School Improvement Plan

Liberty High School utilized a range of screening strategies to determine the level and scope of need for students in the areas of academic learning, social and emotional health, and mental health.

Academic Learning Needs:

• Examined the rate of F grades, by student and by subject/course at each grading period, and for the 2020-2021 school year.
• Comparison of D and F grades to prior years at each of those grading periods. Seeing the D/F rate at a given point in the school year is instructive since it may reflect how things fluctuate in the course of a typical school year. F grades tend to decrease between Q1 and the end of Semester 1, for instance, as students settle into their courses, access academic supports, and take advantage of opportunities to improve their grades.
• The Liberty Tier 2 Team brought specific focus to the students most in need of intervention, and allowed our Tier 2 Team, consisting of Admin, Counselors, Special Education representatives, and our Graduation Specialist, to look closely at the case of specific students who had reached the academic threshold to qualify for Tier 2 academic support.

Social and Emotional Health, Mental Health:

• Examination of SDQ Survey results for the 2020-2021 School Year, and also for the Fall of 2022.
• Counselors conduct check-ins with students, working through their case load by grade level, and also by need. Through these conversations, McKinney-Vento Interviews, 504 Reviews, Hi-Cap conversations, parent communication and meetings, and student drop-in appointments, Counselors are able to identify both specific individual needs for Social, Emotional, and Mental Health, and also trends and larger building-wide areas of need and concern.
• Teachers, through SEL components to their teaching, and in the teaching of their courses, get to know students and their needs, and communicate these to Admin and Counseling. In addition, teachers provide a direct positive relationship and support for students and shape the teaching of their class to meet the need that has presented itself.
• Administrators, in the conduct of their duties and addressing of behavior, work to identify the root causes of behavior. Often, these behaviors are driven by needs in the areas of social and emotional health, mental health, and other unmet needs. These are also expressed and identified in the communication and interactions with families.

Academic Re-engagement:

• Close examination of course placement, distribution of academic support courses, and consistent monitoring of academic performance to determine if these course and support course placements continue to be appropriate.
• Conducting timely and thorough review of 504 re-evaluations, initial evaluations, and consideration. We found a significant shift in the academic needs experienced by students, and how these needs can be met through a 504 or other supports. Students have shown a greater need for support in coping with organizational and completion of tasks, with meeting and navigating deadlines and time constraints, and with retaining and implementing new learning, in particular.
• Courses have been adjusted and redesigned through the lens of Essential Learnings. This process began for the 2020-2021 school year, when we conducted instruction through remote and hybrid modalities, and it was necessary for us to continue this re-evaluation and re-examination process for the 2021-2022 school year. This was driven by:
  • A recognition that student learning in the 2020-2021 school year was not at the depth, retention level, and accountability level that it would be in a typical school year. Students came into the 2021-2022 school year with significant gaps in learning and understanding, in comparison to the same course in prior years. Teachers recognized and adapted to the reality that students needed to be taught material from the course they had taken in the previous year. This necessitated that they adjust, trim, rearrange, and condense the material from the current year course.
  • Recognition that student academic endurance had been negatively impacted by the remote and hybrid modalities of the 2020-2021 school year. This is apparent in the setting of a class period, throughout a school day, and over the course of a school semester/year. For much of last year, students had access to other devices, to food, and other freedoms and choice activities throughout the day and period, whereas now we are back to a full and structured class period, school day, and academic year. In addition, with COVID protocols eliminating the option to eat outside of the set lunch time, students have struggled with maintaining focus throughout the full class period.
  • A reflective and professional growth process in line with the focus of the ISD Teaching and Learning Department around rethinking our course Scope and Sequence guidelines, our homework and grading practices, and our instructional priorities in teaching. The disruption of the last 18-24 months has provided and forced an opportunity to rethink our practice, to adjust, and to shift to stronger and more efficient teaching practices that focus upon student learning and the application and ownership of that learning.

Addressing Wellness Needs:

• Counselors and Administrators have been responsive to student and family requests for informal accommodations, for schedule adjustments, and for intervention and support services. Many students have reported feeling overwhelmed, reported feelings and diagnoses of anxiety, and as a result have expressed the need for adjustments and changes in their school day and course load. Our Counseling and Administrative team have taken an approach of compassion and adjustment to work to meet these needs, and to find ways to address the concerns of the student and family in any way possible.
• Counselors and Administrators have also offered and implemented wellness interventions and plans, such as offering scheduled breaks during class periods, support locations such as the Counseling Office if a student begins to feel overwhelmed, and teaching stress and anxiety management strategies for the student and teacher to implement in order to help the student to work through an episode of anxiety, for instance.
• We have again contracted with the consulting group Relevant Engagement, LLC, which is led by Rashad Norris and Professor Michael Tuncap. We have worked with Mr. Norris for several years, and he has proven to be a very powerful and positive resource for our students of color. The Relevant Engagement group provides weekly intervention meetings for students of color, and also some individual mentoring meetings. There are two group sessions each Monday, one is funded in partnership with DVR, and provides support for students who have 504 or IEP support. The second group is for any student who has expressed interest, or who has been recommended by a teacher, Counselor, parent, or who has expressed interest themselves. This is an empowering and positive group session designed to provide skills, instill confidence, and provide positive mentoring and support for all students of color. In addition, two Liberty High School teachers who are Latina have expressed interest in starting a group for female students of color, based on the model employed by Relevant Engagement, and we are working together to set that up.
• In cooperation with Special Services, we continue to work with the Brooks-Powers Group and other agencies to provide additional support for our students with disabilities in the areas of behavior, as well as social and emotional areas.

Course Placement and Scheduling:

• One key point of identification of skill gaps and potential barriers to success takes place during our Course Request Process and Scheduling, which occurs in April and May. This was particularly important at the end of the 2020-2021 school year as we prepared to head back to full in-person learning in the 2021-2022 school year. We incorporate several components to helping students to have an appropriate schedule which meets their needs and sets them up to accomplish their goals:
  • Communication and information: Through a video presentation produced by our Counseling Department, information on the Counseling web site and the Online Course Guide, and information packets distributed to students physically and electronically, we provide students and families with guidelines and information to help them to make the best Course Requests for the student and family. Included in this information is a graduation planning guide, which lays out the requirements and available class periods that each student and grade level have available to them.
  • Teacher recommendation: Teachers in all core academic departments advise students in their classes on what each course offering within that department entails. In addition, each department looks at the courses requested for advanced/AP courses, support classes, and other courses to see if the current teacher would advise a different course for any particular student. Students who are identified as having a different course recommended for them are contacted by their Counselor to discuss this possibility.
  • Support classes, such as Lab classes for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, as well as Improving Literacy Skills (ILS) classes in the English department, are recommended for students based upon prior grades, test scores, and teacher recommendation.

Initial Assessments and Adjustments:

• Within the first weeks of the 2021-2022 school year, teachers conducted initial activities and assessments, graded assignments, and conducted formative and summative assessment of student understanding. This information provided teachers with essential information on student understanding, what they had learned and retained from the prior year, academic learning needs, and readiness for the current course. With this information, teachers were able to:
  • Provide Counselors and Admin with feedback and recommendations for students, such as consideration of a support class, recommendation of other academic support such as after school tutoring through ISF, and also observations of student overall learning needs that could be helpful across a student’s full schedule.
  • Teachers were able gauge the appropriateness of the current course for students, and to recommend potential consideration of other course levels to meet the student need.
• As mentioned in the section above, teachers are also adjusting the courses as a whole, through the implementation of Essential Learnings as a guideline for the course content. These adjustments are made with the learning of students at the core, and through observation of the reality of student need, further adjustments to the Essential Learnings of the courses were made by teaching staff.

• As teachers work through Essential Learnings in each course, and explore multiple opportunities to assess students, and for students to demonstrate and apply their learning, students who may have not had the same level of success as their peers in a traditional school structure will have a wider range of opportunities to learn, and to apply and demonstrate this learning.

• Relevant Engagement provides staff training, regarding how to work with students from various cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds. We have had one staff meeting session with them already, and will have additional training later in the year.

• Our ELL teacher, Andrea Antrim, provides staff training and shares effective tools and strategies at each staff meeting. Many of the students in this subgroup are also served through ELL, and this will provide additional support for them.

• Our GLAD Specialist on staff, Zarah Matsuda, provides regular staff training at staff meetings, and updates to staff email, regarding tools and strategies which are based in the GLAD system of instruction. This provides instructional support for all students, and particularly those in need of academic support.

• The tracking and progress monitoring of student academic achievement in Homeroom, Canvas, and Skyward will allow teachers and staff, as well as families and the students themselves, to closely monitor academic achievement, challenges, and progress.

• Several of the strategies shared by TLS, our GLAD Specialist, our Educational Technology Lead, our ELL teacher, and others are centered around the technology tools available to teachers to use in their instruction.

• Laptops and Hot Spots are available to students in financial need, allowing all students access to their learning.

• The use of Canvas as a learning platform, and as a gradebook platform, allows students to have access to current grades, to all assignments from the semester, and to access electronic resources within the assignment.

• Communication with families is key to the success of this goal, and to the academic success of students. The Tier 2 Team incorporates communication and partnership with families, and works to build a strong connection and relationship between families and the school.

• For families for whom language is a barrier, we regularly use Alboum Translation Services, as well as Language Line, to ensure families are able to communicate and understand in the language with which they are most comfortable.

• Checks and monitoring will take place at each grading period, utilizing the data posted to official Skyward reports at grading periods (MT 1, Q1, MT 2, S1, MT 3, Q3, MT 4, S2).

• Throughout the year, in an ongoing fashion, grades are monitored through Canvas and Homeroom. The ISD Educational Technology Department is developing a new tool that will allow us to generate reports out of Canvas into Excel for our Tier 2 team. This will make grade checks much easier, and will provide real time updates on student academic progress. Liberty High School is the pilot school for this program.