1 Liberty Open Responses by Department Math Department

Liberty Open Responses By Department

Math Department Notes – Common Schedule

• We have 22% less contact time than the other high schools. Tough to cover the same material. • Although frosh come in not prepared (79.6% not on track), we are getting them to graduation. More opportunities to “make up time”. • Would like SAT score comparison, not just PSAT. • How many college credits are students leaving high school with? Not just taking AP/IB test, but taking class. • Would like to know % taking AP tests, not just numbers.

Special Education Department Notes

• 17 less instructional hours per semester at Liberty • 2 and a half more planning hours for teachers per week at liberty • Almost double more free and reduced lunch at Liberty compared to IHS and 6 times more than skyline. • Higher on time graduation rate at Liberty • 9 times more senior waivers at Liberty than IHS and SHS • Double the amount of Special Ed at Liberty than Skyline and 2 percent more than IHS • 174 students per semester vs. 147 and 154 at Issaquah and Skyline respectively. But at Liberty we see less students per day. Seeing more students we need more prep time. • More opportunities for transition options at Liberty due to schedule flexibility.

CTE Elective Department

• What do the students want/like/prefer regarding schedule. • Percentage of IEP/504/ELL students would be nice to see in data. • Number of electives available to choose at a six period schedule vs. an eight period schedule. • A simulation of the number of electives possible for a 6, 7, and eight period system mapped considering school size. • How important are electives to our students, industry, and community. • What does Derived FTE for CTE students per period?

Science Department

- Strong on-time graduation rate - FTE staffing allocation numbers: we should be hiring more staff (?) - The senior waiver numbers are ridiculously skewed - Similarly, we have many more TAs - Planning time: such a drastic time inequality, granted we have one extra class - We offer more class opportunities, but students do not report higher enjoyment 1

- Counselor reports that qualitative data doesn’t seem to match what students verbally report - Online offerings: we have so few because we can offer those classes during the school day - We get 75% of the face-time - With block schedule, one student absence can lead to seeing that student once during a week - From a science point of view, the block does allow for longer labs - Students receive a wider range of classes, which looks good in a college portfolio (14 to 7 elective opportunities) - How do 0th or 7th period optional classes affect this data? - What percentage of students take biology-chemistry-physics core at each high school?

World Languages

• Seventeen hours less of instruction time per semester is killing us. I can’t collaborate with other teachers from other buildings; they are a chapter ahead of me by week 6. 90 minutes involves 20 minutes of wasted time. Students are saturated by that time. It doesn’t even matter if you teach bell to bell. Will still happen. Students believe they have 10 minutes to get ready after the bell (not acceptable anywhere in life). We have 78.4% of Issaquah’s minutes and 76.7% of Skyline’s. • Waivers, guided study TA… way way too many. Students escape these classes and waste time. Think of the ridiculous senior table in the library. This is doubly damaging if they have received less instruction in other areas. • Matt pointed out satisfaction of school and how that was a surprising statistic. Just because you have more choices, doesn’t necessarily mean you will be more satisfied. • Online learning requires a lot of discipline for success. • We don’t really have more planning time and here is why: we have more students. Grading an extra set of papers will eat up all of that time. (Answering parent emails, student emails….) • How do we diagnose into special ed? I have seen some capable kids categorized there. • 8 classes. If someone is taking 8 challenging classes, that is too much. I have never taken 8 classes at once. I have never taught 8 classes at once! • Has anyone looked at Sammamish’s schedule? It is intriguing…. • People here are scared to lose their 90 minutes for a lesson. The fact is, in the Monday through Wednesday the same info can be reinforced and put into permanent memory. One thing mentioned in Brain Rules is that 20 times of repetition is needed for long term memory. And, if someone missed your 90 minute lesson, it cannot be reproduced or summarized in the 5 minutes they chose to catch up with you.

Social Studies Department

• Need--what percentage of kids graduated with college credit (including College High School, UW credit, AP)

• Senior waivers--a bad thing? Students get more sleep; may increase achievement. Again, just because kids have waivers might not mean they are slackers...some kids with advanced classes have a waiver so they can catch up and sleep. 2

• Connection--kids come to us behind (% on track to graduate), but perhaps because there is room in schedule for kids to catch up, our graduation rate is higher.

• Need more info on “are kids happy here “.

• We have more instructional minutes, but less per class.

• Way more opportunities for kids, they have a chance to try new things. Especially for some students in this demographic who may not get outside opportunities.

• Fewer things to choose from in 6 period day may mean more students at other schools may take AP/IB classes.

• We should look at other schools like us demographically.....we have higher free and reduced lunch, higher special kids, etc.

• We have 700 kids less....why total # of AP tests rather than percentage?

• Overall minutes are less per class, but, is it worth our adjusting to it so that kids have more opportunities?

• Doesn’t measure things like parental support and outside resources that they pay for--a lot of our parents can’t afford tutoring. Don’t compare apples and oranges. Correlation isn’t causation--have to look carefully at, for example, science scores. Is it less time in class or other factors?

• We have way more prep time, which allows us to catch up with kids to make up tests, do more planning, etc. We also teach an extra class, which increases opportunities for kids.

• What is median income and educational level of each high school households?

• One reason for 8 period day was to slow down the day...at the time our discipline referrals dropped. Don’t know if you can compare this between schools, but it is an interesting point. Our lower end kids really struggled with the 6 period day...moved to fast, too much homework every day, etc.

• What is our objective? How do we know a schedule change will improve student achievement and student satisfaction?

• We have much fewer students doing online classes and doing Running Start because they can take more classes here.

• Trade off--less time in each class, but students get more minutes overall. We need to look at what is good for kids overall rather than just what is good for us individually--every teacher wants more minutes in their class--are we going about this from the wrong direction?

English Department

• Waivers—healthy for a student with 5 AP courses on an 8 period schedule… not good for a student with an easy schedule. • TA’s—In a six period day, it’s a waste to spend one of your classes as a TA. In an 8 period schedule, it can be useful as a time to read / get work done without taking the place of your favorite elective courses. • Without 8 periods, can students take a schedule that prepares them for college AND allows them to have the freedom to take classes that they enjoy (drama, journalism, art, etc.)? • Seeing students every day could be valuable for giving consistent instruction and targeting specific skills (grammar, writing, etc.). Also, reading can be done in more manageable chunks OR more material can be read throughout the year.

Fine Arts Department

Things we noticed:

• We have significantly more Free and Reduced Lunch students. • We are proud of our graduation rate! • Is the % of HSPE success adjusted for enrollment? Keep in mind that our special ed and ELL students count in this total.

Targeted Questions/Observation we generated:

• ***We would like to know the % of kids who are involved in Fine Arts across the three schools • ***We would like to know the number of Fine arts course offerings across the three schools. • ** We would like to know how many of the students taking online course are doing so in order to be able to satisfy their Fine arts requirements • ***We would like data on the correlation between AP participation and designated major in college, i.e., AP Physics student goes on into Science major in college? • ***How many students are involved in multiple electives in the high schools? How many of them are able to pursue their academic “passion” in their chosen field? • ***If there has been a survey of the high school students, we would like to know how many of the students express satisfaction with the quality and number of classes that they have been able to take. Have they been “cubbyholed?” Is there a frustration expressed with the lack of flexibility in a 6 period day? • ***We would like to know about the freshman “on-track to credits” data. We feel that our 9th graders make the transition during high school, and are completely ready and amply prepared during their 4 years with us. We question if the other two high schools college freshman have the same drop for on track to graduate in their transition into college.*** • ***We would like to know how the other science, math, English, and fine arts teachers feel about their contact time during each class period. Are they able to finish a lab, an in-depth algebra lesson, a full still-life art lesson, a comprehensive rehearsal….

• ***We would like to know WHY there is such a disparity between the middle schools and their Fine Arts offerings across the district. There is a glaring disconnect, and LHS students are not being fully served.

PE Department

• Our free and reduced lunch is double Issaquah and six times the amount of Skyline • SPED is at 10% which is twice as many as Skyline • Our Grad rate is 102% • We have the lowest student/teacher ratio • We have 25% more credit opportunities & twice as many electives • We have the most instructional minutes per day • Even on Wednesdays we have 64 minutes compared to their Wednesdays when they have 39 minute classes • You can look at this data and pick the numbers that you want to use • Significantly more teacher planning minutes • We have twice as many elective opportunities as other high schools • Instructional minutes are higher per week, but per class are lower • We should have the information for the level of parent education for each high school • Questions: • Are low math scores tied to instructional strategies or socio economic backgrounds?

• Why are writing scores more comparable to other High schools and not Math or Science? • Why are the freshmen at a 79.8% grad rate?