Standard 2.1 Equitable Opportunities
Standard 2.1: Learners have equitable opportunities to develop skills and achieve the content and learning priorities established by the institution.
PHS Graduation Rate(s)
At PHS we are proud of our graduation rate. We work very hard to scaffold, coach, and shepherd our students across the graduation finish line. Our PHS graduation rate is 96%, which outperforms the district average (90%), the state average (87%), and the national average (84%). When we disaggregate the data by race we find that our graduation rate for White students is 96%, which is no surprise since they make up an 80% majority of our student body and therefore have the strongest leverage on the average. We also find that the graduation rate for our Hispanic/Latinx students, our largest minority population, is 97%, which is the highest!
ACT Scores
When disaggregated by race, we see areas of great improvement in our ACT scores over the last five years. Our self-identified White students improved by 7% (from 18.6 to 19.8), Native American students improved by 40% (from 14.3 to 20.0), our Hispanic/Latinx students improved by 7% (from 18.6 to 19.8), our Asian students improved by 21% (from 14.0 to 17.0), Pacific Islander students improved by 36% (from 13 to 17.7, though also with a very small sample size), and our Black students by an astounding 115% (from 13.0 to 28.0)! One caveat to note is that some of the minority groups with very large improvements were subject to very small sample sizes.
Access to Advanced Coursework
At PHS, 57% of our student body is enrolled in at least one advanced course (defined as Advanced Placement, Concurrent Enrollment, or Secondary Math III). When disaggregated into demographic groups we find some reasons to celebrate and also some areas for improvement. Looking at it by race, we find a fairly consistent concordance between our student body generally and our students in advanced courses. For example, our population of White students makes up 80.1% of the general student body and 81% of the students in advanced courses, and our Black students make up 0.9% of the general student body and 1% of the advanced students. Our population of Hispanic students represents 16.7% of the general student body and is a little under-represented in the advanced courses at 15%. This discrepancy of 1.7% is smaller than we expected to see, which is a reason to celebrate, yet it is not as close as we want it to be. The area of greatest concern is the Socio-Economic Status (SES) group labeled as "economically disadvantaged," which is 28% of the student population and only 21% of the students in advanced courses. The discrepancy of 7% is another one that we want to address. Overall we are pleased with our representation of these demographic subgroups in our advanced courses, but want to improve in the two areas noted.
Special Education
For students with disabilities, we have a wide range of intervention and instructional settings available to them based on their individual needs. For any student with an IEP, the goal is always to get them into the least restrictive environment possible, based on the nature and impact of their disability. The following is a brief description of classroom environments available to our students with disabilities.
We have two self-contained special education units here at PHS. The first is taught by Lexi McWherter. This class serves students with severe and profound disabilities. Some of her students are nonverbal while others need help with basic self-care.
The second self-contained unit serves students who are a little higher functioning, and is taught by Makenzie Simons. Many of these students will participate in general education classes, with varying degrees of support. Supports include having a special ed teacher in an inclusion class, having a technician in class, having a peer tutor accompany them to class, and / or a modified curriculum in some cases.
For students with mild/moderate disabilities, we offer co-taught inclusion classes in math, language arts, science, and social studies. Inclusion classes are co-taught by a regular education teacher, highly qualified in the content area, and a special education teacher. Inclusion classes have approximately 20-30 students with 8-15 of them having IEPs.
For students requiring a higher level of intervention and modification, we offer pull-out resource classes which typically have between 6 and 12 students. These pullout classes offer students access to the core curriculum, but at a modified pace, where students receive instruction based on their individual needs as identified in their IEP.
Translation Services
Our largest linguistic minority is Spanish-speaking students and parents. PHS has 12 members of our faculty and staff that speak Spanish, which includes one counselor and two administrators. On the Faculty and Staff page of our school website we have written which foreign languages each person speaks, if any, including Spanish. On our Counseling Department website, we have a page dedicated to help for Spanish Speakers, which includes a short list of Spanish speakers. (See the attached link.)
