School Improvement Plan

Academic Needs

• Tier 2 Team
  • Our Tier 2 Team (made up of Counselors, Administrators, Special Education Department Chair, ELL department Chair, Dean of Students, and On Time Graduation Specialist) met to identify students who would need additional levels of academic support based on F rates from MT1, Q1, MT2, S1 and from the 20-21 school year.
• D/F rate Data Review
  • At the end of each grading period, we reviewed D/F rates to determine which classes students seemed to be struggling in the most and worked with teachers to identify supports that could be offered to support student learning needs.
• Pre-Assessments and Skill Checks in classes
  • Some departments utilized pre-assessments at the start of the year to examine students’ prior knowledge and skill mastery. Pre-assessments and other formative assessments were used to adjust curriculum, determine appropriate supports for students, and in some cases determine if a schedule change should be recommended in order to support student success.
• Attendance Data Review
  • Since attendance rates are often tied to academic success our team worked to identify students who missed school frequently and applied some early interventions in an attempt to encourage student attendance.

Social and Emotional Health, Mental Health

• SDQ
  • Reviewed SDQ results to connect with students and families and offer additional supports
• Counseling Staff
  • Our counseling team proactively reached out to families on their caseloads that had previously needed additional Social/Emotional and Mental Health Support. They discussed additional supports that could be offered at 504 and McKinney Vento meetings with their families. The counseling team also works to meet with every 11^th and 9^th grader to identify students who need additional support. Counselors also held regular drop-in meetings so students could easily meet with them.
• Tier 2 Team
  • During Tier 2 meetings with students, our Tier 2 coordinators surveyed students to identify the root cause of why they are struggling in their classes. Mental health and social/emotional health needs are often identified as an area that students ask for additional support.
• SEL Lessons
  • Staff delivered a variety of SEL lessons during Nest that focused on social, emotional, and mental health. We encouraged students to reach out to an administrator or counselor if they felt like they needed additional support and teachers also referred students following the SEL lessons. We also asked teachers to help identify students who might benefit from additional support.
• Discipline and Attendance Meetings
  • During our discipline and attendance meetings with families, our administrators worked to identify any social, emotional, or mental health needs that were impacting student behavior or attendance.
• Recovery Service and Parent Meetings
  • During Recovery service meetings and other parent meetings throughout the school year, our staff asked families how Covid-19 and remote learning impacted their student and if there were additional ways that we could help support our students and families.

Addressing Wellness Needs

• Essential Learning Alignment
  • Our teachers worked to adjust and realign their courses based on the impact of remote learning beginning in March 2020. Teachers worked to find ways to fill skill gaps that existed through accelerated learning. Essential Learnings were identified to help teachers determine what skills and content they should focus on in their classes and to allow teachers to have a clearer picture of what skills and knowledge students had mastered prior to entering their classes.
• Academic Supports
  • Teachers offered a variety of academic supports for students outside of their general classroom instruction including Nest sessions during the school day and after school ISF Homework Labs for students to attend to receive additional support.
  • Teachers offered Remediation plans that would allow students to get back on track in their classes following Quarter 1 and Academic Contracts for students to earn a P/D at various points during the school year. Teachers worked to identify key skills/knowledge that students would need to show competency in to earn a passing grade and identified alternative ways for students 
• Tier 2 and Attendance Meetings
  • During our Tier 2 and Attendance meetings, we were able to identify barriers that were making it difficult for students to re-engage with school. We were able to offer support like adjusting students’ schedules to find courses that were a better fit for them or even place them in classes with staff or peers that encouraged attendance and engagement. We were able to identify specific supports that might encourage student access including breaks during the day, check-ins with counselors and/or administrators, assigning students to support with teachers during Nest, connecting students with mentors, and assignments students to focus groups.
  • Tier 2 Coordinators also served as advocates to help students ask for additional support or academic contracts with their teachers.
• 504/IEP Supports
  • During 504 and IEP meetings, we were able to identify additional accommodations and modifications that needed to be implemented to address students’ needs. We expanded the student support center to allow for more students to access various accommodations including extended testing time and to providing students with a quiet space to take a break during the day.
  • Students with IEPs also had the opportunity to access recovery services in order to ensure they could meet their IEP goals.
• Counseling Department Provides Social, Emotional, and Mental Supports
  • Our counseling team worked to meet with students frequently throughout the year, including an individual check in with every 9^th and 11^th grader. They held frequent drop-in sessions for students and helped to connect students with our Swedish Mental Health counselor when appropriate.
  • Our counseling team also held a variety of small group sessions for students who were experiencing anxiety to talk about strategies to support them.
  • School-Wide SEL lessons were designed in partnership with our counseling team that were taught in classrooms during Nest time. Through these lessons, students were able to frequently review the various mental health supports we have available in the school.
• Schedule Adjustments
  • Our team constantly monitored student progress in various courses to determine if there needed to be individual or system-wide schedule adjustments. Teachers, counselors, and our administrative team helped facilitate individual schedule changes for students to ensure the correct placement in classes. 
  • By consistently reviewing our D/F Rate data, we were able to identify areas where students were struggling more than they historically did. We added additional Lab classes for our Algebra 1 and Geometry courses based on the data related to those courses and added an additional Pre-Algebra course for students who had significant skill gaps that were preventing their success in Algebra 1.
• Guided Students
  • We expanded our Guided Studies for the school year in order to provide more students with executive functioning support to help support them in their current classes and to allow them to access credit recovery in courses during the school day. We also were able to add an additional section of Guided Studies that began in the second semester so we would have additional seats for students who didn’t initially register but who were identified over the course of 1^st semester.
  • We also created three 9^th grade specific credit recovery sections and encouraged students who struggled in middle school to take the course so they could begin receiving additional support at the start of the school year.
• Focus Groups
  • We were able to host a variety of focus groups for our students this year including a focus group of students experiencing anxiety, Latinx students, and male Black students. Focus group meetings were held 1-2 times a month and they discussed what these students were experiencing at our school and would identify ways we could further support these students.

• Vertical and Horizontal Alignment through Essential Learnings
  • Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, our teachers and their departments worked to adjust the Essential Learnings in each course based on the fact that we know our students’ engagement and learning was impacted by remote learning and the pandemic. These Essential Learnings were not only used to guide the curriculum design for each specific course, but also to inform vertical alignment within departments so staff could plan accordingly.
• Course Registration Process and Scheduling
  • As students began the process of registering for courses for the 21-22 school year, our school team worked to help students and families make informed decisions to help ensure that students signed up for classes that balanced an academic challenge and student success. 
    • Our counseling and admin team produced a variety of videos and virtual presentations to walk families through the process but also took time to highlight key considerations students and families should keep in mind when registering for core classes.
    • These videos were posted on the website and physical and electronic copies of the course selection paperwork were sent to students and families.
    • Teachers in each course made specific recommendations to families regarding what course they recommended their students take for the following school year. For math classes, we take time to pre-fill the teacher recommendation into the course selection form so that families would need to make a conscious choice to go against the teachers’ recommendation.
  • As we were building the Course Schedule for the 21-22 school year, we worked to try to create additional sections of classes that students historically struggle in to allow for smaller class sizes (e.g.,: Algebra 1). We also considered what classes were typically courses that students transferred into and tried to create enough space in those courses so that students could transfer into those courses if needed (e.g., Applied Algebra 2 and Personal Finance).  We also worked to build in more support classes into our Course Schedule including numerous sections of Guided Studies and an Algebra 1 Support lab.
  • After reviewing the D/F rate data from the 1^st semester, we noticed that students were really struggling in their math courses at higher rates than usual, despite our teachers’ attempts to adjust curriculum and support students. Our math teachers were able to identify students they believed would benefit from releveling or taking a math support class. We then used those recommendations to send targeted communication to families to let them know about the teacher’s recommendation. We were able to use those recommendations along with Course Schedule adjustments and some additional FTE to build an additional Algebra1 Lab, a section of Pre-Algebra, and a Geometry Lab.
• Student Assessment and Grade Monitoring
  • At the start of the school year, teachers used pre-assessments and formative assessments to gauge student understanding of content, mastery of skills, and learning needs. In many cases, this information was used to inform instruction, but in some cases this information was used to make recommendations regarding whether a student might need additional support during Nest Time, ISF homework labs, or in some cases individual schedule change recommendations were made.

• Essential Learning Alignment and Grading Practices Professional Development (August, October, and January)
• Trauma Informed Practices In the Classroom (August)
• Best Practices to Support Student Attendance (August and November)
• Tier 1 and Tier 2 Strategies in the Classroom (August and October)
• Enriching Students Training (August and September)
• LRCI Supports (August)
• ELL and GLAD Supports (August)
• Using Canvas to Support Students (August and September)
• Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Classroom

• Enriching Students
  • Use to assign and track student attendance and participation at Nest sessions
• Canvas and Skyward
  • Allows students to have access to current and past assignments
  • Allows students and staff to monitor academic progress and attendance
  • Credit Recovery Modules are provided on Canvas so students can access these courses outside of the regular school day.
• Family Partnership Liaison
  • Our Family Partnership Liaison has been an incredible partner in helping us form connections with and identify and remove barriers for our students.
• Student Support Center
  • The expansion of the student support center allows students a place where they can get caught up on work, take a break when class gets overwhelming, or take an assessment in a quieter space.

•  Enriching Students
• Educational Tech Lead
  • Our Educational Tech Leads have shared ways that Canvas and other instructional technology tools can be used during instruction.
• Laptops and Hotspots
  • Laptops and hot spots were given to students who qualified based on financial need so they could continue to access their education outside of the school day. When we ran out of laptops available for check-out, we dismantled a library laptop cart and had some teachers offer to reduce the number of laptops they had in their classroom in order to make sure every student who needed a computer could get one.
• Turnitin.com
• NoRedInk
• ALEKS
• Calendly

• Tier 2 and Attendance Meetings
  • During our Tier 2 and Attendance meetings our staff focuses on building relationships and stressing our desire to work in partnership with families in order to help support their students. The team works with parents to identify potential barriers, brainstorm supports, provide information about various school and community resources, and find ways to partner to support our students.
• Language Line and Alboum
  • We regularly use Language Line and Alboum Translation Services to connect with our families who need additional language support.
• Targeted Communication to Specific Families
  • We have sent out targeted messages to families of our students in our Focus groups and students who are struggling in math to share potential resources and opportunities.
  • Our Family Partnership Liaison works with some of our families that are the most difficult to reach.
• Social Media
  • At the request of students and families we’ve created an Issaquah High School Instagram page where we post information about opportunities for academic support, ways to connect with counselors, and events happening at school. We try to highlight various student groups and post reminders about upcoming deadlines. 

• Monitoring of grades via Skyward at each grading period (MT1, Q1, MT2, S1, MT3, Q3, MT4, S2)
• Skyward and Nest Attendance reports
• Student Surveys