Rocklin Academy Gateway (2020)

  1. PLC Story
  2. PLC Practices
  3. Achievement Data
  4. Awards
  5. Resources

Rocklin Academy Gateway opened in 2014, as a replication of Rocklin Academy. In opening a new school with 828 students on day one, we knew that creating a culture of collaboration was essential for success. Using Learning By Doing as a guide, and working closely with teacher leaders from our other sites and a strong administrative team, we focused our efforts on creating a culture focused on student learning and results. Administration, our leadership team, and other teacher leaders have attended workshops with Mike Mattos, Robert Marzano, Thomas Many, Tim Kanold, and other leaders in PLCs.

For the first year of implementation, time was given within the school day for teams to meet every other week, and team meetings were staggered to allow administration to facilitate the Collaborative Inquiry process. In those meetings, teams analyzed common assessment data, determining the greatest area of need, and developed a plan to meet the needs of individual learners within three different groups. Teachers planned extension activities for students already proficient, identified strategies to implement for "strategic" students who would benefit from instruction and practice, and created intervention strategies for those needing additional support to be successful in the goal area. 

Faculty meetings were used to introduce protocols to teams to analyze data and to provide the opportunity for teachers to have vertical articulation conversations. Teachers collectively developed tools to practice individual goal setting with students based on data. After the leadership team attended a workshop with Mike Mattos on essential standards, grade level teams were given multiple release days to focus on identifying and unpacking their essential standards.

Now in our sixth year of operation, Rocklin Academy Gateway serves 1,179 students in Transitional Kindergarten through 8th grade. As our school has grown, our teacher leaders have been able to take the lead to cultivate the culture that has been established. Protocols introduced in the first year are now used by grade level teams and grade level bands to continue understanding of essential standards, as we adjust to the needs of our students illuminated by student achievement data. New teachers are supported by mentor teachers and instructional coaches, and our leadership team continues to use tools from Learning By Doing to continue to monitor the practice and progress of our PLCs.

We now have monthly full day professional learning days, during which teachers engage in Collaborative Inquiry, as well as weekly collaboration time to allow teachers to focus on creating and analyzing assessments, scoring writing together, or planning instruction based on student data. Our master schedule is built to prioritize additional common planning and prep time for teachers. Specials, such as music and PE in the elementary grades, and electives in the middle school grades, are scheduled in a way that allows grade level teams to have planning time at the same time. That planning time is dedicated to curriculum development and collaboration, allowing professional learning time to be dedicated to data analysis. 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Rocklin Academy Gateway learning team exemplifies Learning Forward’s definition of professional development by embodying the practice of collaborative inquiry - a systematic, purposeful process during which teachers and administration work together to analyze student data and develop instructional strategies that address the needs of all students, including those who require additional support, those who are close to proficiency, and the students who have achieved proficiency and are ready to delve more deeply into a concept.

It is not the fact that teams of teachers collaborate which is important, but rather that they collaborate with a clarity of commitment to ongoing learning and progress, examining student work on a regular basis, creating strategic goals to improve achievement, and enhancing their own skills as educators. Teachers continually improve their practice by regularly assessing student achievement and evaluating the effectiveness of teaching strategies and by learning from each other- by daily sharing the expertise that exists within our school. If, at the conclusion of a data cycle cycle, assessment results show that academic goals have not been met, teachers re-evaluate and adjust instructional strategies and readdress areas of need until all students reach proficiency in a particular concept.

The collaborative inquiry results for a representative goal for each grade level are presented in the following table:

 

Enrollment

C.I. Goal

Beginning

Proficiency

Ending

Proficiency

Kindergarten

120

By March 21st, 100% of Kindergarten students will write a sentence beginning with a capital letter, using two finger spacing, and ending with punctuation as measured by a teacher created assessment.  

23%

80%

First

120

By March 21st 100% of first graders will be proficient in adding and subtracting from multiples of 10 by using models/drawing as measured by a teacher created assessment.

68%

93%

Second

120

By March 21st, 100% of second graders will be able to identify the main idea of a multiple paragraph text, as measured by a teacher created assessment.

23%

76%

Third

120

By March 21, 100% of 3rd grade students will be proficient at answering comprehension questions from a variety of text types (informational and literature based) with evidence to support their understanding, as measured by a teacher created assessment.

27%

78%

Fourth

120

By March 21st, 100% of fourth grade scholars will be able to determine and summarize the theme of a story or poem from details in a text, as graded by a teacher created rubric.

28%

90%

Fifth

120

By March 21st, a 100% of students will be proficient in quoting accurately from when drawing inferences from an informational text.

38%

46%

Sixth

180

By March 21st 100% of students will present claims and findings accurately, using appropriate eye contact, volume, and clear pronunciation, as measured by a teacher created assessment.

35%

86%

Seventh

150

By March 21st, 100% of 7th grade math students will be proficient on the operations with rational numbers focus area, as measured by the rational numbers focus area assessment.

46%

61%

Eighth

100

By March 21st, 100% of 8th grade math students will be proficient on knowing and applying the properties of integer exponents to generate equivalent numerical expressions measured by a teacher created item bank assessment.

0%

70%

 

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Through professional learning communities and our collaborative inquiry process, teachers use data from ongoing assessments to identify the needs of individual students. Shared strategies to improve student learning are developed and implemented collaboratively, meeting the needs of students below, at, and above grade level on any particular essential standard or skill. 

Time is provided within the school day to focus on areas of individual improvement during Enrichment Block, or E-Block. E-Block is a period of the day during which time no new instruction occurs.  Rocklin Academy Gateway has three full-time intervention teachers who support during each grade level's E-Block. Teachers use formative assessment data to form targeted groups for intervention or enrichment, often sharing students across the grade level to form their groups. 

The master schedule has been created to create common math, English Language Arts, and Enrichment Block times across each grade level. This has allowed teachers to form groups across the grade level to differentiate their instruction to best meet the needs of each individual student. E-Block is staggered across the school, allowing intervention teachers to provide targeted intervention to each grade level during that important time of the day.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Opening a large new school created an exciting opportunity for building collaborative teams and setting the vision for the school from the start. Our teacher hiring process embeds the principles of a Professional Learning Community, where protocols around data analysis and collaboration, as well as an observed demonstration lesson, are as important as an actual interview. Using Gallup's Strengths Finder tools as a basis for beginning work together as teams, we start off the year focusing on strengths and how our teachers' strengths can enhance the team. 

Setting high-reaching, yet attainable goals at the beginning of every year, as a  school, and as grade level teams, creates a common purpose upon which teams can focus. With essential outcomes in mind, pacing guides and common formative and summative assessments are utilized to ensure that all students are able to reach proficiency in grade-level standards and that they will gain the appropriate knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Moreover, every week teachers engage in high-quality professional learning during purposeful, goal-oriented, grade-level team and faculty meetings. Each meeting’s topic is determined by current student data which drives instruction so that all students are learning at high levels. Teachers whose data demonstrates effective strategies share their methods and ideas with colleagues in order to replicate their success. Ongoing professional development is further embedded in the school day through peer observations and walkthroughs targeted to specific student learning needs. The school's master schedule is built to prioritize team time, as well, with specials (P.E. and Music) scheduled to provide grade level teams common time for curriculum development and collaboration.

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

The below tables outline Rocklin Academy Gateway's CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) data from 2014-2015, our first year of operation, to present. It is important to note that Rocklin Academy Gateway opened with grades Transitional Kindergarten through 6th grade, and added 7th grade in 2015-2016 and 8th grade in 2016-2017. We now are fully built out, and have an enrollment plan to have steady enrollment from Transitional Kindergarten through 8th grade.

The tables below show English Language Arts and Math assessment data. Rocklin Academy Gateway is located in Placer County, which is a high achieving county. Included below is county data, along with data from the state of California.

 

ELA CAASPP: % of Students Met or Exceeded Standards

 

2014-2015

2015-2016

2016-2017

2017-2018

2018-2019

Rocklin Academy Gateway

75%

76%

73%

75%

74%

Placer County

61%

63%

63%

64%

65%

State of California

44%

49%

48%

50%

51%

 

Math CAASPP: % of Students Met or Exceeded Standards

 

2014-2015

2015-2016

2016-2017

2017-2018

2018-2019

Rocklin Academy Gateway

73%

70%

67%

69%

67%

Placer County

49%

52%

52%

53%

54%

State of California

33%

37%

37%

39%

40%

Placer Herald's Best of the Best Elementary School-2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018

Placer Herald's Best of the Best Teacher-2016, 2017, and 2018

Placer Herald's Best of the Best Principal- 2015, 2016, 2017

CA PBIS Coalition - Gold Level Recognition 2019

 

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