Santa Susana High School
Focus on Learning
"Going from Good to Great!"
D. Standards Based Student Learning: Assessment and Accountability
D1. To what extent does the school use a professionally acceptable assessment process to collect, disaggregate, analyze and report student performance data to the parents and other shareholders of the community?
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Santa Susana High School has a formalized process of data analysis that guides instruction throughout the school year. Faculty members believe that classroom assessment data is the most important element in the day-to-day instructional decision-making that ultimately leads to increased student achievement. Regular and timely assessment of student work helps to identify strengths and weaknesses in student learning, monitor student progress and make adjustments in instruction as needed. For the past four years during the annual August staff development day prior to school’s opening, the faculty as a whole review the school-wide results of the STAR, CAHSEE and A.P. tests. The results for each department are shared with the entire faculty. Faculty in the core departments are given individual student STAR results for students in each class they taught the previous spring and are then able to measure lesson plans/instructional goals with actual student outcomes. Faculty members may or may not share the results with their colleagues; however, in practice, colleagues at SSHS have always shared. While this consumes extensive time in preparation since scores are not given to the school in this format (disaggregated by teacher), we find that the information—truly individually disaggregated—is extremely valuable. Discussions revolve around strategies for improved student achievement and each department works throughout the school year to modify instructional practices to that end. After the fall analysis of data, specific content area(s) are targeted during the ensuing academic year. Departments are also given structured time during the fall staff development day to work together on their annual strategies for improvement. The SSHS administration reviews and discusses the strategies with each department. After school begins, and continuing throughout the school year, faculty meet during weekly one-hour Friday Morning Meetings (FMMs). Instructional improvement, targets for student achievement, and data analysis are typical topics of those meetings. Each of the four monthly FMMs are designated as follows: a general meeting, a department meeting, a Data Teams (data analysis) meeting, and a staff development meeting which often includes the analysis of data and topics addressing teaching and learning. In addition, the entire faculty devotes several FMMs each year to analyzing language arts and mathematics standards and correlating them with the CAHSEE and STAR. Santa Susana staff regularly attends workshops and conferences to keep abreast of current research and increase their knowledge about assessment and how to integrate effective practices into daily instruction. The acquisition of grant funds (particularly the Smaller Learning Communities grant) has enabled school leadership to offer the staff countless opportunities to continue the development of their knowledge and skills base. Information from these events is shared with the faculty at Friday Morning Meetings and during frequent informal faculty discussions. Although analyzing and using assessment data is not new to SSHS, this year Data Teams have been formed to provide a more formal structure in which to make sound instructional decisions. Departments serve as the basis for Data Teams at SSHS, although the department chair is not always the data team leader. Careful attention is paid to designating a separate meeting dedicated to data analysis so as not to discuss other department issues. Data Teams have worked to create articulation and capacity to actively engage all faculty members in the teaching and learning process. Data Team leaders meet monthly with the principal for updates and assistance when needed. Common assessments are essential to the data analysis process and guiding instruction. Where courses are taught by more than one teacher, common assessments have been developed and are used to facilitate the accurate collection of data. The smaller nature of Santa Susana creates an environment in which many courses are single sections and taught by only one teacher on campus, therefore making common assessments unnecessary in this instance. All English department members utilize a modified Jane Schaffer model to teach essay writing in the ninth-grade, which is expanded upon in subsequent years. This model allows for an extensive use of self-evaluation, peer-editing, error correction, and analysis to promote student awareness of expectations. Modern Language Association (MLA) format is also used uniformly department-wide as a reference for writing assignments and assessments. During the ninth grade each student is given a MLA pamphlet during the library orientation and it is then used throughout their schooling at SSHS as a style guide for citation. Analysis of the data collected is regularly used during staff development and department meetings to modify and adapt curriculum and instruction in the core curricular subjects, including Special Education. The data allows departments to continually align their curricula to match state and district standards, and to develop performance assessments for each course of study. “Power standards” (standards addressed most frequently on state assessments) have been identified, and matrices have been developed by faculty to verify that power standards are included in routine classroom instruction. SSHS has a formalized and routine process for reporting student performance data to all stakeholders. Multiple methods of reporting provide a consistent update of assessment results to students, staff, parents, district personnel and community members. Classroom Policies, in the form of management plans and syllabi, are given to every student in each subject at the beginning of each semester. They provide parents and students clear expectations and detailed evidence of the opportunity to learn. Teachers use these policies to communicate to all students what is expected to produce proficient or advanced work, and have collaboratively decided to establish the practice of frequent communication with students about specific standard(s) addressed in each assessment, including homework, exams and projects. Students are made aware of achievement expectations, which are detailed not only in the policies, but in all teacher management plans as well. In response to an identified need to include parents and students in the school’s process of standards-based teaching and learning, departments designed and published content standards brochures which summarize requirements, benchmarks, and assessment procedures for each course. These brochures are given to families at the beginning of each semester and contain valuable information about what is expected of each student in each course (See Appendix). Progress reports (distributed at five and fifteen weeks) and report cards (mailed at the end of a quarter and semester) reflect academic progress as well as social, emotional and physical development. The comprehensive format includes grades in citizenship and effort, as well as a section allowing teachers to relay comments specific to each student. Teacher comments communicate valuable information to parents about habits, social interaction, attendance patterns, participation, cooperation, and involvement in the learning process. In addition to report cards, parents receive results of the STAR, CAHSEE, PSAT, SAT tests as well as frequent communication from teachers via e-mail regarding grade reports. Assessment information, in addition to IEP and ELL program information, is available for translation in Spanish. Progress Reports and Report Cards are reviewed every five weeks in the Troubadour Advisory Program (TAP) when all students meet one-on-one with their TAP Teacher to analyze progress. In this regard, TAP serves as the most important means of addressing student achievement data. During TAP occasional “chats” are given by the school principal who appears televised in every classroom with an update on school-wide progress and assessment data. In addition to Report Cards and Progress Reports, the district generates public reports of school and student achievement data. The School Accountability Report Card (SARC) is available for parents in paper or electronic form, as is the state API information from the school. The WASC report is posted on the website to report school progress to the public. Santa Susana is proud of the progress it has made and posts its accomplishments (API, for example) regularly on the website and the marquee. The principal hosts a monthly coffee for parents and members of the community where information about events, test scores, and any other relevant business is provided. News and updates are also communicated to parents and community members through the Troubadour Express, a monthly newsletter published by the assistant principal. The school administration joins with students, parents, teachers and community members on the School Site Council (SSC) to inform stakeholders of student performance results and to gather input regarding the school’s assessment process. STAR, CAHSEE, A.P., and SAT outcomes are always shared with the School Site Council, PTSA, and booster groups at appropriate meetings. The infusion of technology into the classroom allows teachers to use e-mail communication to regularly inform students and parents about progress. Regular e-mail communication and use of sites such as yourhomework.com provide parents with daily/weekly updates on assignments and student progress. Many parents use the internet to apprise the teachers about concerns and requests. The teachers check their e-mail daily and can therefore, issue an immediate response to the parents. The staff at Santa Susana High School is unique in their approach to analyzing student progress. The teachers are not satisfied with what “has been.” They are continually delving into current studies, investigating the way other schools run their programs, and attending workshops in order to implement what “could be" at SSHS to enhance the total academic program for our students and making sure that all stakeholders are aware.
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D2. To what extent do teachers employ a variety of assessment strategies to evaluate student learning? To what extent do students and teachers use these findings to modify the teaching/learning process for the enhancement of the educational progress of every student?
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A wide variety of assessments are embedded in daily instruction to accommodate various modes of learning, demonstrate effective communication, and stimulate powerful thinking to ensure achievement. Departments and individual teachers have developed rubrics for projects and writing assignments. Classroom Policies, in the form of management plans and syllabi, are given to every student in each subject at the beginning of each semester. They provide parents and students clear expectations and detailed evidence of the opportunity to learn. Teachers use these policies to communicate to all students what is expected to produce proficient or advanced work, and have collaboratively decided to establish the practice of frequent communication with students about specific standard(s) addressed in each assessment, including homework, exams and projects. Students are made aware of achievement expectations, which are detailed not only in the policies, but in all teacher management plans as well. Leadership Team representatives attended a three-year School California State Leadership Association (CSLA) team Development Seminar whose focus was to instruct schools in how to develop rubrics for performance standards and benchmarks that assess achievement of content standards. This information became the topic of many FMMs and was distributed to individual departments to develop their own standards-based assessment materials. Rubrics are used in most subjects to enable students to self-evaluate against criteria. Teachers use rubrics regularly to discuss student progress and re-evaluate content before moving on. The English department is currently piloting a district-wide rubric for writing assignments. To accurately assess what students should know and be able to do, teachers create assessments that accommodate the three basic modes of learning (visual, auditory and kinesthetic). Students create posters; give oral reports, individually and with a group; take tests orally; take lab practicum exams and write up lab reports; create artwork; write plays/ scenes /poetry and present to their classmates; and use a wide variety of technology to show their skills in given areas. Students / classes have written plays that have been performed throughout the state. Technology is used for research projects (Library Without Walls) to demonstrate student’s creative talents and help students produce professional quality work. Other assessments include real-life, performance-based tasks. Venn diagrams, flow charts and other graphic tools are used for the visual learner. Oral exams, creative documentaries, debate, listening/responding exercises, instrumental and vocal performances, and drill questions are used to accommodate the auditory learner. Kinesthetic learners are given opportunities to perform in plays, skits, and dance recitals, direct drama productions, class skits, build projects and sets, use lighting, video, and sound systems and use the computer to complete class assignments and assessments. Other assessment tools used to link school assessments with statewide expectations are departmental finals, standardized tests, daily work, portfolios, reports (oral and written), projects, videos, and performances as well as informal tools such as peer evaluations and student surveys. Formal and informal assessments are ongoing and extend across all curricular areas to measure student mastery of standards. Students have many opportunities to evaluate and reflect on their own work. Students in the English 9 classes, for example, learn how to analyze their own essays through rubrics generated by Jane Schaffer. Instrumental and vocal music students write and perform original compositions and consult with the instrumental music teacher and fellow students to analyze the quality of the work. Students in computer programming conduct ongoing self-evaluation using rubrics that measure their progress. Learners in the core curricular classes keep their completed assignments and quizzes/tests in notebooks or portfolios. This material is used to study for chapter/unit tests and as a resource for research assignments. Teachers periodically check the notebooks/portfolios for corrections and completion. Although performing arts department (vocal and instrumental music, theatre and dance) assessments are primarily performance-based (concerts, recitals, shows, competitions and class performances), students are assessed on their written and oral work as well. Students are required to self-assess as they perform. Music students record their singing/playing and listen to the recording for a self-evaluation. The competition performances are taped, analyzed by adjudicators and given to the directors at the school. Written exams and reports on genre and music theory, theatre and dance are also an important part of assessing the curriculum. Students in the area of performing arts are evaluated during concerts, dance recitals, competitions, and class performances. They listen to tapes supplied by the adjudicators after competitions. A variety of technologies are used to complete work, perform assessments and create projects. PC’s/laptops/word processors are used for producing written material, research, individual projects, review for tests, create portfolios, revise and review notes, critique work and learn skills. Students scan photographs, drawings, class work, and research items into the computer generated material to personalize their work. Teachers and students deliver lessons and work using the TV-elite and LCD/overhead projectors. Digital cameras are employed to capture students while working in labs, cooperative groups, and creating projects. The pictures are displayed on campus and used in personal portfolios. Graphing calculators allow students to have immediate feedback, review, and check their work for accuracy. Our light, video, camera and sound systems are used by students to develop skills that are directly related to a variety of careers. Students show their individual skills in the Schools and Academies by earning certificates, which are awarded at the Senior Awards ceremony. The students can earn one of three different levels of certificates depending upon the amount of skills that have been reflected as they take classes in their School and Academy. Achievement data are analyzed at all levels and are used to modify instruction in key areas. Students performing at “below basic” and “far below basic” levels are targeted through a variety of intervention programs. Designated Academic Research Time (DART) addresses the specific needs of these students through in-school tutoring sessions with college and university level tutors. Assistance provided in DART supplements classroom standards-based instruction and assessment to increase achievement in the core academic areas. “DART-math” is an after-school tutoring program offered by faculty members to assist below basic students to increase their performance in California content standards-based material. The SSHS chapter of California Scholarship Federation (CSF) sponsors and operates an after-school peer tutoring program open to all students. New textbook adoptions in language arts, foreign language and social studies facilitate and increase the use of standards-based instruction and assessments by all teachers at Santa Susana. A careful selection process led to the acquisition of these up-to-date textbooks which provide valuable assessment tools linked directly to California content standards. Other core subjects expect new adoptions in coming school years and continue to fuse textbook content with department-created assessments. In an effort to promote the retention of previously learned content, teachers revisit topics regularly and include cumulative material in assessments. The school has expanded its monitoring of graduates through new data collection methods sponsored by a recently awarded Smaller Learning Communities Grant. Information gathered through annual phone surveys provide statistics vital to modifying and improving the preparation students receive at SSHS. An on-going database has been created which tracks postgraduate patterns. A long-term analysis of data will provide material for continual program improvements that affect graduates in their postsecondary life. A Senior Survey also provides information valuable to this process.
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D3. To what extent does the school with the support of the district and community have an assessment and monitoring system to determine student progress toward achievement of the academic standards and the expected school-wide learning results?
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The school district and community are involved in academic assessment on a variety of levels. The textbook adoption process provides uniform curriculum for most subjects and includes a standards-based assessment program. District-wide wide assessments are created from the textbook materials, or, where necessary, are uniformly and collaboratively designed to align with the content standards. The 2005, semester-break staff development day provided an opportunity for all middle and high school teachers to come together as departmental colleagues to ensure that assessments were common among all teachers and schools, and to create a plan for refining assessments where appropriate. This collaborative work provided a valuable opportunity that opened up dialogue between schools that has remained continual. The district Curriculum Council meets twice yearly and Subject Area Committees meet quarterly to discuss subject-specific curriculum and assessments, to approve new courses, and to maintain a consistent process for assessing student performance district-wide. Both the Director of Secondary Education and Director of Curriculum and Instruction are instrumental in providing valuable information during these meetings that is then taken back to the school site and relayed to the staff. The Santa Susana administrators also attend these meetings in addition to the department representatives to keep abreast of subject matter concerns. The Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office provides professional development opportunities for both principals and teachers. Recently topics have focused mainly on data collection and analysis, and ways to improve instruction. In coordination with the county office, the district requires principals to attend Ventura County Institute for Principals (VIP) workshops four/five times per year to benefit from the teachings and expertise of experts in the field. A new addition to VIP is the teacher strand of the same professional development series, Teams For Success (T4S). Teachers can now attend sessions with the same speakers and learn from the experts that were once only within reach of school administration. SSHS has been able to use grant funds to send multiple teachers to appropriate T4S workshops this year, including seminars by: Doug Reeves focusing on data and assessment practices, John Hollingsworth on Explicit Direct Instruction, Rick Lavoie on strategies that do and don’t work with learning disabled students, and Rick and Becky DuFour on professional learning communities. The Focus on Learning process has provided all stakeholders the opportunity to take part in the assessment process. Representatives from the community and the district, through monthly FOL meetings, have provided input into the school’s plan to maximize learning through student assessment. With the help of teachers, students, parents, district personnel, and community members, SSHS faculty has been able to refine its practices along the way and identify areas in which to focus.
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D4. To what extent does the assessment of student achievement in relation to the academic standards and the expected school-wide learning results drive the school’s program, its regular evaluation and improvement and usage of resources?
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Santa Susana High School regards assessment as an integral part of the total educational process and culture of the school. Assessment results are used to monitor individual student progress, evaluate and revise the school-wide plan, modify teaching techniques, design curriculum, establish goals and objectives and allocate resources and funds. A wide variety of assessments are embedded in daily instruction to accommodate various modes of learning, stimulate powerful thinking, demonstrate effective communication, and ensure academic achievement. SSHS maintains an on-going, comprehensive and continually updated assessment plan that measures student achievement as directly related to California content standards. The content standards for English, social studies, math and science are distributed by the district to each department member and are in line with, or identical to, the state content standards. In content areas without state or district standards, Santa Susana High School’s departments have developed their own content standards based on national or other curricular standards and use them department-wide. Several departments use specialized ScanTron forms to generate test analysis data on the types / number of questions achieved and missed on a test. The ability to pinpoint specific areas of strength and weakness in student performance has significantly increased awareness among faculty of where to focus instructional efforts in order to maximize learning and increase student achievement. In hopes of receiving federal grant funding through a Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) initiative in 2003, Santa Susana High School carried out a school-wide assessment of student outcomes and academic achievement. Through the extensive collection of data, key focus areas were identified and a plan was created to target areas in need of improvement, and to most effectively use and allocate available resources. The objectives and goals of the SLC timeline align directly with the goals of the Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA) and the FOL Action Plan. The commonality of all plans is the use of student outcome data to drive and improve instructional practices school wide. This is evidenced through the use of data to target students for the Intervention Specialist Program, the monthly Data Team meetings and goals, and the semi-annual staff development day dedicated to assessing state test data. At SSHS the allocation of resources, both monetary and other, must be directly related (in all school plans) to student achievement as defined by the academic standards and the Expected School-wide Learning Results.
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Areas of Strength
- The staff strongly commits to solving problems and taking the initiative to improve student achievement.
- The staff continually builds on past experience and ongoing current research.
- SSHS has implemented a formal process for assessing and using data (Data Teams).
- SSHS has a regular and formal process for communicating student performance data and expectations to parents and other community stakeholders.
- SSHS offers standards-based curriculum and instruction to students.
- The staff has developed a meeting schedule that allows them the opportunity to focus regularly on data analysis and its relationship to teaching and learning (FMMs).
- Student intervention programs are being implemented and refined.
Key Issues
- Faculty and staff should to continue use data analysis as a way to continually improve teaching and learning.
- Continue to increase number of students qualified for "A-G" requirements.
- Encourage students to take more rigorous classes during the 12th grade year.
- Continue to refine and/or develop intervention programs that support classroom instruction for students who are at-risk.
- Improve school to home communication regarding student progress.
- Find opportunities to articulate more with middle schools.
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