As a school district, we have re-configured our school district and Mission Secondary school is now a Sr. Secondary school with grades 10,11 and 12. As a staff we came to consensus on investing our professional development money on providing opportunities to continue to build our professiona learning community and implementing the Response to Interventions work that is needed for high levels of learning for all our students. Our PLC prcess has become more refined and streamlinded to meet all the needs of our all our students. We have Plc meetings that occur once a month. From these big picture meetings we have aligned our departments with common prep time allowing staff to work on SMART goals and assessment conversations. From the collaborative conversations it has tightened our RTI work where we have developed our School Inervention Team. This team meets on a weekly bases and provides information to our school community as well as our District Intervention Team which is has become and excellent resourse for us. We will attend conferences that deal directly with feedback for learning (assessment), providing tools for our instructors to meet the needs of our vulnerable learners. We will provide common prep time for departments to meet as a PLC to discuss teaching strategies and build common assessments.

This year we will build common summative assessments for all our core academic courses for midterm and final exams. This will allow us to make adjustments to our teaching as well as see where our strengths and our challenges are.  This year we have provided two professional development days so teachers can have conversations with staff at the school,  to other schools, or go to our middle schools to vertically align their essential learning outcomes so students can be ready for the next level. We have put some excellent structures in place for staff to indicate who the vulnerable learners are in their classroom. They provide our intervention teams with reports on specific needs of the student. For example, a teacher may report that a student needs help with organization of workbooks and notebooks. We will have a peer tutor work with that student during the lunch hour or after school to provide that support. Another example is having an Educational Assisstant work side by side with a student in the classroom to provide extra support on a particular unit or afterschool where that student may need more intensive intervention. These types of interventions have increased transitions rates grade to grade and we are graduating more students than we did prior to re-configuration. For example, we had 353 grade 12 students last year and we graduated 340 of them. This success rate would not have happened without the great work of our entire staff.   We are certain that with the innovative programs and interventions we have in place our graduation rate will continue to improve along with our trasition rate grade - to - grade. Another advantage for re-configuring our schools was to have every staff member teach in their area of expertise and to imporve course selection. We accomplished this in our first year with the entire 75 member teaching staff, teaching in their qualified area and offering 475 courses compared to 320 courses before the change. These new courses that we were able to offer directly link to university acceptance or were qualifing courses for the trades. This will certanly have a postive impact for every child being successful.

Finally, we as a staff needed to become proactive rather than reactive in our approach to meeting the needs of our vulnerable learners. In June we have team meetings and discuss plans for the following year of our most vulnerable learners. We bring in parents, outside agencies, youth care workers, counselors, vice principals and the student in to develop a plan for the coming year. In these plans we have goals for everyone and time frames to meet those goals. In 2015 and 2016 we had our entire staff attend sessions with Mike Mattos and Anthony Muhammad on the Pyramid of interventions and school culture. This paved the way to build our own level of interventions and build tutorial blocks for every student in the building. If we are truly going to take the next steps for improvement it will need to be proactive not reactive a dn will be driven by the Professional Learning Community that we have created along with the Pyramid of Interventions. we must include the parent and give them skills to support their child in the learning process. 

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Our school staff will collectively support all learners in order to ensure high levels of learning.  Students will achieve the essential learning outcomes by implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) tiers and strategies.  Staff will work collaboratively in a vertical team model within the school district and with our educational partners to maximize student achievement and post-secondary enrollment.  Staff will participate in a professional learning community and professional development.  Effective formative and summative common assessments will form the foundation for assessment practices to drive our achievement goals.

Expectations:

 

• Staff will work to implement Response to Intervention strategies at Tiers 1, 2, and 3, including tutorials embedded within the timetable as well as outside the timetable
• Staff will participate in vertical teams within the school, with middle schools, with alternate education schools and with post-secondary institutions
• Staff will have a comprehensive understanding of the new curriculum, coupled with the ability to interpret curriculum appropriately to accommodate individual differences and incorporate personalized learning.
• Staff will work collaboratively with curricular partners on instructional strategies, meeting students’ educational needs, and administering and analyzing common assessments. 
• Staff will design and provide all students with timely formative and summative assessments that align with essential learning outcomes and monitor student progress effectively and communicate with students and parents in a timely manner. 
• Staff will be involved in professional development with an ongoing commitment to learn and implement new methodologies and strategies.
• Staff will work collaboratively with students, parents and community stakeholders to enhance the school as a learning community.

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

  RTI success

• Decrease student drop-out rates
• Improve grade-to-grade transition rates
• Survey staff and students about learning support model

Scanning

Students now are brought forward to our SChool Intervention teams(SIT) so we can create a plan for their success

 Focused

We implemented a new approach that focused on an RTI model that guaranteed high levels of learning for all.

 Developing a hypothesis

If we provide early interventions through RTI practices, then student success rates will increase.

 

New professional learning

Our student support service team visited other programs to develop a system of support for students.  A large percentage of staff attended RTI conferences.

 Taking action

Our student support service team used a push-in and pull-out model to support vulnerable learners.  Teaching staff designed common assessments through PLC to support student learning and included RTI practices.

 Is there a big enough difference?

Baseline data is being collected for grade-to-grade transitions and drop-out rates.  An exit survey is being designed to collect information about our learning support system.

 

 PEER TUTORING PROGRAM: One teacher oversees this program and has approximately 40 students who can support the learning of our vulnerable learners. We have teachers fill out a form describing the performance of the particular student. This form is handed to the teacher who meets with the peer tutor who then is assigned to the student. This student may work side by side in the classroom a meeting during lunch or after school to support the learner.

SHORT TEAM LEARNING ASSISTANCE: This program looks at students who need intensive interventions from an instructor for a short period of time. The student maybe taken out of an elective course in order to receive the interventions needed to be successful in their academic class. This program is used for our French Immersion program and we really have seen success in the student. Our Aborignal and youth care workers also spend time working with these individuals

COLLEGE TUTORS: We are able to bring in college tutors to work specifically with groups of students on study techniques and higher level questioning techniques. These college students have group discussions about a particular subject and really try and get the student to think deeply about the topic.

ACADEMICS AFTER SCHOOL: All our departments post schedules for students so at least one teacher is available after school for consultations with students. So even if it is not your specific teacher you as a student can go and get support from a teacher in the department.

After School SUPPORT WITH EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANTS: This progam gives students who have difficulty in doing homework at home the opportunity to come to a support group where there are professional people who can concentrate on individuals and their specific learning needs.

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

We as a school are on a journey for the improvement of all our students and especially or most vulnerable. We have recognized that these students can not continue to fail and drop out of the system. This work has been going on for some time but over the past two or three years with the introduction of the Professional Learning Community and imbedding the Collaborative Team Model  and RTI Model into the regular school day we are ready to make the jump to a point where every child with individual support will we will ensure high level of learning for all.

During our collaborative team meetings we discuss students and their success. We talk about new strategies and answer questions about school improvement. It is these times I believe that teachers need in order to make improvements in their practice. Teaching is very isolated and if administration does not give time for teachers to talk in the regular school day there may be little improvement. I attend many of the collaboration meetings but not all as I believe teachers need time to discuss strategies and structures with out me in the room. I do ask for minutes of each meeting and I will reflect on the minutes and have discussions with the group. The model is working and we are building outstanding relationships with each other. 

Additional Achievement Data

Source for the grade 10 and 12 results are the Provincial Exam scores compared to other high schools in district . In 2016 compared to provincial marks

Scores reflect the school % compared to the Provincial % at the grade 10 and 12 level provincial and school results

Grade 10	2014(M.S./other) non configuration	2015 (M.S./other) non configuration	2016 (M.S./other) configuration
Math	68/65	69/68	66/66
Science	64/60	63/61	65/73
English	67/66	69/67	67/68

 

Grade 12	2014 (M.S/other) non configuration	2015(M.S./other non configuraton	2016(M.S./other) configuration
Math	72/70 School marks	71/70	increased the number of students taking math by 60 students compared to non configuration
English	68/66	66/64	70/70
Biology	73/70 School marks	74/67	increased the number of students enrolled by 45 prior to reconfiguration

Our grade 10 and 12 data is based on a comparison between school results which are a combined exam mark and school mark vs. a combined Provincial mark.

 During 2014

we as a school introduced grade team meetings as part of our collaborative meetings. These meetings allowed us to really concentrate on our most vulnerable learners and come up with plans to meet their individual needs. Our grade 10 and 12 results have  improved. If you look at just the exam results our students are performing  above provincial average in most areas. From this success we have increased our Advanced Placement enrollment from 15 students three years ago to 157 students in 2016.

2015 - Skills Canada place 2nd with four students in different areas

2015 - Adavanced Placement over 70% of our students scored a four on the exam

2014 - National Gold medal wrestler

2010 – Province TVS story on Technology in the classroom to improve student assessment and learning.

2010 – Awarded the Breakfast of Canada Award. This award will provide breakfast to 300 students a day.

2010 – Recognized for a Cultural Diversity award

2008 – National Advanced Placement scholar

2008 – State scholar

2007 – Ten Provincial Scholarship winners

2007 - Recognized two students as honor standing for Advanced Placement first time ever

2006 – Recognized as the Most Improved Academic School in the Province of British Columbia

2005 – Awarded a grant from the government to implement the AVID program one of only 21 schools in British Columbia to receive the grant

2005 – Several staff members speaking at academic conferences and one staff member speaking at an international conference on Restorative Justice

Files

• growth-plan-2016-3.docx