Chap 3 B: Curriculum 

 EHS in collaboration with EUSD has adopted curriculum that is effective, rigorous, relevant, meaningful and coherent. Over the past 4 years, the district and various stakeholders from EHS have collaborated to identify priority curriculum textbooks for all students. The pandemic also escalated the need to have the access to such materials be web based as well. EUSD also has a Curriculum Council composed of stakeholders across the district which is empowered to make decisions about curriculum and curricular resources like textbooks and educational technology for the district and individual school sites. Teachers at EHS are empowered to make decisions about curriculum planning and adoption when course decisions are made in the spring. During the 2022-23 school year, teachers have undertaken the process of continuing to collaborate and discuss instruction and assess student learning at a higher level. This has led to SMART goals that focus on a few agreed upon practices that happen in all classes. 

1. Students will be able to follow multi-step instructions in all subjects within the first two times of directions being explained.

2. Benchmark  tests on essential standards in every subject. Tests given at regular intervals to meet essential standards in order to move to the next level.

3. Students will be able to write a summary from a passage with appropriate grammar, spelling, and sentence structure

In reflecting upon curriculum at EHS, stakeholders acknowledge and recognize that data and research need to be used to inform decisions around curricular needs to support student learning in all decisions that are made in addition to the experience that each staff member at EHS brings to the students. EHS began the PBIS process three years ago and is one of the growth areas to continue to develop PBIS Tier 1 school wide infusing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum to support students. It would be preferred that this curriculum be district wide as well so scaffolded support can be embedded in our PBIS practice. We as a staff have started the conversation about important components of an SEL curriculum and where that curriculum would be taught. 

EHS certificated staff participated in EUSD planning to identify priority academic standards from California State Common Core Standards. As previously mentioned, EHS teachers are using these standards for creating essential standards and planning and engaging performance tasks to assess student learning to use as data for PLCs. EHS's graduation requirements are 240 credits. The school's counselor meets regularly with students both collectively and individually to discuss graduation requirements and progress (4 Yr Plan). As a result of the pandemic, during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the EUSD School Board reduced graduation credits to California's minimum graduation requirements which some students at EHS benefited from. Additionally, with the passing of Assembly Bill 104 for the 2021-2022 school year for students, school administration and the school counselor have provided multiple modes of communication with parents, community, and students on this and options for the EHS Class of 2022.  This has included parent meetings, student meetings in reviewing the law, options, and sample transcripts, and various communications to parents and community through individual meetings, collective and individual phone calls, and emails. With the onset of the pandemic, the college and career readiness indicators and other state Dashboard indicators were suspended. At the start of the 22-23 school year we have come back to the 240 credit requirement for all students. Classes taught by teachers at EHS do meet California's high school graduation requirements, and many are currently A-G approved. We also have courses that are dual enrolled with Woodland Community College. Additionally, through credit recovery on Edgenuity and our independent study online program, students can complete and meet courses that fulfill A-G requirements. The school counselor has created and actively monitors 4 Year Plans. The 4 year plan not only monitors the path to graduation but a-g eligibility, dual enrollment, and CTE pathway completion. Through frequent individual meetings with students, the counselor provides guidance for students to be college and career ready when they graduate from EHS. Teachers have begun collaborating on cross curricular skills in classes that will benefit students for college and career and many other areas.  

EHS is working towards agreement on actual concepts and skills taught, schoolwide learner outcomes, academic standards, and college-and-career readiness indicators and standards. This year, there has been greater emphasis on planning, teaching, and assessing academic priority standards through various levels of rigor with engaging performance tasks. Additionally, professional learning has begun around SEL topics through MTSS and PBIS frameworks on campus to support students. EHS recognizes the importance of this and integration of these concepts and skills, SLOs, academic standards, and college-and career-readiness indicators as well as the importance of aligning them all in all classrooms and curriculum. There is an incredible amount of commitment to learning, but the next step will need to be analysis of data in terms of implementing and assessing the implementation. EHS is also examining other models that have fully implemented work-based learning/project based learning and is interested in analyzing its own data to look how we can implement work-based pathways for students. 

EHS's current schedule is tailored to support student demand in preparing students to meet our graduation requirements of 240 credits as well as a-g completion, CTE pathway completion, and students needing credit recovery . Students can recover credits through Edgenuity online platform. Edgenuity is offered in class period and/or outside of school day. The school counselor tracks students' progress through the district's student information system, Aeries, as well as with their 4 Year Plan in order to plan each student's schedule. The counselor meets with students individually to discuss scheduling and monitors progress throughout the semester as well. Students also fill out course requests in the Spring as well. Classes are also tailored to supporting students' college and career readiness when they graduate. Courses are college prep and a-g approved. We also strive to have students complete a CTE course pathway in one of the 6 pathways. Some of the courses are dual enrolled with Woodland Community College. 

EHS's courses are planned and designed to reflect the school's population and needs through relevant topics, phenomena, and real world experiences. For example, in the Fall of 22 we began to develop a new pathway for early childhood education. In the Spring of 23 we are currently working on developing a math class to support students needing a third year of a-g approved math who have traditionally struggled in previous math classes. The engaging performance tasks have engaging real world application and build upon the Depth of Knowledge in increasing rigor throughout the planned units and performance tasks. EHS recognizes the need to expand offerings like more opportunities for internships through our CTE programs. 

EHS's master schedule is created and tailored to meet the needs of our students to be successful and graduate. That is an advantage of a small learning community. Events like Back to School Night and Open House have fostered collaboration between all stakeholders at EHS in helping develop and monitor a student's personal learning plan that do include conversations of college and career readiness along with current progress in courses. It's the expectation of all staff to document conversations with students and parents in our student information system, Aeries. Staff are expected to contact home when they feel a student is in danger of failing, showing a downward behavioral trend, and/or appears to be a social emotional issue. The Tier 2 serves as a support as well for staff to intervene on behaviors and actions impacting a students growth towards learning. Additionally, the student support team consisting of the counselor, mental health clinician, and principal meet bi monthly to discuss confidential concerns and follow up with staff to include them when appropriate. Staff may also make referrals to the counselor and admin through email and Aeries (although staff has not received full training) to notify staff.  Student Study Team meetings are held with parents, students, and school staff to address areas of celebration, concerns, and to discuss post high school plans and to discuss action plans and if additional supports are needed like creating a 504 Plan or a recommendation to be tested for special education. With EHS being a small school site, parents, students, and staff have the opportunity to collaborate in developing and monitoring each student's individual or personal learning plan. EHS staff truly get to know every student by name and need and there are numerous tiered systems in place to support students to be successful. However, EHS recognizes that additional support and processes can be put in place in order to support students, and current systems can be assessed with greater fidelity and refined if needed. This includes more systematic approaches to engaging parents throughout this collaboration process.