3. Narrative Response

3. Narrative Response

A. NARRATIVE RESPONSE ITEMS

School Name______Animo Venice Charter High School______

District Name______Green Dot Public Schools______

County Name______Los Angeles______

Telephone Number___323-252-5280______

E-mail ______

Purpose

The purpose of the Nell Soto Parent/Teacher Involvement Program is to strengthen communication between schools and parents as a means of improving pupil academic achievement.

School Characteristics

Animo Venice Charter High School (AVCHS) is a small, college preparatory high school located in Venice, California. The school is in its 3rd year, with 20 full-time teachers and over 400 students in grades 9-11. In 2007-08 the school will serve grades 9-12, with a new entering class of 9th graders and a total enrollment of approximately 540. AVCHS minimum graduation requirements meet the college entrance requirements for UC system schools. For many students, this is a difficult hurdle and requires enormous support from faculty and parents.

Animo Venice Charter High School’s underlying philosophy is based on the belief that all students can learn and will learn when they feel part of a community. Students are more likely to experience success when their home cultures are valued. To this end, AVCHS’s vision encourages parents to partner with faculty to create an atmosphere where all students can and will learn. Parents can be seen on campus as hall monitors, cafeteria volunteers, carpoolers, and chaperones. Parents are also encouraged to attend workshops that inform them on how to motivate kids for attending college. They are consistently involved with their child’s academics by monitoring their progress on-line. Also, regular parents’ workshops are given monthly to address issues such as high school graduation requirements, supporting students towards college, and technology training.

AVCHS has sought to develop a stronger relationship between parents, faculty and students. Although parents are required to help with the functions of the school, they are less involved with academic aspects. This issue can be directly addressed through the Home Visit program. Parents and teachers can meet in the student’s home to help develop a program that will embed academic success in their community as well as at school. The Home Visit Program will help students directly by monitoring and charting their homework completion percentage, their grade point average and their general feeling about the school.

Summary of student demographic characteristics

AVCHS’s demographics are similar to local public schools in Los Angeles. The school is approximately 80% Hispanic, 11% African American, and 9% Caucasian and Asian-American. Eighty percent of our students receive Free/Reduced Lunch. Animo Venice students come from many parts of the city. Although the school is located in a relatively affluent area, most of the students come from socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and take public transportation or a school bus. The overwhelming majority of Animo Venice students either speak English and/or Spanish in their home.

Summary of teacher demographic characteristics

The demographics of the teachers at AVCHS consist of 14 Caucasians, 3 Hispanics, 2 Asian-Americans and 1 African-American. Since this is only the school’s third year, the average length of service for the staff at this school is approximately two years. The school has a teacher for each of the college-required core classes set by the University of California system. Female to male ratio is 2:1. Most teachers commute from areas outside Venice and reside in many of same neighborhoods where AVCHS students live.

Analysis of student academic performance, based on the three required data printouts listed below

Animo Venice’s API scores met the general target Adequate Yearly Progress by increasing our score 5 points from the previous year to 696. The school is ranked in the 5th decile. Most students are eligible for the Free/Reduced lunch program. About ½ of parents have taken some college-level courses. The Hispanic-Latino students did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress in Mathematics. Mathematics is one subject where homework is a large part of the student’s success. The Home Visit Program would monitor student’s homework completion rate and chart the progress of their GPA.

Required data printouts as part of Narrative Response (See instructions in Section C about how to find these reports on the CDE Web site.)

2. Interest In and Need for Nell Soto Program. (10 Points)

Animo Venice Charter High School’s mission is to prepare all students for college, leadership, and life. Specifically, the goal of AVCHS is to maximize the number of graduates going on to four-year colleges. This goal requires not only the continued effort of each student in each required course but as much support as possible from the school and parent community. Many of the students at Animo Venice Charter High School live more than 4 miles from the school, which makes it difficult to complete homework, study for exams and write papers. Many do not have the time management skills to be academically successful at home. Home Visits would be the first step in helping students set up a successful work environment and give parents the tools and support necessary to monitor their child’s progress toward attending college.

3. Program Implementation Activities.

Animo Venice Charter High School sends out monthly a communication envelope to each parent that contains relevant information about the school’s activities. The Home Visit program will use this tool to update parents on its activities and progress. We will also produce a bilingual website with all this information as well and updates on the program’s progress. The school’s parent leadership will also contact its members through committee phone trees.

All parents who wish to participate will receive visits. However, the Home Visit Team will focus on the lowest performing students at the school. Those students with the lowest GPA will receive multiple visits and be the focus of community-based meetings. All parents and students will be asked to fill out a survey as one method of collecting feedback and adapting the Home Visit program.

The school has begun a program for those sophomores identified as low-performing. These students not only have low GPAs but have filled out a survey that reveals a strong negative feeling towards education. This program has a pull-out component that focuses on the parent-teacher-student team as an essential collaboration for success. These students will be the first group the Home Visit Program will visit.

Teachers and staff will participate in home visit training through the Parent Teacher Home Visit Program (http://www.pthvp.org/). This training will begin in June and August, 2007 and will require a 3-5 hour commitment from each team member. Each participant will be asked to reflect on their activities and give feedback to the site coordinator.

The office manager will purchase log/reflection notebooks for each teacher. They will also purchase workbooks/survey books for each student and parent participating. Teachers will be asked to do some related online research prior to the training sessions.

The site coordinator along with the Home Visit Team will determine the schedule of meetings with parents at their homes and in their communities. They will notify parents through the parent leadership and through the school’s advisory meetings with students. Each parent meeting will be scheduled through the site coordinator and the office manager. Each individual team upon completion of a home visit will log reflections in a log book. This data will be compiled along with a student improvement chart (See example).

Date / Family/Student / Home Visit Team / Family’s Community / Homework Percentage / GPA / Survey Response

The students will be contacted by their teacher-advisors to set up a home visit. The first visit is an initial introduction to the program and designed as the first contact with the family. These first contacts will start in summer 2007. All appointments will be logged by the teacher-advisor. The school’s Parent Activities Coordinators will work with the Parent Leadership to find community meeting locations in different neighborhoods.

The teaching staff at Animo Venice High School are certified high school teachers, with counseling experience as student advisors. Staff members have daily contact with parents and students, and help with the day-to-day activities of the school. Parents are required to donate time to the school and have experience with logging their work hours.

Proposed schedule of activities to implement the program over the grant period. Explain each activity. Summarize on the Activities and Timelines Chart.

1. Identify Eligible Students: May 2007 – October 2007

Students will be identified through GPA, discussion with teacher-advisors, and a survey document filled out by the student.

2. Contact Parents: May 2007 – October 2007

Teacher-advisors will contact parents to set up Home Visits and promote community meetings.

3. Home Visit Training: June 2007; August 2007; August 2008

Teachers and staff will be trained through the Parent Teacher Home Visit Program

4. Organize/Conduct community meetings May & September, 2007; January, May, August & December, 2009; April 2009

Home Visit Team Teachers will meet periodically to plan community meetings and future home visits.

5. Collect and Analyze Data: May 2007 – April 2009

Home Visit Team Teachers and Review Board will meet consistently to analyze data and generate feedback.

6. Maintain Fiscal Records: May 2007 – April 2009

Site coordinator and principal will maintain all fiscal records and budget.

7. File CDE Reports: April 30, 2007

Site coordinator and principal will file the final CDE reports by April 30, 2009

8. Home Visits / Parent Outreach: May 2007 – June 2009

4. Program Monitoring and Evaluation Activities

All activities will be organized through the site coordinator and Home Visit Committee made up of the principal, one teacher from each discipline, a parent, and a member of the office staff. The Home Visit Teacher Teams will meet monthly and prior to each community meeting to plan out strategies for these meetings and schedule home visits. The schedule will be posted in the administration office after each meeting. Parent leaders will be involved as support for monitoring the implementation of these community meetings.

The data will be collected by the Home Visit Committee from each teacher team. Teachers will be responsible for charting their students’ progress. The data collected will be to see whether students improve by turning in a higher percentage of homework; whether students improve their GPA and if they develop a more positive attitude towards the school. All this data will be discussed at these monthly meetings to determine whether the program is progressing or has to be adapted to fit the needs of the students. This data will also be analyzed by the school’s education staff and evaluated to see if it is producing the desired results.

Participating families will see in their child an improved GPA, greater participation in school activities, and a higher percentage of homework completed. Parents will see that they have a greater hand in their child’s future by monitoring their child’s academic life and homework. And teachers will have a greater connection with students and parents and see more positive participation and assessment results in the classroom.

The goal of Animo Venice is to successfully prepare students to enter college. If a student’s GPA increases, they have a greater likelihood of being admitted to, attending, and eventually graduating from a four-year university. Homework is often a significant obstacle to this. If parents were more connected to their child’s school requirements, a higher percentage of homework would be completed and this would improve their child’s GPA. What should also begin to happen is that students will begin to see the importance of education and that what they do at home is an important element to success. And to transform student’s attitudes towards education and help create life-long learners is one of the major Expected School-wide Learning Results (ESLRs) at AVCHS.

Students will have improved GPA, turn in a higher percentage of homework, and have a greater sense of the importance of education by giving positive feedback through a confidential survey. Parents will log into online grade/assignment tracking software more regularly. Parents will keep track of student’s homework activities as well. Teachers will develop greater contact with parents and students by connecting with the parent/student communities.

Each team will fill out a monthly form that will evaluate participation results. These results will be compiled by the site coordinator to be disseminated to participants. Information will be gathered every month, tracked and charted. Results will be disseminated to Teacher Teams for feedback and review. The site coordinator and principal will be responsible for reporting results to the CDE.

Procedures to collect and report the following data to CDE

The site coordinator along with bookkeeper will compile information from each teacher team. A spreadsheet will monitor who participated through a checklist of goals. Parents will be asked to write an evaluation of the program.

Each member of the grade level Home Visit Teacher Team will keep track of who they visited, their impressions, and goals for each student. A spreadsheet will rank at-risk and low performing students to determine who are in the most need of an intervention and home visits.

The site coordinator will review each meeting’s notes and if each parent involved had been contacted. Students and families will be visited by their teacher-advisors whenever possible.

A spreadsheet/sign-in sheet will be used to collect data at community meetings. Community meetings will also be used to sign up parents for home visits. Monthly evaluation meetings will determine if all members of teacher teams are participating. Three training sessions are recommended by the Parent-Teacher Home Visit Program A Home Visit Handbook will be created with all the necessary handouts, notes and reflection forms for future review and data analysis by the school’s Home Visit Review Board. A sign-in sheets/spreadsheet will collect data on attendance of staff attending training sessions. Spreadsheets will also chart the progress of each student, amount of visits, attendance, data and results.

Staff assigned to carry out monitoring and evaluation.

Tommy Chang, Principal

As principal, Mr. Chang monitors student progress through yearly API scores. He is the team leader in analysis of standardized test scores. He designs and manages professional development which is directed at improving learning, test scores and producing measurable outcomes.