Southwest Licking Digital Academy

Southwest Licking Digital Academy

Annual Report

2012-13

Mission:

Our mission is to enhance and facilitate students learning by providing state of the art digital curriculum and instruction; innovative, collaborative leadership; and technical expertise and support that will prepare students to become lifelong learners and intelligent decision-makers.

General School Information

We welcome you to review our 2012-13 Annual Report. The Southwest Licking Digital Academy (SWLDA) is a K-12 online community school sponsored by Southwest Licking Schools. SWLDA opened its doors on December 5th, 2003. Our primary purpose then and still is today, is to offer the highest quality online educational program available. As we accept this challenge, we understand the importance of parental support and involvement, self-discipline, self-direction, and self-driven students to make this type of school environment educationally sound. Improving student performance in all subject areas is paramount and the combination of the above traits is important in being successful in this type of environment.

We will never be satisfied until every student has shown growth and improvement in all area, whether it be grades, mandated testing, attendance and graduation rates.

Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is our ongoing goal to meet each and every year.

As we move from year to year, we believe parents play a critical role in their child’s’ education. No school district, whether it be online, community school or traditional can be successful unless you have parental support from home. We appreciate the support from our parents that enroll their children in SWLDA. Education not only takes place on the computer but we strive for learning to be an ongoing process each day of the year.

Since we are not a traditional school, SWLDA continues to offer unique opportunities to students who decide that they need a different type of education that differ from the traditional school. Our students our working diligently to become the best students possible through time management skills, discipline and learning the computer skills that are needed to be a successful student in our on-line environment.

Should you have any questions regarding this Annual Report, please contact Jeff Severino at or 740-403-7755

Southwest Licking Digital Academy Information

SWLDA serves grades K-12. The types of students that we serve usually come from these areas: 1. at risk students (special Ed and regular Ed); 2. Former home-schooled students; 3. Students with medical problems that interfere with attendance at traditional schools; 4. Students that show social and/or emotional problems that inhibit their learning; and 5. Gifted students who need to move at a quicker pace through their classes. During the 2012-13 school year, we had a student population of between 27-40 students at various times of the school year. We had a daily average of 33 students.

For our 2012-13 school year, we had 17 graduates.

We contract our teachers from VCS of Ohio to educate our students, general and special education. The students are required to be online everyday for six hours to complete their lessons in each class. All teachers are HQT and have contact with students’ everyday when possible. Students are able to email, chat and/or talk with teacher though blackboard and phone access everyday if they choose. Parents are also able to talk with teachers as well.

SWLDA has a computer intervention lab 1 day a week for 3 hours. This lab is staffed with tutors to help students who are struggling with assignments, IEP designated. The intervention lab tutors have helped students finish up their assignments and also serve as a time to socialize and meet with other students in the academy. We also have individual tutors if students need to meet with them on a scheduled basis.

Home visits are a norm in this environment. I talk with parents and students on a daily basis through email, home visits, or phone. Students will be contacted as well for attendance issues, lack of work on classes or not performing up to expectations set by SWLDA.

1.  Improve test scores in the OGT and OAA testing for all students

05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 12-13

Limited 8.9 2.2 7.1 10.8 12.0 15 NR

Basic 28 23.9 21.4 29.2 28 18.3 NR

Proficient 44.6 39.1 48.6 44.6 40 38.3 NR

Accelerated 17.9 23.9 20 10.8 16 18.3 NR

Advanced 0 10.9 2.9 4.6 4 10 NR

05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 12-13

Grad. Rates NR 20 60 90 50 90.9 (yes) 38.9(F)

Attend. Rates 89.1 98.1 96.7 98 99.5 99.9 (yes) NS

Per. Index 84.1 93.5 89 82.8 82.8 86 NS

AYP met not met not met met met NS

Value Added

Math met NS NS NS

Reading Below NS NS NS

I have attached the report card from last year, as you can see, it has dramatically changed in format from past years.. Due to our low numbers of students in each grade, we had “NR” for most of our scores. Next year’s report card will have more letter grades to give us a more accurate account of Southwest Licking Digital Academy. We did have a “F” in our graduation rate due to students being withdrawn from the Digital Academy due to attendance issues during the year and/or they dropped out of school. We are working on this and hope to intervene in helping more students to stay in school and work towards obtaining their high school diploma

Goals for the 2013-14 School year:

1.  Improve on our OGT and OAA testing for all students

2.  Improve our graduation rates

3.  Students need to stay on task and finish courses in the required time

4.  Improve AYP

We are continually improving SWLDA’s academic content to reach our students so that they will do better on all state mandated tests. We have set up tutor sessions for all students at the SWLDA computer lab for one day a week for 3 hours and individual tutoring if needed. These labs are staffed by qualified teachers in each of the testing area. The curriculum is also being re-evaluated each and every year to make sure our students achieve the goals that have been set in this annual report. All students learn differently so we are always looking at different ways to reach our students with various methods of teaching and curriculum.

Our Core Beliefs:

·  The efficient delivery of educational services and resources is critical

·  Ongoing planning, assessment and evaluation drive a growing, dynamic organization and provide effective use of resources

·  Empowering the learning community through technology is a vital necessity

·  A well trained and talented staff that continually upgrades its skills is a requirement for a successful organization

·  Using system processes coupled with creative approaches will foster a rich educational experience at reasonable operational costs

·  The spirit of teamwork and cooperation within the organization must be encouraged and nurtured

Safe and orderly environment

Being an online school requires us to address safety issues in a different way. We do not deal with fights, assaults and related physical violence that sometimes occur in a traditional school. However, we have to deal with cyber issues such as inappropriate materials and emails. Thus, safety is a critical part of the SWLDA student environment. The provided student computers were specifically designed to work in a “closed” environment, yet allowed access to the many resources presented through the internet.

All student communication takes place within the school. Students are not permitted to receive emails from non-school entities. Web sites are monitored by software that is installed on each machine. Social opportunities are developed through monitored online chats and discussion boards. Providing a safe online environment was and continues to be a priority.

As in any school, there are students who abuse the privileges they were afforded. This took a variety of avenues including such actions as inappropriate language when communicating with other students and teachers. All students and parent/guardians signed an acceptable use policy when they decided to enroll in SWLDA at our SWLDA orientations. This policy states that they agree to the following guidelines of appropriate use of hardware and software. Should students violate this policy, the procedures were in place to restrict their access to specific aspects of the school. Their actions sometimes resulted in suspension from school by turning off access. The SWLDA director works closely with the students and parents when such situations arose. All disciplinary action was documented for future reference if needed.

This 2012-13 Annual report is submitted on October 30, 2013

Respectfully,

Mr. Jeff Severino, Director

Southwest Licking Digital Academy