1/10/2008Los Angeles Unified School District

CanogaParkHigh School SLC Impact Report

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

Submitted to

Los Angeles Unified School District

I. SCHOOL SLC IMPACT REPORT

RECOMMENDATION SIGN-OFF ROUTING SHEET

I. SCHOOL SLC IMPACT REPORT

RECOMMENDATION SIGN-OFF ROUTING SHEET

1

1/10/2008Los Angeles Unified School District

CanogaParkHigh School SLC Impact Report

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

Submitted to

Los Angeles Unified School District

II. COVER SHEET

Name of School: CanogaParkHigh School

Location Code: 8571

School SLC Contact:

Name:Ms Georgene Gregorian

Title: UTLA Representative

Mailing Address: 6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd.

Canoga Park, CA91303

Telephone: (818) 673-1300

Fax: (818) 673-1300

Email:

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

III. TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. School SLC Impact Report Routing Sheet...... 1
  2. Cover Sheet...... 2
  3. Table of Contents...... 3
  4. Areas of School Impact
  5. School-wide Summary of SLC Design Proposals...... 4
  6. Planning and Organization...... 7
  7. Space...... 14
  8. Time...... 16
  9. Staffing...... 19
  10. School-wide Programs and Activities...... 24
  11. Student Choice...... 28
  12. Community Resources/Partnerships...... 29
  13. Alterations to Facilities Proposed...... 31
  14. School Technical Assistance Checklist...... 32
  15. Acknowledgements ...... 33

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

IV. AREAS OF SCHOOL IMPACT

  1. School-wide Summary of SLC Design Proposals

Summary of Small Learning Communities
No. / SLC Name / Description / Maximum Student Enrollment
1 / FreshmanCenter / Description/Strategies/Plan of Action
The Freshman Center helps all incoming 9th graders acclimate to high school life, provides a challenging yet supportive learning environment, and assists them in advancing successfully to the 10th grade, as well as preparing them to transfer to other SLCs.
Incoming 9th grade students will be placed in core English and Health/Life Skills classes, in addition to other required A-G courses. Not only will the coring of classes and instructors establish the necessary student-teacher relationships, it will encourage students to become accountable for their work and form strong critical thinking skills and habits of mind to prepare them for the rigors of the their academic world. Instructors will work collaboratively to support the learning environment.
The FreshmanCenter offers our students a wealth of incentives and interventions to throughout the year, so they experience the benefits of a personalized, success-oriented education. In order to sustain parental involvement in their children’s academic success, the FreshmanCenter will expand its school-to-family communication regarding academic requirements, activities, and community resources that may be beneficial to them.
Justification for Strategies and Actions
Students who advance successfully from the 9th grade to the 10th grade stand a greater chance of graduating from high school than those who drop out. To that end, the FreshmanCenter is committed to set the foundations of “rigor, relevance and relationships” with each 9th grader to not only ensure full matriculation into the 10th grade, but also to increase the number of matriculating freshmen.
Date Approved by School Site Committee: / 500bb
2 / Pillars
School of Humanities and Arts / Descriptions/Strategies/Plan of Action
This SLC for grades 10 – 12 will focus on thematically integrating arts and letters with science. We will use common themes in our standards-based instruction to foster our sense of community and allow students to identify the connections among their courses. Each grade level has a theme which will be carried out throughout 10th -12th grade by connecting the themes. We endeavor to show students how their studies provide the foundational skills for “a variety of” careers. We have aligned Bloom’s taxonomy with Kaplan’s Universal Concepts to move students from analysis to synthesis by the twelfth grade. This sequence combines rigor and community with the prerequisite skills necessary for college and careers.
Teachers who belong to the Pillars meet regularly to collaborate on standards-based, cross-curricular instruction. Students in English Language Development and Special Education are fully supported by the Pillars. Student success is measured by multiple forms of assessment; instructors will use results to continually inform and guide their teaching.
All students in the Pillars will be able to access all available courses at their grade level, including Honors and Advanced Placement. Academic enrichment, support and intervention will be available for all students.
In order to further connect academics with careers, the Pillars have tapped into a variety of community resources for the Building Assets through Integrated Technology (B.A.I.T.) Academy. This academy assist students develop key technological skills while creating authentic projects for our school and the CanogaPark community – flyers, podcasts of athletic events, web pages, etc.
Justification for Strategies and Actions
Students must demonstrate critical thinking skills in a variety of disciplines and situations, as well as possess technological savvy to compete in an increasingly complex world. High school graduates who possess solid analytical skills and strong technological capabilities will be well-prepared to “pursue” post-secondary achievements and make positive, valuable contributions to both our community and our society as a whole.
Date Approved by School SLC Committee: / 500
3 / Redwoods
School of Health and Human Opportunities / Descriptions/Strategies/Plan of Action
The Redwoods is a grades 10 – 12 SLC that integrates health sciences, healing arts and human services into the curriculum. Students who belong to the Redwoods will study the themes and concepts of medicine and health, and apply them to current and post-secondary achievements. In the Redwoods, students will have the opportunity to discover the power of their contributions to society and making a positive impact in the world.
Teachers who belong to the Redwoods meet regularly to collaborate on standards-based, cross-curricular instruction and strengthen community bonds with all students. Students in English Language Development and Special Education are fully supported by the Redwoods. Student success is measured by multiple forms of assessment; instructors use results to continually inform and guide their teaching.
All students belonging to the Redwoods will be able to access all available courses at their grade level, including Honors and Advanced Placement. Academic enrichment, support and intervention will be offered to all students. Core courses meet A-G requirements.
Additionally, Redwoods students will have the opportunity to study the world of Biotechnology/DNA, first aid, CPR training and other health services through specialized academy classes. The HealthSciencesAcademy has a partnership with KaiserPermanenteHospital in Woodland Hills; our Academy students have obtained internships there, many of which have resulted in paying jobs. / 500
Justification for Strategies and Actions
The concepts of study presented by the Redwoods are fundamentals that students must acquire in order to succeed and thrive in a rapidly progressing society. To study the complexities of language, mathematics, arts, science and medicine in an integrated fashion is to study life. The Redwoods’ standards-based curriculum will provide boththe necessary rigor and relevance, teaching students how to inquire into their world while connecting their backgrounds, interests and individual strengths to the learning process.
Date Approved by School SLC Committee:

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

iv. areas of school impact

Planning and Organization

Small Learning
Community Name / Traditional or
Track(s) Served
(A, B, and/or C) / Timeline
Already Initiated
(Yes/No) / Expected Date of SLC Initiation
(month/year) / Expected Date for a Fully Developed SLC
(month/year)
FreshmanCenter / Traditional / Yes / N/A / N/A
Pillars / Traditional / Yes / N/A / 09/08
Redwoods / Traditional / Yes / N/A / 09/08

Timeline for Rollout of SLCs

YEAR 1: REWIND

Canoga Park High School diligently began moving towards developing SLCs four years ago, and formed four fledgling groups: Freshman Center, Humanities, Health Sciences, and Technology. Members from each of these groups formed the original Design Team.

The Freshman Center was the first group to become a formal SLC, opening in 2005. We knew that we needed to specialize in meeting our freshmen’s academic needs by creating a distinct SLC for them, so that they could more successfully acclimate to high school life. Our Freshman Center has implemented a variety of intervention programs, incentive plans, curricular electives, and other systems to foster a culture of student success.

Wall-to-wall SLC implementation in grades 10 – 12 had always been our goal; our enrollment data corroborated our decision, as the student-to-staff ratio allowed us to foster the much-needed relationships and help our students “thrive and strive” to reach their academic and post-secondary goals and dreams. As the Design Team’s work progressed, they began developing curricular programs and gained school-based partnerships, most notably with Northrup-Grumman Engineering, Pierce College, DeVry Institute, and Kaiser-Permanente. The Team decided on creating three Academies as the SLCs: Arts and Letters (including Humanities), Health Sciences, and Math/Science/Technology. The Design Team met with the faculty to emphasize the urgency, significance and benefits of converting to a smaller, collaborative educational environment. Students were introduced to the Academies by the Lead Teachers, and selected their Academy via preference sheet. However, misconceptions regarding SLCs arose, which led to unforeseen challenges to SLC implementation. As a result, the faculty did not fully support the SLC work that needed to be continued. Despite this, however, the Design Team remained committed to building the Academies.

The setbacks kept coming. In the fall of 2005, we experienced a sudden decrease of 400 CAP students. This ultimately resulted in the displacement of 10 key faculty members, and forced us to lose momentum in SLC development. Additionally, we replaced the two administrators who left mid-year; one of our replacements was a brand-new APSCS. Setbacks continued during the summer of 2006, as the principal retired and the SLC Coordinator assumed the principalship at another school. We encountered numerous programming challenges to both student and teacher schedules; consequently, no teacher was aligned with an Academy, several crucial classes were cancelled, and two more teachers were displaced.

Year 2: Regroup

The 2006-2007 school year became our time to regroup and revitalize our plans for Small Learning Communities. Our new principal selected an SLC Coordinator, and we reformed our Design Team to include more faculty members who desired to set our SLC implementation on a new path. The enrollment decrease forced us to streamline our three Academies into two broader, comprehensive SLCs that melded the academy themes. (By this time, we had already essentially “morphed” into a small school.) We decided to keep the overarching curricular focus from the previous Academies as a flexible foundation so that we wouldn’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel in reforming the Communities. Additionally, since Canoga Park High has the smallest student enrollment of any comprehensive high school in LAUSD, and receives minimal additional financial assistance, our challenges to implement and sustain Communities and Career Tech strands forced us to constantly look “within” ourselves to be creatively resourceful with the time, talents and finances that were immediately available to us. We aimed to “keep the ‘can’ in Canoga” in every aspect of SLC development.

After we reformed our Design Team, we set about to reacquaint our faculty on the urgency, significance and benefits of SLCs. We held numerous meetings and conducted surveys to allow our faculty to select their preferred SLC. However, no matter how many different surveys we administered, most of our faculty kept aligning themselves to same-subject SLCs (e.g., math and science teachers opted to join the “math/science/technology” Community). We held a final “blind survey” for teachers, this time encouraging them to select their SLC based on whom they would most like to work with in their department. For survey purposes, the Coordinator changed the previous SLC names to “Coke” and “Pepsi”. After a few minor staffing adjustments, this final survey was successful.

Several Design Team members attended the EduAlliance conference in February 2007, which led to a hard analysis of what could truly work for us in the best interest of our kids. Those Design Team members hosted the next Professional Development faculty session and presented a PowerPoint of our school’s traditions, heritage and “family values”. We unveiled the new names for our fledgling SLCs, names we believed best symbolized the beauty and legacy of Canoga Park High School: Pillars and Redwoods.

The “new” SLCs met during Banked Tuesdays to elect Lead Teachers, formulate Community visions, discuss core curriculum and career strand options, and get to know each other in their new group dynamics. Pillars and Redwoods members were also introduced to the Design Proposal and writing process by the Design Team members who belonged to their respective Communities. The Lead Teachers and SLC Coordinator met weekly with the principal to examine the progress on the visionsand proposals, and plan the end-of-the-year SLC professional development workshops. Lead Teachers also met with our Director of School Redesign to discuss possible future local and city-wide partnerships for the Communities. The Lead teachers created a timeline in which to draft and revise the Design Proposals to meet the District’s approval deadline of October.

Towards the end of the year, our 9th, 10th and 11th graders selected their preferred SLC based on career interest surveys, and counselors have programmed students into their SLCs. Every effort was made to grant students’ first choices, while ensuring that equity and access issues are honored in the process.

Year 3: Research

We proposed to inquire into and act upon the following issues for the 2007 – 2008 school year:

  • Empower School Site Council to allocate authority to the communities when needed.
  • Connect every community to the Parent Center.
  • Incorporate more parents, community members and students into decision making groups.
  • Motivate Students by providing personalization and incentives.
  • Keep the California State Standards at the forefront of our instruction.
  • Foster vibrant, supportive working relationships with our colleagues.
  • Seek relevant professional development and “school study” opportunities to enrich our instructional practices and enhance our “top-down, side-to-side” communication throughout the SLCs.
  • Develop interdisciplinary instruction within the SLCs that align with each Community’s vision and mission.
  • Develop relevant career strands within each SLC.
  • Establish technological options to fulfill student schedule needs and enhance digital skills needed to succeed in and outside the classroom.
  • Boldly pursue community and business partners and student internships.
  • Investigate crucial components of SLCs, such as advisories, and determine the rationale and relevance of adding such components into the SLC structure.
  • Pursue ways to convert our existing campus into contiguous space within the next two years.
  • Nurture vital parent contacts and relationships.

YearS 4 and 5: Realization

Canoga Park High School anticipates that all of our SLCs will be fully implemented and moving towards sustainability. We will corporately establish protocols to evaluate our curricular paths, programs, policies and processes for our SLCs, to determine the effectiveness of these aspects of our Communities as they relate to student success and make any changes as needed. We expect our SLCs to be fully implemented and maintained in these years. To that end, we endeavor to:

  • Revisit and revise interdisciplinary units within the SLC as needed, adhering to state content standards.
  • Maintain effective communication and harmonious relations with SLC members and all faculty.
  • Maintain other SLC components added after initial implementation (common planning time, advisories, etc.) and revise as necessary.
  • Continue to engage in relevant professional development opportunities.
  • Add, maintain and/or revise career strands and pathways as needed
  • Ensure maintenance and functionality of contiguous space.
  • Increase our community and business partnerships, and seek more student internships and externships through these avenues.
  • Ensure funding from multiple sources to sustain SLCs.
  • Continue to strengthen parent involvement in all aspects of SLC life.

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

iv. areas of school impact

  1. Planning and Organization

A.Number of SLCs per Track. For year-round schools, the chart below summarizes the total number of SLCs offered at the school by the calendar schedule.

Number of SLCs / Total Number of SLCs
Track A / N/A
Track B / N/A
Track C / N/A

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

iv. areas of school impact

B.Configuration of Design Teams.

Small Learning
Community Name / Design Team Members
Name / Title/Position
Freshman Center / Pam Greller
Lisa Weber
Caryn Michaels
Debbie Braham / Freshman Counselor
Special Education Teacher
Freshman Center Coordinator
Instructional Coordinator
Pillars / Ellen Cohen
Georgene Gregorian
Valerie Olenick
Elizabeth Holloway / English Teacher/Department Chair
Math Teacher/Instructional Coach
Digital Imaging/Technology Teacher
Pillars Coordinator
Redwoods / Tom Armstrong
Yadrea Contreras
Nick Maccarone
Larry Noel
Michael Cappella / E.S.L. Teacher
Foreign Language
Social Studies Teacher
English Teacher
Redwoods Coordinator

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1/10/2008Los Angeles Unified School District

CanogaParkHigh School SLC Impact Report

Smaller Learning Communities

School SLC Impact Report

iv. areas of school impacT

C.Dispute resolution process

All conflicts that arise at Canoga Park High School will follow LAUSD and union contract guidelines wherever possible. In order to address issues that are not covered by the union contract SLC coordinators meet weekly in a (CBC) Community Building Council. This group attempts to identify possible conflicts before they occur and to formalize the resolution process. Our internal procedure for conflicts that occur adult to adult, and are not covered in the contract, is to first ask the CBC to discuss the issue at their next meeting and respond in writing. If this does not solve the issue, then it goes to the UTLA Chapter Chair and Principal to meet face to face with the conflicted adultsand respond in writing. If this is unsuccessful, both written reports go to the School Site Council where a final decision is made.