parent presentation here and student presentation here). The feedback about implementing SEL instruction was largely positive, but the schedule change was less popular (see SEC survey here). The student survey about the schedule change was certain in keeping with the WASC-identified Critical Need pertaining to student voice, but, as senior Advait Arun said during an interview, the survey was probably done too late and was too limited in its scope to allow students to feel that their voices had really been heard. The school continues to work to address the need to quickly create mechanisms for gathering feedback and respond to that data when generating and implementing new policies, programs and improvements in general that have an impact on students.

In addition, Gunn, in conjunction with the district, decided to pilot the School-Connect curriculum for SEL instruction in the 2017-2018 year. This relationship with School-Connect marked a shift from the previous program, TitanConnect, itself an evolution from a longstanding program, Titan 101, which had served to help transition students academically from middle school to high school in their freshman year (feedback on this program from spring 2015, which also speaks to the progress in moving towards SEL, can be found here). TitanConnect (which only ran in 2016-2017) focused on delivering SEL instruction inspired by research-based best practices and created by individual teachers themselves, with guidance from the Wellness TOSAs; the initial planning, research and notes for the transition to TitanConnect can be found in this folder. The feedback from the TitanConnect program (available here) helped to inform the changes to the program that developed alongside the publication of the SCC report in 2017.

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As the trajectory of the program continued to evolve in the spring of 2017, all teachers at Gunn attended a two-hour presentation from one of the authors, Keeth Matheny, of the School-Connect curriculum in March 2017. An additional six teachers, one counselor and two administrators attended a three-day training in Reno, NV in July, 2017 (one of the TOSAs also attended a training in Austin, TX). Then, before the year started, nearly all teachers who signed up to be mentors in the program completed another two-day training with Mr. Matheny in August, along with several other teachers not yet signed up to be mentors, but who wanted to know more about the program.

The program is currently led and supported by two Social-Emotional Learning Teachers on Special Assignment (SEL TOSAs – see job description here): Courtney Carlomagno (.6 FTE) and Tara Firenzi (.4 FTE). The job description was shifted from Climate and Culture TOSA (also briefly titled the Wellness TOSA), a position created in 2015 out of the WASC review process, specifically to aid in working towards this WASC goal. The most recent shift to SEL TOSA was made in 2017 in order to focus the efforts of these TOSAs more specifically on this new initiative.

As a result of all the aforementioned groundwork, the SELF Program kicked off for 9th grade students at Gunn in August of this year. While the program only serves 9th graders right now, the intention is to roll out the program to an additional grade level each year, incorporating all four grade levels by 2020. There are currently 23 mentors who work with the entire freshman class, and Assistant Principal Mike Heffner oversees the effort from the administrative side. The curriculum map for the year so far (as well as links to all materials used) can be found here.

The program so far has been smoothly implemented, but student response indicates that there are some significant areas for growth. To help student voice guide the process of development and refinement as much as possible (in keeping with the WASC-identified critical need regarding student voice), we asked for feedback through a google form in October; results here. From these results, we learned that students are bonding reasonably well with their mentors and cohorts (given that they only see them once per week), and that the students want more games and interactive activities. We used the feedback to inform the questions that we asked during three rounds of focus groups in November (results here). As noted in the summary document just referenced, the major points of focus moving forward will be:

1. Developing fun, community building activities to start off the second semester, including opportunities for cohorts to engage in socializing around food, and playing board games together; these activities will also be incorporated throughout the rest of the semester alongside revamped approaches to direct instruction using School-Connect;

2. Ensuring that teachers have more choices to work with in terms of how they engage the students with the SEL topics at hand; and

3. Building in relevance and resonance to the lessons, connecting SEL skills even more clearly to academic and professional skills that students can use now and later in their lives.

At the December 2017 meeting, during which all major constituencies at Gunn reviewed current data with respect to WASC goals, the following observations, ideas and next steps were generated in response to the SELF focus group data set (responses in bold indicate multiple responses along these lines, although all comments are represented):

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What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next steps related to Goal #1

*People find it necessary/helpful once they are involved

*Students want more engagement (less lecture)

*Less “bell-ringer” activities

*More time with ambassadors/ mentors

*Students don’t want to be “talked down to”

*They want homework time!

*Wide range of needs and interests

*Students generally want more activities (interactive)

*Want more interactivity with mentors, teachers

*Bad reputation for SELF

*Tuesday vs. Thursday

*How much meeting time/frequency is effective?

*More opportunities to connect with everyone

*Focus on explaining purposes in a fun way (mentor stories)

*More activities and less lectures

*Adapting curriculum

*More team-building

*More variety

*More choice

*One-on-one check-ins

*Current events

*More focus groups feedback collection

*More connection with ambassadors and mentors

*Research other schools with this program for ideas

*Evaluate next semester’s curriculum based on feedback

*More feedback with quantitative data

*(One on one check-ins with mentors)

*(Anonymous data may be more honest but more brutal...try both?)

*Once a month have SELF period that is dedicated for one-on-one time, students would have a five-minute appointment

The Wellness Team also evaluated the focus group data at a meeting in December 2017, and came up with the following observations and recommendations for next steps with respect to SELF:

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Brainstorm Next Steps Related to Goal #1

● More activities ● Less direct instruction ● Want more bonding ● Digital Zombies resonated ● Students want more decision-

making, voice in SELF ● FOOD ● More engagement with mentors

(personal stories)

● More connection to Titan Ambassadors

● Further training in facilitation vs. a traditional classroom setting for mentors

● More resonant lessons (adapt School Connect to meet this need)

● Looking at four year commitment for each mentor to a group

● Better define Titan Ambassadors’ purpose ● Combine with Sources (training--connect with

T.A. training) ● Proactive rather than reactive approach to

wellness in the classroom ● Share Educational Leadership article ● Building in feedback mechanisms/formalize

To make a start in implementing some of the above recommendations, the first SELF lesson of 2018 focused on making various types of food as cohorts, and gave students and mentors over an hour to socialize and play team-building games. Feedback from mentors and students thus far has been positive, and the SELF program hopes to incorporate more several activities like this across the semester.

Another set of data that measures aspects of social and emotional well-being at Gunn is the California Healthy Kids Survey data (CHKS). Because it has significant relevance to the goals and focus of the SELF program, the large group of parents, students, teachers and administrators also evaluated this data (only Tables A2.1, A4.4, A8.4 and A8.5) at the December 2017 meeting, with results listed in the table below (again, responses in bold indicate multiple responses along these lines, although all comments are represented, and comments in italics are those made by students in the College Pathways program):

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What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #1

*Motivation decreases; higher in grade 7

*Initial decline in engagement and support from 7-9, with an eventual increase from 9-11

*Strong high % in school safety and connectedness

*Low fear of risk of physical injury as compared to high %s of verbal injury

*Caring adults: 7th-47%, 9th 34%, 11th 41%

*Academic motivation decrease 7th to 9th to 11th

*Physical safety at HS is high (ex. 5% of 9th been in a fight)

*Responses should be anonymous to increase honesty on survey

*Transition from 7-9 to mitigate severity of change % (SELF)

*Consistent awareness surrounding chronic sadness/ hopelessness (SOS)

*Harassment/bullying (~25%)

*9th grade year support

*Track the same class instead of three different classes; look at previous years

*Data collection from SELF and SOS to determine effectiveness

*Compare to recent data (2016-17) and recognize “vibe” between different classes and school years

*Follow one cohort class from K-12

*Look at parent engagement/ involvement?

To make sure that this effort is reaching beyond just this program and the 9th grade student population, two communications are sent out each week: the SELF Shelf, in the Principal’s weekly memo to staff (see archives here), and the SELF report in Titan Talk, which is sent to the whole community (see archives here), in addition to the SELF website, now available on the school website. These messaging efforts have been well-received--parents at a 9th grade meeting in September reported using the information in Titan Talk to reinforce SEL ideas with their students at home, and some teachers have used SELF Shelf ideas in their classrooms (Physics teacher Cathy Cohn used the Social Contract lesson from School-Connect, for instance: see photos here). We have also offered two cohorts of opt-in SELF sessions for 10th-12th graders; these sessions generated low attendance, but positive reviews in general (feedback responses here). All that said, we want to do more to ensure the spread of SEL instruction that is aligned with our primary delivery efforts (SELF, Sources of Strength, and the Wellness Center) throughout the curriculum, which will require greater assessment of the effectiveness of current SEL efforts as well as more opportunities for professional development for staff.

Another major wellness effort on campus is the Sources of Strength program, implemented in 2011. The program remains vital to wellness efforts at the school, and around 60 students and 19 staff members were trained in September 2017 alone. Students feel empowered to run projects and use the language of Sources of Strength to identify their relative strengths and areas of need. Here is a sample of student reflection after completing a successful project. Students also feel more empowered to participate in the program because they have a good sense that adults are going to support them. It also allows them to take on more ambitious projects, like Parent Night and planning a second on-campus training for students. The project list for 2016-17 can be found here, and the project list for 2017-18 can be found here. The team approach also allows everyone to share the work around student meetings, which means that students are engaging with more than just one trusted adult for the program, and that it’s possible to incorporate a variety of lessons and games into the student meetings. According to survey data (available here), students report knowing how to better support their friends as a result of the program, and students are reaching out (though the impact could still be increased substantially) to friends to connect them to trusted adults. Finally, as part of a reflective process in December 2017, the Wellness Team looked at both survey data and Thorn/Rose/Rosebud reflections from the end of the 2016-2017 school year, and generated the following analysis and next steps:

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What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Brainstorm Next Steps Related to Goal #1

● Students like projects ● all students have talked about

SOS with at least 1 other person

● Oracle tie-in ● Schoolwide activities ● Activities give students a

tangible way of feeling as if they affect the school positively

● Students are in unanimous agreement that they personally have benefitted from the program in many different ways

● Students share a common vocabulary regarding Sources of Strength and wellbeing

● Messaging is a challenge, there seems to be confusion about what works best

● Getting more students and adults involved across campus

● While student leaders have benefited, the challenge is to benefit more of the students not directly trained in the program

● Survey school community about where information is seen/ gathered about events

● Further embedding of Sources language ● Student leadership for any wellness related

activity needs to be trained in Sources (including Titan Ambassadors/Link Crew)

● Creating in-house training? ● Training staff as well (SELF mentors)

For 2018, the school is also making a change to the long-standing tradition of “Not in Our Schools Week,” or NIOS. Initially designed as a teacher-led program that incorporated diversity and inclusion-oriented curricula at both the classroom and schoolwide levels, the level of participation from teachers had waned somewhat. Students from SEC and Sources of Strength came together to propose a joint effort from students and teachers to create “Titan Pride Week,” set to debut in January 2018 (Oracle article here, and student planning document here). Based on the students’ input (also speaking to the WASC-identified critical need regarding student voice), the hope is that the new iteration of this tradition will capture all the great energy of a long-standing Gunn tradition, and infuse it with new energy from the students that will deepen the impact on the overall student population.

Another major SEL effort outside of the traditional curriculum offered through departments is Reach Out. Care. Know., or ROCK. ROCK is a long-standing mental health awareness club that is committed to listening and talking with other students about anything and everything. The students involved strive to create a more inclusive and positive environment at Gunn High School and build a strong sense of campus community in which all students feel welcomed. The group puts on events throughout the year such as the ball pit activity during Not In Our Schools Week, creating “TALK TO ME” shirts, and sending appreciation grams to students and staff. This year, students will be invited to participate in trainings which provide tips for how teens can approach and support a friend who is struggling. Demonstrating the extent to which student voice guides the group (WASC-Identified Critical Need regarding student voice), here is the student-generated list of the topics they would like to cover in these trainings.

Students in the group also recently took a survey to determine which activities and leadership skills are working well for the team: see survey results here. The information gathered and the conversations among the leadership team and the full group reaffirmed and clarified the original mission of ROCK, which is ultimately a suicide-prevention mission. The two overarching goals are to increase connectedness through social activities and publicity, and to train students to be more equipped to recognize emotional wellness in others and be prepared to help when necessary or to connect them to help.

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Based on all of the feedback, the group will focus even more on training ROCK members to be "peer helpers." To that end, the students have arranged for Ms. Kessler (through Stanford) to teach lessons and run exercises in some of the meetings in the 2017-2018 school year. Having a larger leadership team this year has also allowed student leaders to divide the work and, consequently, have a great influence on campus. Each leader has a different project to lead and a small group of students dedicating their time and attention to that project.

Outside of extracurricular efforts, Individual departments have also developed their own SEL initiatives over the course of the past few years, which we are working to align together with SELF and other Wellness efforts on campus to create the most effective and comprehensive program possible, clearly part of the spirit of the WASC goal.

A CTE-based effort to improve emotional wellness and foster student growth was a student-initiated plan in 2015-16 that led to the inclusion of an ongoing series in the Oracle called “Changing the Narrative.” The segment started as a response to taking back the national narrative around the PAUSD suicide contagion and as a way to promote a healthier culture of sharing vulnerability and learning from each other, making sure students know it's okay to share stories of hope and recovery. Some teachers use the CTN stories in their classrooms to highlight the Sources of Strength language we use on campus. Specifically, the Oracle focuses a lot on the idea of covering stories in a specific way that promotes help-seeking behavior and encourages students to reach out for help and focus on recovery. Students are still very interested in writing for Changing the Narrative and it has become an important and highly visible piece of the wellness work on campus. We have a lot of social media sharing around the stories, and we have reused stories on social media when it's especially relevant. (The increased showcasing of students’ voices in a new context in the Oracle is also a good example of the WASC-identified area of need regarding student voice.)

Another CTE program, Titan Broadcasting Network (TBN), also uses the school’s media channels to publicize wellness efforts. In fall of 2017, TBN did a piece on the service dogs that visit campus every week to provide students an opportunity to relax and enjoy the company of really cute, friendly, sweet service animals. The students report that this wellness effort is a great success; see video clip here. TBN has also reported on other SEL and wellness related efforts on campus, including the experiences that students from other countries have when they come to Gunn. These videos allow the wider student community to develop empathy for new students, speaking to the core competency of greater social awareness (see videos here).

Another effort to alleviate pressure around college admissions took place in 2014-15, when the Oracle seniors in charge of creating the senior magazine chose to replace the multiple page spread that listed what colleges students were going to by student name. They replaced it with three maps (U.S., Calif., and world) to show which colleges surveyed students were interested in going to, including only the college name and number of self-reported students. The Oracle also now consistently showcases students who choose alternate paths after graduation in the Senior Issue, including students who go to the military, students who are taking a gap year and students who decide to attend community college. In an interview with the WASC Coordinator, Advait Arun, a member of Gunn’s Student Executive Council and the Student Representative to the PAUSD School Board, referenced this change as meaningful to the student body, noticeably shifting the focus away from ‘who got in where,’ to the many different ways that students choose to pursue their interests after graduation.

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In another departmental effort meant to improve emotional wellness and foster student growth, the PE Department is implementing mindfulness into all levels of its program, through YES! and YES! follow-ups; at least half of the teachers integrate mindfulness more often through yoga, breathing and meditation. This has had a positive impact on students and their ability to handle stress, with students stating, “The most important thing I learned was awareness because It is very essential in all parts of life. This course has affected my lifestyle positively because before I was more stressed and I never took a moment to take a deep breath because, I was so busy all the time” and “The most important thing I learned in this class is that instead of having a problem and simply complaining or going around it, I should try to solve it and give it my best. I also learned many breathing techniques that have helped me fall asleep quicker, since I usually don't fall asleep quickly.“ The aggregate data also showed a 46% decrease in perceived stress and a 61% increase in resilience. 75% of students use YES! techniques outside of class, 89% feel it would benefit everyone, and 90% shared positive comments about the program. See YES! data for the full results. TBN also did a piece on the YES program, with some students sharing their opinions of the program with the entire school (see video clip here).

While several PE teachers incorporate mindfulness into their program (in addition to the YES! follow-ups), some feel it does not benefit all students, and that this type of program belongs in a different course, not PE. The primary reason for not wanting this is the lack of movement during these seminars is that some teachers feel cardiovascular endurance and physical exertion every day is more important when mindfulness programs should be taught in another course (health class or living skills). We will continue to examine this effort and determine where YES! fits best within the school program. Efforts to launch mindfulness and yoga electives are also on hold for the moment, with the bulk of the effort around this aspect of wellness centering on the YES! program.

The Positive Psychology course, developed and launched by teacher Ronin Habib in 2013, has continued to serve an important role in student wellness. A semester long course that is traditionally offered two or three times a year, Positive Psychology allows the teacher and students to learn about the latest in cognitive science and wellness research and apply it directly to their lives through journaling, meditation, SEL activities, and reading powerful personal accounts, such as Tuesdays with Morrie. Social Studies Instructional Supervisor Lynne Navarro, who took over as the teacher of the course at the beginning of this school year, has maintained much of the former curriculum, and gave students a survey at the end of the semester to see what could be changed to be more effective about the course (see survey form here). Her reflection on the students’ responses can be found here.

The Special Education Department has also introduced daily mindfulness practice in the Special Education Academic Writing class to help students learn to focus and provide "space" between a stimulus and response. Instruction includes mindfulness activities (like this one, and as seen in this photo) incorporated into class daily. Evidence shows students' increased use of mindfulness activities to promote social/emotional well-being.

Finally, as a way to incorporate SEL into world language classes, guest speakers came to the Spanish Civilization and Culture class, and spoke in Spanish about the teenage brain and how best to manage stress. Students responded positively and all of the teachers who bring in guest speakers report that it is a positive experience for their students. In addition, Spanish 2 has students write weekly reflections about what they’re proud of, and what their goals are.

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GOAL #2 Increase achievement for all learners at Gunn High School, especially our African American, Hispanic, Socio-Economic disadvantaged, English Language Learners and Special Education Students.

STRATEGY 1: By fall 2018, develop and implement a robust, universal academic and behavioral intervention program (RTI) at the classroom, department and school levels, measured by the number of students who receive Tier 1, 2 and 3 interventions.

(Note: Addresses WASC-identified Critical Need #3: Create a stronger coordinated effort in the delivery of schoolwide student services and interventions, and WASC-identified Critical Need #5: Create a more consistent and systematic method for providing in-school support for all learners and utilize a Response To Intervention (RTI) model to recommend students for additional educational and socio-emotional interventions).

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● In process of developing an RTI program (renamed the Multi-Tiered System of Support or MTSS)

● Additional Aides in classes (for students with 504 plans)

● Students can self-select to take more advanced classes

● Students & parents can choose Advanced or College Prep (formerly called “regular”) lane

● PD for teachers and staff

● Specify who will define the scope and delivery of MTSS

● Determine the times that MTSS will be implemented

● Develop a team that are the experts of MTSS and “go-to” staff

● Better data collection

● Create a place for “searchable data” of the interventions being used for students

● IT research on notifications for automated, fast feedback of a change in student grades for teachers of students in SPED/FOS/etc.

● Research other RTI programs in the country (i.e., Oregon) and see how they implemented it to help us develop ours

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

As with many of the other goals and strategies in this report, there is overlap among the specific actions in this section, and those focused on in other parts of Section IV. For evidence and analysis with respect to the increased accessibility of advanced courses for all students, please see Goal #2, Strategy #3, and for more information about data systems, please see Goal #3, Strategy #3.

Over the course of the 2016-2017 school year, Gunn made significant progress in building an RTI system, or, as it’s currently titled at Gunn, a “Multi-Tiered System of Support” (MTSS). The Teaching and Learning Team, or TLT (composed of two intervention TOSAs, Rachel Congress and Ariane Tuomy, one technology integration TOSA, Chris Bell, and administrators), the Wellness Team and the Instructional Council began gathering information from the full staff in December of 2016 to determine existing supports and interventions (see presentation here). In February 2017, the work done by the teams was brought back to the staff to get feedback, in the form of a draft MTSS pyramid. Then, based on that feedback, another draft was developed by the TLT and Wellness teams, which was brought to staff again in April of 2017 (presentation

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here). This feedback resulted in a final prototype for 2017-2018, which can be found here, along with a draft glossary of terms, which can be found here.

Both research and professional learning experiences informed the team’s development of the MTSS pyramid. The research was largely founded on the book Simplifying Response to Intervention by Buffum, Mattos, and Weber. Several Instructional Council Members and administrators and one counselor also attended the RTI at Work Conference in San Diego in May of 2017; as a result of her experiences at these RTI trainings, the Social Studies IS Lynne Navarro, said that “I have been eagerly anticipating finally having systems in place to support staff and students.” It is fair to say that the staff are eagerly anticipating the impact that a robust and effective MTSS implementation will have on our students. We want this new way of seeing support to impact not just some, but all of our students at Gunn. At every Staff and IC meeting focused on this effort, the purpose of MTSS is stated: we want ALL students to master essential content and feel emotionally connected at school.

Currently, the intention to implement MTSS in the fall of 2018 has not changed, but a number of factors related to personnel and other school business have somewhat slowed progress towards MTSS implementation. A list of standing members as well as an application process for five open slots has been developed for the MTSS leadership team as a result of earlier work this year, and a major focus of the second semester will be to reinvigorate the school’s work on MTSS, and ready the system for full implementation in fall of 2018.

One way in which the process is already taking shape is in the form of Coordination of Services Team (COST) meetings. The COST process was created in 2014, and revamped in 2015-16 under the leadership of Assistant Principal Tara Keith. The goal of COST meetings is to have the counselors, administrators, the Special Education Instructional Supervisor, counseling services, a Wellness TOSA, and the Intervention TOSAs together to brainstorm strategies and interventions to support all students at Gunn. An example of the interventions taking place for students as a result of COST has been described by the Math Intervention TOSA, Rachel Congress, here. When student LMH came up in COST, he was struggling in math and science, and Congress worked with his math, science, and Focus on Success teachers to do observations and plan interventions to support LMH’s academics, wellness, and behavior. As the notes show, there was improvement in behavior and academics. His grades did slip a bit but overall his task completion, behavior, and Flextime attendance improved.

As for providing aides as a Tier 3 support for Special Education students, the number allocated by the district has actually decreased since 2014:

2014-2015: 20 aides

2015-2016: 14 aides

2016-2017: 15 aides

2017-2018: 13 aides

However, with the increased number of sections of co-taught classes available and the instructional support provided in those classes, the number of Instructional Aides required has decreased. Additionally, the number of students requiring a 1:1 aide support to access the curriculum in the general education classes has also decreased.

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STRATEGY 2: Reduce the percentage of Latino students on the D/F list from 45% to 20% or less by the end of the 2016-17 school year. (PLEASE NOTE: This strategy has substantively shifted in the revised Action Plan for 2017-2021).

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● Continuing FOS classes

● Flextime enables extra time with teacher

● Common preps for co-teachers to collaborate

● Weekly PLC meetings with common teams

● Continue Flextime with more scheduled appointments for students on D/F list

● Tutorials enable more one-on-one time with teachers (esp. Chem and Spanish)

● Relate Work/Study experiences to academic studies and SEL

● Interventions completed in class/Flextime/tutorial

● PLC work

● Explore and implement standards-based grading

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

Strictly speaking, so far, we have not been able to meet our goal yet. We also discovered that we were calculating data in a way that only took into account F grades in 2014-15 (which is where the original 45% figure came from).

For 2016-2017, the percentage of Latino students of the total number of students who were on either the D list, the F list, or both, was 34%. This changed from 32% in 2015-2016.

Looking at this data in large groups in December 2017 yielded the following observations, analysis and recommendations:

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #2

*Data is % of total D/F but not of ethnicity

*Special ed on D/F list down 5% despite Futures program

*Significant increase for 9th graders

*12th in 15/16 had some trouble

*White students had a 5% jump between 15-16 and 16-17

*2016-17, fewer D/F in 12th than in 2015-16

*The number of 12th grade students receiving Ds and Fs significantly decreased (down 18%)

*From 11th to 12th (same grade/class) 18% to 23%

*Very little, if any, significant change in the % of Ds/Fs for the designated races shown

*Percentages of students getting Ds and

*Further disaggregation of data (% of black students at the school had D/F)

*Has co-teaching improved the performance of special ed students

*Open access?

*Culturally responsive teaching in PLCs

*Is decreased rate of D/F for 12th between 2015-16 and 2016-17 related to suicide clusters?

*Continue working on Goal #2

*Additional sources of information to look at/determine what increased success might be/achievement

*More information from students getting Ds/Fs and teachers whose students are getting Ds/Fs about WHY they think they’re getting Ds/Fs

*Increase co-teaching

*See support from middle school

*Broaden goal to include other groups

*[Identify whether data is a] proportional % or a [percent of total]

*More data on socio-economic disadvantaged

*Screening (universal) tools to measure progress

*ACT/SAT prep and participation

*Education related to Tier 1 college prep skills for all students (SELF, college counseling, job paths, Naviance, SAT/ACT, interview skills, etc.), time management

*Gather info from teachers whose students are struggling:

● IC conversation: Identify six

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Fs by race have changed from 2015/16 to 2016/17:

Hispanic students increased by 2%

Pacific Islanders increased by 1%

Black students decreased by 1%

Multiple races decreased by 1%

Special ed decreased by 5%

*The Vietnamese group has gone down as years passed

*Hispanic has increased each year

*African-American has increased in 16-17, but gone down in 17-18

students who are struggling the most--what steps can you take to help?

● PLCs-Bio teachers identify struggling students

● Survey kids about how to simplify the system of getting extra help

● Ask excelling students to help teachers tutor struggling students

*Gather info from the students themselves who are struggling about why? (wrong class placement?)

To help improve the academic success of our Latino students (and many of our other historically-underrepresented, or HUR) groups, we have implemented a number of strategies since 2014-15. As has already been discussed in this report, Flextime, SELF, and Standards-Based Grading and work-study opportunities are all meant to help students of all levels, although they are meant to ensure that HUR students who are struggling academically have the supports they need to improve.

New strategies include the work that the ELL coordinator and instructor, Kerstin Helbing, is doing with all of Gunn’s ELL students to improve their academic success. First, ELL students are evaluated for their current levels of English mastery, and these results are shared with their general education teachers through a special Schoology group. Each student designated ELL has his/her own Schoology “group,” so that teachers can share resources and keep up with the student’s progress (see screenshots from a sample student’s group here).

Helbing is also using new materials: specifically, Scholastic Action, The Reading Magazine in beginner ELL classes, and UPFRONT magazine in advanced ELL classes (student work, in the form of packets comprising differentiated materials, worksheets, storyboards, and quizzes, can be found here). Using three different lexile levels of one text has allowed for greater differentiation in order to support all students in the ELL program. The students are also using Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop (aligned with Common Core). Finally, Lexia has been added as a trial program for 2017-2018 (which places students into reading comprehension levels) in the ELL classes, allowing for a better understanding of exactly where students are with respect to reading level.

Additionally, Helbing and aides work with students during Flextime to improve vocabulary scores (see examples of Flex time review activities here). Vocabulary work is going well; working with students during Flextime is yielding higher overall scores (see initial scores here, and a second set of scores here). Right now, the comparison is between two similar but distinct sets of words; we'll look forward to seeing whether or not the students have retained the same words that were tested initially when they do a comprehensive test at the end of the 18th unit. Regarding the new Scholastic materials, beginners are showing good, sequential comprehension through drawing (not just main idea, but supporting details). Intermediate students are having trouble with the skill of paraphrasing (using unique combinations of words), but reteaching efforts are underway to address this. Lexia is a very promising tool (see types of data analysis we can work with here), but we have only given one assessment, so we can't tell if there's been progress yet.

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This approach often includes meeting one-on-one with families. Every six weeks, grades for Latino students designated ELL (as well as all ELL students) are evaluated by the ELL coordinator, and any students with Ds or Fs are contacted for a conference. This was possible after the ELL student population data was extensively reviewed and reorganized by the coordinator and the district data manager. Working with teams including regular classroom instructors, administrators, parents and counselors, it is now much easier to make sure that ELL students are in the appropriate classes and have the appropriate supports to succeed. One example of this process in action can be seen in the behavioral record notes/ conference notes/grades for student X, which show some improvement. Student S (a Latina ELL) has moved from an F in Algebra (progress report 1) to a B (see grades here), in part because of a meeting (notes here) that helped her drop a course that prevented her from succeeding in math. So, by individually working with students and their families to address needs, ELL program is working in tandem with SPED, district personnel and admin to ensure student success. We've been speeding up the process of intervention (and discovering new programs and services that can help, like Lexia), and paying more attention to whether or not students have the basic skills that they need for success; it's working well with ELL students.

Two other programs at Gunn are working specifically with HUR populations to improve academic success: Focus on Success (FOS), a longstanding, award-winning course designed to help struggling students maintain passing grades or better, and the new AVID class, offered at Gunn for the first time this year (AVID Site Team Plan here).

First, FOS has increased enrollment by 10 to 12 students in the past two years, making this Tier 2 level intervention more available to Gunn students. It currently operates according to a logic model that the teachers and program leaders have developed in order to keep the program focused on measurable outcomes. All FOS teachers evaluate the D/F list once per month, and track student progress over the course of the semester with respect to Ds and Fs (see spreadsheet here). They also help students stay on top of their grades with a dashboard program that includes recommendations for Flex appointments, and include parents on weekly emails so that there is an open line of communication (as well as reaching out with regular FOS newsletters, like this one). The dashboard program is new this year, and is only maintained due to the help of community mentor and assistant basketball coach, Sky Runser. Runser volunteers in Kristen Owen’s FOS class every day and together, they have hand-selected the most at-risk students from each class to be part of the dashboard program. It would be wonderful to create the capacity to create these dashboards for all of the FOS students, but it's extremely time-consuming.

FOS teachers also have students create grade reflections sheets (including their current grades in their classes). Finally, FOS teachers also encourage the FOS students to attend Flextime for classes that they’re struggling in using these check-in forms and monitoring Flex attendance (and other strategies) through these forms.

FOS has been a highly successful program, with 95% of students reporting on a year-end survey for 2016-17 (full results here) that they “have become better at keeping track of their grades in other classes,” 96% of students reporting that FOS “helps [them] get their homework done” and 84% reporting that FOS “helps [them] keep track of [their] assignments.” The results are heartening, and also provide good direction for ways that the FOS team can continue to improve the program.

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Though AVID programs are generally not meant to serve as a place where teachers are working with students to improve failing grades, the AVID teacher this year (Danielle Whichard) has found that she needs to help some of her students not just learn how to work through advanced coursework, but also help them to maintain passing grades in certain classes. Almost all of her freshman students in AVID are Latino, so the efforts made in this course to help students stay within the A-C range will hopefully directly impact the rate of D/F grades among Latino students at Gunn. Mrs. Whichard has added in greater frequency of grade checks (and calculations of GPA), as well as additional instruction about planning and prioritizing to keep up success and improve areas of difficulty. Mrs. Whichard is using this spreadsheet to track grades, and students produce tutorial reflections (see examples here) and grade reflections (see examples here). At first, when students review grades, they demonstrate surprise. To ameliorate this surprise, teacher has worked with students to set SMART goals and worked on Schoology calendaring to bring up their grades with a fair amount of success. 7 out of the 12 AVID students have achieved a reduced number of Ds/Fs over the course of the semester. One student started with 5 Ds/Fs at the first progress reporting time, and ended the semester with only one D. Student grade reflections also demonstrate the students’ increased ability to make specific plans for improvement in classes that need extra focus.

Most departments have only begun discussions about the D/F lists, and using Flextime to remediate in a targeted fashion. Some departments have more advanced systems for tracking students in place, like the Geometry PLC, who uses this tracking system (including tracking Flex attendance), and like the World Language department, which uses this document to systematically organize the support they give to students in danger of receiving a D/F in Levels 1 and 2 of any language. Hard evidence of the success of this system can be provided after semester grades. However, anecdotally, teachers have mentioned that this document forces to keep the "strugglers" on their radar – they know they need to do everything possible, and never give up. These teachers can also see what their colleagues are doing, so they get new ideas. Finally, the document has helped the department communicate about strategies and talk about students more effectively and directly than is normally possible, due to time constraints around meeting in person. Ultimately, it has meant at least one more step in supporting students who need extra help to be successful, and hopefully, this system will serve as a model to other departments as they continue to evaluate this data to support those among our Latino student population who are struggling academically.

STRATEGY 3: By 2018, we will increase the enrollment in AP/Honors classes by 30% for Latino and African American/black students.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● More paths for students (including summer school) to attain academic goals

● Alg 1A: Combined Alg 1 and 1A.

● Co-teachers in regular lanes enabling more teachers for Algebra

● Basic introduction to students about AP/Honors classes in the FOS and Academic Planning classes.

● Counselor presentation to the College and Career Pathways group about AP/Honors classes at the start of the year and follow-up before class registration in February.

● Having former students talk about AP/Honors class

● Offer summer AP Boot Camp with study strategies

● Community College supplementary classes for non-HS graduation classes

● New AP CSP class for underclassmen

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● AVID program

● Having targeted students take the PSAT a year earlier to determine possibility of taking AP/Honors classes

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

GUNN HIGH SCHOOL AP/HONORS ENROLLMENT DATA BY ETHNICITY 2015-2018

SCHOOL YEAR 2017-2018 2016-2017 2015-2016

RACE/ ETHNICITY

TOTAL #

OF

STUDENTS

% OF

TOTAL

STUDENTS

W. AP/

HONORS

CLASSES

%

TOTAL #

OF

STUDENTS

% OF

TOTAL

STUDENTS

W. AP/

HONORS

CLASSES

%

TOTAL #

OF

STUDENTS

% OF

TOTAL

STUDENTS

W. AP/

HONORS

CLASSES

%

American Indian

or Alaskan Native 11 1% 6 55% 8 0% 4 50% 6 0% 0 0%

Asian Indian 171 9% 142 83% 150 8% 128 85% 153 8% 114 75%

Black,

not Hispanic 32 2% 10 31% 37 2% 16 43% 36 2% 5 14%

Cambodian 2 0% 0 0% 1 0% 0 0% 1 0% 0 0%

Chinese 599 31% 521 87% 605 31% 537 89% 575 30% 430 75%

Decline to State 3 0% 3 100% 2 0% 1 50% 2 0% 1 50%

Filipino 23 1% 13 57% 22 1% 15 68% 20 1% 12 60%

Hawaiian 1 0% 0 0% 1 0% 9 900% 0 0% 0 0%

Hispanic 165 8% 64 39% 168 9% 62 37% 169 9% 55 33%

Japanese 37 2% 29 78% 40 2% 33 83% 40 2% 23 58%

Korean 101 5% 92 91% 99 5% 93 94% 110 6% 73 66%

Other Asian 34 2% 24 71% 30 2% 24 80% 26 1% 17 65%

Other

Pacific Islander 9 0% 1 11% 9 0% 1 11% 7 0% 1 14%

Samoan 1 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

Vietnamese 27 1% 12 44% 24 1% 14 58% 20 1% 14 70%

White,

not Hispanic 741 38% 469 63% 742 38% 461 62% 740 39% 424 57%

Total 1957 100% 1386 71% 1937 100% 1389 72% 1905 100% 1169 61%

As is evident from the table above, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, there has been a huge jump in the number of African-American students (relative to the number of African-American students enrolled at Gunn) enrolled in AP and honors classes. In 2015-16, 14% of the African-American students enrolled at Gunn were enrolled in AP and Honors classes. In 2017-18, 31% of African-American student enrolled at Gunn were enrolled in AP and Honors classes, representing a

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near-doubling of that population’s representation in AP and honors courses (relative to their overall population); all in all, a 121% increase.

Since 2015, the number of Latino students enrolled in AP and honors classes has also increased, though not at the same precipitous rate as the African-American population at Gunn. In 2015-2016, 33% of Gunn’s Latino population was enrolled in at least one AP or honors class; in 2017-2018, 39% of Gunn’s Latino population was enrolled in at least one AP or honors class, representing an 18% increase.

We believe that the increased enrollment is due to the dismantling of barriers to access (such as requirements and applications), the success of the College Pathways program in counseling HUR students to take these upper-level classes, and a host of other efforts detailed below. In fact, while the total enrollment in AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP English Literature courses since 2015-16 has increased by 26% overall, the number of Latino students enrolled in these AP courses has gone up by 44%, from 9 in 2015-16 to 13 in 2017-18. African-American students are also more represented overall in these particular AP courses; in 2015-16, there were no African-American students in AP classes, but in 2016-2017, there were four, and in 2017-18, there are two (complete data tables here).

At the large group meeting in December 2017, the different working groups took a look at the data, and made the following observations and recommendations:

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #2

*71% of all students have an AP or honors class (2017-2018)

*39% Hispanic vs. 63% White

*17% more Chinese students take AP/Honors courses vs. white (two highest % in populations)

*Increased enrollment of Hispanic students in AP/honors--%

*Increased (plateau?) enrollment of African-American students in AP/honors

*Some groups avail themselves of those courses more

*African-American students enrolled in AP/Honors courses has increased from 14% in 15-16 to 31% in 17-18

*More support for families and navigating school system (Latino families)

*Assess student performance in AP/Honors

*What is “achievement?”

*Assess student performance in AP/Honors

*Conversations about “achievement,” enrollment, grade, learning, passion

Though some of the “specific actions” listed in the 2016-2017 Action Plan/SPSA have not yet gotten off the ground (such as AP Boot Camp and 10th grade PSAT administration), many initiatives relating to this strategy have been implemented since the last WASC visit. Implementing, supporting and evaluating the de-laning of Algebra 1 has been a major priority for the school and the district, AP CSP is up and running, and AVID made its debut at Gunn this year to support motivated students from HUR backgrounds. That said, these initiatives aren’t likely to show an impact with respect to AP enrollment just yet; AVID and the Algebra 1 de-laning both affect primarily 9th graders, and 9th graders can’t enroll in most AP classes (other than AP CSP), for instance.

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College Pathways, a program started in 2009, is a great place to focus efforts around this goal. For instance, counselors presented directly to the College Pathways group in January 2016 to increase enrollment in AP and honors classes, and in the future, former College Pathways students who took AP/Honors courses will be asked to come and talk to the group. Even more importantly though, students in this program have been offering critical feedback about what still needs to be done in order to most effectively support them. Focus Group data from College Pathways students, gathered in fall 2017, reveals that we should not just be focused on supporting them as they take on heavier course loads at the AP and honors level; we have much more work to do in supporting HUR students in their regular classes, too. Moving forward, the principal will begin meeting with College Pathways students once per month to ensure that their voice is included in the efforts taken to support them by the school administration (also evidence of our efforts towards the WASC-identified critical need regarding the inclusion of student voice). At the large group meeting held to evaluate WASC-data in December of 2017, participants had the following observations about the College Pathways Focus Group data:

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #2

*Students don’t feel connected to teachers

*Teachers don’t call in failing students

*Unclear/inconsistent expectations

*”Get in, get out”

*No peer support in classrooms

*Don’t know how to communicate with teachers

*Feeling of lower expectations

*Teachers don’t know me, and my family doesn’t know the system

*Case managers are very helpful

*FOS = good

*Some relationships between parent support/familiarity with school to student success

*”Feedback loop”--student perceives low expectations, performance suffers

*Possibly more parent education on academics, attendance, and school problems

*AP class tutoring for students and how to ask questions to students supports for APs

*Teachers need to have higher expectations for HUR students

*Helping Latino families to understand the system

*Teachers should reach out more

*Expand relationships outside of FOS, case manager, counselor

*More HUR staff

*Need more connection to teachers

*Need more support (emotionally and academically)

*More diverse staff

*Change perception of low expectations and giving up

*More tutoring available for HUR students in AP classes

*Teachers need to reach out more to struggling students

*Flextimes are too crowded because of SELF and high demand

*Teachers should form personal connections to students

*More education to parents about AP/Honors classes

*Equitable treatment towards all students

*Feeling more comfortable in the class

*Awareness of conflicting responsibility

*Create one simple learning style for each course

*More support for College Pathway families

*More English support for families

*Making outreach more effective/impactful

*Make school organized events more inclusive towards all student groups

*Everybody talk to everybody

*Interview more diverse applicants

*Find ways to connect students with adults (teachers) and peers

*Physics teachers doing very well (why??)

*Educate teachers about how students feel/share these anecdotes with teachers (they are heartbreaking!)

*Creative use of Flextime… could we sort rooms by course instead of teacher? Use department resources wisely.

*Teachers who share a common class, get together with other teachers and develop one learning plan

*Is this an appropriate goal?

(Italicized responses indicate responses from College Pathways students

present at the meeting and evaluating the focus group data)

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With all that powerful feedback to process and bear in mind as we evaluate the current WASC action plan and look ahead to the next three years, we also believe that we’ve made substantial progress towards this goal, and are looking forward to seeing how the numbers shift in coming years as the target programs and initiatives mature.

One of these programs is AVID, which was officially implemented this year (2017-2018) with a "year zero" implementation plan in the previous school year. During the implementation planning phase, a diverse site team was assembled including several general education teachers (especially those that teach 9th graders and AP/honors classes), as well as counselors, administrators, and the new elective teacher. Instructional strategies have focused on exploring future plans including potential careers. We have also begun researching educational needs/GPAs required for particular careers. This has prompted a discussion of the need for the best grades students can earn as well as how they can push themselves into higher lanes to experience greater challenge. AVID hasn't had a lot of time to change enrollment numbers as a program since it is so new but we have added members to our site team to more easily facilitate support for these students; specifically, we’ve recently added several counselors who will directly work with enrollment in the coming months.

Another major initiative implemented in the past school year is the effort to get more HUR students into Computer Science. We addressed this goal by starting a new course, AP CS Principles (syllabus here), in which no prior experience in coding is necessary. The class is evidently very popular as three classes worth of students signed up for it. Some of these students belong to HUR populations (see student work and teacher’s analysis of a Latina student in AP CSP here). Over the course of the year, we will track these students to measure their success in the class and also whether or not they choose to sign up for the next level of computer science: FOOP (Functional and Object Oriented Programming).

To increase the enrollment of HUR students in the AP CSP course, the two teachers spoke directly to Focus On Success courses and College Pathways to recruit students. Instructional supports have included more scaffolding and flexible assignments/extended time for assignments to ensure greater success for these students. In the first semester this year, all students designated African-American, Latino, Special Ed, EL and 504 passed AP CSP, with 12 of 19 students earning As, four students earning Bs, and two students earning a C (one received an incomplete). These results demonstrate that having more underrepresented students take this AP course in particular will bring us closer to effectively using this strategy in service of the underlying goal. Hopefully, we will see more students enroll in the future and will see greater numbers of HUR students taking more AP courses after being successful in this one.

A major effort to improve access to our highest level math courses began last year, though the impacts won’t be fully measurable with respect to this goal for another two years. Last year, the math department merged Algebra 1 and Algebra 1A (which had included a greater scope of topics for more advanced students) in the hopes that it would bring more HUR students into the advanced and honors lane. Now in its second year, the department is collecting data to see how many HUR students chose to go to the advanced lane (Geometry A) as sophomores, and how they are doing in Geometry A. This will also allow for reflection on what further supports students will need to be successful in the advanced lane. Student performance will continue to be monitored through Algebra 2 and whichever math class the students decide to take as 12th graders.

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The district assessment team has done a full-fledged analysis of this merger (quoted below) and has come to the conclusion that the merger did not impact student achievement in a negative way; assessment results and grades were similar when controlling for the fact that students entered the pilot course with lower skills as measured by 8th grade CAASPP results than during prior years. The results of the ATMI Math Attitude survey that was given at the start and end of the pilot year show how this merging is a promising approach, even if we would like to see greater positive changes in student achievement. According to the district evaluation, "When we disaggregate the data by class performance or special education status, we will see slight differences in math attitudes emerge that suggest that untracked Algebra 1 classes tend to benefit lower performing and SPED students more than their higher performing peers. Further, there is little evidence to suggest that such an intervention is harmful to higher performing students. The only statistically significant finding showing this intervention may be detrimental to higher performing students indicated much smaller magnitudes of harm, relative to the benefit measured for their counterparts." While this is a nice start, hopefully another year of experience will yield positive student achievement results going forward. One specific method for addressing the identified issues with this class is how Algebra teachers this year have worked hard to improve their differentiation in the classroom by offering more challenge for the higher students (see “medium” or “spicy” problems offered by two math teachers, Emily Pinkston and Carlos Martinez, here). Anecdotally, math teachers report that fewer “high" students have complained about the pace of the class this year.

The math department has also tracked the performance of the students who have otherwise up-laned in math to try to find a trend in who was successful. While "grade in previous course" has emerged as the strongest predictor, the department found that this wasn't a foolproof indication of who would succeed. Analysis of this data set continues, along with placement testing data from the last two years for students new to the district and how successful the student placement has been. This data and process of analysis continue to inform the way the department adjusts instruction and programmatic implementation and will hopefully allow for more productive interventions (including supporting HUR students in AP and honors classes) going forward.

The English Department has long held the philosophy and goal of providing different levels of courses and encouraging students to choose an appropriate level. Over the past two years, movement among levels has been rendered even more flexible by eliminating prerequisites (other than completion of other courses) for entry into a course, though this policy has not markedly affected the enrollment of Hispanic and African-American students in AP English Literature. As generous as that sounds, in certain situations open enrollment has created some tension by encouraging students of all backgrounds to sign up for more AP and honors courses than they can realistically handle; there exist a number of cases of individuals taking many AP courses without past grades indicating the appropriateness of such enrollment. This is a discussion that Gunn can and should continue to have at the department and school level. Similarly, we will examine grades and AP scores to see what effect, if any, completely opening enrollment may have had. We will discuss strategies to differentiate instruction to ensure access to learning for all students in a way that is consistent with the high expectations of the course and the AP exam. Additionally, last year the English department re-labeled all “regular” level courses as “college-preparatory,” given that all courses are intended to prepare students for college-level work. The department has discussed whether this seems inconsistent with some of the school’s work regarding Goal 1, but again, this should be an ongoing discussion at all levels.

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In the science department, one of the AP Biology teachers, Maria Powell, has been keeping this spreadsheet to track student performance in AP Biology (by both AP score and grades) in order to better analyze the impact that different lanes have on achievement in higher level courses like AP Biology. Her extensive analysis can be found here; to summarize, she feels that the change to enrollment policies over the past three years (i.e., the dropping of any requirements other than passing prerequisite course to take AP courses) has not had an appreciable difference on the number or rate of success of HUR students, especially given that the data makes the identification of such trends difficult for a number of reasons. She also feels that more students are struggling to keep up with the class (either dropping it or failing) than in previous years when the more stringent prerequisites were in place. Enrollment data show that nearly twice as many Latino students are taking AP Biology in 2017-18 (seven students) than in 2015-16 (four students) and two African-American students have taken AP Biology in both 2016-17 and 2017-18 while no African-American students took the course in 2015-16. However, Maria Powell’s data, experience and analysis effectively capture a much more nuanced understanding of the problems inherent in that top-line data. More supports for students who wouldn’t necessarily have met the prerequisites for higher level courses in previous years are clearly necessary if we are to produce clear evidence that this policy is helping our students; conversations with the College Pathways students and MTSS efforts will hopefully continue to shed light on what the most effective supports might look like.

The World Language (WL) Department has worked assiduously, even before this WASC cycle, to be inclusive and open so that any student can take at least four years of any of the five languages offered at Gunn; the only prerequisite to continue to study language is passage of the previous level, and the AP language classes at Gunn have always been accessible to all students who have met that prerequisite. New students and students not following the traditional path in World Language are given a proficiency test each year which allows them to demonstrate proficiency in the language they are learning. Students are then placed in the appropriate level of study regardless of the seat time they have accumulated in language study here at Gunn.

An area of growth for the World Language Department is to continue working with counselors regarding retention of all students in the advanced classes. Since all types of students, including those that are HUR, are supported to a level where they can succeed in upper level World Language classes, the department would like to encourage more students to pursue higher-level language study. The best solution going forward would be to ensure that the students are not failing their other classes early on in their high school years so that they have room in their schedules to continue to study World Languages at advanced levels instead of repeating courses. The department will continue to communicate with counselors about the importance of students’ following through with their language studies in order to increase the number of HUR students who are enrolled in AP and honors courses at Gunn.

To specifically ensure that HUR students are accessing the top level courses in the World Language department, students from AP Spanish classes visit Level 3 and Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) classes in order to recruit students into AP. The SNS teacher makes an effort to talk to each individual student and plans next steps for that student in Spanish; the choices are AP or Civ and Culture (H). World Language teachers also make time during class to have presentations about why a student should continue in a language, and the teachers individually encourage all students to continue as AP or Honors students, especially students who have never taken such a course. The department’s efforts have borne some fruit: there are seven total sections of AP Spanish/AA Lit. Sp. Civ and Culture (H), and there are two students with

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IEPs and five students with 504 plans enrolled in those sections. There are 20 Latino students enrolled. Although progress has been made in this area, we still have growth to do, particularly in communicating more effectively with the counselors to make sure that more HUR students are enrolling in and remaining in AP and honors World Language courses.

The Special Education department has also worked to increase achievement for students by creating a wider array of Specialized Academic Instruction classes designed to target specific areas of deficit impacting academic achievement. The number of co-taught classes has increased by 45% since the last WASC visit in 2015, from 20 co-taught classes to 29 in 2017-2018, allowing Specialized Academic Instruction to be incorporated into the general education curriculum. The number of co-taught classes was even higher in 2016-2017 (35) but a reduction in FTE in 2017-2018 cut the number of co-taught courses by nearly 25%; we hope that as the budget situation stabilizes, the number will once again increase. In addition, Education Specialists participate in Professional Learning Communities in the content areas they co-teach to assist in identifying Essential Learning Outcomes, and developing common assessments and interventions in these courses. This work has also resulted in the move to standards-based grading in the co-taught Alg 2 and co-taught Conceptual Physics classes (see Goal #1, Strategy 2 for examples of the impact of standards-based grading on student success in these courses). Case managers have utilized Flextime to provide interventions to students or to work collaboratively with general education students to schedule appointments to provide interventions.

Finally, though AAR is not explicitly an AP course, it offers important growth opportunities in the area of individually-designed advanced research for HUR students. The AAR TOSA, Angela Merchant, has held lunch sessions to recruit College Pathways students, has met with the Special Education IS to ask for SPED teachers to recommend students for the AAR program, has met with the AVID and College Pathways coordinator to raise awareness of this class to these students, and has visited several FOS classes to discuss enrolling in AAR and Biotech classes. All of these visits have been made for the express purpose of bringing together the most diverse possible group of students who can access the benefits of this challenging and rewarding program. To ensure the highest level of success for all students, AAR teachers and/or liaisons meet 1:1 with any student who is struggling with any part of research process. AAR teachers meet weekly in PLCs to discuss struggling students and address areas of concern so that no students slip through cracks or fall behind in the research process. Overall, the program has been remarkably successful in allowing students to find meaningful alternate pathways to explore their passions. Moving forward, the program seeks to recruit even more HUR students and will continue outreach efforts with that goal in mind.

GOAL #3: Create a comprehensive data system and align course curriculum to regularly assess student progress, inform instruction, and aid communication at the classroom, department, and school levels.

STRATEGY 1: By 2017, create and implement a system for teacher collaboration/Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).

[NOTE: Addresses WASC-identified Critical Need #4: In order to strengthen the implementation of summative assessments, Common Core State Standards, and structured collaboration time it is highly recommended that the site establish Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).]

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Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan):

● PLC communities created.

● New Bell Schedule.

● Assess and increase buy-in with teachers’ feedback and teachers’ suggestions on how to use the time more effectively.

● Flow chart of PLC support and coaches to help address a variety of needs within a PLC.

● Schedule PLCs so that all teams of teachers can meet with their specific teaching teams on alternate weeks, rather than only being able to meet with one team for the entire year.

● Avoid using PLCs for busy work.

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

Since the last WASC visit, Gunn has made significant progress in the implementation of Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs. PLCs have become a part of the weekly routine for nearly all teachers at Gunn since 2015-16 when time was added to the bell schedule to allow teachers to meet in course-alike groups, though more creative attempts at scheduling (to allow for teachers of multiple levels and/or subjects to be a part of more than one team) have not yet been attempted. Even so, as one Instructional Supervisor wrote in his WASC analysis, “work in this area can be slow, but when done deliberately and with the participation of all teachers involved, it is meaningful and inspiring.”

In 2015-2016, PLCs were implemented with the beginning of the new school year; this presentation was made to all teachers in August 2015 as part of the in-service week leading into the new school year. Instructional Supervisors were given this Implementation Guide to help move the PLCs in their departments forward.

A major PLC related effort was made in the summer and early fall of 2016, called the “40-Day PLC Challenge.” All PLCs were asked to complete this process using this template as a guide. The initial presentation, given at one of the in-service days leading up to the beginning of the school year, set the tone and goals for the exercise. Forty-some-odd days later, teachers reflected on the process at another in-service day (presentation here). Through the 40-Day Challenge, all teachers became much more familiar with the goals of the PLC process and how impacts on students could be evaluated in conjunction with specified ELOs, standards, and skills; much of the specific work towards alignment provided as evidence in Strategy 2 of Goal 3 was either the product of the 40-Day PLC Challenge or helped along by the initiative.

The organization of the teams continues to evolve, with leaders for each PLC (job description here) designated as part of the improvements for 2017-2018. 27 PLC leads were trained in August to help the school increase the effectiveness of the PLC process; training materials can be found here. A follow-up training took place in October of 2017 to familiarize PLC leads with the concept of Smart Goals; see training facilitation guide here.

In November of 2017, the Teaching and Learning Team reached out to the PLC leads to ascertain the extent to which progress is being made in fostering effective processes in PLCs at Gunn. The results (here) were analyzed by teachers, parents, students, and administrators at a large group meeting in December 2017, and these are the observations and recommendations that emanated from that process of review:

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What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #3

*Heavy use of Flextime

*64% indicated increased achievement (and done through the PLC data collection process)

*17.6% does not meet (enrichment)

*70.6% approaching (enrichment)

*52% of PLCs have common formative assessments

*88% of PLCs have identified ELOs

*However, only 11% of PLCs have ELOs related to NGSS standards. These are the current science standards. The majority of science teachers are still teaching to CCSS standards.

*29.4% intervention

*11.8% enrichment

*No CFAs to inform instructional practices

*Less than 50% actively pursuing targeted interventions

*More than 50% of members rated a 2/4 for intervention

*Teachers are reporting interventions that are not interventions

*PLC report they are approaching enrichment

*16/17 groups meet/exceed ELOs (one team exceeds)

*8/17 regularly meet to conduct CFAs (7/17 are approaching CFA standard)

*17/17 use rubrics

*How to address/measure over and uneven population

*Increased enrichment opportunities for students

*Differentiated summative assessment

*Different types of formative assessments

*Update science curriculum to NGSS standards

*Next focus should be on interventions and enrichment

*What is the roadblock preventing PLCs from using CFA data to inform teaching?

*Lack of understanding of “intervention”

*How do teachers feel about PLCs?

*Intervention education and support

*Bring 2s to 3s

*(intervention) hard to bring students to appointments; need a system?

*Student choices about assessment types/different assessment types

*Flexible time for testing window

*Re-assessment/increased opportunities to reassess on standards and skills (not necessarily in test format)

*Science teachers should go to in-service training in NCSS science standards

*Professional development is key

*Teachers should create more materials for interventions and enrichment ● e.g. create a “parking lot” of post-

its with enrichment questions and topics that come up during class

*Provide training and ongoing professional learning

*Learn from successful PLCs

*Utilizing Intervention TOSAs

*Inspire communication from other teachers (from within?)

The PLC process is starting to have genuine impact on students as the PLC Process is utilized more fully to offer both remediation and enrichment based on the analysis of individual student work. The Chemistry PLC is perhaps the farthest along in this process at the moment, having recently identified all students falling below standard and using Flextime to target efforts at remediation for specific concepts during the final weeks of the first semester this year (see Goal #1, Strategy #2 in the section on Standards-Based Grading).

Despite some major successes, our data systems remain more limited in reach and scope than is ideal for truly assessing the impact of PLCs on student learning. Addressing this deficit is a clearly identified goal moving forward and is part of the revised action plan for the final three years of the WASC cycle. As was stated in the most recent iteration of the WASC Action Plan at Gunn, students can be negatively impacted by a lack of curricular and assessment alignment in same-level classes, which is best addressed through an effective PLC process.

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STRATEGY 2: Create and develop tools that assess student learning of essential learner goals/skills that are horizontally and vertically aligned in course alike and sequential classes, using SLOs, CCSS, NGSS, and other national standards.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal (as per 2016-2017 SPSA/Action Plan)l:

● All departments need to horizontally align their courses so that all courses have common assessments.

● Vertically align classes so that different and more advanced classes are not repeating their content.

● Curriculum alignment has made progress but grading not aligned yet based on student feedback.

● Find a way to gather student feedback in a consistent way regarding courses

● Use staff collaboration time to align consistent grading methods and assess efficacy.

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

A fundamental part of the alignment process for Gunn has been the definition of ELOs for all PLCs. According to a self-assessment done by both PLC leads and Instructional Supervisors in Fall 2017, all PLCs are either approaching (50%), meeting (31.25%) or exceeding (28.75%) the expectations that they create ELOs for all courses. For samples of ELOs, please see here (English), here (Science) and here (CTE). All course descriptions have also been standardized, included in course guides for each subject, and linked to school SLOs. This effort can be seen in the most recent draft of the Course Catalog (speaking to WASC-Identified Critical Need #1, ensuring that Schoolwide Learner Outcomes are clearly articulated to students and utilized to gauge student learning).

One example of the PLC process working to effect greater alignment is in the CTE department, which is made of up a diverse group of subjects, but still focused on common learning targets and ELOs. One ELO that the CTE department has chosen to focus on is vocabulary, specifically determining “the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context.” Designing curriculum and rubrics that can effectively analyze the skills that CTE students should be developing is challenging, but the department has come up with ways to work with students in many different areas: see this tool for teaching and assessing vocabulary mastery that engineering (examples here), interior design (examples here), and auto classes have all been able to use, and this tool for assessing the degree to which students are able to follow technical instructions. With respect to the vocabulary assignment, the engineering teacher created this document for identifying students at each level of mastery, including which students required follow up at Flex time. The team is also in the process of aligning grading practices, using a 1-4 scale (SBG--see Interior Design gradebook here, and Video Production examples here and here.).

The English department continues to find opportunities for common lessons and assessments around specific ELOs. Teachers in the department have observed that the most successful lessons and assessments seem to be those that arise from sharing and discussing best practices and favorite lessons, and from finding natural areas of overlapping work and commonalities. While this method of gradual alignment may possibly more time-consuming than writing lessons and assessments and imposing them on a course, the department feels that this process has been more authentic in engendering enthusiasm and excitement.

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English department members have met in course-alike groups for the past two years. Because the department combines courses, they have switched PLC groups each year and have spent the past two years working on two sets of ELOs. Course alike groups are having good conversations about expectations in each course, helping with consistency across the courses. They have created an overall list of ELOs for the department’s courses and continue to refine these ELOs with each year of PLC work. The department also revised the composition of its PLCs to be more focused, smaller PLC groups, no longer simply course-alike. Since most English teachers teach different courses and different grades, teachers participate in the PLC that matches most of their teaching assignment.

During the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, the English department also engaged in work around creating common essay terms for the department, which we distributed to the department at the end of 2016-17. By creating common terminology, as well as a chart that also connects other language students may hear in relation to these terms, we hope to help students better navigate the various terms around writing. This will help them see writing as a continuous learning process, instead of feeling like they are starting over each semester with new terms.

As for common rubrics and assessments, the World Lit/Honors PLC has created a common rubric to look at textual evidence choice and analysis. The PLC has engaged in conversations around what skills are being specifically evaluated for this ELO, and has shared strategies to help support students in achieving these skills. Examples of student work and teacher analysis towards this alignment can be found here, and the departmentwide active participation rubric can be found here. One teacher’s analysis of an assignment about using textual support to strengthen an argument spoke for the PLC, stating that they, “noticed that students who were weaker at selecting quotes often tended to summarize the plot to show the teacher they had read instead of developing their argument. We felt overall the rubric was useful in getting students to understand the difference between completing an assignment and doing a good job in meeting expectations. We discussed how we could use this as a pre-assessment at the start of our semester to better see what skills students bring to our class.”

Another English PLC, the Literary Style/Writer’s Voice team, collaborated over the summer to create a new aligned assignment centered around the course theme of confronting obstacles in society and ourselves. They chose pieces of art from a variety of time periods, artists, and mediums to connect to a wider base of students as well as challenge them with an array of texts. First, they used this power point to review the necessary terms and to practice art analysis as a class. Next, they broke the students into groups to continue their analysis with a random selection of three pieces from this collection. Classes then used this power point to review proper thesis statements; this addition was made in the second semester after reflection that the first semester’s iteration of the assignment produced student thesis statements that were not very complex. Looking at examples of standard and excellent thesis statements helped raise the level of student work in the second semester. Finally, the students put the previous skills to work individually as they combined multiple texts and created a unified thesis statement. The students were able to choose from a larger selection of texts including visual art, poetry, and music. These are the instructions which also reference the CCSS standards on which the assignment was based. Teachers then evaluated the individual thesis statements using the same rubric. Overall, the response to this assignment was positive. The students enjoyed being able to work with a variety of mediums and even include an example of their own choosing in some instances. The students also responded to the strong scaffolding by using all the necessary elements of a thesis statement. The department revised the lesson from fall to

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spring semester because the level of student analysis was generally not as complex as it needed to be in order to exhibit mastery. Teachers also shifted the lesson to include an evaluation of analysis of different thesis statements, which led to more depth of analysis. The PLC plans on continuing to use this lesson in the future with more emphasis on the analysis evaluation to analysis creation part of the lesson.

The Communications/Advanced Communications PLC has also made tremendous headway in establishing standards-based assignments and assessments shared across the group. Three teachers gave an aligned lesson on advertising and the media, with student work and analysis provided here (Ichikawa, Hall, Ja). Teacher Diane Ichikawa reports that this project “opens up many possibilities for creative expression and collaboration…[since students] need a good working knowledge of photo editing to do this project, when a student is unfamiliar with Adobe products, another student or I can help since we have time built into the class schedule for the project. Students have a chance to collaborate during Flextime as well. It’s also a good space for them to reflect on how they work individually and as a team, and seeing their reflections on the process is always helpful.” Another assignment designed and used in common by the Communication PLC at Gunn centers on demonstration speeches: student work and analysis can be found here (Wells, Ichikawa). Jordan Wells, a Communications teacher, has reflected that the student participation component of the demonstration speech project has led to more complex, authentic feedback for the speaker and deeper understanding for the evaluators.

Generally speaking, the English department is continually seeking a healthful balance of autonomy and consistency. More than at any point before, courses have clear, shared themes and Essential Questions. The department plans to continue the work in the PLCs and to find ways to have PLCs share their work with the entire department so that teachers in other PLCs can integrate the work into their teaching. The department also continues to reflect on and revise the work done three years ago in considering the primary texts for each course, adding and changing some to reflect more cultural diversity. This continuous process has enabled great consistency in the works taught in each course, no small feat considering that limited copies of each title prohibits English teachers from teaching them in the same sequence.

The department will continue to find more opportunities to have common assignments and assessments in coming years even as it retains the best features of what was once called (perhaps pejoratively) an “independent-contractor approach.” Their preferred analogy would be an athletic team, with shared vision and stamina but with idiosyncratic strengths, responsibilities, and tactics, and the English department will continue in that vein to progress through the PLC process meaningfully and purposefully.

As for the PLC process in the math department, the assessments and grading practices are so well aligned that different PLCs are working on different things. Often, this involves analyzing data (see Standards-Based grading efforts detailed in Goal #1, Strategy #2, for instance). Another example of standards-based grading is that the Functional and Object-Oriented Programming (FOOP) teachers are using this methodology for tracking and analyzing concept mastery.

Furthermore, at the beginning of this year the Algebra PLC did a universal screening to advance students who had already mastered Algebra based on data. They discovered three students who already knew so much algebra that they could be advanced straight to Geometry. The department is also tracking these students going forward. Here is a screen shot of part of this screening, called the MDTP (Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project, designed by the UCs). A score of 35 and above was used as a cutoff (see left column).

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The PE Department meets weekly as a PLC for one full hour (surpassing the required 40 minutes), and has been working to align courses so that they have common learning targets, common course guides, common assessments, and curriculum that is consistent for all alike courses. Alignment has come the farthest in 9th grade, as is evident in the YES Assessments, YES ELOs, 9th and 10th Volleyball ELOs, 9th Fitness/Weightlifting ELOs and the Major Muscles Assessment. These address the four parts of the PLC process and provide learning targets for each unit of study.

To standardize assessments, the department uses a digital online program called Fitnessgram which allows fitness tracking, among other features (though only one teacher currently uses it more than once each year for this purpose). Most use the program only for 9th grade State Mandated Fitness Testing. Only one test, besides fitness testing, is being used across courses (the muscle test) but results are not compared between classes. Currently, teachers consistently gather data on fitness scores (FitnessGram Data overviews here and stats here) but only the mile data is assessed regularly as a department. In regards to the Fitness data, 365 of 446 (82%) students passed the Fitness Test. The strongest passing areas were in aerobic capacity (88%), flexibility (96%), Trunk Lift (95%), and Abdominal strength (95%). Body composition (81%) was good and upper body strength (76%) was the lowest.

The PLC process overall has increased discussions in the PE Department around content, learning targets and assessments, as is apparent in the logs of minutes for PLC's (10th PLC Notes, 9th PLC Notes). Moving forward, the department hopes to align all courses to meet Board Goal Six by the end of next year (course guides, learning targets, assessments, and grading practices). It also plans to develop a grading policy that is consistent between all course alikes, including grading scales and percentages for tests, quizzes, daily activity, etc.

The Social Studies department takes the approach of emphasizing skills over content, focusing its alignment efforts on what aspects of each skill should be taught at each grade level. The department has designed a Social Studies Skills Sequence in order to define this alignment. A good example that is fully developed is the "effective presentation skills,” in that new presentation skills required for each year clearly build on those taught in the the previous year. Some of the other skills sequences are not quite there yet, and the document is still a work in progress. Specifically, the department is starting to develop departmentwide lessons for all of the skills listed on the skills sequence chart and attached lessons in the chart to make it easy to find everything; developing effective analysis tools for skills sequence lessons is a priority for the department moving forward.

To guide the department in attaching curriculum to standards, teachers from the department have participated in districtwide training on integrating the CCSS. Some Social Studies department members have also attended conferences on the new State Social Studies Framework. Each Social Studies PLC, as it develops common learning targets, works with both the new State Framework and the CCSS. The PLCs are looking forward to developing a clearer method on how to show what effect our work with CCSS and New State Framework has had on students learning but important steps are being taken in this direction already with the PLC process as it currently exists (see turnitin.com data below).

The department has also standardized rubrics (see the eight department-wide rubrics here) but would like to perform more analysis of formative assessments before getting to the summative assessments (which most of the rubrics address) to ensure that early efforts to impact student

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learning are successful. The department is also looking at other data besides grades, including student surveys after PBL projects (see Goal #1, Strategy #1 re: Project-Based Learning).

The US History PLC has effectively implemented some common formative assessments, and, after analyzing the data from the formative assessments, teachers made Flextime appointments with students who needed extra support. Most of the formative assessment data analysis involved bringing exit tickets, document analysis sheets, or other small check in assignments to the PLC and comparing results. They did not do the same level of analysis with every formative assessment but the PLC did recently analyze data from a paragraph using a rubric (see data here). Looking at the data from the paragraph assessment allowed teachers to determine which skills should be emphasized in preparation for teaching the first DBQ preparatory lessons. The PLC is hoping to compare the paragraph data to the DBQ data to see if specific students who were struggling on the formative assessment improved in areas of need on the DBQ and offer remediation in the event that students have not improved.

The Social Studies Department has also relied heavily on the data produced by turnitin.com to enable alignment of grading practices and the near-complete employment of the entire PLC process. First, the department has developed a guide for using Turnitin to analyze data, which clearly describes the process. This Turnitin data, compiled from a US History DBQ taught by four different teachers, has allowed for substantive conversations about standards, mastery and curriculum development around areas of weakness, as well as remediation and enrichment goals. For instance, the teachers decide what is considered to be “at standard” for each element of the rubric and then look for which of the students did not meet the standard on a particular element of the essay.

Social Studies teachers are also looking for trends or patterns. For example, many of teacher x’s students did well on evidence but not so well on thesis; teacher y’s students did well on thesis but not analysis. On the shared google spreadsheet, teachers can see the class averages on each element of the rubric and compare these to the averages of other sections of their own as well as those of their colleagues. Here it becomes very apparent if the grading is not similar, and if the averages are very different from each other for no clear reason then the department needs to take steps to reconcile these differences. As they look through the info on the shared google spreadsheet, teachers highlight - by student, by standard - anything that does not meet standard. It then becomes very clear visually which students need some extra help. Teachers then make Flextime appointments with those students and have them come in to go over where they need improvement - having them rewrite that section of the essay, or the whole document if needed.

The World History/Gov PLC also uses common assessments (once-per-semester DBQs) and turnitin.com to analyze data. Rubrics are aligned with CCSS for writing in ELA, and almost all students are performing to levels deemed acceptable by the PLC; see Turnitin data for Gov/CWH 2016-17 here. Remediation is required in some cases but the PLC has noted that more remediation should be attempted moving forward; students at the basic level only met the targets for proficiency on a second similar assessment at a 50% rate. The data also allowed for a comparison between the two teachers who used turnitin.com (though all teachers used the same DBQ). Opportunities for analysis and alignment like this are greatly facilitated by turnitin.com.

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In the VPA department, PLCs are complicated because of the many singleton courses and teachers who don’t teach the same subject as anyone else. Currently, the VPA PLCs are constituted in the following way:

Instrumental PLC ................. Todd Summers, Sandra Lewis, Tiffany Ou (band and orchestra)

Vocal PLC ............................ Bill Liberatore (works with middle school choral teachers)

Art Spec PLC ....................... Deanna Messinger, Mark Gleason, Jordan King

Photo PLC ............................ Marie Durquet (works with Paly's photo teacher)

Drawing and Painting PLC ... Deanna Messinger (works with Paly's drawing and painting teacher)

Theater PLC ......................... Jim Shelby and Kristen Lo

The Drawing and Painting PLC (Gunn teacher Deanna Messinger and her counterpart at Palo Alto High) has provided this sample Drawing and Painting lesson (folder here) as evidence of a sequential/standards based lesson in the drawing and painting program. The progression of learning and growth is evident through the step-by-step process of teaching students how to draw. The process is carefully monitored by the teacher’s regular one-on-one contact with students while they are working. The final charcoal drawing is developed for weeks while mini-critiques with small groups take place, and discussion occurs around need for stronger values, proportioning adjustments, creative elements and compositional strengthening. The final critique involves whole-class participation of feedback for the artist while the student takes notes from classmate and teacher comments about to how the drawing could be improved. Students have the opportunity to then go back and make these changes to improve the work and hand it in for the final grade.

An example from the Photography PLC (again, part of a collaborative effort with Palo Alto High) is a project in which students build and operate a pinhole camera with a shutter (assignment here, and sample work here.) They will be able to operate a tripod and mount the camera on it, take self-portraits with correct exposure times, develop a silver gelatin print, scan their silver gelatin negatives, invert them into positives, correct dust, crop, and adjust contrast in Photoshop, and create a contact sheet of four images. See instructions on assignment sheet. Assessment in based upon the final contact sheet, including students’ own self-reflections. Criteria for assessment is specified on the assignment sheet. Besides comments on individual contact sheets, all work was projected in front of the class so students were able to hear comments on everyone’s work, engage in discussion, and learn from seeing this range of experiences. EX: the “below standard” example is actually quite good, but has too much empty foreground space and some uneven developing that looks grayish or mottled. Students that did not meet the standard (very few) were given suggestions about what they could do next time and could come in to Flextime to continue the work.

The Instrumental Music PLC has also been working on developing learning targets and assessments. Answering questions 3 & 4 of the PLC process (what are we doing for students who have and haven't met the learning target) has demonstrably changed the teaching and strategies that these instructors use in the classroom.

For example, the teachers set the following learning target, based on the National Music Standards (Process Component: Music Performing Ensembles Anchor Standard 4 – Performing): “I will play the first 6 major scales and arpeggios from the warm up with no mistakes.” Students then practiced the scales, intervals, and arpeggios, and ultimately students performed individually for their teachers. This allowed the teachers to give specific feedback to each student via a standardized rubric (see samples here).

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Teachers analyzed the data (student results/rubrics) from the student performance tests and discovered that many students had difficulty passing one specific scale. There were a small number of students that had difficulty with two or more scales. Over the next two weeks in class the teachers retaught old strategies and introduced new strategies to the students to use in their individual practice (homework) based on the initial assessment process. They also employed these strategies daily in class when working on the scales to model to all students the process of practicing the strategies. Students were given the opportunity to retake the test as many times as they needed to in order to achieve everyone “at standard.” After each retake students were provided individual feedback and had a conversation about which strategies they were using to improve and if there was any other help they needed. For students who were at standard or above standard on all 6 on the initial testing, the teachers provided strategies to keep them engaged (i.e., playing at a faster tempo, playing with musical shape, etc.) This iterative process helped all students achieve “at standard” by the end of the unit.

The VPA Art Spectrum PLC (who, together, teach seven sections of the course) also participates in an ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress. A prime example of this is the Still Life Unit. From the work, this group has learned that it is important to address inaccuracies that might otherwise distort or impede learning in subsequent drawing projects. In some cases, inaccuracies can be corrected simply by exposing students to accurate information and evidence that conflicts with flawed beliefs and models. However, it is important for instructors to recognize that a single correction or refutation is unlikely to be enough to help students revise deeply held misconceptions. Instead, guiding students through a process of conceptual change is likely to take time, patience, and creativity.

On the whole, PLCs in VPA are still working towards a complete PLC Model given the many singleton classes offered. However, the VPA Department PLCs aim to have completed learning targets for all Level I courses in the department by the end of the year, hoping to share this work with Palo Alto High School and collaborate on alignment (either in process or as a final product). Next year, the PLCs will work on establishing Learning Targets for upper level courses. Next steps are to look at assessments and teaching practices. At the February Staff Development Day (2018) Visual Art and Theater Teachers from grades 6-12 will come together to discuss learning targets at High School level I and Grade 6.

In large part due to the time in the schedule dedicated specifically to PLCs (described by the World Language Instructional Supervisor, Elizabeth Matchett, as a “magic bullet”), the World Language department has completed Common Course guides for all courses and languages. In-depth professional conversations and course modifications have also enabled the alignment of course grading practices, projects and tests. This degree of alignment has allowed students to move freely between courses if needed because of their schedules (see example here), allowing also for their grades to transfer equitably. The consistency also helps the administration and parents to know that the curriculum is the same, regardless of the teacher.

The PLC process has also allowed World Language PLCs to consistently ask the following important questions: how do we know if they have learned, what do we do if they haven't, and how do we enrich the curriculum? In Spanish 3, for example, teachers have adapted projects, tests, and homework to fit the data produced by the formative assessments they’ve given (example of a formative assessment in Spanish 3 here). All three of the teachers use the same learning targets (metas) and the same rubric to score the writing. They have talked about what

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the rubric should contain and how a work sample should be graded using similar markings. If a student needs help, they can go to any teacher of Spanish 3 and receive constructive help because all are doing the same thing in the same way.

The department also shares files among the teachers through Dropbox and Google drive, such as the Spanish 2 system for sharing information among all the teachers of a course. These cloud-based resources have allowed teachers (especially new ones) to share resources and easily have conversations about and adapt curriculum for the needs of each set of learners. And, while rubrics and grading policies have been aligned by language and level, the department is still working toward developing common grading practices as a whole; more negotiation and piloting (and time) is required, as is true for many departments at Gunn (and an area of focus moving forward).

WL ELOs are aligned with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. They are based on a national agreement about what a learner should know and be able to do in the language after each year of study. Based on these guidelines, the department PLCs created minimum proficiencies that a student should demonstrate in order to be ready for the next level of study, found here: Gunn WL Minimum Performance Expectations based on the ACTFL Proficiency Scale. The department now measures success in terms of "proficiency” based on this definition, as in "the students are demonstrating language proficiency that shows they are ready for AP.” The World Language philosophy of language learning is no longer based on seat time but rather on what a student knows and is able to do in the language. If a teacher needs to make the tough decision to have a student repeat a level, it is because that student has not demonstrated the requisite proficiency to be successful in the next level rather than due to a more arbitrary type of measurement.

In accordance with ACTFL best practices (and the standard by which effective WL programs are measured in the USA), the World Language department uses ACTFL Can-do statements (or a version of them) in all of its courses. ACTFL's Can-do statements are a set of guidelines that state what a student should know and be able to do in the language. They are presented as "I Can...." sentences, such as "I can introduce a friend to a teacher" (an example of a project incorporating Can-do statements can be found here). These statements become the learning goal; the teacher’s responsibility is to make sure the student knows what the learning goal is, teach them how to accomplish it, and then give them a method to show that they can accomplish it, assessing for the degree of proficiency and autonomy the student has achieved. As the department has implemented these Can-do statements and written their own to match up with curriculum, teachers have found that the process requires them to change the way they assess, which is exciting and challenging.

The department has also found that using the Can-do statements has made teaching much easier. Instead of talking to students and parents about test grades, etc., the conversation instead becomes about what students know and are able to do in the language. Evidence of content knowledge is easily gained from lessons where what students are supposed to be able to do is clearly articulated. The strategy has also made it easier to give students who are unsuccessful the first time an opportunity to try again once they have mastered that concept or skill; such a simple idea has, by the department’s own account, radically transformed how they teach.

Though not exactly a PLC in the traditional sense, AAR teachers meet weekly, and Gunn & Paly liaisons meet two times each week regarding AAR programming needs and changes. Gunn and Paly teachers meet twice each semester to discuss specific strategies that work well in each

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class and ways to make improvements in future classes. Because of the way it was designed, AAR classes at Gunn and Paly are lock-step with all curriculum and assessments. Identical rubrics are used for each weekly assignment (journals), and milestones (see AAR Milestones, Rubrics, Templates here).

Finally, with respect to our Special Education department, it has also been an important change at Gunn to have co-teachers working in PLC groups to develop non-traditional summative assessments (i.e., presentations, artistic representations) that enable all students to have a better chance at academic success. These strategies allow students to demonstrate learning through non-traditional ways and reduces test anxiety. The co-teachers also help with strategies around the chunking of large projects and use of alternative assessments. For instance, in this evidence, instead of a end of unit summative exam students spent 3 days in class researching and presenting a specific category of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the 18th Century (see example project here), using knowledge acquired throughout the unit.

STRATEGY 3: Generate ongoing data collection and reflection process that informs our school on the following metrics: attendance, course enrollment, student academic achievement, student wellness profile, student demographics, student perception, teacher perception, and teacher effectiveness.

Specific actions we are taking towards this goal:

(none listed in the most recently approved version of the Action Plan/SPSA)

Evidence and Analysis of Progress Thus Far:

As we begin to use data with more focus and purpose at Gunn, we have started to evaluate our D/F data with greater regularity (especially given the focus of Goal #2, strategy 2). In September of 2017, administrators led the full faculty in a thoughtful analysis of D/F data generated at the six-week progress report mark (see presentation here) to help make this move towards a more sensitive and productive evaluation of the data currently available through Infinite Campus. Also, the large group that looked at a variety of data sources in December 2017 looked at D/F data in particular and came up with these observations and recommendations, which have been accounted for in the updated WASC Action Plan (Section 5):

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #3

*social studies?

*More D/F in math, science than English

*Data for Alg 1/1A?

*9/10 in higher level math?

*More D/F in lower level

*Numbers of Ds/Fs for Sem 1 vs Sem 2 are about the same

*Year 16-17 #s of Ds/Fs are higher

*Math and science have more Ds/Fs

*Algebra 2 16-17 possible outlier (higher) for both semesters

*Do the D/F rates for different subjects match standardized test scores?

*Curriculum: vertical alignment (teaching styles/pace should match up- same rules/course policies)

*Support for these courses so students can be more successful

*How many people are taking classes (for a way to scale)

*How to tell if the same students are failing multiple classes, or many kids failing one class

*Easier access to tutors

*Progress report check-ins with students who have D/F grades during Flex with teachers (ask if they are confident, if they need help, how can teachers help)

*This betters connection with teacher/student during Flex? (use appts)

*Get data from own activities (14-15 block)

*How many students total are on

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*Content writing is in the 20s for Sem 1

*Math has many Ds/Fs

*English not so much, but Cont. Writing and Cont. Voice have lots

*Alg 2 in general many Ds/Fs

*DF #s almost doubled (not sure how to interpret this)

*Where are the history classes?

*In 2016-17, 187 D/F grades were earned

*16/17: 45 D/Fs Alg 2 over both semesters vs. 15/16: 22 D/Fs Alg 2 over both semesters

*16/17: 9th/10th English, high #s of D/Fs

*Alg 2: 45/187 Ds and Fs in 16-17; jump from 15-16, 19.2%

*Overall total has spiked

*Need to support failing kids during Flextime

*(What was D/F scale during block schedule?)

*Attendance interventions

*Has co-teaching reduced D/F in Alg 1, Geo, Alg 2, Bio… If so, can it be expanded?

*Alg 2 instruction; same students that are not graduating?

*English classes

*Alg 2 support needed

the list

*How many students on the D/F list are chronically absent?

*More structured study time in classes?

*Flex improvement?

*Provide more supports in class

*Compare D/F data to Paly, ELOs with Paly

*Talk to students

*Attendance? tutoring? lane change?

The group also evaluated data from the new California Dashboard, published by the California Department of Education. These were the preliminary observations and recommendations generated by the large group with respect to this promising data set:

What do you see? (facts only) Possible Areas of Need and Why Next Steps Related to Goal #3

*High overall graduation rate

*Zoom in: high risk groups in red

*94.4% graduation rate overall; 71% of low SES graduate; 73.2% of disability graduate

*Certain populations not being served

*How to meet “High risk”/low percentage group with services, opportunities needed

*Low SES students

*Chronic absenteeism; certain courses?

*Complicated data; we need to be able to comprehend

*Half a year, so not enough data

*Identify questions about our students and community to add to state survey

*Define a comprehensive data system

*Why are students absent?

*Create a clear and wide range data set

*Collect data on aligning courses

Currently, teachers at Gunn use both Infinite Campus (IC) and Schoology to communicate progress to students, post assignments/due dates, and generate data. Other systems include FitnessGram (PE), Turnitin.com (Social Studies), the FOS Dashboard (FOS), Lexia (ELL) TeachMore (Flextime attendance and appointments) and DataZone, primarily used by administrators. Teachers have also generated a number of home-grown data tracking methods, as shown in this report, and frequently use Google tools (such as Google Forms) to generate feedback about and insights into what students want and need. Additionally, the district partnered with Palo Alto Educators Association (PAEA) in December 2015 to create standardized course evaluations (see example here, with open comments redacted), another important source of data with respect to the impact of instruction on students. In Special Education, common transition assessments have been administered for all students (see sample in Goal #1, Strategy #1); this data source is then used and incorporated in student Individual Transition Plans and transition goals in IEPs.

Even with all of these varied sources of data, it remains a priority for Gunn to identify the most useful sources of data about student achievement/success and put that data in the hands of teachers on a regular basis. The teachers must also engage in professional learning that

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enables them to fully apply the understandings gleaned through data analysis processes to their classrooms, impacting students directly. The school is beginning to make progress in this respect (a good example being the increased attention to the D/F list at the IC and whole-staff level, referenced at the top of this strategy’s narrative) but greater alignment of systems and practices needs to take place before the school can effectively use data in more comprehensive processes of curricular design and adjustment, as well as student support.

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V. SCHOOLWIDE ACTION PLAN

REFINEMENTS

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Refinements

Gunn has continued to look at different paths to success. The implementation of more applied courses such at BEAM (Business, Entrepreneurship, and Math) and Applied Math open to all levels of students has enabled students to see the relevance to their lives in the learning. Blended learning classes have also allowed to students to take more ownership of their learning and time. These courses have enabled teachers to better meet each student where they are and provide extra support for the students on the “blended” days. The rigorous Blended Cohort training teachers receive prior to being approved to teach in the blended model provides a strong foundation and a network of colleagues to keep improving. We cannot thank the district, and Emily Garrison and Chris Bell in particular, enough for providing this training to our teachers.

With negative media attention surrounding our recent suicide clusters, we are determined to make sure these events are not the first thing people think of when they hear the name “Gunn High School.” We continue to examine and work with our students on finding multiple ways to success. We believe that the implementation and expansion of our SELF curriculum over the next three years will improve our students resilience, coping skills and grit. We are proud of the work we do for every student, every day and believe we are leading the way in creating a better future for our world.

We are committed to analyzing and using student performance data to identify struggling students and provide appropriate interventions and support. Our system is dependent on us implementing RTI/MTSS so that ALL students are successful and performing at high levels. We know that each one of us owns ALL of our students, not just the ones we have contact with every day. We will continue to focus on equity and access and take every effort to reduce the opportunity gap that exists at our school. Our learning teams will continue to work in PLCs to examine student learning data to better inform classroom instruction. We are committed to continuing to take collective responsibility for supporting all of our learners, just as we support each other as a staff. We recognize this as a moral imperative.

We added two more Critical Learner Needs as identified by the WASC visiting committee in 2015. The first is the inclusion of strong student voice on schoolwide decisions. We feel we have good plans in place over the next few years in including students on advisory committees around restorative practices and attendance. We had such positive feedback looking at data this fall with students, staff and parents meeting in one large group that we will continue the practice at least once per semester. This will enable us to continue to use data to move Gunn towards our goals.

The second new Critical Learner Need is the exploration and implementation of consistent research-based instructional practices. One area of focus is in evidence-based grading. We have a number of departments who have teachers working with evidence-based grading and they are all doing it differently. We will be bringing them together to develop a consistent system of grading that will be piloted and then implemented schoolwide. We are still working on defining rigor and, although we have reduced the workload for students, we are still a bit above the district board policy limits at all grade levels.

We are excited and eager to keep learning. We know that in a rapidly changing world our students’ needs are changing, and therefore we must keep current with best practices and learning research. We look forward to additional professional learning around assessment, mastery-based learning, the Multi-Tiered System of Support (RTI), and social-emotional learning.

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Newly Identified Issues

This past year, there has been a tremendous amount of turnover at the district office, including the unexpected resignation of our Superintendent in September 2017. We are concerned that there is a vacuum of institutional memory at the district office with the onboarding of numerous new people. We are hopeful that the selection of our next Superintendent will stabilize the district office environment and allow us to focus on building relationships again. We notice and feel the constraints now that the district office is working at maximum capacity. Therefore, we recommend against any future budget cuts in this area. We rely on the support and expertise of district office staff, which has been a struggle this year as new people are learning about the system. We are concerned about discussions of ongoing budget cuts and the impact this will have on the system, which is functioning at a basic level as it is because staff are spread so thin.

We, as an administrative team, are spending a tremendous amount of time putting out fires. The increased requirements around investigations and reports have negatively impacted the time, focus and energy we have to spend in classrooms. We appreciate we are in a sensitive situation and that over time it may settle down. However, more support would be helpful to us as a learning system so that we can direct our main focus back to the most important aspect of school, the learning of our students and staff.

We recognize the college admissions system is failing our students, who feel forced to take the most rigorous courses to remain competitive despite our school recommendation that they take no more than 2 AP courses per year. We would love to see an improvement in this area, and we are interested in seeing if the Mastery Transcript Consortium is able to help make changes in the higher education admissions system. Until then, we know that many of our students will continue to get inadequate sleep and will report that their homework load is too high, despite our best intentions.

We are excited about the Social Emotional Learning curriculum framework that was adopted by the Board of Education last spring, yet we remain concerned about what this may look like in practice. We’d like to develop a long-term vision around Social Emotional Learning at the high school level that would offer clarity concerning where SEL curriculum should be implemented in our school.

We would like to see the Living Skills course taught only during the regular school year (not in summer school) and make it a required course for 9th or 10th grade students. This would give us more time to explore SEL content and to address the challenges our students face in dealing with mental health issues, appropriate use of technology, personal relationship growth and harassment prevention. There is a high need for additional education in many areas, and we need to figure out how best to address these topics as a system.

We are proud of our new SELF class, currently being taught in the 9th grade with expansion to 10th grade next year. However, we recognize that we have some structural and sustainability issues in terms of staffing and resources as we expand to include the 11th and 12th grade. We received start-up funding from the district for this year but we are not sure that this extra funding will continue in the future. We believe the time in SELF, coupled with the time in Living Skills, will have a positive impact on students as they move through high school and into the future.

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We are concerned about the rising number of initial IEP assessments, particularly for anxiety and depression. We see the research demonstrating a correlation between the increase in anxiety and depression and smartphone usage. We have noticed the increased use of technology, especially social media, and the negative unintended consequences technology use or misuse are creating with students. An area of concern is an increase in sexting, cyberbullying, and inattention in class, coupled with a decrease in social skills including listening and speaking.

As a staff, we are concerned about the increased cost of housing, cost of living in the Bay Area and the challenges many of us are finding with the demands of our commute to and from school. As traffic has increased exponentially, many of us are finding it necessary to leave school right when the bell rings or to come in extra early to avoid traffic. This makes it difficult to coach a sport, advise a club, attend an event, and/or simply meet with students after school for extra help. We acknowledge there is not much we can do to control this situation but would like to recommend that the district consider proactive creative solutions to help offset this challenge, whether that be affordable housing, low interest loans, ride share programs and/or discounted passes for mass transit. The retention of teachers in today’s economy will be critical with the projected teachers shortage.

Action Plan GOAL/CriticalLearnerNeed#1Developaculturethatbroadlydefinesandpromotesmultiplepathstosuccess,embracesself-discoveryandsocialemotionalwell-beingandvaluesthelovelearningbeyondtraditionalmetricsofachievement

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2017-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-20 ACTIONS FOR 2020-21

#1Developaculturethatbroadlydefinesandpromotesmultiplepathstosuccess.

Schoolwide● Moreproject-basedlearning(less

emphasisontests)(PLCs)● Changemessagingaround

communitycolleges:alumnivisits,etc.(COLLEGE&CAREER)

● Developandpromotebetterintegrationofwork/studyopportunities(COLLEGE&CAREER),ExploratoryWorkExp.

● FormnewChallengeSuccessCommittee

● AdministerChallengeSuccesssurveySpring2019

Department● LaunchnewAppliedMathcourse

asinnovativealternativetoCalculusorStatistics

● FurtherdevelopmentofjobtrainingforFuturesstudents

● IncreasenumbersectionsinBEAM● Counselorsmeetwithall10th

gradestudents● All10gradestudentstakecareer

interestinventory● StudentExecutiveCouncil(SEC)will

gatherdatafromstudentsregardingtheirdefinitionofsuccess

Schoolwide● ExpandAARopportunitiesfor

allstudents● Continuepositivemessaging

regardingcommunitycolleges,gapyearsandvocationalprograms-allstudentswillneedtobereadyforpost-secondarytrainingnomattertheirpath

● Celebratenon-traditionalandtraditionalsuccessespubliclythroughTBN,Oracle,etc.

● AnalyzeChallengeSuccesssurveyresultsandplanactionitemsbasedonresults

Department● SECwillpartnerwiththe

InstructionalCouncil(IC)toanalyzedatagatheredbySEC

● SECandICwilldeterminenextstepsbasedondata.

● Developaplantoimplementnextsteps

Schoolwide● AdministerChallengeSuccess

surveyspring2021● AnalyzeimpactofChallenge

Successandotherinitiativesthroughsurveyresults

Department● CurriculuminSELFwillbe

developedtoexploremultiplepathwaystosuccess

●

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#2Improvethequalityandorganizationofinstructionaltimetosupportlearninginordertoincreasethenumberofstudentsreportingsatisfactionwiththeworkloadoftheiracademicprogram/work-lifebalance.

Schoolwide● Connectcurriculum(evenclassic)

torelevantissues.(SLC,PLCs)● Stafftrainingonuseofcomplex

instructionandcooperativelearningintheclassroom(IC)

● Explorationinproject-based,inquiry-based,andproblem-basedlearning

● Stafftrainingforbetterwaystowrite/useprojectsintheclassroom(IC)

● Re-examinepurposeandpossibilitiesofFlextime(IC)

Department● ContinuePLCworktowards

courseconsistency(ISs)● Identifyothercoursesfor

blendedlearningoptions● AddYogaandAthletic

Conditioningfor10-12PEstudents

Schoolwide● Identifypossibleofferingsfor

ThursdayFlexthataregearedtowardhealthandwell-being

● Continuetoexpandcertifiedblendedlearningteachers

● Staffpilotingproject-based,inquiry-basedand/orproblem-basedlearningreportouttostaffonpositives,challengesandimpactonstudentlearning

● UseChallengeSuccesssurveydatatodetermineifcourseoutcomesandgradingaremoreconsistentascomparedto2017survey

● Identifyareasforimprovementinstudentperceptionofconsistency

Schoolwide● Increasenumberofblended

learningofferings● Continuepilotandexpandon

project-based,inquiry-basedand/orproblem-basedlearning

#3CreateacomprehensiveSocialandEmotionalLearningCurriculumthatwillallowstudentsto

Schoolwide● K-12SocialEmotionalLearning

Standards,Benchmarksadopted,andGrade-LevelIndicatorstobetaughtandlearnedbyallstudents(SELTOSA)

● GunnSocialEmotionalLiteracyandFunctionality(SELF)Programexpandedtoinclude10thgradestudents.(SELTOSA)

● Summerandongoingstaff

Schoolwide● ContinueSELFprogram,

expandedtoinclude11thgrade

● Continueopt-inSELFsessionsfor12thgradestudents

● LookatmodelsforcontinuingtogrowtheSELFprogram

● ContinuedSELprofessionallearningonhowtoimplementSELlessonsintoregular

Schoolwide● SELFprogramexpandedto

include12thgradestudents● ContinuedSELprofessional

learningDepartment● ReinforceSELlanguageinclasses

andinteractionswithstudents

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developawarenessandskillstoimprovetheiremotionalwellnessandfosteremotionalgrowth.

trainingforSELprogram(SELTOSA)

● Developamatrixofwellnessprogramsandservicesoncampustoidentifyuniqueness,redundancyandstrategicsupports(Wellnessstaff)

● EstablishasharedlanguagearoundWellnessandSocial-EmotionalLearningthatissharedandusedthroughoutthecommunity(WellnessstaffandSELTOSA)

Department● Continuedrefinementand

implementationofYES!In9thgradePE

● Eachdepartmentresponsiblefordesignandimplementationofaschoolwidelessonaimedathavingaconsistentmessagearoundskillsandhabitsthatincreasesuccessforstudents(i.e.notetaking,healthyhabits,etc.)

curriculumDepartment

● LookintotrainingPEteachersasYES!Trainers-buildcapacity

● ContinuerefinementandtimingofYES!For9thgradePE

● Alldepartmentswillcontinuetorefine,planandimplementschoolwidelessons

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GOAL/CriticalLearnerNeed#2IncreaseachievementforalllearnersatGunnHighSchool,especiallyourAfricanAmerican,Hispanic,Socio-Economicdisadvantaged,EnglishLanguageLearnersandSpecialEducationStudents.

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2017-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-20 ACTIONS FOR 2020-21

#1Byfall2018,developandimplementarobust,universalacademicandbehavioralinterventionprogram(RTI/MTSS)attheclassroom,departmentandschoollevels,measuredbythenumberofstudentswhoreceiveTier1,2and3interventions.

Schoolwide● LaunchnewMTSSprogram(TLT)● IncreasePDforteachersandstaff

regardingMTSS(TLT)● Developateamwhoarethe

expertsofMTSSand“go-to”staff● ITresearchonnotificationsfor

automated,fastfeedbackofachangeinstudentgradesforteachersofstudentsinSPED/FOS/etc.

● CreateanInterventiondatabaseofstudentsbyspring2019

● ResearchotherMTSSprogramsinthecountry(i.e.Oregon)andseehowtheyimplementedittohelpusdevelopours

● InvestigateavailabilityofStateofCaliforniaMTSSgrants

Department

● Teachersregularlycheck-inwithstudentsearningaC-orlower

● RegularanalysisbydepartmentofstudentsearningaC-orlower-whichcourses,whatskills/knowledge,etc.

Schoolwide● RefinelistofTier1MTSS

supportsimplementedbyallstaff

● SpecifywhowilldefinethescopeanddeliveryofMTSSandthetimesthatinterventionswillbeimplemented

● IdentifyanddevelopTiers2and3supports

● Staffmeetingtimeallocatedtosharingpromisingpracticessupportingstrugglingstudents

Department

● Teachersregularlycheck-inwithstudentsearningaC-orlower

● RegularanalysisbydepartmentofstudentsearningaC-orlower-whichcourses,whatskills/knowledge,etc.

Schoolwide● Interventiondatabaserefined● FullscopeofMTSSwillbe

accessibleinSchoologyforteacherandstaffreferencebyspring2020

● Continuesharingofstrategiesinstaffmeetingsandwhatismosteffectiveforidentifiedstudents

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#2IncreasethepercentageofHURandotherunderservedstudentsearningC-andaboveinallclassesandincreasethenumberofHURandotherunderservedstudentsmeetingUC/CSUA-Gminimumrequirements

Schoolwide● ContinueFlextimewithmore

scheduledappointmentsforstudentsonD/Flist(COST)

● RelateWork/StudyexperiencestoacademicstudiesandSEL

● Interventionscompleted/monitoredinclassandFlextime

Department● ImplementationofAVIDfor

grade9students● Regularanalysisbydepartment

ofstudentsearningC-orbelow-whichcourses,whatskills/knowledge,etc.

●

Schoolwide● Meetwithunderserved

studentstoexplorewhatisneededforsuccess

● Developsysteminwhichstudentswritetheirownlearninggoals-shorttermandlongtermeachyear-studentsidentifywhowillbetheirsupportsystemtomeetthosegoals

● Earlyinterventionattheclassroomlevelforstudentsnotmeetingstandards

● EarlyinterventionforstudentsidentifiedbyCOST

● ExamineFlexforeffectivenessandeaseofmonitoringstudentlearning

● WorkwiththeEquityCoordinatorandProfessionalLearningCoordinatortoprovidespecificprofessionallearningaimedatsupportingunderservedstudents

Department● RefineAVIDandexpandto

include10thgrade● RefineSpEdsupportclassesto

includealignmentinallcourses

Schoolwide● Implementstrategies

identifiedbyunderservedstudents

● Evaluatesystemofgoalwritingandrefine

Department● RefineAVIDprogramandexpand

toincludeAVIDseminar

#3By2018,wewillincreasethe

Schoolwide● IncreaseenrollmentinAVID● Educatestudentsabout

AP/HonorsclassesinFOS,

Schoolwide● Analyzedataon“Open

Access”forAPandHonorscourses

Schoolwide● IncreaseuseofUDLin

courses,supportedbyPLCwork

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enrollmentinAP/Honorsclassesby30%forLatinoandAfricanAmericanstudents

AcademicPlanning,andAVIDclasses.

● HaveformerHURstudentstalkaboutAP/Honorsclasses

● OffersummerAPBootCampwithstudystrategies(AVID/CP)

● InformstudentsofFoothillCollegeEarlyCollegePromiseProgram

Department● Counselorpresentationtothe

CollegeandCareerPathwaysgroupaboutAP/Honorsclassesatthestartoftheyearandfollow-upbeforeclassregistrationinFebruary.

● TeachnewAPComputerScienceclassforunderclassmen

● ContinuehavingHURstudentstakethePSATayearearliertodeterminepossibilityoftakingAP/Honors

● Launch‘OpenAccess’toAPandHonorscoursessostudents/parentscanchooseCollegePrep,Honors,orAPlane

● Morepathsforstudents(includingsummerschool)toattainacademicgoals

● Alg1:CombinedAlg1and1Atoincreaserigorforallstudents

● Co-teachersinCollegePreplaneenablingmoresupportforstudentsingeneraleducation

● Analyzetheimpactofco-teachingstudentsuccessandlearning

● UseidentifiedTier1supportstoincreasesuccessofunderservedstudentsinAP/Honorscourses

● ExaminehomeworkloadinAP/Honorscoursesthatmightbeimpactingsuccess

● GatherdatafromstudentsenrolledintheEarlyCollegePromiseProgram

● IdentifysupportsforstudentsenrolledintheEarlyCollegePromiseProgram

● TrainingforallteachersinUniversalDesignLearning(UDL)

● SurveystudentsandstaffforfeedbackonUDLandimpactonlearning

● GatherdataforstudentsenrolledintheEarlyCollegePromiseProgramandsuccessinpost-secondarywork

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GOAL/CriticalLearnerNeed#3Createacomprehensivedatasystemandaligncoursecurriculumtoregularlyassessstudentprogress,informinstructionandaidcommunicationattheclassroom,departmentandschoollevels.

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2017-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-20 ACTIONS FOR 2020-21

#1Increasetheeffective-nessofPLCworkasitrelatestostudentlearning

Schoolwide● Analyzeteachers’feedbackand

teachers’suggestionsonhowtousethetimemoreeffectively.

● FlowchartofPLCsupportandcoachestohelpaddressavarietyofneedswithinaPLC.

● Gatherdatafromstudentsmeasuringstudentperceptiononconsistencyincourse-alikesingradingandassessment

Department● InvestigateoptionsforPLCsso

thatallteamsofteacherscanmeetwiththeirspecificteachingteamsonalternateweeks,ratherthanonlybeingabletomeetwithoneteamfortheentireyear.

Schoolwide● AssesseffectivenessofPLC

Leads● RefinePLCworkandmoveto

refineELO’s,LearningTargetsandgradingincoursealikes

● ContinuetoinvestigatecreativeoptionstoincreasePLCtimeavailable(i.e.commonprepforcoursealiketeams,topicbasedPLCgroups)

● InvestigateaddingtopicdrivenPLCmeetings

Department● Developandimplementat

leastonecommonformativeassessmentperunitofstudy

● Analyzedatafromcommonassessmentstoinforminstruction

● Developcommonrubricsandgradingpractices

● Identifyanddescribelevelsofmasteryforanchorstandards

● Developcommonendofsemestersummativeassessments(projects,presentations,essaysorexams)

Schoolwide●

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#2Createanddeveloptoolsthatassessstudentlearningofessentiallearnergoals/skillsthatarehorizontallyandverticallyalignedincoursealikeandsequentialclasses,usingSLOs,CCSS,NGSS,andothernationalstandards.

Schoolwide● Developaconsistentwayto

gatherstudentfeedbackregardingcoursealignment

● Usestaffcollaborationtimetoalignconsistentgradingmethods.

● Alldepartmentsaligntheircoursessothatallcourseshavecommonassessments.(BoardGoal6)

● Verticallyalignclassessothatimportantskillsarebeingreinforcedwiththecontentasthevehicle(BoardGoal6)

● ReflectandrefinecurrentpracticesinStandards/Evidence-BasedGrading.

Department● ChangetheseELOsintoLearning

Targets.SharewithPaloAltoHS(Paly)andmiddleschools

● Gatherstudentfeedbackregardingalignmentofgradingpractices

● SciencecoursescontinuealignmentwithNGSS-integrateClaim-Evidence-Reasoningintoinstruction

● MS-HSSiteVisitsinSocialStudiestosharebestpractices;improveverticalalignmentofcurriculum;andtransitionfrom8-9thgrade

Schoolwide-continueonpreviousyear’sgoals● Implementaconsistentwayto

gatherstudentfeedbackregardingcoursealignment

● Usestaffcollaborationtimetoalignconsistentgradingmethods.

● Alldepartmentscontinuetohorizontallyaligntheircoursessothatallcourseshavecommonassessments.(BoardGoal6)

● Continuetoverticallyalignclassessothatimportantskillsarebeingreinforcedwiththecontentasthevehicle

● ReflectandrefinecurrentpracticesinStandards/Evidence-BasedGrading.

● Professionallearningongradingandeffectiveassessmentpractices

Department● ContinuedevelopingLearning

Targetsforallunitsofstudyincourses.SharewithPalyandmiddleschools

● SciencecoursescontinuetoalignwithNGSS-integrateClaim-Evidence-Reasoningintoinstruction

Schoolwide● Continuedprofessional

learningoneffectiveassessmentstrategiesandgradingpractices

● Reviewandreviseverticalalignmentincoursesasneeded

#3Generateongoing

Schoolwide ● LaunchofDataZONE-data

analysistoolusedacrossthe

Schoolwide● Allstafftrainedonuseof

DataZone

Schoolwide● Analyzeeffectivenessof

AcademicPlannerinearly

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datacollectionandreflectionprocessthatinformsourschoolonthefollowingmetrics:attendance,courseenrollment,studentacademicachievement,studentwellnessprofile,studentdemographics,studentperception,teacherperception,andteachereffectiveness.

districtandschool● Teachersusefeedbackfrom

studentsgatheredfromDistrictCoursesurveyadministeredinDecember2017-identifyacolleague(s)toworkwithonareasforgrowth

● Consistent,regularCourseSurveysusedtogatherfeedbackfromstudentsonteacherperformanceandeffectiveness

● AnalysisofattendancedataimprovedandabsenceletterstoparentsgeneratedbyInfiniteCampus

● Developtoolsandanalyzesuccessofstudentswho“up-laned”inmathunderopenenrollment.

● Analyzeperformanceofstudentsnewtothedistrictoneffectivenessofmathplacementprocess

● Algebra1/1Amergerevaluationprocess(finalexamandcoursegrades,focusgroups,preandposttests)

● Follow-upwithAlgebra1ApilottoanalyzethesuccessofstudentsinGeometryandGeometryA

● Increaseparticipationof11thgradestudentsinCAASSPsothereisvaliddatatoanalyze

● TeachersusefeedbackfromstudentsgatheredfromDistrictCoursesurveyadministeredinDecember2018toadjustpractices-partneringwithacolleaguetoworkonareasforgrowth

● AnalysisofattendancedataandcorrelationwithearningC-andaboveinallcourses

● Follow-upwithAlgebra1ApilottoanalyzethesuccessofstudentsinGeometryandGeometryAandAlgebra2

● Analysisofspecialprograms(SLC,FOS,AVID)foreffectiveness

● ChallengeSuccessSurveyadministeredSpring2019

Department

● GuidanceDepartmentwilluseAcademicPlannerinICandDataZonetosupportstudentsinbeingCollegeandCareerReadyatgraduation

identificationofstudentswhoarenotontrackforCSU/UCeligibility

● AnalyzeChallengeSuccesssurveydatatodeterminenextsteps

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GOAL/CriticalLearnerNeed#4(WASCIdentifiedAreafollow-up):Ensureinclusionofastrongstudentvoiceonschoolwidedecisions.

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2017-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-20 ACTIONS FOR 2020-21

#1 Include student voice on schoolwide advisory committees

Schoolwide● Createanadvisorycommittee

toexplorerestorativepracticesthatincludesstudentsandstaff

● Onecommunity(students,staff,parents)meetingtoreviewdatafromvarioussurveysandfocusgroups

● Feedbackfromstudentsaroundevidence-basedgradinggathered

Department● SECwillformalizeinput-

gatheringfromstudentbodyanddevelopsystemsforcommunicatingthatfeedbacktoAdmin

Schoolwide● Studentsandstaffdevelop

andpilotacomprehensiveprogramofrestorativepractices

● Meetwithcommunitymembers(students,staff,parents)atleastoncepersemestertogooverdataregardingcurrentinitiatives

● Focusgroupswithstudentstogathertheirvoiceonwhatishavingapositiveimpactontheirlearningatleastoncepersemester

Department● SECwillgatherstudent

feedbackfromidentifiedmethodsandworkwithIConanalysis

Schoolwide● Refineandimplement

programofrestorativepractices

● Adjustandrefineinitiativesbasedonfeedbackfromcommunitydatameetings

● Department

● SECandICwillpartnertoimplementnewinitiativesdevelopedfromdataanalysis

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GOAL/CriticalLearnerNeed#5(WASCidentifiedareaofFollow-up):Exploreandimplementconsistentschoolwideresearch-basedinstructionalpractices.

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2017-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-20 ACTIONS FOR 2020-21

#1 Standards/Evidence-based grading

Schoolwide● Continuetogatherdatafrom

acrossdepartmentsaroundexistingstandards/evidence-basedgradingpractices

● Sharestrengthsandareasofchallengeineachdepartment’scurrentefforts

● Targetedprofessionallearningonstandards/evidence-basedgradingpractices

Department● Department/coursesusing

standards/evidence-basedgradingpresenttostaff

Schoolwide● Schoolwideprofessional

learningonstandards/evidence-basedgradingpractices

● Developandpilotconsistentstandards/evidence-basedgradingpractices

Department● Pilotdatareportedoutto

staff

Schoolwide● Expand,refineandimplement

standards/evidence-basedgrading

Department

● Reportdatagatheredontheimpactofstandards/evidencebasedgradingonstudentlearning

#2 Use instructional tools to their fullest extent (i.e. tools found in Schoology; gradebook, calendar function, analytics around student workload, AMP)

Schoolwide● Increasethenumberof

teacherstrainedinusingAMP(AssessmentManagementPlatform)

● IncreasethenumberofteacherstrainedonusingtheexternaltoolfunctionalityfoundinSchoology(i.e.Turn-it-in,GoogleDrive,etc.)

● IdentifygapsbetweenSchoologyandIC

● ProvidefeedbacktodistrictregardingneededintegrationbetweenSchoologyandIC

Schoolwide● Differentiatedtrainingforall

teachersonSchoologyfunctionsbasedonoutcomesofneedsassessment

● Allteachersusethecalendarfunctionforassignments,projectsandassessments

● Useanalyticsfromcalendarfunctiontoevaluateandadjustoverallworkloadforstudents(testandprojectstacking)

● UseanalyticstohelpmeetBPregardinghomeworkload

Schoolwide● Fullimplementationof

Schoologywithindepartmentsforgrading,assessmentandfeedbacktostudentsandparents

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● NeedsassessmentforwhattrainingisneedtouseSchoologytoitsfullestextent

● StudentloadanalyticsinSchoologydemonstratedforallstaff

Department● ContinuerolloutofAMP

withincoursealiketeams

#3 Define rigor and communicate to all stakeholders

Schoolwide● Researchdefinitionsofrigor

andexamplesofwhatitlookslikeinpractice

● ReviewSLOswithstaffandhowtheyalignwithcurrentpracticesandgoals

● ReviewalignmentofELOsineachcoursewithSLOs

Department

● Mathandsciencecontinueexploringandimplementingcollaborativeproblem-solvingandinquirylessons

Schoolwide● Determineappropriate

definitionforourcontext● Communicatedefinitionout

toallstakeholders● Pilotembeddedhonors

courses● PartnershipwithChallenge

SuccessDepartment

● Coursealikeswilldesignandimplementone(minimum)alternateformofassessment

Schoolwide● Refinecoursesandcontinue

embeddedhonorspilot● Analyzedatafromembedded

honorspilot

#4 Increase alternate methods of instruction and learning in all curricular areas

Schoolwide● Gatherdataoncurrent

project-basedlearning● Gatherdataon

interdisciplinarycourses,projectsandprogramscampuswide

Schoolwide● Provideprofessionallearning

inproject-based,problem-basedandinquiry-basedlearning

● Researchandexplorewaystodomoreinterdisciplinaryprojectscampuswide

Schoolwide● Developaplanforthe

implementationofinterdisciplinaryprojects

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