Weber Institute of Applied Sciences

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Weber Institute of Applied Sciences Technology
WASC REPORT

• April 5, 2006
• WASC Visiting Committee Members
• Dr. Odie Douglas, Chairperson
• Ms. Nina Finci
• Mr. Cliff Mitchell
• Ms. Halo Shapiro
• Outline of Report
• Schoolwide Areas of Strengths
• Critical Areas for Follow-Up
• Concluding Thoughts

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Schoolwide Areas of Strength

• The Weber Institute should be commended for
  building strong and unique partnerships with ROP
  and local business communities since opening in
  2000
• The school should also be acknowledged for
  continuing to improve its school to career
  programs

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Schoolwide Areas of Strength

• The students indicate that teachers and staff are
  very caring and supportive of them, not only for
  academic achievement, but also in taking a
  personal interest in their overall success
• The staff provides a respectful, safe, clean, and
  supportive learning environment for all students
• Students generally have great pride in the Weber
  Institute and are willing to take an active role
  to make it a better place

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Areas of Strength (continued)

• There is a commitment among many of the staff to
  create integrated curriculum to prepare students
  to be successful
• The variety of current technology utilized in the
  academy programs enhances instruction and
  provides experiential learning opportunities
• The ESLRs are reflected in student work and in
  the required Weber Portfolio
• Many teachers use a variety of resources beyond
  the textbook to actively engage students in
  learning

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Areas of Strength (continued)

• There is a willingness of staff and students to
  be involved in co-curricular and extra-curricular
  activities outside the classroom
• The school provides a personalized small learning
  community with several support services to assist
  students in being successful
• Each academy has an attendance clerk who closely
  monitors student attendance
• There are on-campus tutoring programs that are
  available to all students

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Critical Follow Up Areas

• The WASC Visiting Committee recommends that the
  school and District examine the following
• The school leadership and instructional staff
• Align the Schoolwide Action Plan with the
  schools Single Plan for Student Achievement
• Continue to use formative and summative
  assessments in English and math and initiate
  ongoing assessments in other curricular areas to
  monitor the progress of every student towards
  achieving a standards-based curriculum

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Critical Follow Up Areas

• The school leadership and instructional staff
  (continued)
• While there is evidence that the school collects,
  analyzes, and uses data to drive program
  improvement, further analysis of disaggregated
  data by gender, ethnicity, and language
  proficiency is needed to increase the performance
  of all students and close the student achievement
  gap

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Critical Follow Up Areas

• The school leadership and instructional staff
  (continued)
• Reflect on how the school is going to reach and
  exceed its schoolwide and student sub-groups
  growth targets on the Academic Performance Index.

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Critical Follow Up Areas (continued)

• The school leadership and instructional staff
  expand and share best practices and student
  achievement data within and between the academy
  programs to identify key areas for improvement.
• The school leadership, instructional staff, and
  District provide increased opportunities for
  further teacher collaboration to integrate
  curriculum within the academy programs and at the
  same time initiate articulation between academy
  programs in core curricular areas

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Critical Follow Up Areas (continued)

• The school leadership, instructional staff, and
  District develop, implement, and evaluate a
  focused and formalized ongoing professional
  development program based upon disaggregated
  student performance data results
• The school leadership and instructional staff
  develop and implement a clear, formal schoolwide
  decision making process that involves all
  stakeholders and uses disaggregated student
  achievement data to drive the improvement of
  instruction and allocation of budgetary resources

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Critical Follow Up Areas (continued)

• The offering of world language and laboratory
  science courses to assist all students in
  fulfilling the University of California a-g
  minimum entrance requirements
• Considering staffing and budgetary constraints
  and without changing the vision of Weber, explore
  the inclusion of appropriate Advanced Placement
  (AP) courses within its academy programs

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Critical Follow Up Areas (continued)

• The school leadership and staff develop and
  implement ways to significantly improve the level
  of parent involvement and communication

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Concluding Thoughts

• We can, whenever we choose, teach all children
  whose learning is important to us. Whether we do
  so depends upon how we feel about the fact that
  we have not done so already.
• Dr. Ron Edmunds
• Founder, Center for Effective Schools
• Dr. Odie Douglas
• WASC Visiting Committee Chairman