Continuous School Improvement Plan

Common Assessments were given in core content areas and information is being disaggregated. iReady Assessments have been given to all English students and the information is being reviewed. Thus far, data indicates a need for continued development in the areas of grammar and mechanics, reading level and strategies. This information will be shared with all departments as we develop a plan to address these needs. To encourage reading and to help begin to increase student strengths in this area, the entire school dedicates 15 minutes of study hall every Monday during which all read. Between August 14, 2023 and October 10 2023, we had 454 book checkouts.  Between that same time period this year, we have had 1,697 book checkouts for a 274% increase in circulation.

Full faculty professional development occurred during September 23rd PD day to share ELLevation access and use to better understand how to support ELL learners.

Biology Common Assessment data indicated strengths in the areas of recall and application, however, continued development in the areas of strategic thinking is needed. The use of cluster questions will be used formatively to support Biology learners.

Math and Social Studies Common Assessment data is still being reviewed.

Common Assessments continue to be administered in core content areas. IXL is being used as another measure in English classes to help target specific needs in reading and writing. English teachers, along with select other staff, received training on IXL on January 3, 2025 to provide them with additional skills for navigating the program, as well as to better understand how to pull data to use to positively impact lesson design and instruction. Edia is the program being used by the math department. With both programs, we have found challenges in being able to disaggregate the data by our specific demographic groups in order to speak to our specifically identified areas of need for these specific groups of students. The same is true of our common assessments. We are working with the division and the various companies to find solutions to this. With this in mind, looking at our data, here is what we are seeing for all students.

English: English has been utilizing the IXL program to gather students' data this school year. To date, students have answered 98,010 questions on IXL. Students in grades 9-12 have Mastered 1,086 skills, are proficient in 1,800 skills, and have practiced 2,570 skills. We have also implemented Common Unit Assessments. We currently only have Quarter 1 data for the Common Unit Assessment. We will begin implementing an IXL skill of the week to work on school-wide progress checks of specific reading level skills, grammar and mechanics, and reading strategies.

Math: For math, we are administering "quick checks" in Algebra 1 and Geometry using Edia. So far we have only given a few quick checks in Algebra 1, but will continue to give them through this year.  Geometry will start to give them this semester.

Reviewing the data from the Algebra 1 Linear Functions Quick Check showed a solid student understanding across all math teachers on 5 out of the 8 questions. Around half of the students tested struggled with finding the equation of the line using point slope, which is a new concept for them. They also struggled with writing an equation with two points and a non zero fractional slope, as well as graphing from standard form. We have just begun giving the quick checks and students and teachers are getting use to the technology tool Edia as well, being this is the first year we are using it for common assessments.

Science: The common assessment is administered in Biology classes each quarter. Based on the data gathered from this assessment, here is what we are seeing regarding student progress.

Below is a high level summary of the Quarter 2 data as compared to the Quarter 1 data (keeping in mind that the content was different between these two sets of data).

In the data below, you will notice that we had an increase in the number of students demonstrating mastery on the assessment. Additionally, we saw an increase in mastery in the ELL and SPED populations. However, it should be noted that there is still a significant gap between overall performance and that of the ELL and SPED students.

Student performance increased on the higher order thinking questions. These questions included drag and drop items, inline text items and multiple selection items, which were designed to model the TEI questions on the SOL. Eight standards were assessed on this assessment and students demonstrated mastery or approaching mastery (mean score of 60 or better) on six of the eight standards.

Reading: We continue to encourage reading and to increase student strengths in this area through our ongoing expectation that the entire school dedicates 15 minutes of study hall every Monday during which all read. Between August 14, 2023 and January 17, 2024, we had 1,231 book checkouts. Between that same time period this year, we have had 3,267 books checked out of the library checkouts!

For our indicated areas of need for students, department chairs are working with their teams to revisit these areas to find ways to address these areas in class as well as looking at ways to provide extra support to students after school with support of the All-In Virginia Funds.

While we are making progress, there is still work to be done.

On Track

The team continues to follow-up on the suggestions shared by department chairs from the 1st Quarter. We will be implementing an online referral process for the 2025-2026 school year based on staff requests, we are working with our counseling department and scheduling team to find ways to create more equity with class sizes, and continuing to use our Warrior Hub and Tribal Tidbits to streamline the delivery of information to staff. In addition to reviewing department requests, the team has also continued to provide events to promote staff inclusivity and culture, such as monthly pot-luck lunches, Thematic October Staff Dress-Up, cookie exchanges, surprise gift exchanges, Caffeine Cart, gift certificate giveaways, and sponsoring an "underground"/surprise teacher spirit week, dial-in for gifts, etc.

The team is currently developing a mid-year survey to give to staff to gather feedback on topics, such as school safety, administrative support, instructional needs and supports, student behavior, and parental involvement. The survey will also ask for feedback on what they feel is needed to continue to develop a positive and supportive systems for a positive working culture.