Lake City Secondary

2017-2018: Nara Riplinger is supporting the Columneetza campus inquiries this year. Caitlin Sabatino is providing this service for the WL campus. Inquiries being supported this year include:

Focus: LCS-Columneetza: supporting Grade 7 students' transition to High School and differentiation of instruction in a Math classroom
Checking: The intervention programs were not implemented until February of 2018 mainly due to disruptions in September (lack of teachers) and the resultant change of PLC focus as well as the need to collect baseline data. Given the late start, the results were promising.

In personal interviews, most students accessing the support programs revealed that they felt challenged in their support classes and felt that they were receiving the help they needed. They also felt fairly connected with their support teacher and they believed that their support teacher thought they would be a success in life. However, it is interesting to note that most students still wait for feedback from the teacher to tell them how they have done instead of self-reflecting (refer to interview summaries). It would be interesting to compare the students receiving support with the rest of the student population.

The classroom teachers also felt that the programs were successful as the students who needed more individual support were receiving it. One teacher also commented that she was now able to focus on the rest of the class (refer to interview summaries). Teachers would like more valuable communication from the support teachers to allow them to communicate with parents.

The support teachers found that they needed to support their students in multiple ways. Curriculum, reading, math were taught but soft skills were also emphasized. Students were continuously reminded to bring their supplies, to stay focused, to ask for help when needed, and to take risks. While most Grade 7 teachers also emphasize these skills, the smaller groups that support blocks offer allow the teacher to really focus on each individual student. Students in smaller groups are not able to ‘hide’ as they would in a larger classroom.

One concern was the possible lack of connection between the student and their regular classroom. As the support program did not begin until February, students had ample time to connect with their main teacher and their peers. Furthermore, most students were only out of class for a 41 minute support class. Other students who needed more intensive intervention were in a support class for 82 minutes (1/4 of the day).

Reflection: We learned that a large percentage of our students are working well below grade level. We also learned that some teacher fatigue and frustration is due to trying to design and implement multiple programs within a class. We also learned that many of these struggling students have the ability to do better but due to other factors such as attendance, changing schools, and family support, they have developed skills to help them hide in a classroom. Most support teachers found that the students were pleasant but lacked confidence, motivation, and work ethic to move forward. The support teachers focused on these soft skills as well as the curriculum.

It would be beneficial to gather baseline information through some standardized test early in the year (September). The STAR program is excellent as the test is administered online, multiple students can be tested at once, there is no extra marking for teachers, and most importantly, data can be summarized quickly and efficiently. We are currently looking for a similar math program to facilitate data collection.

It would also be beneficial to have a rough estimate of the number of students who may need support in September so the support classes can be built into the school master timetable in June. We have added English 8 Essentials, Math 8 Essentials, English 9 Essentials and Math 9 Essentials to the current schedule. We are currently investigating ways to add structured support classes to the Grade 7 schedule.

The driving philosophy behind the addition of intensive support programs was inclusive education. Middle school students who are many grades below grade level seem to be disengaged. If they are not able to participate in a specific lesson or activity as it is too difficult, we need to meet that student where they are at. This may mean an intensive pull-out program. Many of these students do not ask for help in a regular classroom and would not feel comfortable reading a Grade 2 book in front of their peers. One teacher also noted that her math group was very reluctant to use manipulatives even though it is what they needed to learn the concept. If the school as a whole is inclusive, every learner should be able to be successful. This may mean developing structures that support students both within and outside of the classroom.

Focus: LCS-WL: School culture and climate
Checking: I feel that there was a small shift in school culture this year- we did try to recognize staff and students more and provide more opportunities to come together outside of “teaching” time-such as school wide breakfasts. I'm not satisfied with the years progress as a whole because I was disappointed in the buy in from my second semester Leadership class who were supposed to facilitate a lot of these initiatives, as well as lots of resistance from staff. As a result I know there were staff and students who didn't get recognition for various things which is counter productive.
Reflection: I learned that this topic is so much bigger than I initially thought and that a series of very small steps must be taken over a period of several years to rectify the situation. I believe that our baseline challenge at the school is getting staff all on the same page as to what kind of community of culture we would like to see in our building. From the staffs responses I think we need to work on our staff culture as well- providing more opportunities for social, emotional and physical well being. I felt very overwhelmed with the topic this year and wish that I was continuing next year so that I could immediately implement some of my other ideas.

2016-2017: The Vice-Principals of the Columneetza campus (Grant Gustafson and Craig Munroe) are sharing the PLC Facilitator role this year there. LauraLee Dubuc is providing this service for the WL campus. Inquiries being supported this year include:

Inquiry 1: Can we collaborate as a department to determine what are the core requirements needed throughout the grades for our students to focus on and have success? Can we identify causal factors in high failure rates, collaborate on corrective strategies, and implement a plan that improves student results?

Analysis: At this time of the semester it is impossible to determine year end marks as the final marks have not been submitted. However, I will honestly make the claim that we did not get far enough into our strategies for them to have made a significant impact. I will continue to analyze the data once final marks come in, however, as a PLC group we did not effectively implement our strategies at a reasonable level for them to have an affect one way or another. I was successful in having our FN students complete an online learning style survey. The learning survey, determined what was the best learning style for each individual student, either auditory, visual or tactile. I can then compile this list and give next year’s teachers a general snapshot of the learning styles of the kids in front of them. This strategy was really important to Irene Johnson of the Alkali nation. Initial results appear that our FN students are visual learners. As the learners completed the survey, they were also provided with a list of suggestions that would improve their learning for their specific learning style.
Reflection: While we did and did not get the results we were looking for, the process was still valuable. I think the frustration comes from expecting to see a quicker response in results. The PLC group was slowed for many different reasons this year. To start off with, trust had to be rebuilt amongst our staff. I think with continued efforts in this area, there is the potential for significant increased results.

There were many other areas that our plan wanted to look at. One major area was having the students understand their own learning style. I think going through this exercise was very valuable. I think it is important for our students to understand how they learn. It is equally important for teachers to be able to adapt their lessons to meet the learner’s needs. Finally, since this was the suggestion of one of the Ed. Coordinators, it goes a long way to helping to build trust, let our FN partners know we are listening and build a strong relationship of working together.

Another one of our original goals was being able to identify, using “Reclaiming Youth at Risk”, FN student who were at risk, why they were at risk, and how to reconnect them to the school. Our plan was to have all teacher select two students who they would take under their wing, get to know them, follow up on their learning, and be accountable for their success. Unfortunately, we did not get this far in our groups and the great idea will have to wait until next year.

If nothing else, we were able to distribute 11 copies of Brendtro’s and Brokenleg’s “Reclaiming Youth at Risk” and have created conversation in the area. I have had other teachers coming to ask me if they could also get a copy for the summer.

On a personal level, I was frustrated with the amount of time I was able to put into the PLC this year. There were many factors that came into account for this frustration. I was also frustrated with the anticipated level of results. I still feel passionate that we can make significant gains this area. I started my PLC group meetings with the idea of needing to have courageous conversations about FN results. I still feel passionate about this area and hope to continue to have these conversations. There is still much work to be done in this area and it will continue, even without having the PLC position next year. I think the ball has started to roll and next year, we will be able to give it a significant push. My personal goal of starting to rebuild the connection between the educational system and FN bands has been successful. A foundation of trust has been built and we are now ready to start building on it.

Inquiry 2: By reading and applying the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” can we motivate students to practice and internalize those habits, with the goal of increasing their achievement and sense of belonging to the school?

Analysis: Some quantitative and qualitative data from a mid-year meeting and year end meeting indicated that students know the language and often use it in classes, although it was noted that sometimes the language is not used in a supportive way (i.e. – students making comments to others, “that’s not being proactive.”) Teachers were quite unified in voicing that they need to get on using the habits earlier in the year (September) and then move through all the habits by February so that they can access all of repertoire of strategies available to them from the book. All teachers were very able and willing to connect habits to existing activities and strategies to facilitate understanding and meaningful connections.

Maintaining consistency in the use of the ‘7 habits of Highly Effective Teens’ language continued to present challenges, but anecdotal feedback seemed to indicate that it was better done this year than the previous year.

The percentage of students that would not ‘buy into’ the program, although bothersome and frustrating, seemed to reflect the same percentage of students that we continually struggle with to engage in school in a meaningful way. The ‘7 habits of highly effective teens’ seemed to be beyond their present realm of educational focus.

Classroom visuals helped foster efforts in some classes as they could see the fruits of their labour and compete with other classes: That being said, it was duly noted by several teachers that the competitive nature of grades and school in general often worked counter to students actualizing the last 4 habits fully.

As always the connection to educational success, not just academic, and any specific initiative is hard to say the least; however, PLC staff truly believe, from anecdotal observations, that the efforts are having a positive impact in their classes. Links were made with other activities such as ‘Mind Up,’ daily meditation and journaling as teachers made extensions into the last 4 habits.

Reflection: There seemed to be a large segment of the group that clearly expressed a desire to continue in their efforts to promote and utilize the ‘7 habits of highly effective teens’ in their classes again next year. Teacher meetings were definitely a success when held in the mornings, with coffee and healthy donuts. Attendance for all participants was routinely over 80%

Staff also thought that getting together at the beginning of next year to share teacher resources, activities and strategies would prove very beneficial. Although the book has many great examples, locally developed activities that had success were deemed better as well, instances of chance behavior occurrences in the school offered many learning moments to link with the 7 habits.

Once again we decided that targeting the first 3 habits (being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and put first things first) was paramount to successful implementation.

This targeted learning worked well; however, a new and unforeseen revelation was staff venturing into the last 4 habits having a very positive response from students. Success was clearly observed and heard by staff being able to connect the last 4 habits to existing programs and activities and the students then using the language. Considerable time was still spent by the staff outlining in ‘kid friendly’ language what the first 3 habits could/should look like in classroom environments and as it applied to them as students.

We have planned to professionally study habits 4,5, 6 and 7 but this unfortunately did not happen due to staff being at all stages of the continuum and me simply not getting meetings together. I should have a better ‘excuse’ for this but I do not. We collectively decided that we need to get on top of including and implementing the last 4 habits to provide a more holistic model to the students.

Release time for teachers to observe other PLC members teaching the Leader in Me during their classes was utilized to some degree but we could certainly do more in this area as we all have something to share and hopefully learn from one another. The short release time provided when the 7 habits of highly effective teens was discussed was adequate to the task and reduced the need for excessive prep and planning for teachers to observe their colleagues.

The entire group felt that the ‘new’ curriculum offers a unique opportunity to link the 7 habits of highly effective teens with the core competencies and can thus be addressed in a multitude of other classes and in the Grade 8 & 9 classes once the Grade 7’s move on. We will look to investigate this opportunity next year.

Lastly As PLC lead I encourage all PLC members to partake in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People professional development course if the opportunity presents itself.

Inquiry 3: To what extent will focused teaching of research techniques in one class spread to use by both staff and students, in other classes?

Analysis: As per the questionnaire given in October 2016, all grade 12 students were given the same questions regarding knowledge and use of academic programs and citations. In October, no grade 12’s had any knowledge of the on-line resources available. This number rose to 38% in June. Although 74% of grade 12’s reported being assigned research in the past school year, 22% of students had no idea what a bibliography was, and a further 14% had not been assigned one in the past school year. 86% of students know that copied works must be put in quotes and cited. Whether they actually do so is unknown. 9% of grade 12’s had not been assigned any research in the past school year and 17% had completed research only once. The question was “to what extent will focused teaching of research techniques in one class spread to use by both staff and student in other classes”. The answer appears to be very little. Given that three teachers brought all their students to the library for research and such a large percent of students still haven’t completed research and/or know nothing about bibliographies, the effect was negligible. An additional 3 teachers brought at least one class to the library to learn about research skills. It is possible that some students had the same information presented multiple times as they happened to have more than one of the teachers involved.
Reflection: The focus needs to move to convincing more staff that research skills and opportunities are critical for 21^st century learners. The data will be sent via e-mail to all staff, as there is no discussion time available at a staff meeting. I will add commentary to the data. Many staff members believe that “someone is already doing that”. Hopefully, if teachers do take the time to review the information I will send, they will see that more students need more academic research opportunities. Unfortunately further improvement is unlikely, due to the changes to the library program at Williams Lake Campus. Effective September 2017 there will be a qualified librarian in the library for only 5 out of 8 periods. It was interesting to note how seriously the students took the research task and how focused they were while working. Students commented repeatedly that they had “no idea this stuff was available” and “this seems useful for a change”. In the past I have often observed students completing research assignments and they generally stall until the 11^th hour and then start madly cutting and pasting. The teachers commented also commented that students seemed to be “taking this seriously”.

2015-2016: The Vice-Principals of Lake City Secondary (Grant Gustafson, Craig Munroe, Curt Levens and Ken Lucks) are sharing the PLC Facilitator role this year. Inquiries being supported this year include:

Leadership (Ryan Hanley, Trish Maas, Siobhan Wright, Jodie Mason, Shannon Reerie, Robin Fofonoff, Craig Munroe)

By reading and applying the ideas presented in “The Leader in Me” (and by extension, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”) how can we motivate students to practice and internalize those habits, with the goal of increasing their attendance, achievement, and sense of belonging to the school?
Analysis: Given the data collected from 59 students we can, with a reasonable degree of accuracy make the following assertions:

Discussion of the habits of highly effective teens, the cornerstone of the Leader in Me book, was informative and a positive learning experience for the students. That being said, our time allocation to this endeavor in class needed more attention as the data leans slightly to the negative side. Adding to the need for more attention it follows fairly obviously that we need to use the language of the habits more in our classrooms in order to keep it at the forefront of our daily routine and embed it into our natural ways of thinking about our role responsibilities both as a student and teacher.

Students generally thought the learning of the habits was a positive factor in helping them become better prepared students. Additionally, there was a positive correlation to students thinking these habits helped them completed more assignments.

A small but noticeable correlation can be made that students were wanting to learn more about the habits was gleaned from the data, as well as a very strong correlation that this would be a good experience for younger students.

Reflection: Goal for next year is for teachers to re-read the Leader in Me chapters focusing on the first 3 habits in order to strengthen our understanding of the principles and philosophies behind them. We definitively need, from looking at the data, to emphasize using the language of the Leader in Me to reinforce the personal responsibility issues we are trying to address. The language needs to become a more common and natural occurrence in our classrooms.

As PLC designate for the school, I will try to encourage and facilitate release time for teachers to observe other PLC members addressing the Leader in Me during their classes to learn from one another. The release time forecasted, in discussion with teachers from our May meeting, need not be for entire classes but rather only short segments of a class when ‘The Leader in Me’ is discussed. This plan should thus reduce the need for excessive prep and planning efforts and facilitate observation occurring more frequently.

We have a strong core group of returning teachers to the PLC for next year and will be looking to recruit new teachers into the project for next year. The Leader in Me concepts fit in seamlessly with the new curriculum and will therefore be formally added into the CAPP portion of the Grade 8 Expo rotation thus enabling all Grade 8 students to have some exposure to the ‘habits.’

A short teacher survey revealed similar results as discussion topics that surfaced in our meetings. Through self-reflection it was very evident (100% agreement) that they did not spend as much time as they had initially wanted to do and did not use the language of the habits in class as much as they had set out to do. These results, I would suggest, are a typical outcome when people are trying to implement something new while trying to gain knowledge and skills at the same time. A learning curve is to be expected from a first attempt. With more discussion of the habits and familiarity, I suspect this aspect of the PLC will improve for next year.

Other teacher results were uniform in believing the PLC goal was worthwhile, a positive experience on our students and would like to continue on for next year.

Teachers have clearly voiced that they would like me as their PLC leader to check in more with them to encourage their efforts and remind them to use the language. Teachers have requested all avenues of communication be used (email, meetings, hallway discussions to name a few). It was also noted that more support in how to collect and track quantitative data is needed so that we can better reflect on our efforts in moving towards our PLC goal.

Math Collaboration (Grant Gustafson together with Nara Riplinger, Carl Johnson, Pennie Daffurn, Lucinda Wittgrubber, Anna Donaldson)

How can we collaborate as a department to determine what are the core requirements needed throughout the grades for our students to focus on and have success?
How can we identify causal factors in high failure rates, collaborate on corrective strategies, and implement a plan that improves student results.
Analysis: At this time of the semester it is impossible to determine year end marks as the final marks have not been submitted. However, the third term marks would demonstrate that we have made significant improvements and have met our goals. If we look at the term one math 8 average, we were sitting at 67.5%. The third term average jumped our goal of 5% to 72%. More importantly, we were interested in looking at our failure rates. In term #1, we had a math 8 failure rate of 22.6%. The third term results show this dropping to 11.7%. With these numbers, I would draw the conclusion that years project was a success. However, looking at the statistics, I have determined that the statistics are unreliable and invalid. The reason I make this claim, is that we had a teacher position change. This teacher change looks as though it makes a significant statistical difference, that I can’t be sure is the learning that is occurred or the different assessment strategies. The individual teacher teaches 4 of our 7 grade 8 classes. The average mark in those four classes is 16.61% higher than the marks in the other three classes from three different teachers.
Reflection: While we did and did not get the results we were looking for; the process was still valuable. The process also did allow us to identify areas of significant concern in our programs and our student offerings. As a group we were able to work together and I look forward to working with the math and science group again to correct the concerns we have identified.

There were also many other areas that our plan wanted to look at. As a group we wanted to look at the core requirements of our math curriculum. This was an area that we could focus on, partly in the provincial CI days and partially in the department meetings. I feel the department has a good grasp on the new content and will be able to deliver it effectively next year.

Another one of our original goals was being able to identify factors that were leading to failure in the courses. Three factors we were able to identify included attendance, connections, and maturity.

Attendance is an issue that is a concern through the entire school. As an entire school entity we are looking at how to address our attendance concerns. We should have an action plan ready to go by September.

Connection was another issue. Teachers felt that our timetable was not allowing teachers to connect to their students and stay on top of them in the same manner that our grade 8's were used to in grade 7. For this reason, we have gone back to the cadre system for next year. This system will also hopefully address the teachers’ concerns regarding maturity. The maturity they were concerned about stemmed from the 8's not being responsible enough to manage multiple classes with days separating them.

On a personal level, I was also able to identify a couple of other concerns. These include having some staff that are not comfortable with the materials and perhaps don't have a passion for the area of mathematics. To address this, we have to have a significant look at our hiring practices long term. We really need to hire people who specialize in math. To address this issue in the short term, I was able to create an easy to use binder that provided interesting and fun math concepts. The idea was to provide examples that use math to perform magic, tricks, and real life situations that would be fun and useful to students.

We also made significant gains in a teacher who wanted to look at how to individualize instruction. She worked hard in collaboration with another staff and made valuable improvements to her practice. I guess the key for me is to have her discuss her positive results with other staff they are willing to try in the future.

I did find the process valuable. Going through the process also led me to discover an area of focus for next year. As a math group, we need to look at the area of assessment to make sure that all members in the math department are on the same page.

Math Peer Teaching (Caroline Chupa, Tyler Allison, Curt Levens)

How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students help improve students’ sense of belonging and feelings of inclusion within our school?
How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students improve enjoyment of and achievement in Math?
Analysis: Overall I would consider this inquiry a success on many levels. Throughout the year the two classes got together for 3 formal collaboration sessions and several informal, smaller scale collaboration sessions. During the sessions both qualitative and quantitative data was collected to help answer the following two questions.

Question 1. How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students help improve students’ sense of belonging and feelings of inclusion within our school?

Student sense of belonging, especially for the LSU students seemed to increase dramatically. After collaboration they had familiar faces and “big buddies” in the school that they could say hello to and even hang out with sometimes at lunch and locker breaks. Most LSU students do take part in school electives but often don’t work inclusively with other students, so often feel quite isolated and not part of the general school population. Seeing them work with and be an active part of learning was huge for all the LSU students and definitely contributed to sense of belonging. After each collaboration session Mr. Allison reported all of his students enjoyed the activity and loved working with the “older kids”. Mr. Allison definitely feels collaboration events make our school more inclusive.

The Math 11 students also enjoyed each event and felt it led to a better sense of belonging and more inclusive school. Their experience was much different from the LSU students but all of them looked forward to working with their “little buddies” and helping them work through Math problems or projects. They reported their empathy increased because they had a better understanding of the physical and/or mental disabilities the LSU students had to deal with on a daily basis. Every Math student noted they are now more aware of the LSU students and would say “hi” to them in the hallway and stand up for them if they were being bullied.

Question 2. How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students improve enjoyment of and achievement in Math?

It was very difficult to measure the improvement in Math achievement for the LSU students because of their varying levels of Math ability, however after working with their “older buddies” for a very short time, all LSU students were able to meet their individual personal learning outcomes for the tasks provided. Whether it was matching shapes, placing animals in the appropriate habitats, or playing games, LSU students quickly learned new tasks and concepts after their Math partners explained it to them. LSU students looked forward to, and enjoyed, each collaboration session and common behaviour issues in their regular classrooms basically disappeared while they were with their Math buddies who were demonstrating how to do the various activities.

The Math 11 students also demonstrated a higher level of math enjoyment and strong achievement while engaged with the LSU students. According to pre-task and post-task surveys, all the Math 11 students reported enjoying working with the LSU students and felt it helped them learn the concepts better with more depth and detail because they had to demonstrate and teach the concepts to their LSU counterparts. Ms. Chupa reported that students scored very well on the Math 11 Foundations rubric which measured their inductive and deductive reasoning. After the various activities Ms. Chupa reported all of her students achieved acceptable standards and the vast majority met standards of proficiency or standards of excellence.

Reflection: I thought this was a worthwhile inquiry for many reasons. I loved the inclusion piece which brought our often isolated LSU students together with other students they normally wouldn’t even get to meet. All students felt more connected to the school and many continued their relationships outside of class. I often observed the LSU students saying ‘hi’ or wandering around with their older buddies during lunch or other class breaks. The sense of belonging for many of the students involved definitely increased because of the collaboration between the two classes.

The learning piece achieved through the collaboration was also very unique and I feel meets 21^st Century learning and the entire concept of personalized learning. All students got to share their knowledge, be leaders, be followers, and be team players while achieving the goals set out by their teachers. Students felt success, were given an opportunity to assess their own learning and others in their group and were given timely and useful feedback by teachers, other observers, and most importantly by their peers and other students they were working with. I know it isn’t realistic to get through all the current PLO’s due to the amount of time it takes to do projects like these but I believe anytime we can add group collaboration to our classes it is a huge benefit.

The collaboration piece was a very important part to me because due to our 2 campus, 7-12 configuration we have struggled to get teachers together collaborating teaching strategies, team teaching, or just talking. I feel collaboration is a huge part of teacher and staff development and ultimately helps increase student achievement and involvement. I would like to use the success of this collaboration model as a platform to help encourage, support and facilitate regular collaboration between teachers at both campuses and between campuses of Lake City Secondary. Ultimately, my goal would be to have weekly, built in collaboration time for teachers to get together and share ideas but until then hopefully more activities like this can occur.

Attendance Policy (Ken Lucks together with J. Anderson, D. Beauchamp, M. Bouchard, M. Burgar, W. Cartwright, M. Cebuliak, D. Chorney, C. Chupa, L. Csizmadia, T. Duff, R. Fofonoff, P. Grinder, A. Hutchinson, J. Jack, T. Johnston, N. MacDonald, R. Manarin, S. Pritchard, S. Rerie, A. Riegl, G. Robbins, C. Sabatino, C. Sowden, K. Taplin, T. Westwick, D. Wilson, M. Wilson)

How will a more structured school attendance policy increase student course success at the Grade 10 level?
Analysis: In reviewing the baseline and current data there is a 33% increase in the number of failures. Math, Planning, Science and SS, had increases in failures. There were staffing changes in these subjects. Where there was no change in staffing, it appears that the new attendance policy had little or no impact. PE and Electives were the only subject areas where failures decreased with the implementation of the attendance plan. There were no staffing changes in PE or Electives. Students’ absences were tallied with number of failures. In a random sampling of 20 students, 12 students with high absences failed more than 1 course.
Reflection: It can be surmised that the changes to staffing in Math, Planning, Science and SS had more impact than the new attendance policy. Further inquiry would be needed to validate this supposition. Analysis of the attendance and course failure data revealed a high correlation. Although students know in theory that attendance is linked to course success, perhaps sharing data with them would strengthen this knowledge into being reflected in their actions. The missing piece of the attendance plan was student buy-in. Students were informed of the plan, but they weren’t educated about why it was implemented and why their buy in would help them with course success. A further piece that may have aided in the success of this plan, was further sharing the responsibility with parents. The MyEd BC program would assist in the regard. With the program, parents are able to access student attendance data and marks at will, so it won’t wholly be the responsibility of teachers and administrators to inform parents of student progress or lack thereof. A further challenge to the success of the attendance policy was a lack of consistency among teachers. Students soon learned that the expectations were not consistent and immediate in all classes. Bad attendance habits in one course soon impacted others. IN conclusion, the plan had strong intentions, but did not take into account all stakeholders. A more collaborative, team approach may have a more favorable outcome.

2014-2015: Erin Pedersen leads the PLC at Lake City Secondary - both campuses. She is supporting several different inquiries.

Grad Transitions:

Could clarifying the portfolio for students and parents improve the graduation portfolio completion rates and will the clarity increase the quality of the majority of the portfolios to a level three? Will a clearly understood portfolio reduce teacher time spent following up incomplete or late student portfolio work?

Alternate Program:

Will students in the Alternate Program complete more courses in the 2014-2015 school year compared to student course completion accomplished in 2013-2014?

Grade 7:

What adaptations or accommodations can be made so that the learning needs of all students are met?

Reflection: The students are placed with a teacher and scheduled in yearlong classes. There are seven classes of grade seven. The greatest challenge is to support students who have difficulties learning within a different system. It is agreed that the students in grade seven who are supported in ways that create engagement, stamina, and independence may then need less support in the coming years, making the grade seven year an important investment.