WCEA Vital Growth Areas Workshop

All Faculty/Staff WCEA Meeting - Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Below is a summary of the growth areas identified by the WCEA Integral Groups followed by a link to the full draft Vital Growth Plan for that area. Use the link below to submit comments, questions, suggestions, and edits to the WCEA Integral Group chairs.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS

Integral Group B – School Organization

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL VITAL GROWTH PLAN DRAFT

Chair/Presenter: Br. Robert Wickman

Standard B5 - Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of the school—its offices, departments, schedules, modes of communication, and deployment of personnel—and the operations pertinent to this structure are optimum for realization of the religious and educational objectives of the school.

1) Improve Ease of Access to School-Wide Communication Flow

Supplement the use of Minutes (Academic Affairs Council, Principal’s Council, President’s Cabinet, etc.) to share information with faculty and staff by adding a bi-weekly information document (working title: “Lasallian Link”). This source will organize and consolidate reports on discussions and decisions coming from various bodies in one place for ease of timely access and expanded understanding of developments in policies, procedures, and activities of the school community.

2) Further Examine Time Use Options for Instruction, Student Life, and Faculty Collaboration

The school will continue to work for a second year with Carondelet High School through a joint faculty committee and other entities to reflect on and develop possible changes in the use of time on our campuses. This initiative continues in light of the constraints experienced in the use of instructional time, the limitations on expanding curricular choices and teaching/assessment methods, the need for greater and easier opportunities for faculty collaboration, and the inadequate availability of time for student activities meetings, tutoring, and social interactions.

Integral Group C – Teaching & Learning

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL VITAL GROWTH PLAN DRAFT

Chair/Presenter: Mary Ann Mattos

Standard C3 - Assessment and Grading

School personnel responsibly engage in assessment of students’ learning toward students’ accomplishment of all the educational outcomes that the school sets for them.

1) The school needs to adopt a school-wide comprehensive published grading policy (C 11, 27). At present, a committee working toward this goal (representing both DLS and CHS) has made strides in this direction in order to first define the purpose of grading, and then articulate the overall policy to be implemented across both campuses. Once this is accomplished, students will benefit in both the fair and reasonable application of these policies in all classes, and across both schools.

2) In addition, there is interest in a more systematic curricular review of standardized tests, where an analysis of the results of those tests (SAT, ACT, PSAT and placement tests for DVC in math and English skills) can be reviewed to evaluate and improve curriculum (C31).

Integral Group D – Student Support

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL VITAL GROWTH PLAN DRAFT

Chair/Presenter: Mike Otterstedt

Standard D2 - Academic Support

The school provides academic support services sufficient to meet the learning needs of all students.

• The Group looked at the availability of teachers beyond class hours (D13) and would like to see more consistency in availability across disciplines.

• The ratio of counselors to students (D14) has improved. However, some of counselors will be picking up an additional teaching load next year, limiting their availability to students and parents.

• While DLS does not have any designated ELL (English Language Learner) students (they are not identified by our private feeder schools) (D15), the Group was concerned with the number of parents who are ELL, and what support services we have available for them. The Group felt that the percentage of students identified with special needs (D16), was under-represented, since many parents do not report learning disabilities for fear of not having their student accepted into DLS. This creates an extra burden on our human resources who are already stretched thin when these students start to struggle in their classes. The need for an Academic Support Center is great.

• Finally, the results of the survey indicating the perception of parents of students identified with special needs regarding how well the school meets their student’s learning needs (D18), showed that as many as 20% of the student body may have learning differences which require services, while we have only “officially” identified 8% with learning challenges, as reflected in D16.

Integral Group E – Material Stewardship

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL VITAL GROWTH PLAN DRAFT

Chair/Presenter: Lynne Jones

Standard E1 - Enrollment Resources

The school's enrollment operations are well developed and well run, toward securing the student population that the school mission intends.

1) Develop and maintain data collection practices to efficiently and effectively monitor feeder school matriculation, attrition, and other relevant trends, especially in light of the data-driven E3 protocol.

De La Salle has been blessed with consistently robust enrollment for several years, and an Admissions team that has cultivated positive relationships with feeder schools and attracted plenty of mission-appropriate students. Our strong enrollment position has not necessitated extensive data analysis, however the new data-driven E3 protocol does necessitate the collection of more data and the maintenance of historic data for long-term trend analysis.

2) Consider new outreach strategies to continue attracting mission-appropriate students, and enhance public and colleges’ perception of De La Salle’s many strengths.

Enrollment has historically been strong at De La Salle, in both quality and quantity of student applicants, however demographics are suggesting that we may need to be more active in our outreach efforts to continue to attract predominantly Catholic boys from our diverse, larger community. We have been increasing our available financial aid annually to over $2.4 million, but we need to continue to grow those resources, broadcast their availability to help attract and support middle-income families, and distribute them strategically. We believe that part of attracting great students is spreading the word about all of our strengths to the college community and to prospective students and parents; that we are more than just an athletic powerhouse, but an academic powerhouse, a character-building powerhouse, a school from which great young men emerge ready to serve.