01.+M-+Kearny+High+School+Tour

 Grades: 9-12 Students: 485 Principal: Cheryl Hibbeln Website:**http://old.sandi.net/hsrenewal/sm_schools_kearny_arts.html**** The Kearny High Educational Complex is a 65-year-old facility that originally hosted a comprehensive high school, but now serves four autonomous small schools. The School of Digital Media and Design (DMD) is a project-based, interdisciplinary learning environment that uses media as an avenue for students to effectively communicate their thoughts, ideas and conclusions about global issues. Teachers on each grade-level team share a 90-minute common prep each day to review student work and use common assessment data to drive instruction. DMD hosts a diverse student population; 68% lives below the poverty line. Academic highlights include 95% of students attending college last year, a 126-point API gain over the last five years, and selection as a California Distinguished School. There are three Mac media labs, one mixed lab of Macs and PCs, laptop carts and an iPod Touch cart. Math teachers have Promethean whiteboards and all teachers have laptops, projectors and document cameras. June 2007 SPSA for DMD
 * School of Digital Media and Design, Kearny High Educational Complex

Below are my (so far not completely edited) notes. I hope to include more info from the PPT; the numbers refer to a powerpoint slide but I don't have a copy of the PPT (yet):

2- History- Kearny broke into 4 small schools in 2004: DMD, SCT, SIB, CTA. One of 3 district comprehensive HS to break. API- 521 and therefore at risk of state intervention. Supported by superintendant and Bill & Melinda Gates. 3- Theory of Action for High School Renewal: Sturcture, Culture and Instruction. A common prep for teams is instrumental; this is where the master schedule starts! 4- 475 students, 69% free and reduced lunch, 16% Special Edu, 16% ELL, 14 languages spoken. Military population adds to the transiency of the school population. They are a 4x4 block school but operate on an A/B schedule; this makes it much easier to do the interdisciplinary projects. Once the structure was in place, then there was time for instruction and the culture followed naturally. Cap is 500 for this school (there are approximately 1800 students on the Kearny site in 4 different schools).  5- Demographics: 42% Hispanic, 20% White, 18% Asian, 18% African-American, 2% other 6- express their ideas and back their ideas up, //**communication**// school not computer school. Mission statement:"The School of Digital Media and Design exists to develop exemplary communication skills in students through authentic, media-=based experiences in an environment of high academic and social expectations." 7- **Goal: 100% of students have a college ready UC a-g transcript and graduate with a post-secondary plan**.Only offer classes that are UC a-g. Don’t accept unifying algebra as a class (out Alg 1A and 1B?). Don’t offer D’s; at 69.9% you have an F. There is a discrepancy between these requirements and what the district requires for graduation; therefore currently only about half of the school population is fully UC ready as far as their transcripts show. All of the elective and ROP classes offered here are UC eligible. 8- got acronyms. They refer to the 4 different schools. SIB- School of International Business, SCT- Science, Connections and Tech. CTA- Construction Tech Academy. Complex distribution: Neighbourhood 1st choice, then chosen from a magnet list. Special programs attend a particular school: ESL (SIB), PACE (SCT/CTA), ILS (SIB), ED (DMD/SCT), RSP(all) 9- every grade level has a mandatory tech elective. School is half a block away from Mesa (the JC). Each semester they have about 50 kids .Mandatory cousework at all levels for all kids. Limited electives outside of projects: Spanish, ASB, AVID, Journalism, AP ELA, AP Bio, AP Spanish. Also MESA Fast Track.
 * DMD: School of Digital and Media Design**


 * When you try this (structure), you can’t be everything to everybody. No drama, ceramics, band.**

10- Structures: 4x4, A/B schedule, Early Out Wednesdays (for Professional Development), Advisory, common preps, mandatory Media Pathway courses

11- Each teacher on an inter-disciplinary team has a common prep. The preps were set up FIRST and considered untouchable. Cheryl D is a master of the master schedule. EOS is Employment Outreach Services.

14- Staff was asked what do you want your students to know and be able to do when they graduate and worked backwards from there to develop instruction/curriculum. Design and Mixed Media is basically an art class. Two foundational ROP classes are available in 11th and 12th grades. 9th and 10th projects are more teacher-driven. 11th grade has a client for the whole course and this client (Surfrider.org) who drives the project focus. In 12th they create their own project for their own individual clienst; teachers have even been clients. One student is designing wedding invitations, save the date cards, etc. for a counselor. A nail salon had them create a website for them. REAL WORLD!!! There are no fees collected; it’s more in line with being an internship of sorts. (They bemoaned the fact that there wasn't a lot of internship opportunity available in SD as there is in LA.....Come to Sacramento and check out our lack of choices! Generally they bring the client to the school; ROTARY COULD HELP SO MUCH!!!! 9th grade: (Teacher Client)- design and mixed media 1/2 (- 10th grade: (Teacher Client)- Design and Mixed Media 3/4 11th grade: (one major client for the entire grade)- Computerized Graphic Design, MM 12th grade: (one client per student)- Mulitmedia Production, CGD

15- Instruction: core understanding is that every student can learn. Curriculum development cycle. Project-based Learning. 6A's of instuctional design (see #19). Senior Exhibition. Teachers are up and not sitting at their desks. If the kids don’t get it, don’t move forward. Even so, their API went up 126 points. 16- Core Understandings- Common Teaching Philosophy about attainment of knowledge. Commond Instructional Expectations. Belief in Results-Oriented Collaboration. Data-Driven Decision Making. **Belief in deep understanding and skill/strategy attainment vs. content coverage.**

17- Curriculum Development Cycle- Data analysis. Alignment of Essential Standards (content and interdisciplinary levels). Benchmark assesments. Models. Standards-based lesson plans. Ongoing assessments. Align standards. Benchmarks modeled after CAHSEE and CST. models are available for kids to view; teachers need to work through the projects themselves in order to understand all the pieces.

18- One project in fall, one in spring. Project-based learning. 9th: Stories of the Extremem and Masters of Disaster. 10th- Crime time and History bytes. 11th- Making WAVES and TBA. 12th- 1:1 client "Crime time' deals in forensics "Making waves' deals with real world client, [|Surfrider] and does actually carry on into the spring- new project, same client

19- 6A's of Instructional Design: active exploration, students have to figure it out on their own Projects are never the same year to year because there is always room for improvement
 * 1) Authenticity
 * 2) Academic Rigor
 * 3) Applied Learning
 * 4) Active Exploration
 * 5) Adult Connections
 * 6) Assessment Practices
 * 7) design principles that drive projects

20- Senior exhibition defined by: Rigor (mujst take a class beyond district and DMD requirements) Relevance (must complete a project for a real world client and the client must be satisfied. Idustry standard must be met) and Relationships (100 hours of community service over four years. There is a service list available.).

21- Academic culture. higher retention, lower incidents of discipline, college admission, advisory, MESA Fast Track, Academic electives, UC a-g coursework. greater now than when they were Kearny Comprehensive. Can get WASC info from principal.

22-Successes. 126 point API increase in 5 years. Met all the AYP for 4 years. Title 1 Academic Achievement Award winner 2008 and 2009. US news and World Report America's Best School 2009 bronze Medal winner. UCLA research study on successful models of high school instruction. Connect Ed demonstration site. 95% of graduates are attending college. 1800 kids on the campus; each of the 4 schools is an independent entity (although sports' teams have kids from all the schools) SIB (School of International Business) and DMD have done the best. CTA (Construction Tech Academy) is not doing well; they were an academy before. Wonder if they kept too many of the 'same old, same old' options and didn't restructure enough. The main difference between the schools is whether or not they have a common prep. Sib is very different from dvd; focused more on instruction (teacher-led rather than student- or project-driven).

23- Challenges: UC a-g: differences between district and school requirements (No 'D' grades) Work-based learning experiences- hard to get internships for all seniors Computer and Software upgrades. having updated softwar3. S Ongoing Data Discusssions- teacher familiarity. teacher buy in can be difficult.

Common prep is every day but they meet officially at least once a week. Master Schedule needs to start from the common prep.