Richmond County School System Dr. Ronald J Wiggins, Principal 1701 15th St Augusta, GA 30901-3931 Document Generated On January 9, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 6 Additional Information 7
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1
Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? Thomas Walter Josey High school was built in 1964, in the last decade of segregated schools. It is located in Augusta, Georgia, population 194,343. The school was built to relieve overcrowding at Lucy C. Laney and is the second oldest African American inner city school in Augusta. It is named after Doctor Thomas Walter Josey, a prominent figure in African American local history. As of September 2012 T. W. Josey High School, demographics presently include a population of 750 students with 372 males and 378 females. Of that population, 704 are African American; 32 are Caucasian; 14 are Pacific Islander/ other. The majority of the students (89%) is eligible for free and reduced lunch. In the past three years teachers' classrooms were updated to include the cutting-edge technology, such as PROMETHEON boards, document cameras, scientific calculators, video cameras, student/parent response boards (Echalk), student computer labs, student progress monitoring software (DataDirector) and IPads for teachers. TWJ offers many services and programs to meet the needs of our diverse student population. These programs and services include staff development days; a new teacher orientation program; Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for all faculty members; advanced placement American History, Chemistry and English; Jobs for Georgia Graduates (JGG) program; the NovaNET web-based computer lab to support and remediate struggling students; a GED Skills program to provide a portal for potential dropouts to earn a GED diploma; Georgia Virtual School online classes offered to home-bound students; dual enrollment college credit courses for college-bound students; vocational-technical courses; Saturday and after-school tutoring initiatives; Eagle Support Program" mentoring programs between selected senior students and struggling freshman students; voluntary mentoring for at-risk students; credit recovery for students who met seat time requirement but failed a course; an In-School Suspension program to increase attendance for students with excessive behavior referrals; and competitive college preparatory sports. In addition, TWJ complies with IDEA regulations and currently provide services for 130 special needs students. TWJ also enforce the drug-free/smoke-free zones and truancy regulations with two full-time public safety officers, a family facilitator and school social worker. The majority of students (88%), who attend T.W. Josey High School come from an economically disadvantage background and live in the city of Augusta. Parents of these students have diverse educational backgrounds, varying from high school dropout to college. TWJ operates on a traditional schedule with seven 55-minute classes, fall and spring semester, constituting one full academic year in which students can earn 7 Carnegie Units. 56 faculty members, eleven paraprofessionals, one principal, three assistant principals, two instructional coaches, three guidance counselors, two instructional coaches and one media center specialist comprise the professional staff of TWJ. Student-teacher ratios average 28 to 1. One of the unique aspects of T.W. Josey High is that we service all the special education modalities in our building and continue to make gains in the graduation rate and statewide standardize testing. Fall 2012, T.W. Josey Leadership Team received a rating of Fully Implemented from the GAPSS Review Committee. In addition, the school received 21 commendations. It is reported that T.W. Josey High received the highest number of commendations in the state of Georgia. The T.W. Josey High School leadership team was invited to present at the Pearson Cooperation National Summit, in Orlando Florida. This year T.W. Josey High School began the process of aligning the school improvement plan with the Indistar Model. This process was mandated by the School Improvement Division of Georgia Department Education for all Priority classified schools in the state of Georgia. T.W. Josey became a School Improvement Grant recipient, fall 2010 and implemented the Transformation Model. Our teachers, Page 2
administrators, and support staff had to adjust to the many changes required to transform the instructional process and school culture. We started with revamping the leadership team and attending the State's Summer Leadership Academy. While attending the leadership academy, the leadership team met to construct a SIP. Fall 2010, we began with in-service professional learning groups, book studies and collaborative planning. The leadership team meets weekly to review and assess our progress using the SIP as our guide. The leadership team used the following data to develop the SIP: Student academic performances on standardized achievement tests Demographic indicators of the community and school, including socioeconomic factors School human and material resource summaries, including teacher demographic indicators Teacher Surveys Stakeholder Surveys Classroom observations Trends in attendance data and office referral data Parents and community members were invited to attend the PLC meetings. Separate meetings were also held for parents and students to provide feedback and make recommendations. The leadership team reviewed the recommendations from all stakeholders and began writing the SIP. The data was used in school improvement plans that were written in the spring of 2011. The instructional coaches and state monitor edited, typed, and delivered the SIP to the Georgia Department of Education. The introduction will conclude with a list of acronyms used throughout this report. ASAP"Accelerated Student Achievement Pathways DEWS"Dropout Early Warning System EOCT"End of Course Test GLEs"Grade Level Expectations GADOE"Georgia Department of Education GHSGT - Georgia High School Graduation Test GHSWT- Georgia High School Writing Test IEP"Individual Educational Plan PAR"Period Assessment Review PL"Professional Learning PBIS"Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports PLC"Professional Learning Community PSO"Public Safety Officer RTI"Response to Intervention SIP"School Improvement Plan Page 3
School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. The essential purpose of T.W. Josey High School is to develop the capacity of each student to contribute effectively to a changing society. As a vital component of our society and this community our school has the responsibility to provided quality instruction in an effective and stimulating education environment. Our primary objective is to guide the development of individual skills and abilities, which enable each student to meet successfully the challenges of the technological society. It is important that each student develop social and academic skills that will enable full understanding and better appreciation of the democratic way of life. We encourage each student to respect the diversity of multi-cultural society. It is our goal to prepare each student to be a good citizen in the local, national, and global community. This preparation must also encompass the conversation and preservation of our environment. The administration, faculty, and staff provide diverse, academic, and extracurricular activities to promote t a total educational experience. This is accomplished through effective use of community and educational resources. We are aware that communication and partnership between home and school must exist for complete growth of the student. The faculty and parents of T.W. Josey High School realize that these skills must be coupled with the teaching of responsibility and enhancing of acceptable morals and values. We desire that each student has respect for self and others and strive to achieve goals and standards of integrity. T. W. Josey High School encourage and expect each students to achieve individual success, to grow educationally throughout life, to become lifelong learners, and to advance toward higher learning in order to exemplify the standard of this institution. The curriculum provides a variety of subject matter consistent with student and community needs. We embody the three main areas (college, military and world of work). The school's educational opportunities provide a high regard for democracy, foster an intellectual appreciation of democratic institutions, and place emphasis on self-discipline. In essence, the curriculum is designed to prepare all students to lead useful, productive, and happy lives. T. W. Josey uses many strategies to bring about consistent student growth. One such strategy is to engage our instructional staff in datadriven decision-making. Accordingly, we disaggregated performance statistics and established departmental plans to analyze and utilize the disaggregated data to streamline our instructional focus. Using data to pinpoint our student weaknesses and coordinate intervention efforts, we stress teacher collaboration during time spent in regularly scheduled, job-embedded professional learning communities. As a result, PLCs are also devoted to developing and sharing strategies regarding student engagement, literacy across the curriculum, and differentiated instruction. April 13, 2011 the State Board of Education approved The Secondary Assessment Transition Plan. This plan provides for the phasing out of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) and an increasing the "weight" of the End of Course Tests (EOCT). All students will continue to be required to take and pass the Georgia High School Writing Test. Students currently in high school who entered ninth grade for the first time between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011 have the flexibility of acquiring a passing score on one of the two EOCTs in each content area to serve as an alternate demonstration of proficiency and stand in lieu of the requirement to pass the corresponding content area GHSGT. All students are required to take the EOCT to receive credit for course. Therefore, to ensure an accurate student proficiency trend report, the EOCT results from 2010-2012 and the GHSWT results from 2010-2011. GHSWT is administered in the fall to first time 11th graders. The official writing results for 2012 are not available. See Chart below. EOCT 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 9th Lit 55% 58% 69% Amer. Lit 68% 70% 70% Biology 30% 24% 41% Page 4
Economics 45% 38% 45% Math I 24% 17% 32% Math II 10% 11% 16% Physical Sci. 48% 41% 41% U.S. History 29% 37% 32% GHSWT 80% 89% 86%(unofficial) Beginning with the 2010/2011 school year, the high school graduation rate was calculated using the cohort calculation method. This transition affected the Josey High school graduation rate progress. 2010 (Lever Rate) 2011 (Cohort) 2012 (Cohort) Graduation Rate 72% 47% Data Resource: Governor's Office of Student Achievement, http://www.gadoe.org/curriculum-instruction-and- Assessment/Assessment/Pages/EOCT-Statewide-Scores.aspx Georgia Department of Education, http://reportcard2011.gaosa.org/(s(5f3aj0b1h5xu4ve2gkm0oi1n))/k12/reports.aspx?id=721:3756&testkey=eoct&testtype=qcc Page 5
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. The major challenge that we have faced in the last three years has been our focus on increasing student academic performance. Beginning in academic school year 2012 T. W. Josey performance indicators will be measured by the College and Career Readiness Index. The EOCT will be used to measure student achievement instead of the GHSGT. Between 2009 and 2011, the EOCT results of all students tested in the core content areas of Social Studies, Science, Math and ELA became stagnant. Our proficiency rate in social studies for the academic years ended 2010, 2011, and 2012 was 37%, 38%, and 42%, respectively. Our proficiency rate in science for the same years was 39%, 33%, and 41%, respectively. Our proficiency rate in math was 17%, 14%, and 24%, respectively. Our proficiency rate in ELA for the academic years ended 2010, 2011, and 2012 was 59%, 61%, and 69%, respectively. To meet the demand for student achievement growth, major instructional and structural change was needed. First, significant changes were made to the master schedule, to accommodate collaborative planning time for core subject teachers. Accordingly, professional learning communities were embedded within the school day. Non-core teachers were assigned to a core subject group to meet during designated professional learning meetings. Non-core teachers also meet with core subject teachers, however, they meet immediately after school on a semi-monthly basis. To empower the groups and to minimize the lag time between decisions and implementation of those decisions, an instructional coach or an administrator facilitates each PLC. Group norms include maintaining a task-oriented agenda, professionalism, punctuality, and commitment. As a result of the changes the EOCT Spring 2012 results indicate improvement in all content areas. Many instructional strategies have emerged from PLC meetings. In tandem with our educational consultant, state school improvement specialist, the leadership team, faculty, and staff focus on features and strategies such as use of formative assessment techniques, student engagement, effective classroom management, posting student-friendly objectives on a daily basis, minimizing classroom disruption, universal screening, and creating interventions to maximize student achievement. The leadership team, consisting of the principal, three assistant principals, and two instructional coaches, department chairs, educational consultant, state school improvement specialist, and a RCSS representative, have committed to visit the classroom of every teacher at least once a week. During these visits, instructional strategies that are scheduled for implementation are monitored and tweaked. Professional learning meetings is the primary means of disseminating and analyzing data, exploring best practices from researched-based academic articles, and incorporating district mandates. By institutionalizing professional learning communities into the school culture, and by building capacity in teacher-leaders, we are able to continue working toward meeting our goals and student achievement targets. Page 6
Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. Other notable achievements include: - 66 point gain in SAT (largest in district for 2012) - Significant drop in referrals from 2011 to 2012 (get rates from Mr. Lee) -Students writng and receiving NFL play 60and other grants (Mrs. Poe) -Mrs. Poe one of the five finalists for county teacher of the year -Professional learning by world renouned education consultants (Karen Bailey, Stephen Barkley and Dave Webber) -Leadership team rated as fully operational by Georgia department of education Team - Leadership Team presented at Pearson National Conference 2012 -Principal Presentation at SIG statewide conference Page 7