Part I Narrative1. What evidence can you present that a widely shared mission, vision, collective commitments

and school wide goals guide the decisions in your school? (artifacts of evidence bolded)

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule,but to schedule your priorities.

~Stephen Covey

We are very aware that the important work of the day can be subverted by the increasingly unimportant and unessential managerial tasks that don’t have a thing to do with student achievement. If you believe James Frick’s quote, “Don't tell me what your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money (time) and I'll tell you what they are…” as we do, then it will be very evident what Bayside’s priorities are.

Our school wide goal for the past three years has been to truly be a model professional learning community by focusing on a guaranteed curriculum, common formative and summative assessments, and instructional data teams. While this is one goal, it has many moving parts. Each year we commit our limited financial resources to bring teams of teachers together in the summer to work on curriculum maps – prioritizing the standards, creating common assessments, identifying instructional strategies, and designing powerful self-reflection tools to drive collaborative feedback and growth conversations. Our Area Superintendent believes strongly in the work we are doing and is willing to cover any additional expense to ensure all teams have the opportunity to meet with one another prior to the start of each school year. We continue to focus on our goal by again using our limited resources to provide substitute teachers for four planning days, one each quarter, as each team continues their work together ensuring every student at Bayside High School has a guaranteed curriculum. Every team submits a curriculum map (using backwards lesson design) each quarter reflecting our work as a professional learning community. All of this work is supported by professional development days, both whole days that are part of our district calendar, and our early release Wednesdays, which are devoted to different parts of our School Improvement Plan’s school-wide goal.

To define our identity as a school, who we are and what we’re about, we begin each year, starting in pre-planning on a different aspect as a faculty. Three years ago, we reviewed our mission statement (which had been rewritten two years prior to that). As a team, we weighed in, debated, prioritized, strategized, argued, and agreed. Eventually over several weeks, recrafted our mission statement with the understanding that we would come back to it again and again to make sure it continued to reflect who we are as an organization. It is posted on all of our agendas, in our newsletter, and our website. We begin each meeting, new initiative or school improvement planning process with a reminder of what our mission is. One of the most important aspects of that work was defining how we measure if we are accomplishing our mission. After research and discussion, we have redefined how we measure our mission and this too has become a major part of who we are as a school and what our priorities are. We continue to use our mission statement as the loadstar for all decision making.

Two years ago, we began to talk about collective commitments, and to whom we needed to make them. It was agreed that it was essential to make commitments to both our students and to one another as professionals. We tackled our commitments to students first. The process was as valuable as the outcome, and we established six non-negotiable commitments to our students

that are not just words on a paper but values, by which we live. This year we have begun to tackle our commitments to one another. We started by crafting our own personal “why” statement – what drives us, why we teach, and what is important for people to know about us as educators at Bayside High School. We are about half way through the process, and by the end of the year, we will have established our commitments to one another. We continue to use our “why” statements each morning, reading them over the morning announcements to remind our students, faculty, and staff how committed we are each day to our avocation. We cemented all of this with a renewed emphasis on celebration. We brought back our social committee which has taken an active role in who were are and what we hold important as a school.

2. What evidence can you present that your school is characterized by a collaborative culture?

Schools can only be as great as the people within them.~Richard DuFour

~Robert Marzano

A. Can you provide an example of a decision that was made through a collaborative process that solicited the perspective of all staff members?

During the 2013-2014 school year, we approached the idea of dramatically altering our traditional daily schedule to accommodate opportunities for individual student intervention. The plan was called “Power Hour”, and it had been implemented successfully at a high school in a neighboring district in central Florida. This school, West Port High School, was experiencing issues similar to Bayside and other large high schools with significant free and reduced lunch subgroup, high mobility, and a largely bused in population. They developed Power Hour as an answer to their problems – an hour break in the middle of the day enabling students to eat lunch as well as seek help from teachers, get tutoring, work together on projects, and join into clubs and activities. In order to provide this service for Bayside students, we knew that buy-in from the entire staff would be essential. During the second semester of the 2013-2014 school year, we introduced the idea to our faculty and asked them to read a short article about the effectiveness of “Power Hour”. We asked them to engage in honest discussion with administration, staff, and fellow teachers about the program. Additionally, we surveyed the faculty to gain their thoughts on benefits and the obstacles of implementing a “Power Hour”. Once we discovered an interest from our faculty, we sent a team of teachers and administrators to visit the high school in Central Florida that had been effectively using “Power Hour” for a number of years. The teachers that went on this visit presented their findings to the entire faculty. We committed to our faculty and staff that we would not implement “Power Hour” unless they felt as though it would be of benefit to our students. Throughout the rest of the year, our faculty worked on the commitments we would need from our students (taking ownership of their learning, being respectful of our learning environment), from our peers (keep learning as our priority, deliberately invite students back for re-teaching or re-testing), and from our administration (don’t take student time for meeting time, supervise using non-instructional staff so that students always have teachers available during their PH time). We also presented the idea of Power Hour to a

representative group of students and our School Advisory Council. Overwhelmingly, our stakeholders positively endorsed our plan and we began our Power Hour Journey.

At the end of the first year, we surveyed our students and our faculty on how we could make Power Hour even better. We took that feedback and modified our plan by making additional areas “quiet zones”, changing our Power Hour pass policy, adding more mentors to work with student who are struggling, designating a counselor to become an intervention specialist, and continuing to work on the relationship and responsibility piece of the equation. Last school year (the first year of Power Hour), over 240 more classes were passed as compared to the previous school year in which we did not have “Power Hour”. Our attendance rate went over 95% for the first time in six years, our discipline referrals significantly decreased. Most importantly, in the area in which we could measure achievement (due to change in testing) we continued to see improvement. This data was presented to all of our stakeholders from custodians to teachers to School Board members. In our second year, we continue to review and revise our process, and are being visited by other schools interested in implemented the Power Hour model.

B. What evidence can you provide that collaborative teams of teachers working interdependently to achieve shared goals for which members are mutually accountable has replaced the individual teacher as the fundamental structure of your school? (artifacts of evidence bolded)

Each year, Bayside’s school calendar is developed with collaboration in mind. During the 2014-2015 school year horizontal teams were established in which teachers of the same subject met together to create common curriculum maps. During the first week of the school year, we provided each team with an 8 hour collaborative planning day to create curriculum maps for the first nine weeks. To ensure that teachers had adequate collaborative planning time throughout the school year, we allocated 4 hours of collaborative planning time at the beginning of the second, third, and fourth nine weeks as well. These teams were accountable to one another in terms of the implementation of their curriculum maps. They met bi monthly to ensure that all members were on pace and to discuss the results of their common assessments. These common assessments were based on performance tasks that were created as a part of the collaborative curriculum maps.

During the 2015-2016 school year state tested horizontal teams began the transition from horizontal teams to instructional data teams. For 2015-2016, the focus has been on learning the instructional data team process, so that we can effectively make the transition at the start of the 2016-2017 school year. This transition will give our teachers the opportunity to develop more detailed goals and objectives related to the improvement of teaching and learning across all disciplines. Instructional data teams provide the framework for teachers to focus on obstacles that inhibit student learning by identifying common instructional strategies that can be implemented to reach shared goals and objectives.

Additionally, Bayside teachers work together extensively within our two career academies: ENCORE and BETA. The frameworks of Fine & Performing Arts (ENCORE) and Engineering & Technology (BETA), demand a high degree of collaboration and coordination between teachers, counselors & administrators.  Teachers have established strong collegial relationships through their shared interest in each academy’s mission.  Each academy

has a director assigned to provide leadership and direction.  This structure provides teachers with the support and capacity to tackle issues collectively.  Academy directors examine student performance data with academy teachers and develop interventions to support struggling students.  Teachers work as a team to design and revise the academy mission and academy policies in order to support instructional decision making, integrate instruction aligned with a career focus, and maintain high levels of standard-based instructional delivery. Through weekly planning meetings, the academy teachers work come together across subject areas to develop consensus and build teamwork through ongoing communications. 

Guided by the Career Academy National Standards of Practice, which were developed by a consortium of career academy organizations, each academy director actively works to create a learning community responsive to the needs of its students, teachers, and school.  The academies strive to bring school and the professional world together in a way that supports high student engagement.  As a result, collaboration extends beyond the school into the community.  In order to provide real-world opportunities for students, each academy collaborates with outside organizations, businesses, and government agencies to provide internship and scholarship opportunities for students. 

C. Explain how you provide time for educators to collaborate?

Our priority in developing each calendar is our professional time with one another. Starting in December of the previous year, we begin to work with our department chairs on setting up summer planning time. This time is paid for out of our Post-Secondary Remediation Budget and additional funds from our Area Superintendent, as needed. Based on the needs of each department, as well as the individual summer schedules of the teachers, this may run anywhere from a day to a week. In addition to salary, we support our summer efforts with supplies, resource personnel, and food. In structuring our pre-planning week, we allocate at least 50% of our time to collaborative team work. Because we understand that pre-planning is never sufficient time to prepare for the year’s work, we begin our collaborative planning days the first week of school. The first planning day is an 8 hour day designated for teachers to work within their departments both as a whole department, and individually in teams. Based on teacher input, that particular planning day, all students in that departments’ classes report to the auditorium for seminars and informational meetings, so that teachers aren’t responsible for lesson planning. Each nine weeks that follow, every team has a four hour planning day within the first week of each subsequent quarter. Additionally, we have two horizontal team meetings each month. These meetings specifically address the questions of a PLC School – what do we want our students to learn, how will we know if they learned it, what do we do if they don’t. Our horizontal teams have truly mastered the first two questions and this year we are focused on the third by focusing the rest of our time and attention to learn the instructional data team process, and to follow it with fidelity. All of our District PD Days that the school is responsible for are divided into two segments – the first in support of professional development centered on our school wide goals, the second for time to collaborate with your team to assimilate that new information into practice. Lastly, each week we have an early release Wednesday. Each month, three of those days each month are designated “teacher days” to be used at their discretion.

D. What steps have been taken in your school to ensure teams are clear on the essential work they are to accomplish?

Each year, our faculty comes together through collective discussions to reflect on the previous year’s School Improvement Plan and to determine where we need to go next. The following shows an example of this process as carried out in school year 2015-2016. Our first step was to gather data that would be essential to understanding where we are

now. We used two tools to do this: o In small groups, the faculty discussed and completed the AdvancED self-

assessment survey (AdvancEd is the district accreditation agency). o Teachers also took an online survey (Insight) to provide additional data to inform

both school and district improvement plans. Next, we reviewed the data picture, which includes all the data we monitored from year

to year, as well as, the surveys mentioned above to identify our strengths and weaknesses, and develop a School Improvement Plan to guide us in our essential work. Teachers then used the SIP to drive their individual goals in their Professional Growth Plans. The data from both tools revealed to us that teams were seeking guidance in how to implement Instructional Data Teams as there was only a 43% agreement rate on the Insight Survey with the statement, “after each interim assessment, I collaborate with others at my school to make action plans based on student performance.” This corresponded to teacher feedback on the AdvancED survey. Even though Bayside made great strides in our PLC practices, it was evident that we needed to be more deliberate in implementing IDTs.

Collecting and reviewing the data led us to the next step in the process: research. Recognizing that we were in the “initiating” phase of Indicators 1 (Collaborative teams work interdependently to achieve one or more SMART goals) and 2 (Collaborative teams regard ongoing analysis of evidence of student learning as a critical element in the teaching and learning process), we referred to these sections in Learning By Doing to provide us with a guide as we developed our plan for Instructional Data Teams.

With this as a framework, we met with horizontal teams bi-monthly to discuss how best to implement IDTs. Teacher feedback on how this process should look at Bayside was essential to ensuring that all were clear and in agreement. We discussed the steps of the IDT process and began to implement it with a few teams who were ready.

Our SIP is a living document, and we engage in a continuous improvement cycle. Therefore, we will maintain our focus on this effort by regularly meeting to gather feedback from teams on what is and is not working, and how to make changes that will best impact our students.

E. In what way have you provided support for teams to help them succeed at what they are being asked to do?

We find the most impactful strategy we have to support our teachers is to provide them with the time they need to collaborate, fund that time appropriately, and participate with them so they feel we are part of the team and can help them in what they are trying to accomplish. One example of this would be a new adoption for both our English and Intensive Language Arts classes. Both adoptions were complex, paradigm shifts that teachers were not entirely (or at all) prepared for.

Each of these departments received new curriculum guides from the district and a day of training. This training left them feeling frustrated and confused. As a means to assist both departments, various supports were put into place. Summer training, initiated and funded by Bayside, was offered to all reading and English teachers. During these training sessions, teachers met to collaborate on their respective curriculum maps giving them the opportunity to work with the new curriculum.

More importantly, teachers, coaches. and administrators worked together to design school-based rubrics to assist our teachers in their implementation of the new curricula and texts into their classrooms. The rubrics included varying levels of implementation including beginning, developing, and applying and innovating which facilitated our teacher’s understanding of what the curriculum, text, and/or curriculum maps required, and how to better meet those standards at each level. The teachers used the rubrics for their own assessment purposes and met to reflect and revise the requirements at each level to better address what they, then, understood to be the needs and requirements of successfully implementing the new elements of their respective courses. These rubrics are now being used as a model for implementation of new curriculum at the district level.

Time and time again, we find that by giving teachers the opportunity to collaborate and treating them as professionals, they are able to innovate, accomplish and accelerate.

3. What steps have you taken to ensure students in your school are entitled to a guaranteed and viable curriculum, unit by unit?

The creation of horizontal teams has allowed us to focus on the development of curriculum maps for all units across all disciplines. The teams of teachers that make up our horizontal teams identify power standards, essential questions, pacing, performance tasks, and common assessment questions for each unit. Our teams hold each member accountable to ensure common pacing. They meet bi monthly to discuss their common assessment results, as well as their pacing schedules. This ensures that all students are receiving the same guaranteed and viable curriculum. The desire to ensure this is rooted in our collective commitments to one another.

4. Describe the process used to monitor each student’s learning in your school.

The process of monitoring student learning is complex, and Bayside High School uses a multi-step approach for monitoring and tracking all students. Teachers, counselors, and mentors all have a role in the monitoring and tracking of student learning. Teachers monitor student learning through many types of teaming, one of which is Horizontal Teams or Individual Data Teams. After implementing their common assessments, these groups meet to analyze results, and decide on interventions to assist students not meeting state standards. An example of this would be our Algebra and Geometry horizontal teams. The Algebra (which included Algebra 1A, Algebra 1B, Algebra 1, and Liberal Arts 1), and Geometry horizontal teams accepted the challenge of becoming some of the first Instructional Data Teams at Bayside. The goal of these teams was to identify strengths and weaknesses in student learning, identify students for targeted remediation/pull out, and provide a mechanism for teacher collaboration and discussion regarding student mastery of skills/standards.

During the 2014-2015 school year, Algebra 1 and Geometry teachers identified power standards for instruction. At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, they designed common mini-assessments, based on the power standards, which they administered every three weeks. After each administration, teachers identified student weaknesses, by item. Any student scoring less than 50% was scheduled for four Power Hour tutoring sessions over a two week period. On the last day of the cycle, a reassessment was administered. Teachers also give common chapter, nine week, and midterm tests.

While the conversation among Algebra 1 and Geometry teachers is evolving as they work their way through the instructional data team process, it also provides them with a collaborative venue to use data to guide instructional decisions as a means to help students improve their achievement. Bayside provides professional development and protected time as the teams master this practice.

This school year, teachers are utilizing our “Power Hour” (see 2A) to re-teach concepts not mastered in the classroom. Power Hour is a ½ hour, built into the student’s school schedule, which is utilized for tutoring, homework help, or re-teaching of state standards. As a school we monitor student progress each four and a half weeks. We run reports generated from our online grading system, and identify students falling below minimum passing standards. These students are assigned a mentor. They meet with their mentor bi-monthly to discuss strategies for improving learning and classroom engagement. Students complete several different type of activities with their mentors such as making a plan for working with teachers during the Power Hour, talking about strategies they can learn and utilize to strengthen their study skills, and to track their grade progress by using a tracking mechanism built into their student planner. Mentors communicate with stakeholders when students need a deeper level of involvement to make strides in improving grades. For example, mentors may set up special tutoring sessions, speak directly with teachers for clarification of assignment directions, or to advocate for students having a difficult time communication with teachers, Mentors also communicate directly with school counselors when students are not progressing in the mentoring relationship. The school counsel then provides more individualized support for both the students and parent through conferencing and creation of additional strategies. In some cases, data is collected on individual students and they are brought to our MTSS (Multi-Tier Support System) team for an individualized level of intervention. The MTSS analyzes grades for all students and reviews grade trend based on teachers, courses, and student demographics. As a school, we use the data from MTSS to reflect upon and revise school practices and policies that may be impeding student learning. Reviewing this data also provides administrators with information necessary to provide teachers with feedback about their classroom practices, lesson preparation, and validity of course assignments. This year we added a full time social worker to our faculty as a way of making more community connections, and providing our parents and students with an elevated level of services and resources. Our social worker attends all of our MTSS meetings, and works alongside of the school counselors to ensure our students are not “slipping through the cracks”. She makes home visits, connects with community resources, and counsels students who are exhibiting at risk behaviors. We still maintain our traditional monitoring by providing students and parents with progress reports, and grades every 4 ½ weeks. Parents receive this information via our online grading system and paper copies.

5. Explain how your school responds when student struggles to demonstrate proficiency in a key skill or concept.

Response and intervention is personalized based on the needs of students or the specific attention required to improve in key skills. A general example of our process would be Horizontal Teaming. Each Horizontal Team, or subject area team, plans the curriculum map for the year. Horizontal Teams meet quarterly to write the plan and then monthly to review and analyze plan outcomes to concentrate on “power standards”. This process results in a guaranteed curriculum for the students as Bayside that is a mile deep, not a mile wide. This process is critical to student success because it is the first step in helping the teachers determine the standards and set the guidelines for the common formative and summative assessments. This year, our teams are evolving into Instructional Data Teams, or IDT. These teams follow a specific process to ensure that curriculum goals are being met. The IDT examines expectations by “unwrapping” the priority standards. Then, they develop the curriculum map, develop the common assessments, administer pre-assessments common to all student, and then follow a process for analyzing the results. Each of these steps are critical before getting to step five, the process of collecting and charting data, analyzing data and prioritizing needs, reviewing and revising incremental SMART goals, selecting common instructional strategies, determining result indicators and the monitoring and evaluating student results. Once this is completed, the team teaches using their common strategies, and administering a common post assessment. They score and submit the data to the Data Team Leaders and then determine their next steps. This is a cyclical process allowing the team of teachers to move on to new priority standards with each completion of the cycle.

A more specific example of how we respond to students struggling in key skills would be our struggling readers. Students that struggle to read at grade level are at risk of failing multiple classes due to their inabilities to comprehend content. In the state of Florida every student from 3rd -10th grade takes the FSA or FCAT depending on their grade level to monitor their progress. If students do not show proficiency for their grade level on the ELA portion of FSA/FCAT, then that student is placed in an Intensive Language Arts class to receive remediation. Within these intensive classes, our district provides numerous programs to bring students up to grade level. Here at Bayside, individual teachers work closely together in Data Teams to plan how the various district programs will be implemented to elevate each student’s proficiency. The piece that is vital for success in in independent reading is the ongoing, one on one student conferences. Teachers meet regularly with students, to dissecting state test data about their own abilities, discuss goal setting to make improvements in their reading processes, progress toward those reading goals, and how to use the reading strategies in other content areas. Not only is this intervention specific and targeted, but the students claim the individual conferences to be their favorite part of the class. This process changes a student’s whole outlook on who they are, and what they can accomplish. Most of all, this time spent with individual students allows teachers to build relationships with individuals, giving them specific attention, and helping them design a specific game plan for their success.

6. Explain what your school has done to enrich and extend the learning for students who have demonstrated they are highly proficient.

Bayside High School has a dedicated leadership team comprised of teachers, administrators, and students collaborating to identify our obstacles, and creating an action plan addressing college readiness for all students. The State of Florida acknowledges that students are college ready

when they have “the knowledge, skill, and academic preparation to enroll and succeed in introductory college credit-bearing courses within an associate or baccalaureate degree program without the need for remediation.” To this end, we focused on the research in The Toolbox Revisited (2006), which provided three measurable, attainable goals for our students – enrolling in math coursework above Algebra II, enrolling in 2 or more Advanced Placement courses, or enrolling in 6 or more college credit hours. Maintaining our focus on preparing students enabled us to effectively develop a schoolwide plan to move all of our students in this direction. As a team, we worked to close the achievement gap between the test scores of minority and/or low-income students and their peers, while enriching learning for all students. However, moving students from proficiency to college ready became our next big challenge.

There are numerous extended learning opportunities at Bayside High School. While some are for remediation, there are many that are for academic enrichment. Students have a variety of accelerated educational opportunities. Advanced Placement (AP) courses are available to all students, regardless of previous academic performance. This is an ungated opportunity which allows all students who are interested to engage in rigorous college-level courses, and gain experience with the academic skills necessary to be successful in post-secondary education. Students are able to do this without leaving the Bayside High School campus. Currently, there are 290 students enrolled in one or more of the seventeen AP courses taught at Bayside. Those who earn a score of 3 or higher on the AP exams often receive college credit for these courses. Students who successfully complete 6 AP courses in 3 different disciplines can apply for an AP Diploma.

Last year, Bayside was chosen by College Board to pilot the AP Capstone Program based on our demographic make-up, coupled with high Advanced Placement test scores. Capstone is “an innovative diploma program that provides students with an opportunity to engage in rigorous scholarly practice of the core academic skills necessary for successful college completion.” It is important to note that in addition to being ungated, our Advanced Placement classes test every student enrolled. 100% of all of our AP students sit for their AP tests.

Collegiate High School is another accelerated opportunity for students, offering the possibility of earning an Associate of Arts Degree from Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) concurrently with their high school diploma. Students take both high school and college classes, completing the requirements for both the college and high school diplomas. This program is available to students as early as their sophomore year. Over the past three years, participation has increased. In the 2013-2014 school year, 21 seniors participated, and 21 graduated with their AA degrees. In the 2014-2015 school year, 31 seniors participated, and 24 graduated with their AA degrees. For those students looking to gain experience and exposure to college rigor, another option is Dual Enrollment. Students who meet the criteria are able to enroll in classes of their choice at EFSC. These classes can be taken during the regular school day, or in the evening. Bayside also has an enrichment program to challenge and engage students who are identified as academically gifted. A designated staff person oversees the gifted program. She meets individually with every ninth grade gifted student, his/her parents, and guidance counselor each fall to get to know them, introduce them to the gifted program at Bayside, and write their gifted education plans. She also works with every gifted student and one of their teachers twice a year (December and May) to solicit input on student strengths and areas of need. She coordinates an annual enrichment field trip for gifted students to attend the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. Additionally, for any gifted

student who does not have a class taught by a gifted certified teacher, the gifted staff member meets with each of these students on a monthly basis to provide support services.

As a professional community, teachers meet weekly in small groups to monitor student learning. One component of these meetings is brainstorming ideas and sharing ways to enrich the learning of students who demonstrate mastery of learning and understanding. Teachers analyze results of formative assessments, as well as from state and district assessments throughout the year gaining valuable insight into the progress of their students. This enables teachers to determine the best and most effective way to address the individual needs of each student.

7. Explain how team goals are established and provide examples.

Bayside High School has developed a myriad of teams aimed at supporting all of our students and faculty. Below we have included a list of our teams and how they have established their goals:

1.) Horizontal Teams - These teams were developed to ensure that all students receive a guaranteed and viable curriculum. Their goals were established through their collaborative planning and curriculum map creation. The curriculum maps allowed them to develop a common pacing that was the basis for providing a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

2.) Instructional Data Teams - We are transitioning our horizontal teams into instructional data teams with the ultimate goal of using the data team process to improve teaching and learning across all disciplines. Our IDT teams are in the process of creating standards that teams will use to guide their decision making. These standards will be created through a collaboration of teachers and administrators.

3.) Collaboration and Mutual Accountability (CMA) Teams - These teams are made up of three or more teachers that share a common focus on a method to improve instruction. They agree to implement a new strategy throughout the school year, and collaborate on the effectiveness of that strategy for the benefit of all members.

4.) Bayside New Teacher Academy - Our new teacher academy is organized, and facilitated by two respected veteran teacher leaders. They hold monthly professional development sessions with all teachers that are new to the profession or to Brevard Public Schools. Their goals are determined by the needs of the new teachers in the program, and by the commitment to providing meaningful mentorship.

5.) BETA AND ENCORE Academies - The Bayside Engineering and Technology Academy (BETA), and the ENCORE Performing and Fine Arts Academy have been established to provide students with dynamic course progressions focused on engineering and technology, or performing/fine arts. Both academies are led by advisory boards that consist of student officers, parents, teachers, and community members. These advisory boards along with the academy teachers determine the goals, objectives, and direction of the academies.

6.) BEST - These teams were created based on a need to provide additional supports to our lowest 25 percentile 9th and 10th grade students. All BEST 9th and 10th students have the same team of teachers. These teachers and the ESE department chair worked together over the summer to create team agreements, and collective goals for all BEST students. They monitor their students throughout the school year to provide individualized interventions that meet student needs. These interventions are based on the goals and collective commitments the BEST Team created.

7.) Bayside Leadership Team - Our leadership team consists of teacher leaders, guidance counselors, and administrators that focus on the development of school wide initiatives that support Bayside’s mission statement of fostering within our students the academic passion, purpose and perseverance ( The Grit! ) to be successful in the college and/or career of their choosing. The goals for the Bayside Leadership Team are determined by the needs of our students. This school year, the team has focused on closing the gap between majority and minority student enrollment in AP courses.

8. What is the most valuable insight you have gained on the PLC journey that might assist others considering the process?

Two thoughts are always first and foremost on our mind as we plan for this year and years to come. The first is, “where are we?” If we use the analogy that becoming a PLC Model school is a journey with a starting point and a destination, it is critical to know from where we are starting before we start giving the directions to our journey’s end. What skills or information do we feel we have mastery over? Which do we still need to develop? How are we using our individual teachers’ expertise to develop teacher ownership and leadership over our school-wide goals? Have we focused on the right elements? Are we looking at the right data? Is our team together or have we splintered off? Are we prepared to have several teams journeying at their own pace if we all know our end point?

The second thought is to always (as Covey would say) begin with the end in mind. Have we defined what our mission and goals are? Are the clear and achievable? Can we measure them and do we have steps along the way to gauge if we are on track? It would be horrible in this process to have 100 different starting places and no clear idea of where we are all trying to get to. Finally, overarching all of that and perhaps the most powerful insight we hold dear, is that a school year is 180 days, a journey is not. As we move throughout the year, and from year to year, we are consistently and persistently refining our practices, closing our gaps and focusing on our mission.

9. Many school improvement initiatives are abandoned when key leaders leave the organization. What if anything have you done to ensure the PLC process will be sustained in your school?

When Bayside began its PLC journey in 2009, the goal was to create a systematic process whereby the teachers were so committed to working interdependently in teams that the option of returning to old practices of working in isolation was out of the question. To do this, we had to put into place a set of structures that would support the process over time and possible leadership changes. These structures included:

Building a team of school leaders whose belief in the transformative power of collaboration made them agents of change for the entire school. These school leaders helped to build a momentum shift at Bayside, and new additions to this cadre of leaders are added each year. As our administrators change over the years, these school leaders help to ensure that our PLC practices remain in place.

Developing a school improvement plan as a collaborative process. The plan includes a regular revisiting of current practices to evaluate results and to consider whether or not these practices are working and how to achieve better results for our students if the practices are not effective.

Reallocating resources to support the teams’ needs. A significant portion of our substitute budget has been used over the past few years to give teachers time out of the classroom with their teams to work on a guaranteed curriculum and to develop formative assessments.

Building time into the school day for collaboration, and holding it sacred. Teams value this time so highly that our principal builds days into our school calendar that are strictly set aside for teacher collaboration. There is additional time set aside weekly for team collaboration. This weekly time is also sacred, and no additional meetings or parent conferences can be set for that time.

Taking advantage of on-campus “experts” for professional development. This helps to create a self-sustaining PLC structure as people understand that we have a culture where we continually learn from one another. This also contributes to an atmosphere where teachers feel safe admitting that they might not have all of the answers, and to seek help from others who have a genuine interest in helping them and thereby helping our students.

Establishing an on-site New Teacher Academy that is carefully crafted to support Bayside’s new teachers as they navigate through their first year. This includes assigning each new teacher a peer mentor, guiding them through the evaluation process, and arranging for substitutes so that new they can spend time observing and conferring with veteran teachers on campus.

Momentum has shifted since we began our journey, and it is now a non-negotiable fact that we are a collaborative culture that values what we learn from one another. To prove this point, it is important to note that over the past three years, three-fifths of Bayside’s leadership has changed (including our principal three years ago), but our commitment to our PLC is stronger than ever.

10. What additional information would you like to provide the committee that you feel is important to understanding your school and its efforts to help more students learn at higher levels?

To best answer this question, we thought it best to go to our primary sources. The following are responses from students and teachers.

Student Responses:

Brittany C. 11th Grade: Bayside works hard to help more students learn at higher levels by opening the classrooms to students during either half of lunch. Most schools don’t allow the students to go into classrooms during lunch, so if they need help they need to either stay after school or go to school early, making it very inconvenient to the students and the teachers. When the classroom door opens for lunch, students are able to go into the classroom and get the help they need.

Bayside has a team of teachers, administrators, and student that are always willing to help. If you need help with something you can ask any teacher, and if they know how to do it then they will gladly help you, even if it’s not their class or subject. If you don’t understand the way a teacher is explaining something, then you can either go to another teacher in the same subject or a student with tutoring. Bayside works hard to help students. That’s just what we do. WE’RE BAYSIDE.

Maxwell S. 12th Grade: Bayside is a fantastic school, and provides students with plenty of resources to learn at levels that simply aren’t available anywhere else. For example, our teachers all work together to do collaborative projects that sometimes have multi-class implications, and

work with each other to create an environment that promotes learning, hard work, and dedication. Our teachers here don’t treat their jobs as jobs, but instead as ways to truly have an effect on their community. Also, with the numerous opportunities for students to attend peer tutoring sessions, with both after school sessions and times during our lunch, we truly have a better chance to succeed than any school that I’ve attended.

Jonathan P. 10th Grade: Bayside works hard to help more students learn at higher levels by using Power Hour. It gives students a change to fix their grades, finish stuff, make up work, and more. Bayside always makes sure we have the ability to keep our grades up, there are NO excuses. Our school went through many obstacles in order to get our Power Hour. This shows how much they care about education. There are also many support systems here at Bayside because our teachers help set life and school goals. When we aren’t doing well in our classes, we get a mentor to work with. Our teachers expect the best from their students, and encourage them to work hard every day, and if not they would most likely be on top of you about it!

Teacher Responses:

Mr. Haman: Economics, U. S. Government, and Law Studies: Bayside is a school built on collaboration between all of the faculty and staff.  The ultimate goal is provide a learning environment that challenges students to reach higher levels of achievement than they may have been asked of them in the past.  Teachers work collaboratively in a variety of ways from whole faculty groups to smaller horizontal teams of teachers who teach the same curricular areas in order to ensure that students receive the same level of education regardless of whose classroom they are in.  These efforts are fully supported by the schools administration who works tirelessly to make sure that the faculty has the time and the tools that they need to accomplish this goal. Bayside High School is the epitome of a team of professionals dedicated to their students.

Ms. Paul: English 1-4: The school leadership at Bayside has committed itself to assisting in student success in many ways, all of which support both the classroom and the teacher.  To that end, the level of professional development offered has focused on these areas, our PLC groups are focusing on these areas, and teachers are creating academic climates in their classrooms that focus on the learning process and not just the content itself.

Mrs. Barneman: Intensive Language Arts: Bayside is always looking for ways to help more students learn at higher levels, some are Power Hour and the Close the Gap committee. The first thing that I think of at Bayside is Power Hour. Every day, the students have an hour of time between 4th and 5th periods. During Power Hour, students have thirty minutes for lunch and thirty minutes to seek tutoring help from any of their teachers. These students can also join a club that meets at this time, or help tutor other students at our peer tutoring group. Bayside also has implemented teams in the core curriculum areas. These teachers are in the process of completing student data teams where they implement the same assessment, and look at the data together to see what they can improve upon to help the students achieve, as well as each other's teaching practices. The last thing that I think of at Bayside that helps students learn at high levels is the Close the Gap committee. This committee consists of Administration, Students, and Teachers who look at data and research to see what we can do to help further our students in the ability of taking higher level classes, such as Honors and AP classes.

Part II. Evidence of Student Learning

1. What are the indicators of student learning that you monitor in your school?

The indicators of student learning that are monitored include: Academic performance/GPA Academic experiences prior to high school Performance on End of Course (EOC) assessments and Florida Standards Assessments

(FSA)o Algebra 1o Geometryo Algebra 2o Biologyo U.S. Historyo Writingo Reading

Industry certifications earned Course selection Course completion College readiness (Research from A Toolbox Revisited)

o Completion of math courses above Algebra 1o AP courses takeno Mastery of standards, as identified by Instructional Data Teams(IDT) and

Horizontal Teaming Attendance Behavior (discipline referrals)

2. What evidence can you provide that more students are learning at higher levels since you began the PLC process?

Outline of Comparison Data

School Year

% ProficientFCAT/FSA Reading (9th)

% Proficient FCAT/FSA Reading (10th)

% Proficient in Biology EOC

% Proficient in Algebra 1 EOC

% Proficient in Geometry EOC

% Proficient in US History EOC

Free/reduced Lunch

2012-2013

55% 65% 65% 59% 68% 66% 43.7%

2013-2014

67% 63% 81% 67% 60% 56% 46.4%

2014-2015

N/A *FSA: 60% 69% 72% N/A 68% 50.8%

State 12/13: 53%13/14: 53%

12/13: 53%13/14: 55%

12/13: 54%13/14: 58%14/15: 55%

12/13: 46%13/14: 55%14/15: N/A

12/13: 51%13/14: 54%14/15: N/A

12/13: 59%13/14: 55%14/15: 52%

3. What, if anything, do you feel is particularly noteworthy about your student achievement data?

5% increase in proficiency levels on the Algebra 1 End of Course exam 12% increase in proficiency levels on the U.S. History End of Course exam 12% decrease in proficiency levels on the Biology End of Course exam*

o Non honors course sequence of Biology-Chemistry-Physics was added to better meet the needs of all students

o Increased the number of students tested by 200o 4% score increase from 2 years ago

During the 2014-2015 school year, the state of Florida Department of Education changed the computer base testing eliminating FCAT 2.0 and implementing the new FSA ELA. Additionally the platform for the FSA Algebra-1, Geometry, and adding Algebra II EOC’s was changed to include two 90 minute sessions. Due to the changes in the testing platforms, no comparable data exists for grades 9 and 10.

In lieu of baseline data from FSA assessments, Bayside High School reviewed their existing data picture as a means to address strengths of in areas of need. Positive trends were noted, including a decline in the percentage of failing grades as demonstrated by proficiency in 279 more courses in the previous year, and 139 courses passed by greater than 1 grade. The percent of daily attendance rose from 94.51% to 95.52%, meeting the district goal of 95% or better. Once again, reviewing the document “The Toolbox Revisited”, published by the Department of Education, which addresses the research of the positive impact high school course offerings has on college completion, we are not satisfied with our current data. The gap between majority and minority, as well as the gap in boys to girls in meeting the indicators for college completion is an area of concern. During the 2015-2016 school year, a team of teachers began working on defining our obstacles, and creating an action plan to address college readiness for all students. The work of this group will assist us in addressing the fourth question of, “How will we extend and enrich the learning for students who are already proficient?” during the 2016-2017 school year.

Some areas that Bayside High School has been improving on in the past three years are the continued increase in our attendance rates, the decrease in percentage of failing grades due to our interventions from Power Hour, increased Algebra 1 and U.S. History EOC scores, and a decrease of over 400 deans’ referrals, and 25% reduction in the number of students suspended in the last school year. Bayside High School maintains a focus on continual improvement by constantly analyzing available data from items such as surveys, graduation outcome results, standardized testing data, and other student achievement results.

4. Please list any awards or recognitions that your school has received.

Over the past three years, Bayside has been recognized by the following awards: Harris and Florida Workforce Grant-$60, 000 (shared) Northrup Grumman $500 Innovation Challenge Grant: Students had to build a remote

controlled airship from scratch including designing and building a balloon, that had to travel through a multi-level obstacle course.

Northrup Innovation Challenge- Students won most spirited and 2nd place overall ($1,000 award to continue innovations)

Exxon Mobile grant past three years Highest number in the county of AP Test Scorers who work for ETS/College Board  Bayside’s culinary teacher won ProStart Chef Instructor of the Year for the State of Florida. Bayside has had 4 AP teachers attend the College Board AP exams scoring (different subject

areas). No other high school in the district has that many teachers who score the exams each year.  This helps us gain more insight into what the readers are looking for and how best to transfer that knowledge to our students. If the students know how the essays are scored (what the AP Board is looking for) they are better able to address the essay questions.

3 United Launch Alliance Grants providing extra money for purchasing organisms for dissection.  

Grant for $1000 to purchase classroom use iPads. Science Fair winners have earned as much as $60,000 each in scholarships to schools such as

Florida Institute of Technology and the University of Central Florida. AutoDesk AutoCad Certification Passers are in the top 5% in Brevard County (100%) SolidWorks Certification Passers are in the top 5% in Brevard County (88.5% for past two

years) Bayside has been a gold banner winner for the Students In Action Competition for three years

in a row.  Bayside High tracked over 28,552 service hours with a financial impact of over $656,000 dollars to the community.

Bayside won the Students in Action competition for Jefferson Awards Foundation.  Our students and sponsor went to Washington, D.C., in June, 2014 to the gala event.

Students selected for All-County and All-State Bands and Orchestras, Tri-State Bands, and All-National Honor Orchestra.

Superior Ratings at state level Solo and Ensemble Festival for band The NJROTC Program at Bayside has continued to be a “Distinguished Unit” top 30 %

nationwide now for 15 consecutive years. Our NJROTC competitive teams consistently qualify for the State championships now for 16 consecutive years.

In 2015, 251 students took 417 AP exams and 56% received a 3 or higher on these exams, the state of Florida percentage is 50%.

Brevard County Schools offers an AP Diploma for students taking and passing 6 credits of Advanced Placement, in a minimum of 3 subject areas and passing their AP Exams with a 3 or higher. Bayside had 21 seniors earning this distinction in 2015.

Twenty-five seniors earned an Associate of Arts degree from Eastern Florida State College in May of 2015.

In 2015, Bayside won the Digital Classroom Plan award through a highly selective process in which we will receive:

o Ten mobile computer labs with 300 student devices o Improvements to our wireless network infrastructure in order to fully support digital

teaching and learning as well as the administration of computer-based assessments.o On-going Professional Development, informed by the Technology Integration

Matrix, to advance the skills, practice and understanding of teachers and administrators.

Part III: Products