PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL MID-CYCLE PROGRESS REPORT

50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301

Palo Alto Unified School District

March 5-6, 2018

Accrediting Commission for Schools Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

CONTENTS

I: Student/Community Profile Data...... 1 II: Significant Changes and/or Developments ...... 16 III: Ongoing School Improvement ...... 28 IV: Progress on Critical Areas for Follow-up/Schoolwide Action Plan ...... 31 V: Schoolwide Action Plan Refinements ...... 43 Appendices Appendix A – Updated Schoolwide Action Plan ...... 49 Appendix B – Department Updates ...... 58

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I. STUDENT/COMMUNITY PROFILE DATA

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School Profile

Palo Alto Senior High School (Paly), established in 1894, is one of two comprehensive high schools serving grades nine through twelve in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Paly has long had a national reputation for academic excellence. The proximity of Stanford University, the Silicon Valley business community, and San Francisco has created a socially diverse community with high academic expectations and a strong belief in quality public education.

The present student enrollment is 2068 and is expected to increase to 2300 within the next few years. The student body reflects the community’s socio-economic status and educational level. The ethnic/racial makeup of our student population is 38.7% Asian, 2.9% African- American/Black, 46.1% Caucasian, 10.4% Hispanic/Latino, 0.7% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 1.1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. 10% of the student population is enrolled in Free/Reduced Lunch Program; 10% are first generation college students. Over the last fifteen years, the student body at Paly has become more ethnically and linguistically diverse. The white student population has decreased from over 80% in 1993 to less than 60% in 2008. The largest percent increase in the last fifteen years has been in the Asian population, which has increased from 15% to over 35% since 1993.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the City of Palo Alto includes a dynamic mix of business and residential development. Hewlett-Packard and Stanford University and Hospitals are the City’s largest employers. Palo Alto’s population is approximately 67,042; the median household income is $137,043; the median home price is $1,702,000 (2016 US Census Data); 80% of adults hold a four-year college degree; and 43% of adults over 25 have at least one graduate degree. PAUSD is a basic aid district and does not receive state funding based on Average Daily Attendance.

Students who attend Paly typically live in Palo Alto’s northern and central neighborhoods. Recent demographic shifts in northern Santa Clara County have brought new families and increased ethnic and linguistic diversity within Asian, East Indian, and Middle Eastern populations. In addition, the Voluntary Transfer Program (VTP), also referred to as the Tinsley Program, brings students from Ravenswood School District to PAUSD, with Paly as the program’s designated high school.

Palo Alto High School’s three-tiered Guidance Program provides academic planning, personal counseling, and college and career advising for students. At the core of the guidance department is the Teacher Advisor (TA) Program. The primary delivery of guidance materials and instruction is via the teacher advisors in the Thursday advisory periods. The teacher advisors serve as students’ academic advisors and write students’ counselor recommendations and/or school reports. The teacher advisors serve as students’ first point of contact, followed by their grade-level counselors, and then college advisors. Teacher advisors, counselors, and college advisors all work collaboratively in this successful guidance model.

In the spring of 2015, Paly received a six-year accreditation from ACS WASC with a two-day mid-cycle visit.

School’s Vision, Mission and Learner Outcomes

We support all PALY students as they prepare to thrive as global citizens in a rapidly changing world. We develop our students’ knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving skills and

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nurture their curiosity, creativity, and resilience, empowering every child to reach his or her full intellectual, social, and creative potential.

We are a comprehensive public high school that unites our students, teachers, staff, and parents to deliver on our collective vision by offering a rich and challenging academic experience to all students within a supportive community, dedicated to preparing our youth for the challenges of living in a fast-changing world.

The core purpose of our school is to affirm the potential of every Paly student in an environment of support and inspiration where people work together and lift each other toward great personal growth.

At Paly, everyone values and benefits from our collective effort to grow and to develop our human potential. Guiding this effort is our belief in the following: ● Promoting personal integrity and respect ● Providing a nurturing environment characterized by teamwork and collaboration ● Caring for and believing in every individual ● Encouraging creativity and independent thinking ● Understanding that growth and learning are an essential part of life ● Acknowledging great effort and great fun in work and play

Our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLOs) are universal elements of good instruction that are relevant and easily applicable. Our teachers incorporate many SLOs in the classroom on a daily basis.

Our district-based Schoolwide Learner Outcomes: To achieve our mission, the Board of Education has adopted the following competencies as the basis of what we expect our students to know and be able to do when they are graduated from PAUSD: SLOs to Be Measured by Report Card Grades: 1. Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, principles, processes, facts, and skills in the disciplines of language arts, history-social science, mathematics, science, physical education, visual and performing arts, foreign language, career-vocational education, and health / practical living skills.

SLOs to Be Measured by the Rubrics: 2. Effective Communication Through Listening, Speaking, and Writing 3. Strong Research Skills 4. Ability to Integrate Knowledge Among Disciplines 5. Reading with Understanding 6. Critical and Creative Thinking to Solve Problems 7. Effective Use of Technology

Student and Faculty/Staff Demographics

Paly student enrollment has grown by over 100 students since 2015 and an enrollment “bubble” in our district has us projected to grow to 2300 by the 2020-2021 school year. The present student enrollment is 2075 and is expected to increase to 2300 within the next few years. In

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both the 16-17 and 17-18 school year, Paly’s enrollment “closed” in May prior to the start of the school year and students were overflowed to Gunn High School. Paly has seen an increase in the number of intradistrict transfer requests to come to our school.

Total Student Enrollment 2014-17 2100 2075

2050

1994 2000 1992

1943 1950

1900

1850 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

PERCENTAGE OF STUDENT ENROLLMENT BY ETHNICITY 2014-17

4.70% 5.50% 6.20%

Two or More Races 50.10% 48.90% 46.50% White Pacific Islander Hispanic or Latino 0.90% 1.00% 1.10% Filipino 10.00% 9.40% 10.30% 1.20% 1.00% 1.20% Asian American Indian or Alaska Native 29.00% 30.20% 31.50% African American

3.40%0.60% 3.30%0.70% 3.10%0.50% 2014- 15 2015- 16 2016- 17

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The student body reflects the community’s socio-economic status and educational level. The ethnic/racial makeup of our student population is 38.7% Asian, 2.9% African-American/Black, 46.1% Caucasian, 10.4% Hispanic/Latino, 0.7% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 1.1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. 10% of the student population is enrolled in Free/Reduced Lunch Program; 10% are first generation college students. Over the last fifteen years, the student body at Paly has become more ethnically and linguistically diverse. The white student population has decreased from over 80% in 1993 to less than 60% in 2008. The largest percent increase in the last fifteen years has been in the Asian population, which has increased from 15% to over 35% since 1993. ● 216 students on IEP ● 205 students on 504 ● 12 students are classified as English Learners ● 194 students receive Free or Reduced Lunch ● 8 students are homeless

Student enrollment growth, in conjunction with class size reduction efforts at the district level, has led to an increase in staffing for our school. During the last 3 years, Palo Alto High School has hired over 35 teachers, 2 school psychologists, 1 counselor, 2 new campus supervisors and 1 new Assistant Principal. In the fall of 2017, we were fortunate to have an experienced Administrator on Special Assignment join our team to help with our growing student population and increasing special education needs, bringing our total number of administrators to 6.

PALY 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 Not HQT 1 0 0 Teaching outside credential (2) 2 3 3 Short-term Staff permits (3) 1 0 0 Number in BTSA 6 11 9 Number who don't have CLAD 1 3 5

PALY CERTIFICATED 2017-2018

PALY CERTIFICATED – ETHNICITY Female Male Amer Ind/Alaskan Native 0% 0% Asian/Asian Indian 1.3% 2.0% Chinese 3.9% 0.7% Black 4.0% 0.7% Hispanic 5.4% 3.5% Japanese 1.3% 0% Korean 1.3% 0% Other Asian/Pacific Islander 0% 2.0% White 36.6% 31.9% Declined N/A N/A Multiple 2.0% 3.4%

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PALY CERTIFICATED – GENDER 83.3 FTE Female 55.9% 65.8 FTE Male 44.1% Total: 149.1 FTE

PALY CERTIFICATED – YEARS OF EXPERIENCE Total Female Male 1 – 5 32 17 15 6 – 10 23 17 6 11 – 15 36 19 17 16 – 20 36 19 17 21 – 25 15 10 5 26 – 30 19 4 6 Above 30 7 4 3

PALY CERTIFICATED – EDUCATION LEVEL* BA only 43 1 MA 138 2 MA* 21 Ph.D. 5 NBPTS/CCC 10 * = employees w/ 2 MA’s are also included in the One MA category

PALY CLASSIFIED 2017-2018

PALY CLASSIFIED – POSITION BREAKDOWN Total Female Male Secretaries/Clerks 14 13 1 Aides 35 30 5 Custodians 14 1 13 Other 17 13 4

PALY CLASSIFIED – ETHNICITY Total Female Male Asian/Asian Indian 9 6 3 Chinese 7 5 2 Black 4 4 0 Hispanic 12 5 7 Other Asian/Pacific Islander 6 2 4 White 39 33 6 Multiple 2 2 0

PALY CLASSIFIED – GENDER Female: 57 Male: 23

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Student Achievement Data

Student achievement data since March 2015 provides evidence that many students at Paly continue to perform above the national average on standardized tests. ACT and SAT scores continue to show an increase in performance.

SAT and ACT Test Results 2014-15 Grade 12 Enrollment Number Tested SAT SAT Total >= 1500 Percent Number Tested ACT ACT Score >=21 Percent Palo Alto High 472 378 94.18 235 94.04 Santa Clara County 20443 10531 66.53 4749 76.18 California 498403 204848 45.86 97607 56.56 SAT and ACT Test Results 2015-16 Grade 12 Enrollment Number Tested SAT SAT Total >= 1500 Percent Number Tested ACT ACT Score >=21 Percent Palo Alto High 476 370 89.19 263 90.11 Santa Clara County 20434 10690 66.23 5054 77.72 California 496901 210706 44.3 104230 57.45 SAT and ACT Test Results 2016-17 Grade 12 Enrollment Number Tested SAT SAT Total >= 1500 Percent Number Tested ACT ACT Score >=21 Percent Palo Alto High 511 349 91.98 288 92.71 Santa Clara County 20395 10268 65.67 5663 77.31 California 492835 214262 41.93 108679 57.44 Source: Data Quest In May 2017, 745 students took 1,469 tests AP tests and 94% scored 3 or higher, while 47% scored a grade of 5. AP Scores 2015

Grades 10- Grade 12 Number AP AP AP AP AP Name 12 Enrollment Score=1 Score=2 Score=3 Score=4 Score=5 Enrollment Tested Palo Alto 1,453 476 673 33 80 196 428 753 High Palo Alto 2,895 936 1,389 55 168 522 1,070 1,715 Unified

Santa Clara 60,277 20,434 20,994 6,046 6,794 9,156 9,574 10,731 County

Statewide 1,454,751 496,901 329,412 130,563 137,482 150,815 118,517 83,501

AP Scores 2016

Grades 10- Grade 12 Number AP AP AP AP AP Name 12 Enrollment Score=1 Score=2 Score=3 Score=4 Score=5 Enrollment Tested Palo Alto 1,477 511 690 32 71 181 416 787 High Palo Alto 2,940 1,020 1,418 50 176 479 1,075 1,677 Unified

Santa Clara 60,802 20,395 22,123 5,977 7,278 9,390 10,200 11,967 County

Statewide 1,453,807 492,835 353,542 135,358 155,259 155,111 124,762 93,581

AP Scores 2017 Number Grades 10- Grade 12 AP AP AP AP AP Name 12 Enrollment Score=1 Score=2 Score=3 Score=4 Score=5 Enrollment Tested

Palo Alto 1,472 468 745 11 71 238 462 690 High Palo Alto n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Unified

Santa Clara n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a County

Statewide n/a n/a 416,757 149,377 187,316 193,481 152,179 108,909 Source: College Board

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Since May 2015, Palo Alto High School has recommended that students take no more than 2 AP classes per year. Despite our recommendation, many students take more than 2 courses. 2017-18

# of AP Classes per student Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total 9 1 1 # of students 10 71 8 2 81 taking APs 11 139 144 45 12 1 341 12 85 86 105 68 29 8 2 383 (blank) Total 296 238 152 80 30 8 2 806

2016-17

# of AP Classes per student Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 9 1 1 # of students 10 88 8 96 taking APs 11 161 129 38 3 331 12 73 110 116 71 11 1 382 Total 323 247 154 74 11 1 810

2015-16

# of AP Classes per student Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 10 55 9 64 # of students 11 168 118 31 10 1 328 taking APs 12 67 117 106 84 29 1 404 Total 290 244 137 94 30 1 796

Notes: 1. 2015-16 and 2016-17 numbers are from transcript data. 2017-18 numbers are from student schedules. 2. In 2017-18 AP Physics C became two separate classes (59 students taking 2 semester-long courses instead of 1 year-long course.)

Paly continues to have a high number of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists.

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS 2015 2016 2017 2018 Class Size 478 510 468 485 Semifinalist 25 33 32 35 Commended 82 91 64 71 Source: School Profile

Paly’s graduation rate has increased over the last three years from 95.6% to 97.6% (California School Dashboard).

PAUSD high school students who are considered English Language Learners attend Henry M. Gunn Senior High School to receive ELL services, therefore only 12 students attending Paly are classified as English Language Learners (California School Dashboard). Meanwhile approximately 332 students are designated RFEP (Datazone).

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Paly offers a continuum of special education services and therefore has the largest number of students receiving special education services of the two high schools: 216 students with an IEP. 205 students with a 504 plan.

A-G completion data shows that students have made steady progress in meeting the A-G requirements which means more students are graduating ready to enter the UC/CSU college system today than in past years.

PERCENT OF GRADUATES MEETING A-G REQUIREMENTS 2015 2016 2017 All 97.6 84.9 89.1 Special Ed 98.7 62.4 58.2 SED 94.9 53.7 52.6 African American 94.1 50.0 63.2 Asian 99.3 94.9 95.1 Hispanic 92.6 57.8 62.9 White 97.9 88.1 92.9 Source: DataQuest

While Paly is considered a high-performing, comprehensive high school, a notable achievement gap continues to exist for students we reference as “Historically Under Represented” or HUR. This subgroup consists of students who are African American, Hispanic/Latino, socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or students with a learning disability.

Schoolwide data reveals there continues to be a: ● Low proportion of HUR students enrolled in Honors/AP classes ● High proportion of HUR students identified as Special Education ● High proportion of HUR students suspended

Please note: less than 14% of 11th grade students participated in CAASPP testing last May, only 25% did so 2016 and 45% in May of 2015. Because of the low participation caused by an “opt-out” movement in our community, we are unable to consider the data from these reports to be reliable in making yearly comparisons and/or measuring our students’ achievement in obtaining the Common Core State Standards.

CAASPP Math 2015 2016 2017 Students Enrolled 510 474 481 Students with Scores 230 119 62 Percent Meets or Exceeds 77 89 73

English Language Arts 2015 2016 2017 Students Enrolled 510 474 481 Students with Scores 207 109 71 Percent Meets or Exceeds 83 93 86 Source: CAASPP Web Site

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Analysis of Student Perception Data

Challenge Success Survey Data Analysis:

Student perceptions of their experience at Palo Alto High School have remained fairly consistent over the last two Challenge Success Surveys conducted in the Fall of 2015 and Fall of 2017. Students perceive that Palo Alto High School is a fun and spirited learning environment, but stressful and competitive. When surveyed in 2015, the top three words students used to describe Palo Alto High School were: stressful, fun and challenging. Similarly, the top three words students used to describe Paly in 2017 were: stressful, fun, and caring.

Perceptions of homework have not changed significantly over the last two Challenge Success Surveys: ● There has been a 7% increase where students feel many or all of their classes assign homework as busywork and do not feel the assigned homework helps with learning the material. Furthermore, there has been a 5% decrease in perception that many or all classes assign homework that helps students learn the material. ● On average, 11th graders reported to have significantly more homework than 9th graders. As expected, students taking at least two AP courses and/or Honors courses reported to have significantly more homework and spend more time participating in extracurricular activities compared to peers who do not take AP and/or Honors courses.

Student health and well-being Challenge Success Survey results also have not significantly changed: ● 61% of students reported in 2015 and 2017 that they have at least one adult in school they can go to if they have problems. Students reported that their most frequent and first source of support has been a teacher on campus, followed by a counselor and then a teacher advisor. ● 72% of students reported they often or always feel stressed by schoolwork and 64% of students reported that schoolwork often or always keeps them from having time with family, friends and getting enough sleep. ● There has been an 8% increase from 2015 to 2017 with students missing more than one day of school due to a stress-related health or emotional problem. 31% to 34% of students reported exhaustion, headaches, and difficulty sleeping.

Sources of Strength Survey Data Analysis:

In the fall of 2015, the Sources of Strength program began at Paly. Sources of Strength is a research-based nationwide “upstream” suicide prevention program with a goal of creating healthier norms around help-seeking behavior and building greater awareness of everyday sources that can strengthen resilience in the face of challenge. The program focuses on spreading messages of hope, help, and strength by leveraging peer-to-peer influence and strengthening the connections between students and trusted adults. The following year, approximately three-quarters of students across all grades participated in a survey (designed and analyzed by researchers at the University of Rochester in collaboration with the Sources of Strength national office) evaluating the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of our students in regard to seeking help from trusted adults in times of struggle and crisis - as well as their exposure and interaction with the Sources of Strength program. Although Sources began at Paly the year prior, this data set will serve as our baseline. Below are some of the key findings:

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● Sources of Strength messaging is creating positive awareness, and needs to focus more heavily on interaction and engagement. Approximately 75% of students were reached with some prevention messaging by Sources peer leaders - even more so with students at elevated risk due to their connection with someone who had died by suicide. More work needs to be done to increase the impact individual students (peer leaders in particular) have on other individual students and to provide more opportunities to engage students in smaller groups to share their experience, strength, and hope with each other.

● There is a gap to be closed between the belief that help is available and the actual willingness to seek it. Approximately 80% of students feel there is an adult on campus and/or in their lives who they trust would be helpful to them or a friend in a time of crisis. However, the number who expressed willingness to seek that help was lower (~60%) with markedly higher willingness (~75%) in 12th graders. While 80-90% would engage help if they knew of a friend who was suicidal, 10-20% of students would keep it a secret if their friends asked them to - and about 10-15% believe if you are depressed you should keep it a secret, and a similar number believe that suicide is a possible solution to problems.

● More can be done to increase individual connections between students and trusted adults on campus. Although approximately 80% of students report seeking help from an adult in the last 12 months due to distressing emotions, the large majority sought help from a parent, while only ~20% sought help from an adult on campus. While overall this help-seeking behavior is encouraging, the help students reportedly seek from adults on campus has room to grow. That said, overall, students who sought help from adults were significantly more positive on help-seeking norms and adult views - though ~25% reported the adults they sought out made the situation worse.

California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) Data Analysis:

● Overall, Paly students feel safe, are engaged, and want to be at school. The 2015- 16 survey results reveals 9th and 11th grade students have a high safety perception of 83% and 92% respectively. Additional data: ○ “I feel like I am part of this school”, 68% and 69% (agree and strongly agree) ○ “I am always trying to do better in my schoolwork”, 80% and 81% (agree and strongly agree)

● Paly students feel connected to teachers and staff on campus. While more work continues to be done on school connectedness, 9th and 11th grade students agree and strongly agree “feel[ing] close to people at this school”, 69% and 75% respectively. Additional data: ○ “happy to be at this school”, 74% and 70% (agree and strongly agree) ○ “an adult who cares about me”, 64% and 76% (agree and strongly agree) ○ ‘an adult who tells me when I do a good job”, 76% and 79% (agree and strongly agree) ○ “safe at school”, 80% and 85% (agree and strongly agree) ○ “try hard [to be] good at my school work”, 88% and 85% (agree and strongly agree) ○ “a teacher or some other adult who listens to me when I have something to say,” 79% and 84% (agree and strongly agree)

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YES Program Data Analysis:

Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) is a program provided by the International Association for Human Values that combines the teaching of core social-emotional principles and mindful breathing techniques to equip students with tools to manage relationships and distressing emotions. Paly began implementing this program in the 2016-17 school year as a 3-week unit in the fall to all 9th grade PE classes. It was taught again in 2017-18, this time reduced to two weeks with some alterations based on feedback from the previous year. YES administers their own pre- and post-survey to students receiving the curriculum and shares their data and analysis with us. Below is a summary of findings/perceptions based on those results:

● The program appears to significantly benefit a subset of our students, while being met with indifference or some antipathy by others. Pre- and post-survey results indicate approximately 60% of students reporting some benefit (at least in the short- term) to their feelings of calm, happiness, and/or ability to sleep, focus, handle stress, and/or manage their emotions. Taken individually, each of the aforementioned benefits had 30-40% of students responding in the affirmative. Open-ended feedback from students ranged from having very positive regard for the value of the skills taught in the program to strong feelings that they were a waste of time. Interestingly, while perhaps only 35% stated they believed these skills were of benefit to themselves, more than twice that number reported believing these skills would be of benefit to others. The belief that “I don’t need this but others do” is not atypical when it comes to assessing the perceived benefit of social-emotional skill building for oneself vs. others. Overall, about 20% of students felt it was not a good use of their time, with another 45% or who felt relatively indifferent. That said, for a significant segment of students (perhaps about 35%), the program was perceived to have strong benefit and was well-worth their time. So, at least one-in-three students felt they learned skills and attitudes that effectively increased their overall sense of well-being - skills and attitudes that could potentially last a lifetime if practiced and reinforced.

Student Behavior Data

The physical and emotional safety of students is a top priority at Paly. The school maintains firm guidelines for student behavior on campus and at school events. The site discipline team includes four campus supervisors, five assistant principals, and the principal. At the beginning of the school year, each student is provided with a planner that includes the student handbook, which addresses student behavior, school rules and consequences. Suspensions at Paly generally fall in one of three categories: 1) Caused, attempted, or threatened physical injury; 2) Possession, use, sale or furnishing a controlled substance, alcohol, intoxicant; or 3) Disruption and/or defiance.

2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018

Suspensions 13 students received 16 30 students received 38 8 students received 13 suspensions (1.1%) suspensions (0.7%) suspensions (1.5%)

Expulsions 0 0 0

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A review of the suspension and expulsion data for Paly reveals the following: ● Expulsions are rare at Palo Alto High School ● The number of suspensions at Paly is low for a comprehensive high school ● African-American, Latino, Socioeconomically Disadvantaged and Special Education student groups are suspended more often than Asian and White students (California Dashboard 5X5 Placement) ● Within this small rate, the suspensions that most concern us are: ○ Drugs and alcohol ○ Defiance

Mental Health and Wellness Data:

In 2016-2017, our mental health team conducted 123 risk assessments, 30 more than the prior year. The number of students who are requiring IEP services and/or 504 accommodations for mental health reasons has also grown with 32 of the initial 39 initial referrals being primarily related to social, emotional, or behavioral concerns/deficits. In first semester of 2017-2018, we’ve already had 27 initial referrals to special education, 14 of which involve social emotional or behavioral deficits as the primary concern. Three ERMHS therapists serve 60 students. Approximately 50% of 504 accommodations are for anxiety and/or depression.

Since its inauguration in August of 2016 through the end of the Fall 2017 semester, the Wellness Center has had 6,208 documented student visits. There were a total of 3,778 Wellness Center visits during the 2016-2017 school year. Of the 3,778 visits, 556 visits utilized a 15-minute break, 660 visits were for an appointment with a counselor or received a call slip, and 90 visits denoted that the student dropped in to speak to a counselor. The remainder of visits indicated that they were accessing health/nursing services, came in for snacks and/or tea, were "checking the place out," and other miscellaneous reasons.

During the 2016-2017 school year, 194 students were formally referred for Wellness services. These services include: counseling and consultation provided by contracted mental health agencies (ACS, AACI, Stanford School Mental Health Team, ASAT), PAUSD District Social Worker, Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator, and referrals to outside community agencies. The following are the most common emotional/behavioral reasons for referral to Wellness that were indicated by the referring party. Please note that often two or more are indicated for each individual referral: Depression: 39% Anxiety: 39% Grief/loss: 11% Substance Use: 12% Suicidal Ideation: 10% Panic Attacks: 8% Anger/Defiance: 7% Trauma: 5% Self-Injury: 3%

During the Fall 2017 semester, 100 students were formally referred for Wellness services provided by contracted mental health agencies (ACS, AACI, Stanford School Mental Health Team, ASAT), PAUSD District Social Worker, and referrals to other outside community-based agencies. The following are the most common emotional/behavioral reasons for referral to

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Wellness that were indicated by the referring party. Please note that often two or more are indicated for each individual referral: Anxiety: 45% Depression/Withdrawn: 42% Suicidal Ideation: 10% Anger/Defiance: 8% Grief/loss: 6% Self-injury: 4% Panic Attacks: 4% Substance Use: 3% Trauma: 3%

The Wellness Center had 2,430 documented visits during the Fall of 2017. Of the 2,430 visits, 262 visits indicated that they were accessing Wellness to take a 15-minute break, 321 visits indicated that they were accessing Wellness because they had an appointment with a counselor or received a call slip, and 60 visits denoted that the student dropped in to speak to a counselor. The remainder of visits indicated that they were accessing health/nursing services, came in for snacks and/or tea, were "checking the place out," and other miscellaneous reasons.

In response to the 2015-2016 suicide cluster, administrators and members of Paly’s Mental Health and Wellness Teams have worked to improve processes and systems to better serve students in mental health crisis. Paly staff have continued to work with outside agencies (for example Palo Alto Police Department and Stanford Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) to improve communication, streamline protocols, and better meet the immediate needs of students requiring hospitalization. Most of Paly’s School Counselors, ERMHS therapists, and Wellness Team members have been trained in the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) model. ASIST teaches participants to recognize when someone may be at risk of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety.

In order to better support students upon their return to school from hospitalization, Paly also developed a standardized re-entry process. Additionally, several key members of Paly and Gunn’s Mental Health and Wellness teams worked extensively during the Fall 2016 semester to develop a coordinated postvention protocol. This included creating a Crisis Response Team (CRT) made up of administrators, counselors, psychologists, therapists, wellness center staff, the school health technician, and Wellness TOSAs; each member of the team has a designated role. This team helps to ensure Paly’s response to crisis is thorough, deliberate, and comprehensive.

Paly continues to find ways to improve ongoing efforts to not only respond to student mental health crises but to support students and staff to prevent crises from occurring. The Mental Health and Wellness team has received feedback from teachers on how to better equip staff to recognize warning signs related to mental health concerns and has been working with student groups and administration to implement comprehensive programs, trainings, and tools.

Despite our prevention efforts student's continue to show the need for safety intervention (i.e. hospitalization) and more clinical support. We continue our collaborative efforts to address the ongoing needs but realize the increase in diagnosis, need for clinical treatment, and safety concerns reflects the continued needs of our community and student population.

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Student Attendance Data:

2015-16 2016-17 2017-18* Total Students 1,994 1,992 2,075 Number of students with 3 days unexcused 137 116 40 Number of students with 4 days unexcused 100 74 35 Number of students with 5 days unexcused 68 50 19 Number of students with more than 5 days unexcused 300 227 90 Total number of students with 3 or more days unexcused 605 467 184 Source: Infinite Campus *YTD as of January 16, 2018

Two things to consider when looking at this data. First, Paly is an open campus. Second, we are also a basic aid district.

While our attendance rate for full-day attendance remains high, single period absences continue to be our biggest issue. Two categories of students who miss class have been identified in the past. One group we refer to as “strategic cutters” who will miss a class for time management purposes, i.e. not being prepared for an exam, needing time to study for a test in another class, finishing a project. Parents often “Health Excuse” students for single period absences, most notable when students are up late at night studying or show other signs of mental health concerns. In most cases, these are often high achieving students who are experiencing academic overload.

The second group we refer to as students who are “chronic truants.” These students are not engaged, disconnected from the class and often struggling in school. Interestingly, we often find these students still on campus or coming to school, but not in class where they should be. Many of these students are on the D and F list and feel there is no reason to attend class anymore since they do not see a path towards success. “Why bother?” or “No one notices when I’m absent” are often given as their response when asked why they chose not to attend class. Many of these students are in special education and have attendance goals on their IEP’s. This group does not have parents health excusing their absences and this group is often overrepresented in receiving Saturday school consequences.

While attendance data has not shown a significant improvement over time, one positive is that our teachers are taking attendance consistently, especially during class, which has continued to improve over the past several years. Attendance data is more accurate today than it has ever been in the past.

Overall analysis of the above data sets indicate that many students are performing well above average at Palo Alto High School, but for some students, it comes at a cost. Academic and co- curricular overload, lack of sleep, fatigue and exhaustion, and mental health issues are prevalent in what has been described by some students as “a stressful competitive environment (Challenge Success survey results).” For the smaller percentage of students who are underperforming or struggling, many are being referred for special education students or recently been placed on an IEP or 504 accommodation plan, are more often referred for student discipline issues, and/or have attendance issues that are negatively impacting their learning.

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II. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES AND/OR DEVELOPMENTS

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March 2015 - June 2015:

On March 4, 2015, our eighteen-month self-study process came to an end as the WASC visiting committee concluded their visit. Five days later, on the early morning of Monday, March 9th, 2015, a Palo Alto High School sophomore died by suicide at the train tracks near our school. This tragedy fell on the heels of a recent suicide cluster in our local community as our sister school, Henry M. Gunn High School, had lost two students and one recent alumni within the prior six months, all to suicide. These sad events generated a great deal of media attention, both locally and nationally.

As one would expect, our ambitious WASC schoolwide action plan was put on the back burner that spring while our entire community grieved the tragic loss of life and the fear of possible future fatalities took hold at our school. While the community experienced a suicide cluster back in 2009-2010, Palo Alto High School itself had not experienced a student death at the train tracks since the fall of 2003. While there had been two other deaths by suicide between 2004 and the spring of 2015, it should be noted that in both cases, they were not caused by the train and therefore did not draw large media attention.

With the community in turmoil over the tragedies impacting our school, conversations continued around homework, test stacking, and the academic pressures our students self-reported. In the fall of 2015, our Superintendent led discussions with faculty on the importance of following the district Homework Policy, which limits homework time requirements of no more than 15 hours per week (see BP/AR 6154). While the policy was formally adopted in 2012 by the school board, communication and implementation at the site level with teachers at the classroom level was minimal and needed further attention.

During this time, discussions took place concerning the heavy academic course load students continue to take on. Despite our recommendations, when students enroll in 3, 4, or 5 AP classes, it is a challenge to honor the Homework policy as it was intended and to ensure our students are getting adequate sleep. In the spring of 2015, there was discussion at the district level about limiting the number of AP courses students can take at both high schools, but this proposal was dropped as it seemed too reactive to recent events. Rather, “a district recommendation of taking no more than 2 AP classes per year” was developed and included on our school profile. A time management worksheet and AP contract were developed and signed by students and parents when they exceeded our recommendation. Despite our good intentions, students continue to enroll in more than 2 AP classes.

At the school level, following months of discussions, in May 2015, the Palo Alto Educational Council, our site made the decision to institute additional no homework breaks (Thanksgiving, President’s Weekend and Spring break), beyond the district required “work-free” winter break. We had lengthy conversations around the issue of “test stacking,” and it was decided that students would be given the option to reschedule tests, should they have 3 or more on any given day, so long as they let their teachers know in advance. With more teachers using Schoology, our Learning Management System, to post assignments, it was becoming easier for teachers to cross-check this information as reported to them by students and then make adjustments. It was noted by students in our WASC self-study that test-stacking was most likely to happen on our 7 period “C” day (Monday’s), which was negatively impacting weekend time and not providing the opportunity for down-time or rest. As such, we agreed to avoid administering tests and quizzes on “C’ days, and to not have major projects or essays due on “C” days, to the extent possible. It was decided that “C” days would be better utilized when

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teachers used the time to review or preteach for the week. In doing so, our hope was the students would have lighter homework loads over the weekend and an opportunity for “play time, down time, and family time.”

Also that spring, Paly hosted the district’s first joint professional learning day between the two high schools. The entire Paly and Gunn faculty was able to attend a full-day with Marcia Tate’s “Growing Dendrites” research-based brain-compatible learning. Ms. Tate’s time with PAUSD staff was reinvigorating and energizing. Many teachers continue to use her brain-based instructional strategies today.

This spring also saw our first administration of the new SBAC testing for 11th grade students. As we geared up to administer the test, we became flooded with parent notes “opting out” their students for participation in the exam in only 24 hours prior to the start of the exam. With a community reeling from the tragic loss of life, there was little to be done to encourage participation within such short notice.

Finally, recognizing the need for additional mental health support at both high schools, the district expanded contracted services with local providers and recommended the hiring of a new position at each school for a Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator, a licensed mental health professional focused on connecting students to mental health services coordinating support students receive. With our Crisis Response Team working overtime during the spring of 2015 and all of us on high alert, the end of the school year couldn’t come fast enough.

2015-2016 School Year:

Sadly, the grief that hit us hard in the spring of 2015 remained in the 2015-2016 school year. When we returned to school in August, many staff and students were processing and struggling from the impact of last spring. Recognizing the difficult transition back to school, we started the year with an emphasis on the importance of self-care, wellness and prevention. Our newly hired Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator and new Wellness TOSA were instrumental in providing this support, messaging and care beginning with a presentation to all staff at the first staff meeting of the year. New programs and initiatives were introduced focused on the theme of “upstream” prevention - that is, creating culture, practice, and resources that mitigate the progression of stress and overwhelm towards more severe “downstream” outcomes. Among these initiatives was providing staff the opportunity to engage in expertly facilitated mindful meditation. This was most successful when offered right after school. While a very small number of staff members participated, many more expressed a desire to participate were it not for more pressing priorities. This raised an acute awareness that for many of us self-care feels like “one more thing” to do, and there is significant challenge in overcoming the perception that there is no time to take care of ourselves in light of everything else we feel is demanded us. Thus, burnout and overwhelm became clear issues that demanded attention – issues not asimilar to what many of our students feel.

At the beginning of the school year, we began implementing an upstream suicide prevention program called Sources of Strength, coordinated by our Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator and Wellness TOSA (see Sources Program description in Analysis of Student Perception Data section of this report). A cohort of approximately 65 students nominated by teachers, as well as approximately 25 staff members, accepted the invitation to go through a one-day training led by the Sources National Deputy Director with the support and guidance of a Stanford Associate Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry intimately involved with the

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implementation of this program in other local schools. In the training, students and staff members were taught best practices in how to elevate the norm of help-seeking in our school community by normalizing the sharing of personal experience of struggle and reliance on various sources of strength in one’s life to meet and work through those struggles. A handful of events and activities on campus were organized by this group of peer leaders and their adult mentors to promote messages of gratitude, the identification and recognition of trusted adults on campus, and discussions of the roles healthy activities, attitudes, relationships, and resources play in one’s life when faced with challenge.

In the spirit of supporting one another, we focused on building a collaborative and supportive culture, which was enhanced as we dedicated our professional learning time to understanding and forming true “Professional Learning Communities” or PLC’s. In the fall, we hired a presenter from Solution Tree to provide training for Ed Council, consisting of an overview of the popular conference “PLC’s at Work.” And in October 2015, our professional learning TOSAs took the lead in the development of another highly successful professional learning opportunity for both high school staffs. In what has been described as the “most professional professional development day” by teachers, the Google Ed Tech Team spent a full-day with both Paly and Gunn staff helping us learn new ways to use technology as an instructional tool to increase student engagement.

Our staff also began the practice of coming together once a month in what we call “Learning Strands.” This was an opportunity for us to learn together outside of our departments, share best practices, build community and discuss or explore a variety of topics in greater depth. Throughout much of this year and the next, professional learning opportunities centered around Tier One instructional practices and strategies to increase student engagement.

The Challenge Success Team offered a successful Parent Ed event “The Well-Balanced Student” presented by Denise Pope, that December. The team also sponsored a number of student fishbowls and implemented a homework pass “hack” in several classes.

In December of 2015, we unexpectedly lost a freshman student to natural causes. In January 2016, a beloved science teacher died suddenly from a heart attack before coming to work in the morning. His body was discovered by two concerned colleagues who went to his home when he failed to show-up. These two tragedies triggered many emotions among our staff and resurfaced sadness and anxiety throughout our school community. We brought in Kara grief counselors and relied on community resources as needed. In March of 2016, our Wellness Team collaborated with mental health experts at Acknowledge Alliance to provide Teacher Resiliency Groups; this resulted in a handful of professionally facilitated support groups for teachers to share and benefit from each other’s experience and wisdom. The vast majority of participants in these groups felt they were of great benefit to them, allowing them to connect on a more personal level with themselves and other teachers and to alleviate through shared experience some of the stress and anxiety they were feeling.

In March 2016, Denise Pope returned to our campus to provide an afternoon workshop for the entire faculty on “Teaching for Engagement.” By providing common language and understanding of the Understanding By Design framework, her training help set the stage for the next phase of our PLC work, identifying the essential learning standards in each course.

In preparation for the summer and upcoming school year, we concluded with an all-day learning opportunity that went deeper into PLC formation. We provided focus to our PLC teams by

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outlining what we expected them to work on in the near future. We emphasized the importance of “build your team” and reflected on the first question “what is it we want all students to learn.” That summer, our PLC teams began their work on identifying essential learning standards.

In the Spring of 2016, at the request of the Board, the district formed a professionally facilitated Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum Committee (SCC) that began meeting regularly later that Fall. Serving on that committee were both of Paly’s Wellness TOSAs (SEL & School Climate). The committee was charged with recommending a framework, standards, learning targets, curricula and a plan for developing the social and emotional competencies of all PAUSD students. The committee would begin meeting bi-weekly for 6 months starting in the Fall of 2016, with its recommendation due to the Board in February 2017.

During the Summer of 2016, our Wellness Team coordinated a cohort of 13 teachers and staff members to attend the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) Summer Educator Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. At this week-long residential institute, education professionals from all over the world experience the opportunity to expand their knowledge of the science of prosocial human development encompassing the rapidly growing body of research on social- emotional learning, mindfulness, ethical development, mindsets, identity, and purpose. Most importantly, the institute provided the opportunity to learn how the practical application of this science can be used to help educators build classrooms and schools where both students and adults thrive and education becomes about more than just test scores and future job skills. This cohort went on to play an integral role in designing and planning a full professional development day in October 2016 - inviting the whole staff to explore these concepts and practices more deeply in the context of how and why we teach here at Paly.

2016-2017 School Year:

With time to heal, we began the new school year by celebrating the opening of our beautiful new Performing Arts Center. In addition, we successfully opened our new Wellness Center, located in the Tower Building across from the main office. The opening of the Wellness Center was a product of the previous year’s research into Wellness Centers, and how they operate, at other school districts. A team of students, parents, and staff, including Board of Education members and district office upper leadership as well as school site staff, visited a number of Wellness Centers in the peninsula. The positive response from all members who visited these Wellness Centers, with a significantly enthusiastic response from students who visited, accelerated the planning and opening of the Wellness Centers at both PAUSD high schools to the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

The implementation of the Wellness Center has provided students an opportunity to more easily and readily access physical and mental health services. The Wellness Center services as a place for students to get connected with a mental health counselor, meet with the health technician, take a 15 minute break, and get caffeine-free tea and nut-free snacks. The Wellness Center offers students the opportunity to engage in healthy coping strategies such as: mindfulness meditation, coloring/drawing, utilizing the sand tray, and bibliotherapy. Outreach efforts have focused on destigmatizing mental health and normalizing help-seeking behaviors. Additionally, the location of the health services office within the Wellness Center allows for greater opportunity for collaboration and identification of mental health concerns that may be disguised as somatic complaints. This, in part, may explain the increase in Wellness Center visits during the Fall 2017 semester, particularly for students indicating that they dropped into the Wellness Center to speak to a counselor. Snacks and tea are provided to encourage all

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students to access the Wellness Center. It should be noted that students who utilize the Wellness Center on a daily basis for services snacks or tea are more likely to connect with Wellness Center staff members and may be more likely to access the Wellness Center when needing mental or physical health services. Overall, we have found that the Wellness Center improves our coordination of physical and mental health services, as well as provides community outreach and brings health and wellness initiatives to our school. Additionally, to guide the work and respond to needs in our school community, we’ve formed both a Wellness Leadership Team and Wellness Advisory Committee, which consists of students and parents, to inform our work.

In 9th grade PE, we contracted with the International Association for Human Values to bring the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) program to all 9th graders. The program combines the teaching of core social-emotional principles and mindful breathing techniques to equip students with tools to manage relationships and distressing emotions. Though program instruction was delivered by trained facilitators from the YES organization, all PE teachers went through a 3-day YES Educator course earlier that summer which gave them the opportunity to experience teachings and practices in their own lives. This helped to create support and buy-in amongst the PE staff. The curriculum was delivered to students over a 3-week period in early September. Gunn also provided the same program through their PE courses. After the program was complete and feedback was gathered from students and staff (see Analysis of Student Perception Data section) instructors from both schools, the Wellness TOSAs at both schools, and the YES program directors (local and national) met to debrief and discuss what worked and what needed changing. The program directors were very open to collaboration and continued to work with the Wellness TOSA by phone and in person to make adjustments for delivery the following year. In addition, a parent information night was provided around the time of curriculum delivery to give parents an introduction to the purpose and practices of the program. Some concern had been expressed about student athletes who would normally have been given a release period for PE being required to attend during YES instruction. This helped us realized the importance of creating greater understanding with parents of the purpose of the program as well as looking at future timing that had less of an impact on students with athletic preps. Because these breathing and emotional regulation skills are not standard practice in most classrooms and the school culture & structure in general, it is challenging to provide opportunities to reinforce the skills taught in PE classes. Some investment had been made to train a handful of teachers voluntarily to learn and personally benefit from these techniques so that they might encourage their practice in their own classrooms. A few teachers did this, but we are not at a point where the majority of students see explicit opportunity given to reinforce these skills outside of the program itself. The same could be said of families and the home environment. For the program to be more successful, more would need to be done to support teachers and families in learning about these skills and providing them the resources to practice them.

Professional Learning centered around Tier 1 instructional practices and strategies to increase student engagement. Emphasis on Universal Design for Learning as part of Tier 1 classroom instruction as well as a formal introduction to Social Emotional Learning. Our October Professional Learning day was led by our Wellness TOSA’s for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and School Climate. The theme of the day was “Teaching Who We Are” (inspired heavily by our learnings at the GGSC Summer Institute) and invited teachers to deeply examine their purpose and role as educators and the fundamental role teacher-student relationship plays in creating safe & welcoming classrooms. Detailed conversations and break-out sessions were held focusing on the role social and emotional skills play in teaching and learning, the value of compassion and self-care, and how to have courageous conversations with our students around

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race and equity. The day concluded with staff articulating what core values and principles they felt should serve as Paly’s “North Star” in light of the day’s collective introspection.

Also during the fall of 2016, we launched the Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) Program as a joint venture with Gunn High School. AAR is an opportunity for students with interest, passion, curiosity, and perseverance to investigate an authentic topic of their choosing. Students are paired with mentors in the particular field of research who will support and facilitate each students' work in their own laboratories, offices, and other settings. The student research is supported by a process-oriented curriculum and the recursive nature of the research process allows students to go back and forth between the different stages of inquiry as they encounter new information. The program culminates in May with a Celebratory Showcase where students share their work with parents, staff and community members.

In the fall of 2016-2017, a heated controversy arose in the community regarding whether or not to post weighted grades on student transcripts. Despite the recommendation of both high school principals and Superintendent to continue the practice of only reporting unweighted grades on the transcript (who cited mental health concerns and contributing to the culture of academic pressure), the Board of Education made the decision, midway through the college application cycle, to begin reporting weighted grades, starting with the class of 2017.

This decision has been an adjustment for staff who continue to express concern over the mental health needs in the community. As a school with a thriving electives program, we continue to experience concern that students will chose to enroll in courses that carry a weighted grade, rather than explore our rich elective opportunities. Fortunately, the district has made it possible for us to continue to offer some electives despite the low enrollment and we are hopeful this commitment will continue in the future.

In the fall of 2016, a Bell Schedule Review Committee (BSRC) was formed “to investigate, analyze and recommend a schedule that will optimize student learning and well-being.” While Gunn High School was undergoing some bell schedule changes, it was brought to our attention in February 2017 that both high schools were short on instructional minutes. Adjustments were made to the bell schedule to increase instructional minutes (longer In Focus, 2nd Flex period added on Thursdays). The BSRC made the recommendation to continue the work into 2017- 2018 to develop more creative solutions.

Fall of 2016 saw the election of current President Trump. Paly witnessed a peaceful student demonstration of protest and great activism in our community. Students organized a peaceful demonstration march, to downtown Palo Alto, joining citywide demonstrators at Palo Alto City Hall. At the same time, some conservative students reported a challenging school culture given the liberal leanings of our school. Teachers did a great job on the days immediately following the election, providing safe spaces for students to process their feelings. It should also be noted that prior to the election, some racist graffiti sprang up around campus. The school reported each incident of graffiti to PAPD as a hate crime. These incidents of graffiti appeared to coincide with our school’s off campus immersion experience, Camp Unity, which is designed to foster dialogue and understanding among a diverse group of student leaders. As a school, we quickly addressed both instances in the spring and fall of 2016. Time was spent in History/Social Science classes to discuss the graffiti and to make sure that students felt safe. Our School Climate TOSA and our School Outreach Worker met frequently with our African-American and Latino students, in order to provide them with safe spaces to express feelings, thoughts and concerns about campus affairs and world events.

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The Fall of 2016 also saw the election of two new board members, the honorable Jennifer DiBrienza and the honorable Todd Collins, and the reelection of long-standing member, the honorable Melissa Baten Caswell. In the spring of 2017, the new school board was faced with making $2 million dollars in budget cuts due to lower than projected property tax revenue. Several key district office positions were eliminated as well as a reduction in the district allocation per student and facility rental income. While Paly did not lose any staff in the budget cut, we are more reliant on funding from our foundation, Partners in Education (PiE) and we lost approximately $175,000 in our operating budget. Most of this money went to professional development, classroom supplies and minor capital improvements.

In February 2017, after 6 months of intense research and consensus building, the SEL Curriculum Committee (formed in Spring 2016) presented its recommendations to the Board. Part of the recommendation was that formalized implementation would begin at the high schools and a high school-specific curriculum called School-Connect was adopted for both high schools. In the following year (2017-18), Gunn would be launching a brand new teacher-student mentoring program rooted heavily in School-Connect, while Paly would began piloting School- Connect lessons within its already long-existing advisory structure. In preparation for this, both high schools invited SEL expert and School-Connect co-author R. Keeth Matheney to facilitate an introductory keynote address to teacher advisors and department instructional leaders introducing the what, why, and how of SEL - including modeling the delivery of a School- Connect lesson to a classroom of Paly students, while staff observed. Mr. Matheney also gave the same keynote to interested Palo Alto parents to help create understanding and buy-in in the community. As a follow-up, in the summer of 2017, Paly sent several teams (25 teachers total) to intensive School-Connect summer training institutes facilitated by Mr. Metheney located in Austin, Reno, and Atlanta, while approximately 15 other teachers received in-depth training from Mr. Metheney in August prior to the beginning of the school year. The reception to SEL and School-Connect from staff both trained and untrained, as well as parents, was overwhelmingly positive, serving as a strong first-step towards facilitating buy-in and building capacity for future implementation.

In March 2017, after many years of waiting for an outcome of their findings, the district entered into a resolution agreement with the Office of Civil Rights.

In May of 2017, a public media response arose surrounding an alleged sexual assault that took place on campus in October 2016 and subsequent Title IX concerns. The media reports were extremely upsetting to the members of the school community, which demanded answers and an explanation regarding the incident that took place on campus.

District officials and site administration were limited in responding to the uproar because of FERPA laws. Without specific information and details, significant worry and fear grew and assumptions were made that the school administration mishandled its investigation and as such, put additional students at risk. Fliers were posted on campus calling for the resignation of the Superintendent, Principal and identifying the male respondent in the case. The principal spoke to students during In Focus and offered counseling services to anyone triggered by media events, and as such, new cases were brought to the attention of the administration. In an effort to provide additional resources to students, the Wellness Center also hosted the YWCA Sexual Assault Services division. Student workshops titled "Allies for the Prevention of Sexual Violence" were offered during four periods and an after school student/teacher Focus Group was offered the following day. All students were encouraged to attend. The YWCA had previously partnered with the Wellness Center in February during Teen Dating Violence

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Awareness Month to host a workshop titled “Love is Respect” which focused on providing education about healthy versus unhealthy relationships, recognizing warning signs, and learning how to support yourself or a friend who may be experiencing teen dating violence.

To satisfy members of the community who were demanding answers and outraged by what the media was reporting, the Board of Education decided to hire the independent law firm of Cozen O’Connor to conduct an investigation into the district’s investigation of the incident that took place at Paly in October 2016. In late May 2017, at our request, Paly administrators were thoroughly trained in Title IX compliance procedures by the attorneys from Cozen O’Connor and district counsel. In June of 2017, the current Title IX compliance officer resigned and an interim complaint officer from Cozen O’Connor was appointed by the school board. Paly administration spent the months of May, June, July and August 2017 investigating approximately 20 open cases, writing reports and closure letters. Despite what has been reported in the media, it is important to note that all of the incidents brought to our attention during the spring of 2017 took place off-campus during non-school hours.

In June 2017, the Board of Education began revising the district’s Sexual Harassment and Uniform Complaint Procedures Policy. During the summer, formal systems, processes and procedures were developed for handling all new complaints.

It was also announced in June of 2017 that long-time Paly Assistant Principal, Kathie Laurence, who had been on staff for over 22 years, was selected to be the new Gunn High School Principal for the upcoming school year. A new Assistant Principal, Dr. Janice Chen, was hired in July and welcomed to our administrative team.

2017-2018 School Year:

This year every PAUSD employee attended a Title IX workshop entitled Keeping Our Students Safe: Title IX, Our Responsibility. The workshop was part of the Resolution Agreement with the Office of Civil Rights that requires ALL PAUSD employees to attend this training before December 31, 2017.

In August, after two years of displaced athletic teams and no indoor gym facilities for our physical education class, we proudly opened the 90,000 square foot Peery Family Center. This incredible facility will serve the community and generations of Vikings to come. Our new Athletic Director has taken on the challenges of settling into the space as we prepare for exciting expansion to our athletics program. This year, Paly has added Cheer and Boys Volleyball as CCS/CIF sports and, next fall, we will be introducing Field Hockey to our program. We remain grateful to the many parent and community supporters of our athletics program, in which over 1,100 students participate. Our Sports Boosters has raised over $350,000 in funding to support these programs and for their partnership, we are grateful.

In September, a team of 10 Paly teachers attended the Solution Tree RtI at Work conference in New Orleans. This team came back committed to serving on our newly created RtI/Equity team, which plans on developing Tier 2 interventions in Spring 2018. Paly’s RtI work is supported by the district Equity Plan and as such, we plan on working in conjunction the district Equity Coordinator, Director of Academic Supports and Coordinator from the Research and Evaluation department.

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With the vast majority of our teacher advisor cohort now trained in the School-Connect curriculum, our Wellness TOSA for SEL in collaboration with our Advisory Program Coordinator and input from our trained advisors began piloting School-Connect SEL lessons in advisory classes at all grade levels - though the majority was scheduled for 9th grade. Select lessons were chosen from the broader curriculum and comprehensive lesson guides (in addition to the guides provided by School-Connect) were created by the SEL TOSA for teacher advisors to follow. These lessons were reviewed beforehand by the SEL TOSA with the advisors during their weekly lunch meetings and then delivered later in the week. A few weeks into the year, feedback was collected from nearly all TA’s about how the implementation was going - revealing a range of experiences. A number of common themes arose about what helped make the lessons work for students and what made them challenging, which identified deeper challenges within the structure of the Advisory program itself. Concurrently, an Advisory PLC was formed consisting of representatives from all advisory levels and advisory leadership to re-examine the purpose, vision, curriculum, and infrastructure of the Advisory program in light of the introduction of SEL as a top priority. That committee continues to meet (in parallel with the Innovative Bell Schedule Committee on which members of the Advisory PLC also sit) to create a set of recommendations for the Advisory program moving forward so that it can better meet both the academic and social-emotional needs of our students.

In November 2017, the Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) program was once again delivered to all 9th grade PE classes. Conversation and collaboration between PE staff, the Wellness TOSA, and YES program leaders over the previous months led to some suggested changes in the delivery of the curriculum. The timing of the program was shifted to early November (between athletic seasons) to better accommodate students on athletic prep and to allow for stronger relationships to be built between PE teachers and their classes. The curriculum was adjusted to provide an increased emphasis on the science of the breathing practices taught, as well as the contexts in which they might be best put to use. Once again, pre- and post-survey were given to assess student perception (see earlier section on Analysis of Student Perception Data). As a result of her experience last year, Paly has a strong leader and advocate in the PE department in PE teacher Sheri Mulroe who is now teaching a very popular Yoga course (four sections) in which some of these skills are regularly practiced. She is also partnering with the TOSA for Social-Emotional Learning to better provide opportunities on campus during the regular school day for interested students to continue their practice and reinforce the skills they learned in PE. It has become clear that practices like these are most worth investing in if there is regular opportunity provided for students (and staff) to practices, reinforce, and apply these skills outside of instruction. The challenge remains coordinating the times, locations, resources, and personnel to provide this reinforcement.

The outcome of the Cozen Investigation into the handling of the October 2016 alleged sexual assault on our campus was reported to the Board of Education in September 2017. A room full of Paly teachers came to the Board of Education meeting to speak publically in support of the administration. The findings revealed that the district needed to create better processes and procedures in reporting and handling similar cases and that the former Compliance Officer failed to open a Title IX investigation, while the Paly Administration failed to offer the Uniform Complaint Procedure form to the complainant in the case. New systems have been developed both at the site and district level to ensure proper steps towards compliance happen going forward.

Shortly following the results of the Cozen Investigation, our Superintendent announced his unexpected resignation, with his last day being September 29, 2017. This news came as a

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surprise to most staff; our Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources was named the Interim Superintendent, and it was announced that a search for a new superintendent would begin in early 2018.

Shortly after taking the helm, our new Interim Superintendent created a Superintendent’s Task Force, called RISE (Responsive Inclusive Safe Environment), charged with delivering recommendations to the Superintendent for a unified K-12 strategic plan that will include: ● Assurance of compliance with OCR Resolutions, Title IX, state law, Board Policy and the District’s Administrative Regulations ● Education of the community about rights and responsibilities ● Promotion of a culture in which sexual assault, violence and harassment are not engaged in nor tolerated ● Empowerment of all community members to interrupt and report incidents of sexual assault, violence and harassment ● Provision of methods for rectification and reporting that are clear and responsive

The Paly Principal, Wellness Coordinator, Wellness Outreach Worker and a handful of dedicated Paly parents are serving on this team. Speakers, workshops and assemblies are being planned for the spring of 2018 in regards to Healthy Relationships and Teen Dating and Violence Prevention month.

Meanwhile, during the summer of 2017, Palo Alto High School hired a skilled facilitator to continue the conversations regarding our bell schedule as recommended by the BSRC last spring and to develop an inclusive process for moving our school forward on future recommendation. The Innovative Schedule Committee (ISC), which is charged with investigating, analyzing, and making a consensus decision on a new Palo Alto High School bell schedule that will optimize student learning and well-•being, began its work in September. The ISC expects to reach consensus in February and make a recommendation to the Board of Education in March 2018.

Wellness outreach has focused on providing psychoeducation on a number of wellness-related topics such as: sleep hygiene, healthy relationships, nutrition, coping strategies, and self-care. Wellness staff at Paly in collaboration with the district Wellness and Support Services department rolled out Kognito Friend-to-Friend in for all students during advisory classes beginning in September. Kognito is an interactive platform that teaches students to notice signs of mental distress in themselves and others as well as skills for engaging in difficult conversations and linking themselves or others to support.

Additionally, in partnership with Community Matters, the Wellness Center hosted an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs training in November for peer leaders of all grade-levels. The training empowered students to speak up in regards to peer pressure around substance use and taught practical skills to promote healthy decision-making.

Finally, it should be noted that this year our district switched mental health providers from Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS) to CASSY. By the end of the Fall 2017 semester, CASSY had provided 575 individual counseling sessions to students. While we’re still working on evaluating the impact of this change in services, we want to provide some data on mental health concerns, which continue to exist.

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Impact of These Changes and/or Developments

The school finds itself caught between contradictory demands by the community. While a great effort has been made to focus on student engagement and well-being, the surrounding community continues to expect academic excellence, and students and staff continue to feel the pressures that come with it. While Silicon Valley values innovation and creativity, when teachers in their classrooms take risks and develop innovative practices, they are often met with criticism from parents and students who no longer know how to “do school.”

One of the impacts of this dichotomy at Paly has been the development of a number of successful choice programs. The Social Justice Pathway, the expansion of TEAM, and the Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) program at our school shows a desire for opportunities for authentic project-based learning and student-centered learning. In the spring of 2017, a small group of Paly teachers and district staff, with the support from our principal and the Superintendent, formed a “Learning Design Team,” aimed at developing a “School-Within-A-School,” which would be open to any interested high school student in PAUSD. In June of 2017, the team presented their preliminary work to the Board of Education and have received support for moving forward with this concept. The goal is for implementation in the 2019-2020 school year.

While the community values choice in student programs and learning experiences, it is feared that the decision around weighted grades will hamper innovative efforts as students begin to select courses for the sake of achieving a higher grade point average rather than simply pursuing their own interests.

There continues to be a pull between more traditional models of education that focus on letter grades, and modern educational research which highlights the need for innovative educational practices that put student learning at the center of classroom activity. Data from the guidance department showed that we have an uptake of students wanting to drop classes for receiving “B’s.” As teachers work in PLC’s to develop essential learning outcomes and learning targets by course, work is underway to consider mastery or evidence-based learning. Some teachers are already using this approach to assess their students. Meanwhile, other teachers have made strides to get rid of zero’s in their gradebooks, remove bias from grading, and to allow retakes on summative exams.

It should be noted that in the spring of 2017, after a year’s delay for technical problems, the district rolled out a new data collection system, known as “Data Zone.” This tool allows both classroom teachers and administrators to easily access student achievement, behavior and demographic data on a single platform. There has been some training on using this platform and because it is new, many teachers (and some administrators) are still not using it as part of their regular practice. It is our hope that over time, with increased efforts on training and content organization, this will change and the ability to access and use data will become second nature for the entire staff. Not having a reliable and easy to use data platform for several years has limited our progress in using data systemically. We expect this will change in the future.

The findings of the Cozen investigation have created a sense of closure for many in our community, while a small number of parents continue to call for the resignation of the Paly administrative team. In September 2017, many teachers spoke publically at the Board of Education meeting in support of the Paly administration. Still, there continues to be worry and fear among staff that this small vocal parent voice will achieve their goal of driving out our administrative team. Our current principal, who is in her fifth year, is the longest serving principal in recent school history, for which we are appreciative. She remains committed to our school, despite the difficult time she has endured.

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III. ONGOING SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

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Follow-up Process and Preparation for WASC Visit

Since March 2015, the principal, the Instructional Leaders and members of Ed Council have continually reviewed the progress of the school’s action plan. Each year, the Instructional Leaders report out their department’s WASC progress to our School Site Council. These meetings are open to the public and are a great opportunity to learn more about the progress we are making. In February of 2016 and in May 2017, with help from the Instructional Leaders, the principal developed the school’s SPSA (Single Plan for Student Achievement) report and presented the findings to the School Site Council for approval. Upon Site Council’s approval, the reports are then presented to the Board of Education. The format for the SPSA requires the school to show evidence of its progress in achieving the district’s three focused goals; high quality teaching and learning, equity and access, and safety and well-being. Fortunately, these focused goals serve nicely as an overarching umbrella for which our schoolwide goals fit under accordingly.

In the fall of 2017, Ed Council reviewed and analyzed our progress on the Schoolwide Action Plan. We spent months collecting all pertinent school data and reviewing this as well. For this to happen, the information has been consolidated into a data folder in Google Drive and time has been allocated during our meetings to review and discuss the data. Access to the folder has been shared with the entire Paly staff through the Principal’s Weekly staff newsletter. The School Site Council has also been given access to the folder to review data. As such, discussion regarding development of the progress report have taken place during all Ed Council and Site Council meetings since the beginning of the current school year.

Members of the various teams are listed below:

Administrative Team Instructional Leadership Ed Council Site Council

Kim Diorio - Principal Kim Diorio - Principal Kim Diorio - Principal Kim Diorio - Principal

Jerry Berkson - A.P Janice Chen - A.P Jerry Berkson - A.P Jonake Bose - Parent

Janice Chen - A.P. Victoria Kim - A.P. Janice Chen - A.P. Jennifer Jacobs - Parent

Victoria Kim - A.P. Adam Paulson - A.P. Victoria Kim - A.P. Anjana Joshi - Parent

Adam Paulson - A.P. Katya Villalobos - Administrator Adam Paulson - A.P. Dipti Joshi - Parent

Katya Villalobos - Administrator Laura Bricca - Special Katya Villalobos - Administrator Lien Vu - Parent/PTSA rep Education

Matt Hall - Director of Student Peter Diepenbrock - Physical Josh Bloom - Wellness TOSA Korynne Headley - Teacher Activities Education SEL

Therren Wilburn -Athletic Jaclyn Edward - History/Social Laura Bricca - Special Melinda Mattes - Teacher Director Science Education

Selene Singares - School Carla Guerard - World Letitia Burton - Wellness TOSA, Theresa McDermott - Teacher Counselor Languages School Climate

Carolyn Benfield - Kelli Hagen - Science Carolyn Benfield - Daniel Nguyen - Teacher Administrative Assistant Administrative Assistant

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Administrative Team Instructional Leadership Ed Council Site Council

Arne Lim - Mathematics Deanna Chute - Innovative Carolyn Benfield - Classified Program TOSA

Michael Najar - Visual and Peter Diepenbrock - Physical Meb Steiner - Classified Performing Arts Education

Patrick O’Hara - Career Tech Jaime Fanciullo - School Charlize Nguyen - Student Education Psychologist

Shirley Tokheim - English Carla Guerard - World Joshua Athayde - Student Languages

Kelli Hagen - Science Riya Kumar - Student

Crystal Laguna - Outreach Amber Lim - Student Counselor

Arne Lim - Mathematics Kasra Orumchian

Michael Najar - Visual and Performing Arts

Patrick O’Hara - Career Tech Education

Michael Najar - Visual and Performing Arts

Selene Singares - School Counselor

Elizabeth Spector - Wellness Coordinator

Sima Thomas/Rachel Kellerman - Teacher Librarians

Shirley Tokheim - English

Heather Johanson- Inclusion TOSA

Following data review, analysis and discussion, each Instructional Leader developed a three- year summary update for their respective department to be included in this report. Meanwhile the principal and members of the administrative team added the overall school update. The resulting SPSA/mid-cycle progress report was presented to the School Site Council, the PTSA Executive Board, and the Ed Council in January of 2018. The plan will be formally presented to the PAUSD Board of Education in February 2018.

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IV. PROGRESS ON CRITICAL AREAS FOR FOLLOW-UP/SCHOOLWIDE ACTION PLAN

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Palo Alto High School identified three goals during its 2015 self-study: 1. Systems Alignment for greater consistency among learning outcomes to reduce undue stress 2. Research-based instructional practices that increase student engagement for ALL students 3. Innovative school culture promoting global competencies, creativity, and empathy

The 2015 WASC visiting committee identified the following schoolwide critical areas for follow- up, based on their visit, an understanding of the self-study, and discussions with the Paly community: 1. Increase the opportunities for under-represented sub-groups to access the rigorous curriculum and provide academic support to assure success. 2. Develop a professional development plan that outlines specific training needs that would increase knowledge and implementation of anchor standards across content areas. 3. Strategies and programs need to be developed to address the academic achievement gap that persists for underrepresented minorities and at-risk students in all classes. 4. Develop a consistent schoolwide philosophy around assessment and a consistent use of both formative and summative assessments within all departments.

Schoolwide Action Plan Summary of Accomplishments

Despite a number of substantial set-backs and unexpected developments as discussed earlier in this report, Palo Alto High School made significant progress in accomplishing their schoolwide goals since the 2015 self-study. At the time, the WASC Schoolwide Action Plan was developed using the SMART goals format and as such, a number of specific actions and deliverables were identified early-on, which contributed to the clarity of our collective forward progress.

In addition to developing a Schoolwide Action Plan, each department developed specific actions respective to their own content area that would support our three goals. In this section, you will find a summary for each department as well.

Goal 1: Systems Alignment for greater consistency among learning outcomes to reduce undue stress. We have spent the majority of our time working in course-alike PLC teams devoted to this goal. District efforts have also supported us substantially in making progress. We are grateful to be working on this goal as a unified school district and as such, see systems alignment happening in the classroom, department, school and district level. Recognizing the need for us to work as a team or a cohesive unit is helping all of us in our individual practice, which better serves our students.

The first strategy guiding this work is Aligning Student Learning Outcomes. We are proud of the incredible progress we’ve achieved in this effort, as you will read in greater detail in the specific department reports and the evidence binders where we’ve gathered materials to document our work.

We have taken or expected to take all of the necessary action steps listed below by June of 2018. ● Determine essential learning standards in every course aligned with CCSS/NGSS ● Produce common summative assessments (at least 2) in every course ● Develop common course syllabi that demonstrates alignment of grading, homework and assessment practices

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We see this work as iterative, something we will continually be discussing and updating throughout the next three years in our course-alike PLC teams. Recognizing that in order to fully achieve this goal, we could not have done so without the dedicated time made available. We “found” time by scheduling minimum days, “Flex” days, and taking advantage of release time that was offered to our teams by the School Site Council professional learning funds. We are hopeful that our new bell schedule will offer additional collaborative time so we can continue to work on developing common learning targets, common formative assessments and shifting our homework and assessment practices to better reflect mastery learning.

The second strategy guiding this work involved the systemic use of Data: Creating and Leading Cultures of Inquiry. When we constructed our schoolwide action plan, we recognized that as a system, we do not have a culture of using data to guide our decisions and we wanted to change this reality. We studied Laura Lipton’s book Got Data, Now What? and began to better understand how we could develop protocols for discussing data, whether as a staff, an Ed Council or in our PLC teams.

We envisioned a cultural shift in this area and are slowly making progress. The reality is that most classroom teachers will tell you that they do not know how to access their own student data, nor do they have the time to do so or figure it out. Making it easier for teachers to access, analyze and discuss student achievement data with their peers is an area of growth for our school. Fortunately, our skilled Instructional Leaders and some teams, such as COST (Coordination of Services Team), the AVID Site Team and newly created RtI/Equity Team, have had better success in access and analyzing data for their respective departments/students despite the time-consuming task of doing so. While the district rolled out a new data collection system in the spring of 2017, Data Zone, there are many teachers who have not been formally trained and still do not know how to access the information or are unaware of this tool.

When it comes to data, our students will tell you that they are tired of taking surveys and then not knowing what happens with the results. Below is a list of surveys that we administer to our students, parents and staff: ● Challenge Success survey - every other year ● Sources of Strength survey - every other year ● California Healthy Kids survey - grades 9 and 11, every other year (students and staff) ● YES! Program Evaluation ● Teacher Advisor Program Senior Survey ● School Connect Pilot Survey - grades 9 and Living Skills ● Strategic Plan/OCR Climate Survey (students, parents and staff) ● Student Input Survey - every semester per MOU PAEA ● Project Cornerstone Developmental Assets survey - once every six years

The Challenge Success team reviews the Challenge Success survey data and hosts forums for discussion. The Wellness Advisory Committee reviews and discusses the Sources of Strength, CHKS, and YES! surveys. And while we often post all of the survey results on www.paly.net or the district website, few people outside of the respective committees take the time to read the results. Unfortunately, our students indicate serious “survey fatigue” as a result and have confessed to not taking the survey seriously and in some cases, opting out altogether.

Not having ready access to the data, time to discuss data, or established teams to dive deeper into the data has weakened our progress in this area. By taking all of the action steps below, we believe we would have achieved this goal:

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● Generate on-going data collection and reflection process that informs our school on the following metrics: attendance, course enrollment, student academic achievement, student wellness profile, student demographics, student perception, teacher perception, and teacher effectiveness. ● Create and Sustain Data Systems

Despite our slow progress, we are committed to continue to work on this goal in the future since we value the information to gather and discussions to be had, and are hopeful to make progress in this area going forward.

GOAL 2: Research-based instructional practices that increase student engagement for ALL students. Whereas goal #1 required a great investment of time, goal #2 has required a great financial investment in professional learning for staff. Paly teachers are committed to becoming the best educators they can be, and in order to do so, they see themselves as constant learners who continually take the time to reflect and improve on their own practice. Making time, resources and opportunities for professional learning our highest priority over the past three years supports our strategy for this goal: On-going Professional Learning (PL) and created a culture the supports “Paly as a Learning System.”

We have achieved much of what we expected to accomplish by working together in small teams. Ed Council has modeled and led this effort through restructuring their meeting time to practice learning protocols and in last spring’s book discussion of Michael Fullan’s Coherence. Proudly, we have reshaped our school culture into one where everyone sees themselves as a learner. We established formal professional learning communities, or PLCs, within departments and schoolwide. All Paly staff members commit to working with their PLCs to improve their own practice as we collectively focus on student learning.

The four questions that guide our PLC work are: 1. What do we expect students to learn? 2. How do we know they are learning it? 3. How do we respond when they do not learn? 4. How do we respond when they have already learned it?

A high level of learning for all students is our fundamental purpose, so we’ll examine all practices in light of their impact on learning. Our PLCs have helped us build a collaborative school culture, focused on results and powered by a vigorous and responsive professional learning community. Our department summaries and evidence binders reflect our significant progress on the following actions in support of this goal: ● Implement a system for teacher collaboration by establishing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) ● Investigate best practices, personalized learning opportunities, technology integration and peer observation to increase student engagement ● Ensure formative assessments, summative assessments, course grades and RtI data align with CCSS/NGSS and pilot use of standards-based grading ● Improve parent communication and/or parent outreach

Strategically, we’ve focused on improving our Tier One instructional strategies over the past several years while our time in PLC’s has been dedicated to answer the first question “What do we expect all students to learn?”

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With teams having identified the essential learnings, we are positioned to move beyond the first question and focus the next three years on the second and third question of the PLC framework; How do we know they are learning it? How do we respond when they do not learn?

As such, we are only now beginning the work for developing a robust, universal academic and behavioral intervention program, known as Response to Intervention (RtI), with a focus on differentiation, formative assessments, co-teaching and access.

Response to Intervention (RtI) is our best hope for giving every child the additional time and support needed to learn at those high levels. RtI’s underlying premise is that schools should not wait to help struggling students until they fall far enough behind to qualify for special education. Instead, we should provide timely, targeted, systematic intervention to all students who demonstrate the need. Response to Intervention is our systematic response when students don’t learn. We will continually ask ourselves the following: ● Are our interventions effective? ● Do we have frequent time during the school day to reteach and enrich students? ● Do we have a systematic process to ensure that every student receives additional time and support?

“Collective responsibility” is a shared belief that the most important role for each member of our community is to ensure high levels of learning for every child. Our leaders embrace the mantra of “all for all.” By working as a team, instead of as individual contributors, we put the greater good and the interests of all our students ahead of our own self-interest. Sometimes we must compromise or adapt to new ways, but in the long run, we do our best work when we work together.

Collective responsibility is built on two core beliefs: 1. We believe that all students can learn at high levels. 2. We accept the responsibility to ensure high levels of learning for every child. We have come to a common understanding of what we mean by “high levels of learning.” It means we believe that every student is capable. It means we embrace a mindset of growth. We have high expectations for all, including ourselves. We value rigor in our classrooms. Rigor does not simply mean extra work or homework; we define rigor as inquiry-based and collaborative strategies to engage students with content, resulting in increasingly complex levels of understanding.

It has been said that “groups with high degrees of collective responsibility pursue challenging goals, exert concentrated effort, and persist in collective action leading to improved performance for the group and their students (Goddard, Hoy, and Woolfolk Hoy, 2000).” This is the cultural shift now taking place at our school. The principles of equity and inclusion will guide us in the classroom and throughout the campus as we work to address our three critical areas of need. Inclusion means responding to the diverse needs of all learners. It calls for changes in content, approaches, structures and strategies, driven by a shared vision that the regular system has a responsibility to educate all children. Our teachers recognize that professional learning about differentiated instruction and researched-based instructional practices will help them fully engage all students. A sense of community built among students and teacher in a positive learning environment is the foundation for differentiated instruction.

GOAL 3: Innovative school culture promoting global competencies, creativity, and empathy Our schoolwide action plan was the result of an extensive self-study. The two fundamental questions we have asked ourselves were: What do we want for our students? and What do our students need? In answering those questions, we developed goals that reflect a

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broad consensus from our community, teachers, students, staff and parents. Goals 1 and 2 focus on high quality teaching and learning and equity and access, it is within Goal 3 that we envisioned a stronger school culture, one that embraces risk, while maintaining a safe and welcoming school culture.

We understand this is an innovative time in education. Schools face the challenge of shifting from a teacher-centered Industrial Age educational model to a student-centered 21st-century model focused on outcomes: a blend of specific skills and expertise, content knowledge and literacies. As our former superintendent often said, “We must become a collective community of learners preparing our students for jobs that do not yet exist and continuing our tradition of academic excellence.”

We continue to embrace our district’s future-ready vision “to ignite, illuminate, and inspire powerful ideas, boundless imagination, profound inquiry and deep understanding. Through courageous leadership, empowered teachers, student agency and inspiring learning spaces, we will provide a ‘moonshot’ in education every day for every student.”

Our principal, during her first year, led our entire staff and members of our community in the process of creating a shared vision for our school. This work was temporarily set aside in 2014- 2015 school year as the WASC self-study drew closer and a new Superintendent took the helm.

In developing our schoolwide action plan, we knew our first strategy for goal 3, A Shared Vision for Our Future, was of critical importance, if we were to become a leader in 21st century education as we are aspired to be. What we did not know at the time was that our new Superintendent was determined to make sure every person knew, understood and believed in the PAUSD vision and mission statement. As such, we have adopted this vision and mission statement as our own, and yet still feel the desire to develop a school motto or statement and “branding” that unites us, easy to remember and will serve as that “North Star” when we are faced with decisions in the future. With a staff of over 200, this would be our reminder that we are all on the same team.

In the spring of 2017, Paly partnered with the Stanford Graduate School of Education’s REENVISIONED project which helps redefine the purpose of school by seeking to answer the questions “What makes a good life? What are our shared dreams for our children? What is the role of school in achieving these?” Led by our Inclusion Specialist, over 100 students participated in the interview process and qualitative data was collected by students in our Statistical Applications class. This information was shared and presented to Ed Council in the fall of 2017. With this in mind Ed Council has resumed the discussion on creating a school motto and is hopeful to reach some decisions, with community input, prior to the end of this academic school year.

We have made steady progress on the actions below and are committed to continuing in all of these areas as we move forward: ● Create a shared vision/mission statement among all stakeholders that will serve as our “North Star” ● Expand our Challenge Success team to redefine “rigor” among stakeholders, provide research around homework as an instructional strategy and grading practices that support a “growth mindset” and mastery learning ● Ignite love of learning, develop alternate pathways to explore passions, teach design thinking and/or to embrace failure

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Becoming a leader in 21st century education and creating an innovative culture is also to be accomplished through our second strategy, Global Competencies and Increasing Student “Voice and Choice.”

We are extremely proud of the progress that has been made on the following actions: ● Reestablish the senior research projects program to provide opportunity for students to solve real-world problems (Advanced Authentic Research Program) ● Expand interdisciplinary learning opportunities, create 20% time and/or “genius hour” during tutorial to spark creativity, embrace parents as learning partners ● Increased technology integration through BYOD and blended learning to improve global connectedness ● Increase STEM opportunities and grow a robust computer science curriculum

The Advanced Authentic Research program was developed in 2015-2016 and has grown tremendously at Paly, with students participating as young as their sophomore year. We have revised the concept of tutorial so that students have access to “Flex” time, where we also have brought in parent experts and other guests speakers. Every student is now expected to have a device with them in the classroom, either a school issued Chromebook or one of their own choosing. In the last two years, we have distributed over 600 Chromebooks to students. Paly teachers are leading the way with Blended Learning training and course development. Over 40 Paly teachers have participated in the training. We are hopeful to have our staff fully trained within the next 3 years. Looking at the Project Lead the Way model, our science department is developing new STEM pathways, one in Biomedical science, and the others being Engineering and Computer Science. Our hope is to expand the concurrent enrollment courses with Foothill College on the Paly campus in STEM (we currently run Nanotech). And finally, momentum is on our side at the district level when a committee was established to develop a Computer Science curriculum, K-12, for our district, so that all students have the opportunity to learn computer science.

Most of all we want to create a culture of care at our school that will improve teaching and learning for ALL students. In the words of English teacher Lucy Filppu, “Our hope for the future is that all learners will thrive and kindness will prevail.”

Evidence Supporting Our Progress and Impact on Student Achievement

In preparation for the mid-cycle visit, each department has produced an evidence binder. Inside this binder, you will find documents such as essential learning charts by course, common course guides, PLC team notes and other items related to the scope and sequence of revised curriculum over the past several years. Additionally, each department has provided a narrative overview of their work which discusses the impact on student achievement in greater detail.

At the school level, student achievement in relation to the Common Core State Standards has been difficult to measure because of our low participation rates in the SBAC/CAASPP testing. With the development of the California School Dashboard, we are very concerned about our low participation rates for both high schools and are working on a plan to improve participation in the spring of 2018. It is our goal to reach 95% participation on our next administration.

In the meantime, we have been using nationally normed tests, such as SAT, ACT and AP tests, A-G completion rates and graduation data to report out our student achievement. With the

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development of a robust RtI program, we are hoping to develop common benchmark or summative assessments to early identify and better understand student achievement of our struggling students. The district’s department of Research and Evaluation will be a partner in this work.

Response to the 2015 Visiting Committee Identified Critical Areas for Follow-Up

1. Increase the opportunities for underrepresented subgroups to access the rigorous curriculum and provide academic support to assure success.

● AVID system has been expanded across entire school. 40 teachers have been trained in AVID Summer Institute. AVID Site Team expansion. AVID classes at all grade levels serving more than 85 students. The class of 2018 will graduate our first AVID cohort (29 students). Early College Promise program in development with Foothill College, where students take college courses for dual credit on Paly campus. ● Outreach counselor assists students with course selection and encourages students on academic course selection. ● All sections of Algebra 1 are now co-taught. Starting in 2017-2018, we no longer offer Algebra 1.1 or Algebra 1.2. ● Algebra 2 is now a graduation requirement. We offer Algebra 2 co-taught classes and an Algebra 2 restart class (for students who are not successful in the first semester) ● Non-AP Calculus class introduced for students wanting 4 years of math. ● With all students taking English 9A and 10A, Latino student enrollment in this year’s American Literature 11H has increased from 10% of Latino students enrolled in American Literature (4 students in 2015-16) to 33% of Latino students enrolled in American Literature (16 students) in 2017-18 – a 230% increase in Latino students’ enrollment in honors-level coursework. ● 26 students enrolled in History/Social Science elective Ethnic Studies for 2017-2018 school year ● Mixed chemistry (college prep/honors) introduced to increase the number of underrepresented students (girls and HUR) in the physical sciences. Pilot year- gathering data. ● 9th grade Biology piloted project based learning (Project Lead the Way). Project based learning is supported by NGSS, NSTA and NSF as a foundational way to increase the number of girls and HUR in the sciences. ● 9th, 10th, 11th grade co-taught classes in H/SS. Special Edu teachers join H/SS PLCs to help ensure access to all learners. Classes are equipped to use more UDL methods in the classroom. ● Advanced sections of VAPA courses have seen a significant increase in HUR participation over the past three years. ● AP Seminar offered in 2017-2018, targeting HUR students as an accessible AP options. ● AP English Language and AP Computer Science Principles to be offered in 2018-2019, both with the goal of increasing HUR participation in AP courses for these content areas. ● World Language level 2 is now a graduation requirement, per PAUSD. More students taking Spanish and ASL courses. Developing supports for Spanish level 1 and level 2 classes, future co-taught course. ● AP Computer Science Principles to be offered in 2018-2019 to increase participation of HUR students and females in CS courses ● While teachers make recommendations for placement in some content areas (math, science and World Language), students have open-access to participate in any of these

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courses. Teacher Advisors help students with course selection and encouragement for HUR students to sign-up for higher level courses is often promoted. ● PSAT administered to 10th grade AVID students in 2016 and 2017 to identify pre-AP readiness. ● ACT administered to 70 students in fall of 2016 and fall of 2017. ● Tutoring provided to students ● Free ACT and SAT prep to HUR students ● Course registration workshops for parents and students in Spanish every year. ● Outreach Counselor speaks to incoming 9th grade students/families in Dreamcatchers regarding course registration ● As Summer Bridge Coordinator, Outreach Counselor collaborates with the Math teachers of the program to recommend advanced math classes for incoming freshmen during the summer who excelled. ● Latino Parent Nights for all grade levels to discuss graduation requirements, summer opportunities, course registration and recommendations on how to collaborate with teachers and school. ● Outreach night/Fair 15-16 and 16-17 for VTP, AVID and Latino Families where Paly resources are explained and families are able to hear from each resource in person, including College Track and FCE. ● First Gen Group: Monthly meetings/workshops for juniors in second semester, more frequent for seniors in 1st semester regarding course selection, college application process and support ● First Gen Parent Night to help families understand the college application process ● Outreach Counselor took on caseload officially in Fall 2017. Will act as official Guidance Counselor for all 9th grade students who participated in Summer Bridge, First Gen students in 11th and 12th were given choice for additional support ● Spanish Translation for Guidance parent nights ● Outreach Counselor Collaborated with teachers to recommend students for specific AP classes (Filppu & Chute) ● First Gen & AVID So Cal College Tour began in Spring 2015 ● Collaboration with new Family Engagement Specialist and Outreach Counselor to ensure families are connected to Paly and understand resources offered, policies and rights.

2. Develop a professional development plan that outlines specific training needs that would increase knowledge and implementation of anchor standards across content areas.

As our teachers worked in PLC teams on developing common course guides, they were expected to review the Common Core Anchor Standards and incorporate support of these standards as they identified their respective essential learnings. In the spring of 2015, we developed a site-based plan for professional learning that “went slow to go fast” with our focus on the following elements for the next 2 school-years: 1. Becoming a PLC (build your team) 2. Determining essential learning standard (what is it we expect students to learn) 3. Developing common formative assessments

Instructional Leaders were provided copies of the Anchor Standards following the 2015 WASC Visiting Committee follow-up recommendations. Department evidence binders show how each PLC team incorporated elements of reading, writing, speaking and listening into their curriculum.

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Meanwhile, district professional learning efforts led by our Director of Professional Learning and Chief Academic Officer, were also developed to support our progress in this area. Anchor standards were discussed at district steering level committees and professional development opportunities, both before, during and at the end of the school year, were developed to help teachers with unpacking the standards and determining the essential learnings.

Teachers who attended the AVID Summer Institutes received additional training in WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, Reading), which of course supports the CCSS Anchor Standards.

Monthly “Learning Strands” collaboration time, “found” time during minimum days/Flex days, and countless other professional learning opportunities supported this work.

3. Strategies and programs need to be developed to address the academic achievement gap that persists for underrepresented minorities and at-risk students in all classes.

At the district level, specific steps have been taken to address this area of follow-up: ● Principal served on the district Minority Achievement and Talent Development (MATD) which made district K-12 recommendations. ● Morning bus and late bus program for students who live in East Palo Alto was championed and provided in 2015-2016. This initiative was based directly on parent feedback in the 2015 WASC self-study process. ● Equity Plan presented to Board of Education in December 2017 with a number of specific action items, such as expanding Dream Catchers tutoring to 9th graders, increased recruitment and retention of HUR staff, inclusive strategies such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) and Restorative Justice and supporting our RtI implementation. ● LCAP recommendations in this area - Family Engagement Specialist, Tutoring, free ACT/SAT prep, ACT offered to HUR students in September 2016 and 2017, Rising Freshman Summer Bridge program and Rise Up program for exiting 12th graders.

At the school level, here are additional steps we have taken: ● 10 teachers attended RtI at Work training in fall 2017. Formed an RtI/Equity team that will be meeting again January 2018 to discuss and develop systems and interventions ● AVID expansion, support for first generation students Bridge counselor ● Principal’s discretionary funding used to provide additional fee waivers for SAT/ACT exams, AP exams, and other college related expenses. ● Breakfast and snacks provided to students near and in the main office for students who are hungry. ● Inclusion TOSA provided Professional Learning to general ed. teachers prior to the start of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school year. This also included time for teachers to connect with Ed. Specialists and Guidance Counselors about students with IEP’s and 504 plans. ● September and October, 2016 – Learning Strand on Universal Design for Learning was offered to all teachers by Inclusion TOSA. ● March 2016 - the SpEd department hosted Learning Strands for the entire school. Every strand was related to best practices around instructional strategies for students with disabilities. Topics covered included addressing needs of students with Specific Learning Disabilities, processing disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder, emotional and

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behavior issues, executive functioning challenges, assistive technology, and meaningful inclusion of students with moderate-severe disabilities ● 2016-2017 Inclusion TOSA worked weekly with the Biology Team with Universally Designed curriculum and instruction. ● March 2016 - SpEd received training on Read&Write for Google. Assistive Technology Specialists were also invited into SpEd classrooms afterward to train students on the same tool. ● January 2017 - Supports for All Students class launched on Schoology. 20 teachers participated. ● Administration has requested that teachers who have students with D’s or F’s attend IEP meetings. ● SpEd Department has developed more targeted services for students with IEP’s, specifically to better remediate for deficits in reading/writing, mathematics, and executive functioning ● Overall students with and without IEPS received A or B grades at the same rate or higher in co-taught versus non-co-taught classes ● Overall students with IEPS received significantly less D and F grades in co-taught classes ● Additional data on co-teaching at Paly over the past three years can be found in the Special Education department binder

4. Develop a consistent schoolwide philosophy around assessment and a consistent use of both formative and summative assessments within all departments.

Departments have had many discussions on this topic in their PLC and department meetings. As a school, we’ve used the book Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck to help frame these important conversations. As PLC were charged with developing common course guides, the issue of how we grade and what we grade has been highly debated. Denise Pope’s presentation to staff in the Spring of 2016 on “Teaching for Engagement” touched on the concept of authentic performance based assessments and motivated some teachers to move away from more traditional approaches.

As teachers began attending outside professional learning conferences and workshops, they began to bring back ideas to improve their own assessment practices. Student feedback has been overwhelming positive around the concept of retakes or redos. Many departments are interested in reaching a common understanding about no longer using zero’s in the gradebook and we’ve begun offering professional learning around this concept, which was first introduced to our Ed Council team in the spring of 2015 as we began the PLC journey.

With an interest in improving grading practices and developing assessments that reflect mastery learning, many teachers found the gradebook feature of Schoology to be more compatible with this approach. In the spring of 2016, Ed Council made the recommendation that all teachers should move to the Schoology gradebook (away from Infinite Campus) by the 2017-2018 academic year, since it is a better platform for assessing learning.

Two Paly teachers have led district professional learning around the issue of subjectivity and bias in the gradebook. While Technology TOSAs have provided extensive training to departments in accurately setting up electronic gradebooks.

41 Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

This topic came to a head for us as a school in December of 2016, following the Board of Education’s decision to put weighted-grades on the transcript. With the decision made, there was agreement in Ed Council that we need to reflect on the role teachers play in determining grades in their classes and if there is a better way to assess learning so that our students are not driven by letter grades and instead we are inspiring a love of learning.

In the fall of 2017, a PLC team led by our College Advisors and Outreach Advisors, presented their findings regarding grading scales used at similar high performing high schools. The data in their presentation sparked the conversation around the gradebook and there was agreement among the instructional leaders to present the idea of no longer issuing zero’s (using 50 instead) for students who fail an assignment. We will be revisiting this topic in the spring of 2018 and are hopeful to reach consensus on a schoolwide philosophy.

In regards to both summative and formative assessment, more professional learning is needed and being planned in this area. There are still teachers who are grading specific behaviors (participation points, homework completion, extra credit, etc..) and there are still teachers who are putting “formative” grades in the gradebook “or else the students won’t take it seriously or do it.” We have more work to do in this area and are excited by the discussions that lie ahead.

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V. SCHOOLWIDE ACTION PLAN REFINEMENTS

43 Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

Recommendations/Refinements

While we are proud to present this update, we understand that there is considerable work to accomplish over the next three years in order to fully achieve our goals.

First, we are committed to analyzing and using student performance data to identify struggling students and provide appropriate interventions and support. Our system is dependent on us implementing RtI so that ALL students are successful and performing at high levels. We will continue to focus on equity and access and take every effort to reduce the opportunity gap that exits at our school. Our learning teams will continue to work in PLC’s to examine student learning data to better inform classroom instruction. We are committed to continuing to take collective responsibility for supporting all of our learners, just as we support each other as a staff.

Next, we plan on continuing the discussion and making a decision around developing a school motto and necessary branding that will bring us into the 21st century. With recent negative media attention surrounding our recent suicide clusters and sexual assault allegations, we are determined to make sure these events are not the first things people think of when they hear the name “Palo Alto High School.” We are proud of the work we do for every student, every day and believe we are leading the way in creating a better future for our world.

Therefore, with a strong focus on student and staff wellness and a commitment to incorporating social emotional learning skills and a curriculum framework that guides us, we added a strategy under goal #3 that will reflect our work in this area over the next three years.

Finally, we are eager to keep learning. We know that in a rapidly changing world, our students needs are changing and therefore, we must keep current with best practices and learning research. We look forward to additional professional learning around assessment, mastery based learning, response to intervention, and social-emotional learning.

Newly Identified Issues

There are a number of areas of concern that we appreciate the opportunity to address. This past year, there has been great turnover at the district office, including the unexpected resignation of our Superintendent in September 2017. We are concerned that there is a vacuum of institutional memory at the district office with the onboarding of numerous new people. We are hopeful that the selection of our next Superintendent will stabilize the district office environment and allow us to focus on building relationships again. We notice and feel the constraints now that the district office is working at maximum capacity. Therefore, we recommend against any future budget cuts in this area. We rely on the support and expertise of district office staff, which has been a struggle this year as new people are learning about the system. We are concerned about discussions of ongoing budget cuts and the impact this will have on the system, which is functioning at a basic level as it is because they are spread so thin.

The unexpected resignation of our Superintendent and the community backlash that has been aimed at our administrators in recent months has led to a decrease in morale. When our administrators are constantly putting out fires and focused on other matters, the entire school suffers as they are not in our classrooms or available to support our daily work. We are grateful that we have more administrators this year than in the past, but even so, our administrators are still spread too thin and working hard just to keep their heads above water. We would like to see increased support and recognition for our administrative team who have done a remarkable job, despite the trying circumstances.

44 Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

We are concerned with both the opportunity gap and achievement gap that continues to exist at our school. While most staff have been trained in Unconscious Bias training over the past three years, we see the need to engage in continuous conversations, dialogue and self-reflection when it comes to implicit bias. We need to help teachers develop the racial awareness and cultural competence to effectively meet the needs of diverse learners. We want to build a staff with a deep awareness of trauma, and the ability to use trauma informed practices for addressing student realities. We need to ensure we are using culturally relevant pedagogy throughout the school. We recognize the need to create standards based content, instruction and evaluation that recognizes cultural knowledge, thinking and communicating, and that directly enhances students’ reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking skills. We are optimistic that the newly created PAUSD Equity plan and LCAP will continue to serve as a reminders and roadmaps on the critical importance of making sure ALL students feel welcomed, safe and are learning and thriving in our school.

We continue to be concerned about the decision to put weighted grades on the transcript. We are beginning to see an upswing in the numbers of students signing up for courses which are weighted and a drop in our elective sign-ups. To circumvent the loss of our electives, many teachers are now faced with adding an “Honors” component to their classes, as an incentive for students to take or continue in their class. This predicament has caused internal conflict for many teachers and has led to decreased morale among staff as we begin to see our students suffer in a more competitive environment.

We recognize the college admissions system is failing our students, who feel forced to take the most rigorous courses to remain competitive, despite our school recommendation that they take no more than 2 AP courses per year. We would live to see an improvement in this area and are interested in seeing if the mastery transcript consortium is able to shake the higher education admissions system. Until then, we know that many of our students will continue to get inadequate sleep and will report that their homework load is too high, despite our best intentions.

We are excited about the Social Emotional Learning curriculum framework that was adopted by the Board of Education last spring, yet remain concerned about what this may, or may not, look like in practice. We’d like to develop a long-term vision around Social Emotional Learning at the high school level that would offer clarity concerning where SEL curriculum should be implemented in our school.

In our piloting of School-Connect curriculum in our Advisories we’ve encountered a range of experiences both from students and from staff through informal check-ins as well as more formal in-house feedback surveys. Some common themes have arisen. In general, the greatest challenges with respect to effective implementation have been the lack of ample opportunity to build a community of familiarity and trust within the classroom (student-teacher and student-student), a lack of time in the period itself (35 min feels too rushed to do meaningful work), time of day and energy level (Advisory is currently at the end of the day), and lack of perceived accountability (Advisory while required with respect to attendance is an ungraded class).

We found that teachers trained in the curriculum were more likely to see and be open to its potential (buy-in), and that advisors who had many or most of their students in their academic classes found more success (greater familiarity and trust). Lastly, we found that teachers who felt greater permission/took greater initiative to customize and tailor the lessons to make them more personally relevant to them and their classes felt a greater sense of success. Those who felt they needed to stick to the script in general struggled more. So, as we look ahead to future

45 Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

efforts we need a delivery structure that meets often enough to build community and trust, meets long enough to make learning, engagement, context, and reflection meaningful, meets at a time of day when students still have energy and focus, and is facilitated by teachers who have enough familiarity with the curriculum and its broader aims to tailor it in way that make it feel most authentic to them and their classes. It may also be worth considering some way for students to receive credit for their engagement without evaluating their strengths or weakness in the skills themselves (generally considered to be against best practice). Lastly, we also need to focus more heavily on how to take the language, skills, and learning from these lessons and create opportunities for them to be reinforced in classrooms and experiences across campus. This means helping all teachers to become more familiar with the language and skillsets being taught and supporting them in seeing how they can be explicitly integrated and reinforced in what they already do. This requires the bandwidth (time to meet and talk) and personnel to adequately support doing this for all teachers.

Along these lines, we recognize that there is more work to be done with revamping our Advisory program. In order to increase student-teacher connections, we see the need for more frequent Advisory time and a rethinking of the advisory curriculum so that it is more engaging, authentic and relevant. If SEL curriculum was recommended to be implemented in Advisory, in addition to Living Skills, then frequency and duration will be important considerations in the future. This will then impact the funding model for our TA program and require us to seek additional district funding to best deliver the curriculum. Currently, our foundation, Partners in Education (PiE), funds a large proportion of the TA program (over $500,000), which would need to be reexamined if the Board approved SEL curriculum will be delivered in Advisory in the future.

For years, our Ed Council has recommended that the district no longer allow students to take Living Skills during the summer, but to no avail. We’d like to see the district make the courageous decision to incorporate Livings Skills back into the school day (not in the summer) and make it a required course for 9th or 10th graders. By doing so, we would have more time to explore SEL content and to address some of the recent challenges our students have faced with mental health and/or sexual harassment prevention. We have a high need for additional education in so many areas and would like to figure out how to best systemically address these topics.

We continue to be concerned about the rising number of initial IEP assessments, particularly for anxiety and depression, and the overall wellness of our school community. The correlation between the increase in anxiety and depression with smart phone usage is of interest to us as a staff. We’ve had many conversations about the increased use of technology, especially social media, and the negative unintended consequences technology use or misuse are creating with students. We’ve noticed an increase in sexting, cyberbullying, and inattention in class, coupled with a decrease in social skills, including listening and speaking, are areas of concern.

As a staff, we are concerned about the increased cost of housing, cost of living in the bay area and the challenges many of us are finding with the demands of our commute to and from school. As traffic has significantly increased year-by-year, many staff members are finding it necessary to leave school right when the bell rings or to come in extra early to avoid traffic. This makes it difficult to coach a sport, advise a club, attend an event, and/or simply meet with students after school for extra help. We acknowledge there is not much we can do to control this situation, but would like to recommend that the district consider proactive creative solutions to help offset this challenge, whether that be affordable housing, low interest loans, ride share programs and/or discounted passes for mass transit. The retention of teachers in today’s economy will be critical with the projected teachers shortage.

46 Palo Alto High School ACS WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

As a teaching staff, we are especially pleased with the progress we have made on goal one, Systems Alignment. We’ve dedicated considerable time and energy on developing common course guides, identifying the essential learning standards, implementing common formative assessments, creating common summative assessments, reflecting on our grading practices, and extensive discussion and thought paid to the district Homework Policy.

In relation to goal two, Instructional Practice, we’ve enjoyed time spent with our colleagues in our course-alike PLCs and greatly value the gift of time to collaborate in our weekly schedule. We are appreciative of the wide plethora of professional learning opportunities that have been made available to us and/or offered by our own colleagues as we continue to learn and grow together. Our monthly Learning Strands have formed connections across departments and provided greater insight beyond our own classroom walls. We’ve come to appreciate this time together with our colleagues as it strengthens our community.

With goal three, Innovative School Culture, we acknowledge that we’ve had “permission” to try new things, to think outside the box, and come up with ideas that will better meet the needs of our students. Ask anyone on campus who has been on staff for more than five years and they will confirm that the supportive culture in which we can take these risks is appreciated and welcomed. We’re excited by the engagement we see in our AAR program, specialized pathways and small learning communities. We acknowledge the culture of care that now exists, as we’ve made strides in creating healthy boundaries, developing a better work-life balance and taking better care of one another. We notice and appreciate that more and more of our colleagues are integrating Social Emotional Learning practices into their classrooms and are hopeful with what lies ahead in this area.

We believe in distributive leadership and as such, commend the many individuals who have courageously stepped up and stepped into leadership roles over the past three years. Without the hard work of our teacher leaders, especially our Instructional Leaders and TOSAs, we would not have made the significant progress that we have had.

We commend members of our Crisis Response Team and mental health teams. Their hard work on the front lines, supporting both students and staff in their most trying times and circumstances, has not gone unnoticed. We take comfort in their dedication, readiness, expertise and care.

Our focus and commitment to our WASC Schoolwide Action plan may not have happened without steady leadership among our Administrative and Instructional Leadership teams, and the dedicated teachers who support outstanding student learning daily. For this we are grateful as it keeps us focused on our priorities, which is always our students.

Last but certainly not least, we continue to be inspired by our incredible students. Their talent and energy, whether that be in the classroom, on the stage or field or in service to others, is a constant reminder of our calling to this profession. They give us hope for the future, always surprise us and continue to bring us joy.

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APPENDICES

48 Action Plan

GOAL #1: Systems Alignment for greater consistency around learning outcomes to reduce undue stress

Critical Learner Need #1: We need systems in place that support governance, curriculum and instruction, data collection and analysis, professional development, and student/parent outreach to ensure future readiness

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2018-2019 ACTIONS FOR 2019-2020 ACTIONS FOR 2020-2021

#1 Create and ● Find a consistent way to gather student ● Find a consistent way to gather student ● Continued professional develop tools that feedback regarding course alignment feedback regarding course alignment learning on effective assess student ● Use staff collaboration time to align ● Use staff collaboration time to align assessment strategies and learning of consistent grading/assessment consistent grading methods grading practices essential learner methods ● All departments need to horizontally ● Review and revise vertical outcomes/skills ● All departments need to horizontally align their courses so that all courses alignment in courses as that are align their courses so that all courses have common assessments (Board Goal needed horizontally and have common assessments (Board Goal 6) ● Expand, refine and implement vertically aligned 6) ● Vertically align classes so that important evidence-based grading in course alike ● Vertically align classes so that different skills are being reinforced with the ● Collect feedback from and sequential and more advanced classes are not content as the vehicle stakeholders to assess efficacy classes, using repeating their content (Board Goal 6) ● Systematic exploration and of learning targets SLOs, CCSS, NGSS, ● Systematic exploration and implementation of the CCSS Anchor ● Continue to monitor student SEL and other implementation of the CCSS Anchor Standards across content areas learning national Standards across content areas ● Continue developing Learning Targets for standards. ● Reflect and refine current practices in all units of study in courses. Share with Evidence-Based Grading Gunn and middle schools ● All PLC teams create Learning Targets. ● Science courses continue to align with Share with Gunn and middle schools NGSS - integrate ● Science courses initiate alignment with ● Reflect and refine current practices in NGSS - integrate Claim-Evidence- Evidence-Based Grading Claim-Evidence- Reasoning into instruction Reasoning into instruction ● MS-HS Site Visits in Social Studies to ● Professional learning on grading practices share best practices; improve alignment and effective assessment practices of curriculum; and transition from 8-9th

49 1 grade ● Professional learning on grading practices and effective assessment practices

#2 Generate ongoing ● Launch and training of Data ZONE - ● All staff use of DataZone ● Sources of Strength Survey data collection data analysis tool used across the ● Challenge Success Survey administered Fall 2020 and reflection district and school administered Fall 2019 ● Teachers use feedback from process that ● Sources of Strength Survey ● California Healthy Kids Survey students gathered from District informs our administered Fall 2018 administered Fall 2019 Course survey administered in school on the ● Teachers use feedback from ● Teachers use feedback from students December 2020 to adjust following metrics: students gathered from District gathered from District Course survey practices - partnering with a attendance, Course survey administered in administered in December 2019 to colleague to work on areas for course December 2018 - identify a adjust practices - partnering with a growth enrollment, colleague(s) to work with on areas colleague to work on areas for growth ● Increase participation on 11th student academic for growth ● Analysis of attendance data and grade students in CAASSP so achievement, ● Consistent Course Surveys used to correlation with earning C- and above there is valid data to analyze student wellness gather feedback from students on in all courses profile, student teacher performance and ● Analysis of special programs (TEAM, demographics, effectiveness Pathways, AVID) for effectiveness student ● Analysis of attendance data ● Teacher Advisors/Guidance perception, improved and absence letters to Department use of Academic Planner teacher parents generated by Infinite in IC and DataZone to support perception, and Campus students in being College and Career teacher ● Developed tools and analyzed Ready at graduation effectiveness. success of students who “up-laned” ● Increase participation on 11th grade in math under open enrollment students in CAASSP so there is valid ● Analyzed performance of students data to analyze new to the district and how effectiveness of math placement process ● Increase participation on 11th grade students in CAASSP so there is valid data to analyze

50 2 #3 By fall 2018, ● Implement universal screening tools ● Refine list of Tier 1 MTSS supports ● Intervention database refined develop and to identify students requiring early implemented by all staff and utilized by all staff implement a intervention ● Specify who will define the scope and ● Continue sharing of strategies robust, universal ● Launch new MTSS program delivery of MTSS and the times that in staff meetings (Learning academic and ● Increase professional learning for interventions will be implemented Strands) behavioral teachers and staff regarding MTSS ● Identify and develop Tiers 2 and 3 intervention ● Develop instructional guidelines and supports program best practices for dyslexia in general ● Create a place for “searchable data” (RTI/MTSS) at the education setting to meet AB 1369 of the interventions being used for classroom, ● Develop a team who are the experts of students department and MTSS and “go-to” staff ● Investigate State of California MTSS school levels, ● IT research on notifications for grants measured by the automated, fast feedback of a change ● Staff meeting time allocated to number of in student grades for teachers of sharing promising practices students who students in SPED/AVID/etc. supporting struggling students receive Tier 1, 2 ● Research other MTSS programs in the (Learning Strands) and 3 country and see how they ● Teachers regularly check-in with interventions. implemented it to help us develop ours students earning a C- or lower ● Regular analysis by department of ● Regular analysis by department of students earning C- or below - which students earning a C- or lower - which courses, what skills/knowledge, etc. courses, what skills/knowledge, etc. ● Continue professional learning on instructional guidelines and best practices for dyslexia in general education setting to meet AB 1369

51 3

GOAL #2: Research-based instructional practices that increase student engagement for ALL students

Critical Learner Need #2: We need the entire instructional staff to utilize research-based instructional strategies and 21st century tools to ensure future readiness for all students. Given our achievement/opportunity gap and the implementation of CCSS and NGSS, our work will focus on the areas of writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading (WICOR) throughout the school.

Strategy ACTIONS FOR 2018-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-2020 ACTIONS FOR 2020-2021

#1 Increase the ● Assess and increase buy-in with ● Refine PLC work and move to ● Refine PLC work and move to effectiveness of PLC teachers’ feedback and teachers’ refine ELO’s, Learning Targets and refine ELO’s, Learning Targets and work as it relates to suggestions on how to use the PLC grading in course alikes grading in course alikes student learning time more effectively ● Develop and implement at least ● Develop and implement at least ● Students request that same level two common formative two common formative classes should have shared assessments each semester assessments each semester curriculum - they prefer ● Analyze data from common ● Analyze data from common grading/assessment is consistent assessments to inform instruction assessments to inform instruction between teachers teaching the same ● Develop common rubrics ● Develop common rubrics course ● Identify and describe levels of ● Identify and describe levels of ● Investigate options for PLC’s so that mastery for anchor standards mastery for anchor standards all teams of teachers can meet with ● Develop common end of semester ● Develop common end of semester their specific teaching teams on summative assessments (projects, summative assessments (projects, alternate weeks, rather than only presentations, essays or exams) presentations, essays or exams) being able to meet with one team for ● Schoolwide professional learning ● Full implementation of Schoology the entire year on evidence-based grading within departments for grading, ● Continue to gather data from across practices assessment and feedback to departments around existing ● Develop and pilot consistent students and parents evidence-based grading practices evidence-based grading practices ● Share strengths and areas of ● Differentiated training for all challenge in each department’s teachers on Schoology functions current efforts based on outcomes of needs ● Targeted professional learning on assessment evidence-based grading practices ● All teachers use the calendar ● Some teachers trained in using AMP function for assignments, projects

52 4 (assessment management platform) and assessments ● Some teachers trained on using the ● Use analytics from calendar external tool functionality found in function to evaluate and adjust Schoology (i.e. Turn-it-in, Google overall workload for students (test Drive, etc.) and project stacking) ● Identify gaps between Schoology and ● Use analytics to help meet BP IC gradebooks regarding homework load ● Work with district to increase ● All teachers use Schoology integration of Schoology and IC gradebook gradebooks ● Needs assessment for what training is need to use Schoology to its fullest extent Connect curriculum (even classic) to relevant issues. (SLC, PLC’s) ● Staff training on use of complex instruction and cooperative learning in the classroom (IC) ● Staff training for better ways to write/use projects in the classroom (IC) ● Re-examine purpose and possibilities of Flex time ● Continue PLC work towards course consistency (ISs)

#2 Increase the ● Continue Flextime with more ● Meet with underserved students ● Early intervention at the classroom percentage of HUR scheduled appointments for students and parents to explore what is level for students not meeting and other on D/F list (COST) needed for success standards underserved ● Relate Work/Study experiences to ● Develop system in which students ● Implement strategies identified by students earning C- academic studies and SEL write their own learning goals - underserved students and above in all ● Interventions completed/monitored short term and long term each ● Evaluate system of goal writing classes and in class and Flextime year - students identify who will be and refine increase the ● Work with the Equity Coordinator their support system to meet number of HUR and and Professional Learning those goals other underserved Coordinator to provide specific ● Early intervention at the classroom

53 5 students meeting professional learning aimed at level for students not meeting UC/CSU A-G supporting underserved students standards minimum ● Utilize the AP potential report to ● Early intervention for students requirements identify 10th graders who can take identified by COST an AP class. ● Examine Flex for effectiveness and ● Provide training to teachers on how ease of monitoring student to differentiate instruction learning ● Work with the Equity Coordinator and Professional Learning Coordinator to provide specific professional learning aimed at supporting underserved students

#3 By 2018, we will ● Educate students about AP/Honors ● Use identified Tier 1 supports to ● PSAT administered to all 10th and increase the classes in Advisory, Academic increase success of underserved 11th grade students enrollment in Planning and AVID classes. students in AP/Honors courses AP/Honors classes ● Have former HUR students talk about ● Examine homework load in by 30% for Latino AP/Honors classes AP/Honors courses that might be and African ● Offer summer AP Boot Camp with impacting success American students study strategies (AVID) ● Increase partnership with ● Increase Community College community colleges through the supplementary classes for non-HS Early College Promise Program graduation credits (Early College ● Training for all teachers in UDL Promise) ● PSAT administered to all 10th and ● PSAT administered to all 10th and 11th grade students 11th grade students ● College Advisor presentation to the AVID classes about AP/Honors classes at the start of the year and follow-up before class registration in February. Utilize the AP potential report from PSAT results ● Teach new AP Computer Science class for underclassmen ● Promote ‘Open Access’ to AP and

54 6 Honors courses so students/parents can choose College Prep, Honors, or AP lane ● Teacher Advisors trained to help identify and encourage HUR students to take AP/Honors courses ● More paths for students (including summer school) to attain academic goals ● Alg 1: All sections of Algebra 1 co- taught. Eliminate Alg 1.1 and Alg 1.2 classes. ● Co-teachers in College Prep lane enabling more support for students in general education

Goal #3: Innovative School Culture promoting global competencies, creativity and empathy

Critical Learner Need #3: We need to develop a shared system of beliefs and priorities driving the thinking and actions of those within our school community so that the expectations and attitudes of everyone on campus is that all students will graduate future ready, including ready to attend college, with global competency skills.

Goal ACTIONS FOR 2018-19 ACTIONS FOR 2019-2020 ACTIONS FOR 2020-2021

#1 Create a ● District adopts K-12 Social ● Expand SEL lessons to more ● Continued SEL professional comprehensive Emotional Learning Standards, students learning Social and Benchmarks, and Grade-Level ● Look at models for continuing to ● Reinforce SEL language in classes Emotional Learning Indicators to be taught and learned grow the SEL and interactions with students Curriculum that will by all students (SEL TOSA) ● Train all PE teachers and 9th grade allow students to ● Teacher advisors and other trained teachers as YES! Trainers - build develop awareness teachers to pilot School Connect capacity and skills to improve lessons ● Continue refinement and timing of their emotional ● Summer and ongoing staff training YES! For 9th grade PE

55 7 wellness and foster for SEL program (SEL TOSA) ● All departments will continue to emotional growth. ● Continued refinement and refine, plan and implement school- implementation of YES! In 9th wide lessons grade PE ● Each department will design and implement a schoolwide lesson aimed at having a consistent message around skills and habits that increase success for students (i.e. notetaking, healthy habits, etc.)

#2 Define rigor, ● Research definitions of rigor and ● Determine appropriate definition ● Refine courses and continue pilot communicate to all examples of what it looks like in for our context ● Develop a plan for the stakeholders, and increase alternate practice ● Communicate definition out to all implementation of interdisciplinary methods of ● Audit alignment of assigned HW stakeholders projects instruction and with district HW policy, with ● Pilot embedded honors courses learning in all inclusion of AP courses in audit. ● Analyze data from pilot curricular ● Evaluate the effectiveness and ● Professional learning with a focus relevance behind assigned on Deeper Learning homework ● Partnership with Challenge Success ● Examine and shift student, ● Audit alignment of assigned HW teacher and parent perception with district HW policy, with in regard to “rigor vs. workload” inclusion of AP courses in audit. for AP/Honors courses ● Evaluate the effectiveness and ● More project-based learning relevance behind assigned (less emphasis on tests) (PLCs) homework ● Research and integrate “Growth ● Courses will design and implement Mindset” and its implications one (minimum) alternate form of into a new definition of success assessment (to shift the culture to reflect ● Provide professional learning in risk-taking and failure are project-based, problem-based and expected and honored and inquiry-based learning teaching is for mastery) ● Research and explore ways to do ● Partnership with Challenge more interdisciplinary projects Success campus-wide

56 8 ● Gather data on current project- based learning ● Gather data on interdisciplinary courses, projects and programs campus-wide

# 3 ● Professional learning focused on ● Professional learning focused on ● Professional learning focused on project based learning in all project based learning in all project based learning in all Increase opportunity classrooms classrooms classrooms for student projects and deep dives in ● Learning Design Team to ● Launch year one of School-Within- ● Expansion of School-Within-A- areas of student continue work on School- A-School (9th grade) School (9th and 10th grade) interest Within-A-School Design and rollout to community

57 9 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report CAREER TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

Hello, and welcome to Paly CTE. We are happy to share with you the work we have undertaken over the last three years. We are a small department, but we have lots of activity. Many of the teachers in our department are the only teacher for the career pathway, which can make content-specific collaboration and alignment difficult. We also have some CTE department members who also teach in other departments, including Math, VAPA and PE. One exception is our Media Program where teachers utilize their PLC time consistently and collaborate together. Our department meets as a team on a regular basis, at least once a week. We use this time to work on our common goals.

Over the last three years, our department has worked on: ● Expansion of CTE Pathways: We have recently expanded our CTE Pathways offerings for our students including pathways in: transportation, information and communication technologies, business and finance, education, fashion, engineering, health science and media arts. It is our hope that this effort will allow students to more clearly understand the opportunities in CTE. ● Merging the Media Program into the CTE department: Approximately three years ago, Paly completed the building of a new Media Arts Building. Not long after, the Media Arts teachers joined the CTE department. The Journalism teachers are seeking certification for Non-CTE Certified staff. ● Creating new CTE courses: Media Leadership Management, Business Entrepreneurship, Accounting. These courses provide more opportunities for our students to explore career pathways. ● Providing new rigorous course offerings: AP Computer Science Principles, along with adding several honors courses to our current course offerings. For example, Early Childhood Development Honors, Media Leadership Management Honors and Advanced Photography Honors. ● Creating common self assessments: Journalism teachers have created a common self assessment for students to be used across all media classes. The self assessment rubrics were aligned with CTE content standards and help students reflect on their progress. ● Ongoing teacher professional development: Our CTE teachers are continuing to make connections with other educators in the surrounding area. Journalism teachers have been visiting nearby schools outside of PAUSD to observe, learn, and share resources with other media programs. A visit to Folsom will be happening soon to connect around Game Design. In addition, we also have teachers visiting our CTE programs at our school as well.

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WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report ENGLISH DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

https://nyti.ms/2ucx7Uh

The image and caption above captures the slow but massive changes that have occurred in Paly's English Department over the past several years, changes that began several years earlier, in 2010.

The most significant of those changes has been structural. Almost a decade ago, the department was laned in every grade – two lanes in 9th, 10th, and 11th, and three in 12th. Today, all freshmen take 9A, all sophomores take 10A, juniors choose between Am Lit 11 and Am Lit 11H, and seniors choose between World Lit + Elective or AP Literature.

I consider these structural changes massive – yet, as the caption above indicates, this massage change comprises many small steps. During our last WASC visit, the transition from two lanes in ninth grade to essentially one – 9A – had already occurred. Since then, the small steps that led to all sophomores taking 10A included one year where we included English 10 and English 10A within the same classroom. This transition year was high-intensity for the 10th grade team, who navigated two different class levels in one classroom. They spent that year in their PLC discussing how to differentiate their assignments to serve both sets of students. Moreover, the technology, which often lags behind changes in practice, made it impossible to combine all students into one grade book. Teachers had two grade books per class – one for 10 and one for 10A. Needless to say, the 10th grade teachers deserve enormous kudos for sticking with this move toward equity and a heterogeneous classroom. The following year, all students enrolled in 10A, and, thankfully, that took care of the tech troubles—and the equity issues.

Each decision we make is guided by a desire for equity. Of course, the big question is this: Have those structural changes made a difference? The data that stand out show that students who took 9A and 10A are more likely to sign up for 11H. This trend is especially true in the Latino student population. Latino student enrollment in this year’s American Literature 11H has increased from 10% of Latino students enrolled in American Literature (4 students in

59

2015-16) to 33% of Latino students enrolled in American Literature (16 students) in 2017-18— a 230% increase in Latino students’ access to honors-level work. This news is thrilling, for it illustrates that structural changes made to better serve all students can actually begin to break down the barriers historically underrepresented students have faced in accessing honors and AP courses.

Another structural change (made in January 2018), is to offer AP Language to juniors and seniors as an elective option. In making this decision, we carefully considered our motivation behind what at first glance might appear to merely "feed the AP monster" in our community. However, we are deeply committed to identifying students who might not consider themselves an AP student as early as freshman year and encouraging them to sign up for AP Language. We are also committed to making this course accessible to all students, whether or not they take the exam at the end of the year. In addition, we have noticed the gender disparity between regular and honors/AP courses in our department – few boys are enrolling in AP Literature. We hope that by offering AP Language, which focuses on non- fiction, we can entice more boys to take advantage of an AP course in our department. Along with this change, we eliminated American Literature 11H to avoid creating three lanes.

We expect there will be some unintended consequences that result from offering AP Language. Yet this shift will be part of the larger context of working toward equity. Or, to quote MLK as we break for his birthday weekend, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." MLK understood the value of taking small steps toward justice, and so do we.

Alignment, alignment, alignment. The English department has worked on alignment for many years, so the progress since the last WASC visit has continued. The grade-level teams – PLCs – have taken many small steps toward alignment. Both 9th and 10th grade have a solid program, with common assessments, similar grading practices, similar grade distributions. 9th and 10th adopted identical weighted categories two years ago. World Lit 12 has aligned the structure of the instructional practices in terms of standards, assessments, and grading. Our department has worked with the Paly TOSA in charge of tech (who's also a math teacher) on making sure our grade books make sense – for example, do the assignments we have impact the entire grade as much or as little as we imagine? Are the grade books set up accurately? The move toward more alignment continues to guide our practices in our PLCs and as a department.

And the Paly English teachers! They are rock stars, both inside and outside the classroom – attending conferences across the country, presenting at our district PD days and at outside conferences, getting National Board Certification, earning Master's degrees, collaborating with Gunn High School, starting new classes, building a popular pathway within the department (SJP), seeking additional training in order to offer a blended option of a course. The creativity, drive, excitement, passion, devotion to students – the entire English Department is breathtaking and intense.

I'll stop here, though I could go on in much greater detail. We are thrilled to have a chance to share our progress with you during your visit!

Warm regards,

Shirley Tokheim, Instructional Leader The Paly English Department

60 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

Welcome, esteemed-colleagues from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. We are excited to share with you some of the steps that the Guidance department has taken toward reaching our stated goals and illustrate some of the changes that have occurred in the past few years since your last visit. We believe in the importance of spreading empathy and reducing student stress, so aligning our efforts with these goals is a natural fit; however, institutions and communities change slowly, so it has not been without challenges.

One of the first areas of focus and one we are most excited about, is the re-direction of our Advisory program toward SEL. The alignment with School Connect curriculum gives our Advisory consistent focus on important life skills and serves our goal of promoting global competencies, creativity, and empathy. “School-Connect seeks to foster academic engagement, enhance social and emotional competencies, reduce risk behaviors, and facilitate supportive relationships within high school communities. Our ultimate goal is to prepare adolescents for adulthood both personally and professionally.” We sent our Advisory staff over the summer to School Connect workshops in Austin, Atlanta, and Reno, so they could experience the curriculum firsthand before teaching it; it has been a positive experience for all involved.

After being disassembled after concerns of alignment within the district, our TA Steering Committee was reformed this past Fall and has been working on the restructuring of the Advisory program. As previously mentioned, the addition of School Connect, along with other programs, have been some of the important changes decided by this committee.

We have continued our integration of all socio/emotional supports in response to the growing need. We now have 4 licensed grade-level School Counselors, a licensed Outreach Counselor, 2 full-time College Counselors, licensed therapist services, and a strong Wellness Department. Suicide clusters and increased pressure for weighted GPA’s are some of the stressors that have presented a need for our increased support.

We have increased department visibility/accessibility through additional Parent Informational Nights. We now place videos of the presentations on the web. We produce a quarterly Guidance Gazette with updates and news from the department. We also utilize a secure sign-in process for students looking to see their counselor, which keeps record of students that have dropped in, but could not be met. This allows for counselors to double back and not have any student fall through the cracks.

Finally, we have re-dedicated our focus to the RTI process. Our SST Team has redesigned the procedures and our counseling team has begun the process of re-educating staff, utilizing the procedures, and fine-tuning them. The Paly Guidance Department continues to care about our students and our community as a whole. We hope you will enjoy learning more about our unique program through the information we have included for you in this binder.

Best,

Paly Guidance Team

61 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report

HISTORY / SOCIAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

It is a singular honor to share with you the History/Social Science Department’s supporting documents. Since our last WASC cycle, our team of dedicated teachers has grown from a department of 18 to 22, and together we have made significant strides in creating more common summative assessments, common learning targets to support critical thinking in literacy, and vertical alignment for our annotated bibliography projects so that there is greater consistency around our learning outcomes. We pride ourselves in supporting all students at Paly to the best of our ability. Teachers in the History/Social Science Department have integrated more SEL (Social Emotional Learning) lessons within our framework, more teachers are measuring academic proficiency using Standards Based Grading, and all teachers have been trained and support the set of principles for UDL (Universal Design Learning) that gives all students equal opportunity to learn. In addition, our department continues to work with the Special Education department in both 9th grade and 10th grade co-taught classes providing specialized differentiated lessons for students with special needs so that all students may access the learning requirements in the classroom.

Teachers in the History/Social Science department meet regularly every week in their course- alike PLCs. This time together has allowed our teachers to collectively review lesson plans and assessments used in a class, look at examples of student work, and collaboratively identify support strategies to help students who may be struggling academically. The focus for each course-alike team varies. ● 9th grade World History teachers have created a common assessment for formative writing, utilized library research tools, and aligned common core skills with long term research projects. ● 10th grade US Government and Contemporary World teachers have worked to create guiding questions for both curricula, updated and refined their election projects, and successfully found a common pace to teach government. ● 11th grade U.S. History teachers decided to create a common summative assessment for all USH students, discussed both the pros and cons of the assignment, and continues to tweak the assessment so that a greater number of students achieve our learning targets. In addition, the USH teachers have worked through differences to create a common course guide to which grading and evaluations are the same, so as to improve as better collaborators preparing students for the knowledge they will need to know and how to apply it. ● 12th grade Economics teachers meet regularly spending their time working on their pacing using a homework calendar, common lessons to meet our core standards, and creating common assessments that measure student performance. Recently, our Econ teachers are finding more ways for students to have greater “financial literacy” so that students may apply these skills after high school.

As a whole, all of our teachers bring something to table: knowledge, experience, ideas, or a fresh new perspective.

Lastly, we are excited about new courses introduced since the last WASC visit, as well as other elective courses that have grown, all of which support Paly’s innovative school culture. Our Positive Psychology course was added in the Spring 2017 and was met with “positive” feedback. Our students enjoyed this blended, project-based elective with its focus on topics

62 such as mindfulness, developing healthy self-esteem, resilience, and social support structures for healthy relationships. Our partnership with the English Department has seen steady support and growth in our Social Justice Pathway. Students enrolled in this three year program connect their academic learning with a sense of purpose, and our teachers help provide the students with skills that will enable them to affect social change so that they are more likely to become “upstanders” rather than bystanders in our community. In 2017, we were especially pleased to see renewed student interest in our elective “Ethnic Studies” course, a course we have offered in the past but have not run due to low enrollment. This year, we had 25 students enrolled in the course.

As we look ahead, the History/Social Science department looks forward in our continuous efforts to find more common researched based instructional practices so that all students are engaged, and understand the responsibility of global citizenship. We will carry on our discussions regarding learning targets as identified by the Common Core State Standards, as well as our own California History/Social Science Framework. We are a department that truly cares about the whole student, and hope you will enjoy learning more about our courses in this binder.

63 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

Since our last WASC Cycle, the Mathematics Department has had grown to 19 teachers, 4 of whom are relatively new to our department. 7 of us are also Teacher Advisors. We have also enjoyed teaching in our new building.

There are four recent changes in curricular offerings. First, 2016 is the first time we offered Linear Algebra. This course is taught by a local community college instructor, and is taken after the Multivariable course. Next, 2017 is the first time in 32 years that we did not offer Algebra 1.1 and Algebra 1.2, the two year-long courses that comprise one year of Algebra 1. The reason for this cancellation was an initial enrollment lower than Paly needed to run the course. Also in 2017, we introduced one section of Calculus, a non-AP course for students who wish to continue math without the need or desire to take an AP math course. This proved to be such a popular option, we opened a second section of Calculus during the first semester. Finally, our Statistical Applications course is now closely tied to the Social Justice Pathway; even though SJP is a collaboration between Social Science and English, students in SJP are expected to enroll in this course to learn how to research data to help answer big picture questions.

Beginning in 2015, we instituted two teaching practices new to our department. We have piloted Standards Based Grading, last year in Algebra 2 / Trig A and this year in Algebra 1A. Student engagement is increased as the ideas of improvement and perseverance are promoted. Also, all sections of Algebra 1 have been co-taught (1 math teacher plus 1 Special Education teacher) with good success in keeping students engaged and on track to graduate.

Horizontal alignment between courses has been a mainstay in our department for decades; teachers of the same courses use identical pacing of the course, assignments, and assessments. PLC time is not limited to the allotted time on Thursdays; many of our conversation occur during brunch, lunch, or even just in passing each other in the hallway. We are now looking to address two long-term items, vertical alignment in the sequencing of courses and teaching practices within our courses. For vertical alignment, we will be addressing the need to align curriculum throughout our three lanes, honors, advanced, and regular (still college prep). Teaching practices have been discussed in a cursory manner over the past two years, and we will be embarking on a district-wide discussion on a Staff Development Day this February. These practices include, but are not limited to, assigning HW to be done at home, retaking tests, and the purpose of inserting zeros into the gradebook.

As we continue to abide by Common Core Standards, we will continue to review why we do what we do by asking ourselves if we are truly serving our students both now and for the future. The fact that we have several Teacher Advisors in our department is an accurate indication that we view our population not only as math students but also as whole persons. We hope you enjoy your visit with us, and if you have any question, please feel free to ask.

Sincerely,

The Palo Alto High School Math Department

64 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report PHYSICAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

The Palo Alto High School Physical Education Department has made many improvements since our last WASC cycle.

Since our last WASC visit we have moved into our new state-of-the-art athletic facility which includes two college-sized gyms, allowing our students to play many more dynamic indoor sports such as: floor hockey, badminton, pickle ball, volleyball, and basketball.

In the new facility we also have a first-class weight room, which allows our team of teachers to have every student active throughout the class period. The weight room houses ten platforms, which allows for a completely comprehensive weightlifting curriculum. In the spirit of alignment, our entire department has adopted an online weightlifting program. Our students are able to use smart phones to access the program.

We also have added an aerobics facility, which allows entire classes to get aerobic workouts come rain or shine.

We have added a new yoga course, to give our students another option in their second year of PE.

In addition we have a 4,000 square foot dance studio, which we use for both our dance classes as well as our yoga classes.

We also have a new 4,000 square foot wrestling room where we do our combative units as well as our tumbling.

We have taken strides in several different areas in our alignment goal. Our entire department uses the same course guide. Our grading practices are aligned throughout the department. We have established Learning Targets for different units and are in the process of establishing some Common Assessments.

Overall, we are spending our collaborative time figuring out how to best utilize our new facility, to maximize its potential for all of our physical education students.

65 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report SCIENCE DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

It is with great pleasure that we share the Palo Alto High School science department’s supporting documents. Since the last WASC cycle, the science department has consistently moved toward alignment (both horizontally within courses and vertically through a course sequence), improved our research based instructional practices (with a goal of increasing student engagement for all students) and embraced an innovative school culture that promotes global competencies, creativity and empathy. We are a fairly “young” science family with over a third of our 19 teachers being new to the department within the past three years. Although having so many new members in the department has resulted in a steep learning curve for many and has heighted the responsibility for the veteran teachers, the influx has brought a newfound energy and focus on innovation within the classroom and allowed for significant strides toward horizontal and vertical alignment. Certain areas of growth in alignment are evident in that all course-alikes have started the year with common course guides, have identified common learning targets and will continue to create common labs and assessments. The high energy and progressive ideas from our newest department members mixed with the experience and expertise of our veteran teachers has resulted in many innovations within the classroom, including adding more blended classes, a project based learning (PBL) experience in our biology courses and a differentiated mixed ability grouping in our chemistry and honors chemistry classes. We have been thoughtful and intentional about promoting an innovative and inclusive school culture that integrates more social emotional learning (SEL) within our lessons and is based in principles of Universal Design Learning (UDL). Our 9th grade biology team has worked closely with the Special Education department to design differentiated lessons and assessments that can be used with all of our students and it is expected that the relationship will continue with our 10th grade chemistry team for 2018-19.

Teachers in the science department meet weekly in their course-alike PLCs. This time together has allowed our teachers to align more closely and collectively design learning targets, common labs and common assessments. Teachers also use the PLC time to review lesson plans and design curriculum with a differentiated UDL approach that helps support students who may be struggling academically. The focus for each course-alike team varies. ● Biology (9th grade): a Project Lead the Way (PLTW) course design, which utilizes an engaging PBL experience, has been adopted for much of the 9th grade biology curriculum. Teachers use PLC time to learn how to incorporate this new design, align common core skills and define common learning targets. ● Chemistry (10th/11th grade): teachers use PLC time to define common learning targets, create common labs and exams and align grading standards. Six of the seven teachers on the chemistry team are new since the last WASC cycle so the much-valued PLC time is used for this alignment. ● Physics (10th/11th): teachers use PLC time to define common learning targets, create common labs and exams and align grading standards. ● AP biology, AP chemistry and APES (11th/12th): uses PLC time to define common learning targets, create common labs and exams and align grading standards.

Last but not least, the science department is guided by our commitment to the wellness and the SEL of our students. I am proud to say that the vision of the department is driven by the often- quoted question in our department meetings, “what is best for the students?” We support an innovative school culture which incorporates a SEL approach to the research based best

66 practices used in the classroom, including our commitment to PBL, UDL, blended learning, inquiry-based learning and mixed ability grouping. We have teamed up with Foothill College to offer a dually enrolled Nanotechnology course where students can earn college credit. This gives the students an opportunity to work with a college-level specialist within a more structured high school environment. Our AP biology and APES courses will continue to offer a blended option for the students, allowing for more flexibility and personalization for each student. As mentioned above our 9th grade biology team has adopted the PLTW curriculum and taken a new PBL to the course. I am proud to say that recently our Science Olympiad teams have specifically addressed the need to seek more diversity on the teams and have changed their recruiting efforts with this end result in mind. These efforts included an extended PR campaign and more options for testing for the limited spots on the team.

As we look ahead, the science department looks forward in our continuous efforts to promote alignment, global competencies, and creativity as we pay special attention to the social emotional wellness of our students. We will continue our discussions around learning targets as identified by the NGSS and Common Core State Standards and be mindful of the research based instructional practices that increase student engagement for all students. We will continue to ask, “what is best for the student?” as we learn and grow and hope you enjoy learning more about our courses in this binder.

67 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

The Special Education Department has focused its efforts in the last three years in several different areas, all in the interest of improving alignment within the department, utilizing research-based strategies to inform curricular decision-making, and in increasing the expertise of our Education Specialists in order to best support students and general education teachers.

The Special Education department has streamlined and aligned IEP processes for greater collaboration amongst all team members in a variety of different ways. We now have a full-time secretary who schedules IEP meetings, adhering to appropriate legal timelines, and communicates with parents to ensure their availability. The department is also now utilizing the same electronic IEP input request forms when requesting input from teachers in preparation for IEP meetings and we provide roving substitute teachers to our general education teachers in order to enable them to regularly attend IEP meetings. The department has continued to build and refine all of its systems and processes, and has built an electronic Case Management Binder for all case managers to refer to that includes written information about department guidelines, agreements, processes, and procedures. Additionally, PALY administration has support greater collaboration between case managers and general education teachers by structuring time at the beginning of each school year for the special education department to provide professional development to our general education teachers as well as time for each teacher to connect with each case manager about shared students in order to ensure that teachers are aware of all accommodations and special needs for each student with an IEP. Additionally, the allocation of case management periods for our education specialists allow for greater collaboration between them and general education teachers throughout the school year as it provides more time and opportunity for case managers to connect with general education teachers, specialists, parents, and students, thus enabling the department to best meet the needs of each student.

Additionally, the special education team has been strengthening and further aligning its curriculum, specifically in the areas of addressing secondary transition needs, as well as in courses that provide specialized academic instruction. The department is now fully aligned across all specialized academic instruction courses by utilizing the same course guides, grading scales, rubrics, and unit topics that are taught each month. One of the topics the team has focused on aligning even more specifically is with secondary transition assessments. The special education team now utilizes the same standardized transition assessments for students with mild-moderate disabilities at each grade level. Additional assessments are also utilized, as needed, based on the individual needs of each student, but the team has identified and is currently utilizing at least one common assessment each year that is appropriate for each grade level (9-12).

Co-Teaching continues to be a method of instruction that Paly utilizes to provide specialized instruction to our most academically challenged students in the general education setting. Paly has found this method of instruction to be effective in improving not only the grade outcomes for students with disabilities but also the grade outcomes for all students who benefit from the class, and the district has invested in creating an Inclusion TOSA position to support co- teaching at Paly. However, PAUSD has chosen not to document co-taught services in students IEP’s which has hindered the school’s ability to provide as many co-taught sections as the special education department would like, based on the needs of students. Additionally, it has

68 been challenging to develop more long-term goals for co-teaching with changing Directors of Special Education and without clear goals or objectives from the district. In the absence of a more robust co-teaching program, the special education department has had to rely on utilizing online courseware and alternative Graduation plans in order to support students through graduation and college eligibility.

Lastly, an area of focus in the last three years has been around improving the overall expertise of our education specialists, specifically in the area of assistive technology tools and devices, in order to support equity and access for students through Universal Design for Learning. The special education team now receives training every year from the PAUSD Assistive Technology specialists (http://www.patch.pausd.org), specifically on tools such as Read & Write for google, speech-to-text/text-to-speech technologies, Bookshare, and other assistive technologies that are specific to individual student needs. Additionally, the special education department has provided opportunities for general education teachers to learn all the same tools, particularly those that are accessible through Google suite, which can be utilized in all classes and made accessible to all students, supporting the Universal Design for Learning pedagogy.

For a longer, more in depth summary of progress, provided in a collaborative manner from all special education PLC participants, which includes further data, please visit this link.

69 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

The Visual And Performing Arts Faculty are excited to share with the WASC team the remarkable progress we have made towards our goals. Studies suggest strongly that daily inclusion of the arts reduces stress. That is why we have worked hard to integrate art in the daily lives of every Paly student. It has been the best part of our work in the last 4 years. I am happy to say that the campus has been fundamentally changed by the work of the arts faculty and students. I encourage you to look around the campus and see evidence of this work that adorns our campus. You won’t have to look hard. Please take a stroll around our 100 building and see the encased work of Kate McKenzie’s drawing and painting students. Then head over to the new Performing Arts Center where you will see rotating exhibits from ART STUDENTS CHANGE. Don’t forget to look at the Photography that hangs in the MAC halls near the classroom of Margo Wixsom. Sadly you won’t be able to see our 5th annual Film Festival with its award winning and nationally recognized students films. Even in the new Athletic Center the art of former athlete and current artist Lauren Kerr honors past Paly greats with her murals. While we offer fewer course-alikes than other Departments we are very invested in making sure that students have similar expectations in every VAPA course. That is why we created a common course template for the arts so that any student in VAPA can see that we share the common language of the National Core Art Standards: Creating, Performing/Presenting/Producing/Responding, and Connecting. We will be working with our colleagues at Gunn High to create learning targets and common course guides for every course. While it is a lofty goal it is worthy of our attention. In the last few years our VAPA faculty has modeled our innovative school culture. We now have two certified teachers in Blended Learning. Many of our courses reflect the “flipped” or “blended” model allowing students to pace their education to meet their needs but with the guidance of their instructor. There are training videos that we created by the instructor in all levels of Band and Choir, Film, AP Music Theory, and AP Art History. One of the simplest but most powerful goals in our WASC report was for our VAPA to develop meeting norms and to abide by them. While that may seem like a small task it was not. Gathering creative, talkative, smart and opinionated people together is a joy but also presents challenges. In 2015 we created our meeting norms together and have reviewed and revised them every year. I am happy to report that it has changed the tenor of our meetings. We are more effective in the short time we have to meet and our meeting notes reflect that change. If we are more efficient as a department we can do better work with and for our students. One of our stated goals was to revise our course offerings to reflect 21st century practices. We have adopted changes to our course curriculum including adding CTE credit to every arts pathway. We are also adding Honors credit to many of our Advanced Courses. However, we have discussed offering new courses and what we have found is that traditional art making has an important place in education at the secondary level. While we are updating our curriculum within the courses we have, for now, decided to continue offering traditional Visual and Performing Art classes. However, you will see that within those traditional offerings teachers are providing students opportunities to use the most current technology in creating art and performance. Please visit our VAPA classrooms and see our faculty and students at work. We are very proud to show you our commitment to our goals and beyond that our love for our students and for what we do.

70 WASC Mid-cycle Progress Report WORLD LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT UPDATE Palo Alto High School March 2018

Dear WASC Committee,

The World Language Department is happy and proud to share with you some of the work we’ve done working toward our three goals: Systems Alignment for the greater consistency around learning outcomes to reduce undue stress, Researched Based Instructional Practices that increase student engagement for all students, and Innovative School Culture – promoting global competencies, creativity and empathy.

The first area of focus and one we are most excited about is alignment of our courses. We have made great progress and are continuing to arduously work on this. First, all teachers became familiar with the ACTFL (American Council Teachers of Foreign Language, www.actfl.org ) national proficiency guidelines and this led to both district high schools Palo Alto and Gunn to agree on what is the minimum proficiency level (C-) to exit each course. Next, our department worked on creating common Thematic Units for all level 1 classes by language with common learning targets, can-do statements, common formative and summative performance based assessments. Then during a full day retreat last spring, the department discussed common grading scale and systems. We came to a consensus on a common grading scale and grading practices for all level 1 classes for Fall 2017. We are slowly moving towards Standards Based Grading starting in level 1 courses. Where we are looking at what a student can do and how he or she performs in the language. This led us to agree on having common course guides with the same rules, procedures, grading practices for level 1 to level 4 classes and slowly implementing the same grading scale with each new implementation of new thematic units per level curriculum.

Both Instructional Leaders at the two high schools have worked on having common course descriptions in our course catalogs as well as common placement tests for all languages. Palo Alto High School World Language Department shared and continues to share with all secondary schools all our new thematic units as we develop them in hopes they will also implement them/try them out and share with us their professional opinions.

Currently we are working on creating level 2 Thematic Units focusing on aligning: learning targets, can-do statements, and common formative and summative performance based assessments for implementation Fall 2018. Then, during the 2018-19 school year we will work on level 3 alignment. One level and one year at a time. It has been a huge mindset change for our department but we are (for the most part) eager and willing to try.

In addition, to the alignment piece we have also been moving forward on how researched based instructional practices increase student engagement for all students. Several teachers have attended multiple Kagan workshops (www.kaganonline.com) and have shared with fellow colleagues the different techniques. Also, we continue to research and try performance based assessments in hopes to eliminate the publisher’s exams and move towards integrated performance assessments. This will take time but we believe this will help reduce students stress and increase engagement in our classes. As we explore these performance based assessments, the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, and the three modes of communication we are learning how to create rubrics accordingly. We’re hoping to get further exposure and training in rubrics and performance based assessments.

71 As an international group of teachers we are always trying to make connections between our languages and the world outside of the classroom. Whether it be via current events, YouTube, Skype or other technological apps and devices that bring the world directly into the classroom.

As we look forward, we hope to continue our extraordinary work on alignment to better serve our students. We truly care about our students and are very happy to share with them the different cultures we love.

Best,

Palo Alto High School World Language Department

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