How one Oakland high school made gains in reading and math

When Shalonda Gregory joined MetWest Excessive Faculty as principal in 2020, she had moved throughout the nation from Kentucky in the midst of a pandemic to steer a high-turnover faculty that had misplaced two principals in recent times. Her job was to return in, stabilize the college and get it again on monitor.

Solely in her second 12 months, the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months 29% of teachers returned. However Gregory mentioned she was right here to remain. And the newest spherical of state check scores present pupil efficiency at MetWest is recovering.

As a “Great Image School“MetWest follows a non-traditional mannequin, the place college students spend three days per week in primary training and instruction, and take part in internships and profession studying with a mentor on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Their internships happen in fields starting from automotive to training, healthcare and videography.

“At Massive Image Colleges we imagine that not all studying takes place inside the colleges, but in addition outdoors of them,” Gregory informed The Oaklandside. “In truth, I’ll say once more that the experiences that I believe my college students have outdoors of college with their mentors and internships are, in lots of circumstances, extra genuine and far richer than the experiences that happen inside the college.”

In her years on the faculty, Gregory has balanced her dedication to that program with an emphasis on enhancing faculty tradition and strengthening training.

It appears to work.

The most recent launch of outcomes from the Smarter Balanced Evaluation Consortium, the standardized math and studying checks referred to as SBAC, which California makes use of to evaluate faculty efficiency, reveals MetWest college students have made important beneficial properties – exhibiting the best progress amongst Oakland Unified center and excessive colleges 12 months over 12 months. MetWest college students achieved 42 factors in studying and 42 factors in math, about twice the expansion of the subsequent highest highschool.

Based on a presentation by Interim Superintendent Denise Saddler in October, the district’s aim was for each faculty within the Oakland Unified Faculty District to realize 15 factors in studying and 20 factors in math. Eight OUSD colleges met the studying aim and 9 colleges met the maths aim.

MetWest was a kind of vivid spots. Throughout a first evaluation in the autumn15% of scholars had been at or above grade stage in studying. On the mid-year evaluate, usually carried out in November or December, that quantity doubled to 30%. The share of scholars at MetWest who examined three or extra grade ranges beneath proficiency dropped from 55% of scholars originally of the 12 months to 36% on the center of the college 12 months.

Whereas there may be nonetheless loads of room for progress, the beneficial properties at MetWest present that what Gregory and her workers have applied seems to be efficient.

“The children want quite a lot of assist,” Gregory informed The Oaklandside. “A number of these youngsters are falling behind the place they need to be in highschool. There’s quite a lot of intervention that should occur that in all probability ought to have occurred in highschool and that requires funding.”

Intervention classes and a literacy coach

One of many first issues Gregory did was restructure the college schedule so as to add intervention courses for college kids based mostly on the district’s diagnostic software. i-done. College students are examined all year long utilizing the software program, which identifies gaps in pupil data and helps academics develop personalised enchancment plans they’ll use throughout their intervention classes, Gregory mentioned.

College students are all inspired to attend homework membership on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after faculty, the place college students work with academics to get assist with their assignments. Gregory asks academics to assist college students in figuring out the place they’re of their studying and to rejoice them once they make progress.

“We’re constructing the capability for college kids to take possession of their studying, be extra self-aware and in management and self-advance,” she mentioned. “If a pupil can say, ‘I can do algebraic expressions rather well, however I am actually combating one thing else in math,’ if they’ll acknowledge that and say what steps they’re taking, then I do know we’re there.”

MetWest has additionally constructed trainer capability. Key to that was hiring a literacy coach, Beatriz Ferrer-Castro, who joined MetWest final faculty 12 months. She coaches academics, plans skilled improvement and oversees i-Prepared assessments.

“We’re making an attempt to maneuver away from the concept that literacy is just the duty of English academics or social research academics,” Ferrer-Castro informed The Oaklandside. “It is everybody’s duty. Literacy occurs in each classroom and we attempt to comply with the concept that each trainer is a language trainer.”

Ferrer-Castro coordinates skilled studying communities, the place academics from totally different disciplines come collectively to guage pupil work utilizing a standard rubric. This helps academics determine gaps in pupil studying in numerous topic areas and create a plan to deal with them.

Ferrer-Castro conducts what she calls studying walks, the place she and different observers go to lecture rooms and take notes on what academics can enhance. This 12 months, one among her options for academics was to create extra time for structured pupil conversations, the place college students have the chance to speak to their friends in regards to the content material they’re studying.

“It must be structured and supply steerage to allow them to have tutorial conversations and course of language,” Ferrer-Castro says. “The speculation is that in case you give college students the chance, they may provide you with higher writing.”

However with the district going through main price range cuts subsequent 12 months, together with on faculty grounds, educators at MetWest fear these efforts may stagnate. Ferrer-Castro is especially involved about what the district’s upcoming price range cuts may imply for positions like hers.

Along with all her skilled improvement and training efforts, Ferrer-Castro additionally teaches language improvement courses to learners of English.

“I do 10,000 different issues,” she mentioned. “I do not know who’s going to do these items if I am not right here subsequent 12 months. All of the issues we now have are the naked minimal.”
Beneath a plan adopted by the college board in December, every OUSD faculty may see a 7 to 10% discount of their website budgets. That may very well be a blow to essential price range traces, comparable to stipends for employees who oversee after-school applications or research halls. The cuts may additionally imply fewer directors and workers wanted to construct relationships with college students. Relationships that academics imagine are essential to conserving college students at school and studying.