School Improvement Plan

When we received the SIP data dashboard, the team examined the data for evidence that would indicate a clear gap group. Initially, the intent was to do a data protocol as a SIP team group to explore the data; however, this was not able to happen due to a meeting cancelation as a result of the snow event following Thanksgiving break. Instead, at our December SIP team meeting, two school-wide (draft) goals were shared with the team, one focusing on attendance, and one focusing on improving the freshmen pass rate. These were both areas of focus which we had previously discussed as a group and which we had agreed were important metrics to focus on as a school. In addition to the two school-wide goals, a gap group goal that focused on Special Education students and their performance on the SBA was also put forth. The team was given the opportunity to discuss the proposed goals, to revise, make changes, or reject or accept the proposed goals. The team was in support of the goals and approved them for submission.

Over the past four years, our graduation rate has climbed by 10% culminating in last year’s grad rate of 98.7%. While one would expect this number to have been negatively impacted as a result of the interruption to learning caused by the pandemic, the inverse instead has occurred. There is no doubt that the efforts made by Liberty High School staff to support students over the past few years contributed in part to this increase; however, we also believe that some of this increase was due to the credit waivers instituted by the state as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the expansion of alternative graduation pathways that have become available over the past few years. These factors have all positively contributed to the number of students able to graduate on time. Given how high the graduation rate had climbed, it was our school’s belief that continuing to focus simply on the percentage of students graduating was not an authentic place to enact meaningful change. Rather, the school team felt it was more appropriate to focus on the metrics that we know have a significant impact on student success. These were improving attendance and improving the pass rate of freshmen in their core subject areas. We believe that by targeting students early in their high school career by preventing credit deficiency as well as focusing the foundational skills they will need as they progress, it will lessen the reliance on alternate pathways or credit waivers (which will be going away) in order for students to graduate.

When looking for areas of disproportionality, one area that stood out was the performance of Special Education students on the ELA and Math SBA exam; no other population performed as poorly. Even though students can graduate by meeting other graduation pathways, we believe that our goal as a school should be to have as many students as possible try to meet proficiency on the state assessment. Although we know that no standardized assessment is perfect, the SBA does at least provide a standard measure of student achievement that is consistent from year to year and which gives us a baseline in which to assess how our students are doing. In examining the root causes of this disproportionality at LHS, we believe that some of the causes have been due to a lack of inclusion in the general education setting, as well as a recent philosophy shift over the past 5 years about the exam itself. During the pandemic the SBA exam was cancelled, lessening its importance as a learning metric. With the addition of alternate graduation pathways, as well as the general climate of education undergoing a philosophical shift away from standardized assessments and the “no child left behind” legislation, the perceived importance of standardized tests like the SBA has also decreased. We also believe that a general lack of understanding/training around UDL and the specific strategies may be negatively impacting our staff’s ability to effectively teach students who require a greater amount of support (such as our Special Education students and ELL students).

To address this disproportionality, we believe that by increasing our inclusionary practices, improving our staff’s understanding of universal design, continuing to examine and refine our practices around learning recovery, and by emphasizing the importance of the SBA by intentionally teaching those skills students will be assessed on in the exam, we can improve student performance and decrease the number of students who require alternative pathways to meet their graduation requirements. We believe that this approach will not only reduce the disproportionality of this subset of students, but will raise the level of instruction for all students by focusing on teaching these foundational skills in 9th and 10th grade. This should in turn support our building goal of improving the pass rate of 9th grade students. Finally, we believe that this goal reinforces the philosophical belief that all students can achieve and underscores our commitment to high expectations for all students.