Apollo Transformation Update

1. Apollo Transformation Update Ray Chavez and Jan Vesely May 13, 2008

2. The 9 Essential Components for School Transformation • Facilities External & Internal environment • Staffing Hire and Retain Classified and Certified Staff • Master Schedule Multiple opportunities for all to learn • Safe and Orderly Maintain an orderly, respectful and personalized school • Governance Representative leadership • Professional Development Support skill development of teachers and administration • Parent Engagement • Involvement in child’s learning • Teaching and Learning • Standards, Instruction & Assessment to improve academic achievement. • Personalization & Relationships • Positive culture through respectful relationships

3. Facilities S.M.A.R.T. Goal for Apollo Transformation By the opening of school, the SUSD maintenance staff will: Improve building aesthetics with new paint, lighting, ceiling and floor tiles; Ensure that all plumbing, air conditioning are in good operating condition; Update and upgrade library; Replace and upgrade technology; Create a welcoming curb appeal.

4. Facilities • Improve interior, exterior, and grounds of Apollo Middle School Essential Indicators of Quality • Attractive, clean, and fully functioning interior • An entrance, inside and out, that evokes the same ambiance as the Hilton El Conquistador • Safe, well maintained grounds with shaded areas for students and access for activities • Fresh paint, efficient lighting, plumbing,HVAC

5. Facilities Improvement Cost Total Cost:$ 418,897

6. Repairing “D” Bldg. Restrooms

7. Touch of Elegance!

8. LRC Before

10. Thank you for your continued support of Apollo Middle School “By any means necessary…”

11. Letters to Dr. Isquierdo from Apollo students, 3-10-08 “…The school has changed a lot. All of us (student council and students of Apollo) are proud to go everyday because it is a lot better and is looking so nice.” “…I would like to thank you for helping us out with Apollo to make it as great as it can be. I have noticed a lot of changes. This school has improved so much. Our teachers are more trained. Our school looks cleaner. Our students are more focused, and Apollo is now turning into a place that I can learn as much as I want to…” “…We all really appreciate what you do for the students in our district. This year I have noticed several positive changes in Apollo. One major change is the new staff who I believe is a change that the students needed. Another great change is that student behavior has improved. Not only me but many students agree the technology change was a great help to the tons of research we do on a daily basis…”

12. S.M.A.R.T. Goal for Teacher Staffing By the opening of school: Human resources will conduct an intensive recruitment to hire highly qualified and appropriately certified teachers and staff; Human resources will make a commitment to ensure Apollo the highest priority in hiring so that every position will be filled with a permanent employee.

13. SMART GOAL: By the opening of school each classroom will be staffed with an HQT/Appropriately certified teacher or emergency certified special education teachers will continue on plan for full certification

14. SMART GOAL: Experience Index will be tracked on all Apollo staff for 07-08

15. SMART GOAL: Experience Index will be tracked on all Apollo staff for 07-08

16. S.M.A.R.T. Goal for Safe and Orderly With the support of central office, Apollo will: Hire and train a third monitor to support school safety; Develop structures and procedures for high adult visibility on campus; Invite and encourage TPD officers on campus throughout the day; Develop comprehensive school and classroom discipline plan.

17. S.M.A.R.T. Goal for Safe and Orderly With the support of central office, Apollo will: Hire and train a third monitor to support school safety; Completed Develop structures and procedures for high adult visibility on campus; Completed Invite and encourage beat officers on campus throughout the day; Completed Develop comprehensive school and classroom discipline plan. Discipline Matrix Developed

18. Middle School Out-of-School Suspensions: 3 –year trends

19. Middle School Out-of-School Suspensions April 2007 compared to April 2008

20. Middle School In-School Suspensions April 2007 Compared to April 2008

21. Major Conduct Violations for Apollo Second Semester, 2008 33 88 25 55 29

22. Climate Survey says…. • Apollo Teacher Survey Results “Disruptive behaviors are dealt with promptly and appropriately.” 20% increase in “agrees” response, 12% increase in “strongly agree.” • Apollo Teacher Survey Results “The school provides services to improve student behavior.” 24% increase in “agrees” response, 6% increase in “strongly agree.”

23. S.M.A.R.T. Goal for Personalization and Relationships By the opening of school:

24. Climate Survey says…. • Apollo Staff Survey Results “Teachers provide a challenging academic environment for students.” 13% increase in “agrees” response. • Apollo Teacher Survey Results “School office staff make me feel welcome and are helpful.” 29% increase in “strongly agree” response.

25. S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Parent Engagement By May of 2008: Apollo will conduct meetings with parents to share transformation information. Apollo will form an Parent Action team to support engagement. Apollo will offer parent education workshops to instruct parents on how to access the Parent Portal Connect to access student learning.

26. Parent Engagement • Parents have confidence in the school, believe it is a safe place for students, and become more informed in order to be engaged in their child’s learning Essential Indicators of Quality • Parents are actively engaged in their child’s education as a result of being connected with the school, having confidence in the academic programs, and feeling like it is a safe place for their child • Parents participate in parent workshops and events • Successful outreach efforts to recruit and retain families are evident • There is an effective two-way communication system between school and the home • The school provides a structure forparents to be engaged

27. Parent Engagement Goals for 07-08 • Parents will be informed about the transformation at Apollo. Completed • Parent Night for Apollo Update held on 8/1/07 • 350 people attended (parents, students, staff) • Apollo hosted district-wide parent council luncheon. • Recruit and retain a minimum of 10 parents to revise Parent Involvement Plan and Parent Compact. Completed • Training to update PI Plan/Compact completed in March 2008

28. P.E. Goals for 07-08 cont. • Increase use of Parent Connect by 25% • Parent Logins increased from 859 to 1140 (25% ) • 2 Parent Connect Workshops held for parents during 1st semester; approximately 40 parents trained • Provide a structure for parents to be engaged in their child’s education with monthly Parent Workshops • La Frontera provided 2 sessions (12 weeks per session) for 12 families.

29. Teaching & Learning: S.M.A.R.T. Goals During the 2007-2008 School year, support and training will be provided to: • Engage teachers in inquiry (study and dialogue) and consensus building to establish Apollo non-negotiable elements for a prevention and intervention curriculum system focused on each and every student exceeding standards • Establish commitment to and tools for standards-based teaching and learning, research-based instruction, and continuous assessment for learning • Start process with standards mapping for planning; active student engagement, explicit vocabulary, and checking for understanding; and analysis and use of classroom and benchmark assessments for instructional decisions, re-teaching, intervention, & extended learning

30. Teaching and Learning • Rigorous content and performance levels expected with opportunities planned for each and every student to exceed standards Essential Indicators of Quality • Students have opportunity to learn essential performance objectives from Standards with pacing that gives access to “exceeding” achievement • Students have opportunity to know learning objectives and to learn higher order thinking and process skills • Students have opportunity to know learning expectations and see exemplary work • Language, reading, and writing skillsembedded in standards maps forevery content area

31. Professional Development* • Support for teachers to develop effective teaching skills and knowledge to improve learning for students * will rename to “Professional Learning” Essential Indicators of Quality • Culture of continuous improvement to improve student academic and social learning • Multiple learning opportunities including workshops, practice, observation, coaching, and dialogue throughout school year with specific developmental feedback to individual teachers and teams • Weekly conversation in Student Learning Collaboration • Support shared by site and districtoffice leaders

32. Teacher Institutes provided by Great Schools Workshops • Core Curriculum Competencies: 60+ classroom teachers; site administrators & central office administrators. (Course design, formative assessment design, lesson design, classroom based interventions, team collaboration). • Instructional Skills Portfolio: 60+ classroom teachers; site administrators & central office administrators. (Explicit direct instruction, reciprocal teaching, analogies, compare/contrast, project based learning, differentiated instruction, socratic seminars, literature circles).

33. Teaching & Learning Support Provided by Great Schools Workshop

34. S.M.A.R.T. Goals for AIMS Achievement • 12% of all 6th, 7th, & 8th grade FFB students move to the approaching category or above. • Daily attendance rates for AIMS will meet or exceed 95%.

35. S.M.A.R.T. Goals for AIMS Achievement 12% of all 6th, 7th, & 8th grade FFB students move to the approaching category or above. TBD Daily attendance rates for AIMS will meet or exceed 95%. Completed Apollo had 99% attendance for both teachers and students during AIMS!

36. 2007 AIMS RESULTS

37. 2007 AIMS RESULTS

38. Goals to support and monitor monitor AIMS targets. • 60% of all students will score 85% or better on the weekly formative assessments in reading and mathematics. • 100% of students not meeting AIMS targets are provided Saturday school interventions.

40. Next Steps…. Facilities Maintain site improvements. Fund 10 additional classrooms technology resources. Convert and retrofit classroom for Video Math. Staffing Central office will proactively seek and secure HQ teachers for Apollo positions to reach 100% target for highly qualified.

41. Next Steps…. Master Schedule Effective instructional time and multiple opportunities for teaching, re-teaching, and intervention are the focus of the master schedule. In addition, common time will be structured to allow effective planning by teachers. Include a specific language development block for at least two periods daily. Include inclusion model for special education students with teaming model for instruction. Safe and Orderly Maintain third monitor. Students are closely supervised by caring adults while outside the classroom Reduce suspensionand referral rate Implement character education program

42. Next Steps…. Parent Education Parents are actively engaged in their child’s education as a result of being connected with the school, having confidence in the academic programs, and feeling like it is a safe place for their child Parents participate in parent workshops and events. Successful outreach efforts to recruit and retain families are evident. There is an effective two-way communication system between school and the home. The school provides a structure forparents to be engaged.

43. Next Steps…. Continued support from Curriculum and Instruction in conjunction with Great Schools Workshop to provide: Intensive leadership coaching from strategy to implementation. Phase II Teacher training focused on instructional improvement aligned with AIMS during post & pre-service days. Evaluation of organizational efficiency to further improve operations to support student achievement, safe and orderly • Teacher Training in: ELL strategies to support instruction and support reclassification of students. Inclusion strategies to support achievement for SPED students using teaming approach. Instructional methodologies for high student engagement and learning.

44. Next Steps…. Develop 2008-2009 School Improvement plan based on: -disaggregating of all data including AIMS, attendance, climate surveys, formative assessments. -alignment of classroom curriculum to focus on pathways to graduation and college matriculation; especially for ELL’s and Special Education students. -development of S.M.A.R.T. goals which address our quest for higher student achievement.-by classroom, by grade level, by subject, school-wide. -year-long, systematic professional development calendar to support teacher growth toward goals.

45. Next Steps…. Personalization and Relationships • Development of Community Liaison/Instructional Mentor to: -Offer classes to increase student self-efficacy, confidence. -Increase gang prevention activities -Training for students in character education. -Training for teachers in cultural competence/relevance. -Training for students in “cultivation of the soul” to educate students about hate crimes. -Additional parenting classes, (i.e. Love and Logic, Father skills) -Community outreach to strengthen, embrace and engage all community partners with support and participation for Apollo. -Collect student survey data to further analyze how to develop and support student needs.

46. Thank you for your continued support of Apollo Middle School • “By any means necessary…”