SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

ANALYSIS OF CURRENT EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE

The following statements characterize educational practice at this school:

1. Alignment of curriculum, instruction and materials to content and performance standards:

SFUSD policy and practices are designed to ensure that each student has access to instructional materials that are aligned with State core content standards. The district has adopted programs and materials that are aligned with and approved by the State Board of Education.

Lowell High School’s curriculum, instruction and materials are in alignment with the District content and performance standards.

2. Availability of standards-based instructional materials appropriate to all student groups:

The SFUSD has identified and purchased adopted instructional materials for all students including EDY, Special Education, EL, GATE, and Vocational Education.

Lowell has purchased standards-based instructional materials appropriate to all student groups including EDY, Special Education, ELL, and GATE. In many cases the school provides supplemental supplies to augment the adopted textbooks to enhance student comprehension.
The Vocational Education program is supported by the Cooperative Vocational Education (CVE) Marketing program, which is funded by the San Francisco Regional Occupational Program (ROP).

3. Alignment of staff development to standards, assessed student performance and professional needs:

The district holds Professional Development Institutes that provide a series of workshops four times a year. These are designed to deepen understanding of the skills required to assist schools in aligning standards, assessments and best practices, assessing student performance, and meeting professional needs of staff. In addition, central staff facilitates ongoing professional development at school sites as part of federal and state awards programs in coordination with external partners.

Lowell provides staff development, which is aligned to standards, assessed student performance and professional needs through the District’s Professional Development Institutes (PDI), and Gifted and Talented Education (GATE). Additionally, the Lowell Technology Center offers technology training to staff through a variety of means, including afterschool institutes and in-service provided by staff and LTC trained students.

A full-time technical coordinator had been hired to maintain the schools computer network, fileservers and desktop computers.
In spite of the fact that DHS funding has been available, the physical infrastructure of internet access and appropriate equipment within each instructional space throughout the school are still not yet available for 100% of the classrooms. We are still not connected to all of the portables and have to wait for district approval, a budget and a vendor to complete connections to the portable classrooms.
Finishing construction in the new construction and modernization project areas has hindered the school’s ability to implement technology-based lessons in the classrooms. This will continue to be a problem until the construction projects are completed in the summer of 2005.
A committee comprised of teachers and an administrator, make joint decisions about school based professional development activities.

4. Services provided by the regular program to enable under-performing students to meet standards:

The STAR Schools Initiative was developed using data on SFUSD school performance and the most recent research on improving under performing schools. It provides additional school personnel, support, and resources. Summer School programs are designed to provide interventions to under performing students.

Services provided by Lowell to enable underperforming students to meet standards include the following:

· Based on reading comprehension scores from the California Standards Test and English teacher referrals, identified 9^th grade students participate in the Plato Literacy Program designed for independent study in acquiring useful reading strategies during their resource time.

A math comprehension program, ALEKS, is in place for identified 9^th grade students who need additional help.
Students requiring additional instructional support and assistance beyond regular class time are encouraged to utilize three on-site Resource Centers. Each department office has hours in which students may seek tutorial help from teachers. All ninth graders are required to utilize the Resource centers throughout the year.

5. Services provided by categorical funds to enable under-performing students to meet standards:

The ELL funds at Lowell have been used for extra hours to administer the CELDT and to re-designate students. Computers and books were purchased that are located in the library. There are also teacher-monitored, computer-aided instruction, given to specific under-performing students in remedial math and English.

6. Use of state and local assessments to modify instruction and improve student achievement:

Annually the Research Department produces a School Site Data Binder designed to provide school staff with disaggregated data reports for the previous school year. It contains information concerning student achievement performance on various state and district wide assessments administered during the previous school year.

Disaggregated data provided by the District’s School Site Data Binder are presented and discussed with Department Heads who then share this information with their departmental faculty. Trends are observed and correlations among the various assessments are determined to assist in making recommended changes to the school’s curricular program.

A reading comprehension and Literacy Program, PLATO, is being continued in the library to help boost skills for identified 9^th and 10^th graders who were on academic probation because of low English or Social Studies grades or who scored below the 50^th percentile on the CAT-6/CST.
A math comprehension program, ALEKS, is in place for identified 9^th grade students who need additional help.

There is a need for Department Heads, Administrators and Counselors, to become proficient in working with the SFUSD data disk. The SFUSD data disk allows staff to access specific information about students and student groups and interpret standardized test results and student performance. Training will be conducted by the Assistant Principal for Administration in Fall 2005.

7. Family, school, district and community resources available to assist these students:

The district provides resources to STAR schools including additional personnel, support and services. All schools receive assistance with extended learning opportunities and support materials.

The Lowell PTSA, Alumni Association, and Sports Foundation actively support educational efforts at Lowell. The PTSA, Alumni Association, the Sports Foundation, and the Student Body Council work with the SSC to set goals, and to provide the funding for specialized needs determined by each department or individual teacher.

Grants are awarded to respond to specialized needs, as requested by individual teachers and departments.

8. School, district and community barriers to improvements in student achievement:

Barriers to improvement in student achievement have been identified as follows:

· Reduction in funds from the state and district to support existing programs at Lowell has forced the school to tap into the PTSA and Alumni Association for additional money to fund teaching positions and resources that otherwise would have to be cut.

·The district requirement of basic courses, such as College & Career, and the lack of Summer School to fulfill the district requirements have been a problem. This requirement for Lowell, which is a college preparatory school, is seen as having little use as opposed to some other schools that may be trying to increase college interest.

·The modernization project and construction in the main building has continued during the school year and is still not complete. This has been an inconvenience and hindrance to teaching and learning due to the facilities not being 100% functional (including the school’s entire computer network), and ongoing work interruptions.

·The new building construction project has been an inconvenience and hindrance to teaching and learning, due to work dragging on into the second half of the school year with no clear completion timeline in place.

· Technology integration at Lowell has been hindered due to the school’s computer network not being completed on schedule. This has eliminated the ability for teacher training on the use of computers in their classrooms for this year.

9. Limitations of the current program to enable under-performing students to meet standards:

Limitation of the current program to enable under performing students to meet standards have been identified as follows:

· The allocation of limited budget and resources to provide differentiated instructional support and training for staff.

· The lack of resources to support student resource centers.

· Inability to deliver summer bridging program to incoming freshmen due to budget constraints.

· Reduction in funds from the district to support existing programs at Lowell has forced the school to tap into the PTSA and Alumni Associations for additional money to fund teaching positions and resources that otherwise would have to be cut. This funding is uncertain from year to year and the programs remain in jeopardy.

· Lack of resources to conduct ongoing disaggregated assessment of currently existing support and intervention programs.

ACADEMIC PLAN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Goal 1: Academic Achievement: Significantly increase academic achievement and learning for all students, including closing the achievement gap, based on achievement data. Focus must be on reading and mathematics as measured by tests and other assessments as appropriate.

Data Conclusions related to Goal 1:

English Language Arts: Just over 93% of all Lowell students scored at “Proficient” or higher on the spring 2004 California Standards Test (CST). The percentages are lower for some subgroups: 48% of Special Education students, 73% of African American students and 83% of Latino students. The school monitors and supports 9^th grade students who receive a “D” or an “F” in English as shown in Table 1. Seventy-two percent of 9^th graders receiving Ds or Fs in English are attending Plato sessions (computer-aided support) regularly. The intervention appears to have had some success in reducing the number of 9^th grade students with poor grades.

Mathematics: Eighty two percent of Lowell students achieved “Proficient” or higher in mathematics, leaving nearly a fifth of the students at “Basic” or below. As in English, various subgroups had a lower proportion of students at “Proficient” or better: Special Education students 32%, African American students 50%, and Latino students 60%. In order to identify students needing support between CST exam-taking, Lowell is monitoring students who receive a “D” or “F” in math, as shown in Tables 1 and 2. Intervention procedures at the 9^th grade level appear to be helping as the number of students with poor grades is declining.

Table 1

Number of 9^th graders receiving Ds or Fs

in English or math, Fall semester 2004

	English	Math
1^st 6 weeks	94	84
2^nd 6 weeks	65	52
3^rd 6 weeks (sem. grade)	44	64

Table 2

Number of 10^th and 11^th graders receiving Ds or Fs

in English or math, 2004-2005

10^th grade	1^st semester	2^ndsemester	11^th grade	1^st semester	2^nd semester
English	17		English	19
Math	59		Math	38

Based on the above data conclusions the following are the objectives for Goal 1.

Objective 1: To improve the achievement of all students within the school on the California Standards Test. Specifically, to maintain the 93% of all students achieving at proficient or higher in English/language arts and to raise the percentage of students overall achieving at the level of proficient or higher in math, by 3 percentage points. Also, to raise by 3 percentage points the number of students achieving at the level of proficient or higher in each sub group that is presently under 80%, in both English and math.

Objective 2: Ensure that all 9^th,10^th, and 11th graders identified (by both CST and interim assessments) as needing additional help in math and/or English, receive intensified instruction in that subject area.

The above objective(s) will be achieved by the implementation of the following activities:

1. Continue staffing resource centers full-time.

2. Continue the PLATO program in English and ALEKS program in math and extended hours at library.

3. Institute more timely and structured intervention for students needing help in math.

4. Expand and refine the CSF Tutoring Program to align with students identified in this goal as in need of support.

5. Monitor targeted students’ use of support resources.

Goal 2: Academic Equity: Ensure that all students have access to a comprehensive education by providing a high-quality program of studies in the Core Curriculum areas (English/language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, visual and performing arts, health and physical education), world languages, and school-to-career and technical programs where appropriate.

Data Conclusions related to Goal 2:

We use two key measures to determine whether all students have had access to a comprehensive education in the Core Curriculum. The first is performance on the California Standards Test in all subject areas. This measure tells us whether students have grasped content standards by subject area. The second measure is the percentage of seniors who graduate meeting the course requirements for UC/CSU. This measure tells us whether a student has been exposed to a broad curriculum during high school.

California Standards

Content Area	% “Proficient” or “Advanced”
English/Language Arts	93%
Math (overall)	82%
Algebra I	78%
Algebra II	80%
Geometry	85%
World History	78%
US History	90%
Biology	75%
Chemistry	78%
Physics	54%

Lowell’s goal is that each student be “Proficient” or “Advanced” in all subject areas. As the data show, there is a wide range of success in reaching this goal. In English, 93% of all students have mastered the standards at the desired level. On the other hand, only 54% have done so in Physics. It would appear in some cases either that (1) students are being tested in subject areas in a year when they have not taken a course in the subject or (2) the curriculum being delivered in the content area is not sufficiently aligned to the standards.

Percentage of Seniors meeting UC/CSU course requirements

1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
89.8%	89.8%	92.6%	89.9%	89.6%

Academic Plan