White Pine High School

School Information

School Name:   White Pine High School
School Address:  1800 Bobcat Drive
                        Ely, NV  89301                            
School Phone:  (775) 289-4811
School Fax:  (775) 289-1542
Principal:  Adam Young
Principal E-Mail:  adayoung@whitepine.k12.nv.us

Demographics

Number of Students:   421
Number eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:  18%
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  n/a
Percent of Special Education:  12%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White (78%)
• Black (<1%)
• Hispanic (14%)
• Asian/Pacific Island (<1%)
• Other (7%)

Present Student Achievement Data in at least three points to demonstrate trends – for example, three consecutive years or the first, third, and fifth years. The data report should always include the most recent school year and should always offer a basis of comparison (for example, state scores, national scores, similar SES schools).

 

	Math		Reading		English		Science		Composite
	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada
2003–2004	19.3	21.1	19.8	21.8	18.1	20.4	20.5	21.1	19.6	21.2
2004–2005	19.4	21.3	20.2	22.0	18.4	20.8	20.6	21.3	19.8	21.5
2005–2006	20.8	21.5	23.4	22.0	21.1	20.8	21.7	21.2	22.0	21.5
White Pine High School ACT Performance (ACT Principal’s Report)

 

 

	Math		Reading		Writing
	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada	WPHS	Nevada
2003–2004	72.6%	57.7%	88.7%	77.2%	94.2%	83.4%
2004–2005	81.7%	63.5%	93.4%	82.8%	92.6%	91.4%
2005–2006	78.7%	72.1%	91.4%	89.8%	93.0%	91.8%
White Pine High School Nevada High School Proficiency Exam Results: Percentage of Students Scoring At or Above Proficiency by the End of the Junior Year (Nevada Department of Education)

 

	Reading	Language	Math	Core Total	Science	Social Studies	Composite
WPHS 2002–2003	44	43	44	43	49	48	46
WPHS 2003–2004	50	46	47	48	53	50	51
WPHS 2004–2005	55	53	51	52	61	NA	NA
WPHS 2005–2006	51	45	47	46	46	45	NA
Nevada 2005–2006	41	42	43	NA	42	NA	NA
White Pine High School ITED Performance: National Percentile Rank (Nevada Department of Education)

 

Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the data that you feel is particularly significant.

1. The three straight years of gains in achievement on the ITED (Table 3) reflect a concerted focus on basic skills that are assessed on the exam. Teachers reviewed areas of strength and weakness in student performance each year and identified areas to improve. These areas were aligned with our School Improvement Goals, and then teachers integrated the areas into their instruction. Students’ abilities in the areas identified were monitored more frequently than the yearly administration of the ITED.

2. The HSPE (Table 2) data is what has led to WPHS’s designation as High Achieving and Exemplary. For the 2005–2006 school year, the efforts of teachers and students led not only to a pass rate significantly higher than the AYP goal, but also a significant reduction in non-proficient students. The meeting of this dual goal allowed the school to obtain Exemplary status for the 2005–2006 school year. 

3. Although modest, the ACT gains are what WPHS is most proud of. When beginning the PLC journey, many staff members expressed reticence over the seeming focus on essential skills. In some of their minds, this was similar to NCLB’s focus on basics at the expense of higher level learning. During the 2005–2006 school year, staff members came to understand that essential outcomes should be much more than basic skills. WPHS’s School Improvement Plan emphasizes Thinking and Reasoning skills, Communication skills, and Learning to Learn skills. As staff members grew in their understanding of essential outcomes and integrated higher level thinking performances into their students’ learning, all students benefited.

 

Please present any additional information that indicates your efforts to build a professional learning community have had a positive impact upon students and/or teachers.

The direct impact on our efforts to build a Professional Learning Community has been on teachers. However, students have been the ultimate beneficiaries of the changes in philosophy, attitude, and practice.

First, we now understand that the purpose of our professional lives is to ensure that “All students learn at high levels.” (The staff has adopted this as its vision statement.) We know that the decisions will be made based upon how they impact student learning, as opposed to what makes the adults in the school happy. Understanding this basic purpose has helped many of us find meaning again. Additionally, it has helped us understand that we can only control what we can control. It has placed a great deal more emphasis on making sure that we do control what we have power over and let go things that we do not. For example, we no longer make statements like, “The reason my students did poorly on the test is because there is no parental support for education in Ely.” However, we do ask questions like, “How can we use our classroom instructional time more efficiently?”

Understanding that we have an obligation to ensure students’ learning has led to collective inquiry about how we can best do this. It has led to teachers interacting with each other regarding the important questions of what learning is essential, how it is assessed, and how we respond when it is not learned. This has led to some great conversations, some disagreements, some arguments, and sometimes tears! However, as we have kept in mind the adage that change is slow, difficult, and almost always painful, we have learned that disagreements and tears are sometimes necessary for growth.

The staff of WPHS has learned that our focused efforts on student learning lead to improvements.

 

Please elaborate upon strategies you have found to be effective in any of the following areas:

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

This is a lesson we are still learning. While we have focused on summative assessments and used them formatively, we are just beginning our real journey towards common assessments. As a small school, there have been some questions about how to best incorporate this strategy. The direction for the 2005–2006 school year is that teachers of common courses will indeed develop common assessments. However, the rest of us will also develop common assessments measuring our students’ abilities in our three school improvement goals of Thinking and Reasoning, Communication, and Learning to Learn. We have developed indicators within these goals and the common assessments will be based on students’ performance of the skills. The content will be unique to each course, but the assessments will still be common because they measure common skills. We will shortly begin work on this.

WPHS sends progress reports to students and parents every 4 and one half weeks.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

We have two forms of intervention that are used frequently with all of our students. They both take the form of mandatory tutoring. When students have not mastered an essential skill within a course or if they have not turned in an important assignment, teachers have the prerogative of assigning students mandatory tutoring. Tutors are available before school, at lunch, and after school. Students may attend tutoring at any of these times, so long as they are there. This procedure has been in place for over a year, and although students initially fought it, they are now resigned to their fate. This has helped us reinforce the message that our expectations are high, we expect everyone to meet them, but we will do our part in providing additional time and support. Teachers accept assignments from tutoring for full credit.

The second form of mandatory tutoring comes on our early release Wednesdays (described below). School is dismissed at 12:46 on Wednesdays for students who are passing all of their core classes. Students who are failing a core class are required to stay at school to work on missed assignments. Tutors notify the parents of these students each week and reinforce the message that the tutoring is not a punishment, but rather an opportunity for students to obtain the help they need to succeed.

One last intervention worth mentioning here is our Freshman Achievement program. As part of the staff’s switch from an external focus to an internal one, we realized that we needed to do a better job of teaching our freshmen the skills that are necessary to succeed in high school. This, combined with the PLC concept of having students earn their privileges, led to last year’s pilot of this program. It requires all freshmen to take a 25 minute course during the first part of their hour long lunch. They attend the course, Freshman Achievement, with a teacher who helps them learn about note taking, study skills, rules and regulations, school spirit, organization, respect, manners, and other qualities essential for success in high school. Students attend this class for the first nine weeks of the school year. At this time, if they have a 2.0 grade point average with no Fs and no suspensions, they graduate from the program and earn their off campus lunch.

This program had a huge effect on the performance of freshmen last year. It will be continued for the 2006–2007 school year.

	# of Students Failing	# of Credits Lost	# of Fights Among Freshmen
2004–2005	29	49	7
2005–2006	14	19	2
White Pine High School Freshmen Performance: First Semester

 

3. Building the capacity of teachers to work as members of high performing collaborative teams who focus the efforts of their team on improved learning for students.

As described previously, the process of collaboration is sometimes difficult. We have learned that with collaboration comes disagreement and frustration, but also a sense of togetherness and all-for-one, one-for-all. During 2005–2006, teams met twice per month on early release Wednesdays. For the 2006–2007 school year, teams will meet every Wednesday during early release time.

We have had to learn how to collaborate. We are still learning how to collaborate! The most important team in the school has been the Leadership Team. This is composed of the principal and team leaders from each discipline, as well as anyone else who wants to attend. This team develops the timelines and products that are required for teachers. Team members provide each other support and assistance when the going gets tough.

There are Social Studies, English, Math, and Science teams. In addition, teachers are teamed across the curriculum. The guiding principle is a focus on student learning. The biggest training tool we have used is experience. We have not spent years learning how to be team leaders, facilitators, negotiators, etc. We operate by the baptism by fire method! Team leaders learn as they go. They make adjustments when necessary. They celebrate successes and attempt to solve problems. 

Although this is at times interesting, there is no better way to develop the capacity of leaders than by having them lead. For the most part, teachers on the collaborative teams have taken ownership of their team’s work and have become stronger teachers and certainly heightened their understanding of the big picture.

 

List any Awards and Recognition Garnered by Your School

In 2004–2005 this school was rated "Recognized" by the Texas Education Agency.

• “High Achieving” 2003–2004
• “High Achieving” 2004–2005
• “Exemplary” 2005–2006
• Nevada High School Honor Grant participant 2005–2008
• Presenters at Nevada State Mega Conference 2006
• Nevada Association of School Boards “School Administrator of the Year” winner 2005