Introduction Current Conditions Intercoastal High School is a public school that provides services for students from ninth to twelfth grade in an urban community. This community has the makeup of low socioeconomic. About 78% of the student population is on free and reduced lunch. IHS carries a bite just like its mascot the Sharks as there are many needs calling for immediate remediation. The first apparent need is the gathering of the community through trust. This school has undergone many changes with two new first year administrators. Furthermore, all the stakeholders seem to have a deflated view of student success, which has led to a decline in student achievement and behavior. According to the data from 2009-2011, our results have declined in every area (with the exception of reading proficiency increasing 8% according to state assessments). Math (10%), science (5%), and writing (18%) proficiency percentages decreased. The percentage of students making learning gains in both math and reading decreased according to state assessments. Enrollment increased by almost 1,000 students, yet attendance decreased by 7% and the graduation rate has decreased by 16%. Behavioral referrals increased by nearly 300. Suspensions for drugs almost doubled, while suspensions for fighting more than doubled. School Structure & Demographics Intercoastal High School serves families in the community with students in ninth to twelfth grade. The current enrollment is 3,118 students. The student demographics of our school consists of 25% Black, 5% Hispanic, and 70% Caucasian. The academic environment for students includes the class size of twenty six in academic courses and thirty-five in extra-curricular courses such as Art, Music, and Physical Education. The staff consists of 142 teachers with 94% of the teachers having four or more years of experience in teaching. Currently, 13% of the teaching staff is teaching outside of their area of certification. The administration team consists of a first year principal, 10 year experience facilities assistant principal, two year experience curriculum assistant principal and a first year student services assistant principal. Data Described Needs to Be Addressed by School Improvement State assessments and school-wide interviews that have been gathered over a three year period of 2009-2011. These information sources have revealed great areas of need in our school that must be addressed in this school improvement plan. These areas of need range from behavior to academic concentrations. Student Behavior and Safety Intercoastal High School has weathered numerous changes in recent years. Adjustments to administration and teaching staff, as well as a decline in adult expectations of student achievement, have been experienced. Consequently the morale of the Intercoastal High School community has deteriorated, which is supported by the recent staff and parent survey data. IHS leadership team has observed an increase in behavioral referrals and suspensions from drugs and gang violence activity. This data projects the evidence of low school morale among students. Student behavior and safety is a crucial need to be addressed to be addressed by the leadership team. A safe school environment is physically secure, which includes buildings and grounds that are clean and hazard-free, a campus that is well monitored, and no physical violence or physical bullying; and psychologically safe, without discrimination, emotional bullying or unhealthy social pressures which have a negative psychological impact on students and can inhibit their ability to flourish and learn. Research & Reading IHS leadership team has detected a need to focus on reading and research. 42% of our students are at a level of proficient or higher. A trend of decline of 6-14% has been recognized on both standardized reading assessments. Furthermore, reading is directly related to math as many high school assessments depend heavily on reading skills to perform critically thinking. We believe this need will not only affect reading directly, but student's math achievement as well. Communicate Effectively IHS leadership team has noticed a significant drop in the percent of proficient students in writing, which is now at an all-time low of 66%. The leadership team decided to focus on communication skills as a school wide improvement goal. Communication is the cornerstone for all other subjects; however, it is suffering the most. To communicate effectively in our global society it is vital to improve writing, speech, listening, visual art, media productions, and performance skills. Develop of Action Plans In order for our school improvement plan to be successful, we needed to create a new mission statement to be congruent with our savvy school leader’s vision and the goals our leadership team developed. Through the development of our new school mission statement, we will provide IHS with a common purpose and vision to unite the faculty, staff, students, and the entire community. Therefore, we gathered many stakeholders to be involved. The stakeholders involved in the development of the mission statement and school improvement plan were 1) School Principal, 2) Assistant Principal (Facilities), 3) Assistant Principal (Curriculum), 4) Assistant Principal (Student Services), 5) Literacy/Writing Coach, 6) Math/Science Coach and 7) Community Partners. The leadership team met to assess and implement interventions alighned with the school improvement plan. This mission statement will function as our guide in our decision making process, for student achievement, as we cross-reference this statement with current data. From these two sources, we will develop our goals, performance targets, goal objectives, activities, indicators of success, time line and responsible parties to ensure this school improvement plan is successful to produce change in achievement for students at Intercoastal High School. Mission Statement After gathering the responsible parties above, we created the school-wide mission statement to revamp the purpose of the school. The mission statement in this school improvement plan will be the basis for decision-making. Intercosatal High School members will strive to establish this mission statement as a unifying element of our school's embraced diversity. Our mission, “Education which inspires all to their highest potential” was formed by the stakeholders present in the Intercoastal High School community.
Identification and explanation of the key words included in the mission statement. Each word was hand picked by the stakeholders of the school to demonstrate our vision for the school. The first word, education, is the utmost purpose of the school to ensure we provide whatever services possible to produces quality education for all those who are a part of the Intercostal High School community. The second word, which, describes a call of all community parties asking for education to be provided by the following instructions to follow. The third word, inspires, calls for all avenues of education that is provided for the Intercoastal High School community should create an urge inside of someone to seek out learning educational practices on their own. Fourth, all, refers to everyone attached to the Intercoastal High School community who should experience the desire or urge to learn. Fifth, to, states a personal commitment of motion in the direction of learning. Sixth, their, speaks of learners taking ownership of their journey of learning. Seven, highest, describes the direction we wish for our community to aspire to in education. Eight, potential, refers to our belief that all of our community members have feasible and shown capacity of education at Intercoastal High School.
Current Conditions
Intercoastal High School is a public school that provides services for students from ninth to twelfth grade in an urban community. This community has the makeup of low socioeconomic. About 78% of the student population is on free and reduced lunch. IHS carries a bite just like its mascot the Sharks as there are many needs calling for immediate remediation. The first apparent need is the gathering of the community through trust. This school has undergone many changes with two new first year administrators. Furthermore, all the stakeholders seem to have a deflated view of student success, which has led to a decline in student achievement and behavior.
According to the data from 2009-2011, our results have declined in every area (with the exception of reading proficiency increasing 8% according to state assessments). Math (10%), science (5%), and writing (18%) proficiency percentages decreased. The percentage of students making learning gains in both math and reading decreased according to state assessments. Enrollment increased by almost 1,000 students, yet attendance decreased by 7% and the graduation rate has decreased by 16%. Behavioral referrals increased by nearly 300. Suspensions for drugs almost doubled, while suspensions for fighting more than doubled.
School Structure & Demographics
Intercoastal High School serves families in the community with students in ninth to twelfth grade. The current enrollment is 3,118 students. The student demographics of our school consists of 25% Black, 5% Hispanic, and 70% Caucasian. The academic environment for students includes the class size of twenty six in academic courses and thirty-five in extra-curricular courses such as Art, Music, and Physical Education.
The staff consists of 142 teachers with 94% of the teachers having four or more years of experience in teaching. Currently, 13% of the teaching staff is teaching outside of their area of certification. The administration team consists of a first year principal, 10 year experience facilities assistant principal, two year experience curriculum assistant principal and a first year student services assistant principal.
Data Described Needs to Be Addressed by School Improvement
State assessments and school-wide interviews that have been gathered over a three year period of 2009-2011. These information sources have revealed great areas of need in our school that must be addressed in this school improvement plan. These areas of need range from behavior to academic concentrations.
Student Behavior and Safety
Intercoastal High School has weathered numerous changes in recent years. Adjustments to administration and teaching staff, as well as a decline in adult expectations of student achievement, have been experienced. Consequently the morale of the Intercoastal High School community has deteriorated, which is supported by the recent staff and parent survey data. IHS leadership team has observed an increase in behavioral referrals and suspensions from drugs and gang violence activity. This data projects the evidence of low school morale among students. Student behavior and safety is a crucial need to be addressed to be addressed by the leadership team. A safe school environment is physically secure, which includes buildings and grounds that are clean and hazard-free, a campus that is well monitored, and no physical violence or physical bullying; and psychologically safe, without discrimination, emotional bullying or unhealthy social pressures which have a negative psychological impact on students and can inhibit their ability to flourish and learn.
Research & Reading
IHS leadership team has detected a need to focus on reading and research. 42% of our students are at a level of proficient or higher. A trend of decline of 6-14% has been recognized on both standardized reading assessments. Furthermore, reading is directly related to math as many high school assessments depend heavily on reading skills to perform critically thinking. We believe this need will not only affect reading directly, but student's math achievement as well.
Communicate Effectively
IHS leadership team has noticed a significant drop in the percent of proficient students in writing, which is now at an all-time low of 66%. The leadership team decided to focus on communication skills as a school wide improvement goal. Communication is the cornerstone for all other subjects; however, it is suffering the most. To communicate effectively in our global society it is vital to improve writing, speech, listening, visual art, media productions, and performance skills.
Develop of Action Plans
In order for our school improvement plan to be successful, we needed to create a new mission statement to be congruent with our savvy school leader’s vision and the goals our leadership team developed. Through the development of our new school mission statement, we will provide IHS with a common purpose and vision to unite the faculty, staff, students, and the entire community. Therefore, we gathered many stakeholders to be involved. The stakeholders involved in the development of the mission statement and school improvement plan were 1) School Principal, 2) Assistant Principal (Facilities), 3) Assistant Principal (Curriculum), 4) Assistant Principal (Student Services), 5) Literacy/Writing Coach, 6) Math/Science Coach and 7) Community Partners. The leadership team met to assess and implement interventions alighned with the school improvement plan. This mission statement will function as our guide in our decision making process, for student achievement, as we cross-reference this statement with current data. From these two sources, we will develop our goals, performance targets, goal objectives, activities, indicators of success, time line and responsible parties to ensure this school improvement plan is successful to produce change in achievement for students at Intercoastal High School.
Mission Statement
After gathering the responsible parties above, we created the school-wide mission statement to revamp the purpose of the school. The mission statement in this school improvement plan will be the basis for decision-making. Intercosatal High School members will strive to establish this mission statement as a unifying element of our school's embraced diversity. Our mission, “Education which inspires all to their highest potential” was formed by the stakeholders present in the Intercoastal High School community.
Identification and explanation of the key words included in the mission statement.
Each word was hand picked by the stakeholders of the school to demonstrate our vision for the school. The first word, education, is the utmost purpose of the school to ensure we provide whatever services possible to produces quality education for all those who are a part of the Intercostal High School community. The second word, which, describes a call of all community parties asking for education to be provided by the following instructions to follow. The third word, inspires, calls for all avenues of education that is provided for the Intercoastal High School community should create an urge inside of someone to seek out learning educational practices on their own. Fourth, all, refers to everyone attached to the Intercoastal High School community who should experience the desire or urge to learn. Fifth, to, states a personal commitment of motion in the direction of learning. Sixth, their, speaks of learners taking ownership of their journey of learning. Seven, highest, describes the direction we wish for our community to aspire to in education. Eight, potential, refers to our belief that all of our community members have feasible and shown capacity of education at Intercoastal High School.