Parkway Heights Middle School
Achievement in Motion (AIM) spotlights programs in local schools whose efforts to improve academic achievement for students of color, those learning English, and those from low-income families are yielding measurable results.
At Parkway Heights Middle School, school and district leaders have been committed to improving overall achievement for English language learners. These changes ultimately benefited the school as a whole.
The History of Parkway Heights’ EL Program
According to the California Department of Education, an English learner (EL) is a K-12 student who is working toward developing enough English language proficiency to fully engage in the regular school program.
In the 2014–15 school year, there were approximately 1.392 million English learners in California public schools, which constitutes 22.3% of total enrollment. At Parkway Heights Middle School in South San Francisco Unified School District, 26% of students are English language learners. Four years ago, that number was larger, with 44% of the student population classified as English learners.
The goal of many English learner programs is to support students as they acquire full English proficiency as rapidly and efficiently as possible. About ten years ago, administrators at Parkway and their colleagues at the district office prioritized the goal of better serving their English learner population. School leaders worked with district officials to make adjustments to the master schedule, collect and analyze data, and improve community engagement. They have been seeing gradual improvements in the years since.
By the Numbers
Among San Mateo County middle schools, Parkway Heights had the smallest gap in achievement between English language learners and the school-wide population. They also had the highest level of overall English learner achievement, a measure that took into account proficiency in mathematics, proficiency in English-language arts, and the EL Academic Performance Index (API).
District Support
Ten years ago, Parkway Heights was in program improvement, which meant they had not met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward statewide proficiency goals for English learners and other subgroups. The San Mateo County Office of Education provided additional supports, but district leaders knew more needed to be done.
According to Superintendent Shawnterra Moore-Thomas, there was one question guiding this work:
“How can we teach these skills and build in supports to make sure that students will be successful?”
As a result of collaborative work between district and school leaders, the district agreed to support Parkway Heights in two main initiatives:
Academic Conferences
The district’s process began with the idea of academic conferences, a professional learning community where groups of teachers and administrators would come together to look at the state standards and assessment results and have a conversation about the skills students should know. The district wanted to build the capacity of site administrators and teacher leaders who would ultimately lead the conferences on their own.
Block Schedule
A block schedule is a system for scheduling classes that allows for longer class periods. Parkway’s reasons for switching to a block schedule were twofold:
- Administrators felt students would benefit from longer blocks of instruction in English language arts and mathematics.
- Teachers wanted more time to collaborate.
According to Principal Marco Lopez, having students receive two periods of language arts and two periods of math not only helped them get the extra support they needed, but it also meant that teachers could focus more on working together to differentiate instruction and implement the new state standards.
Collecting and Using Data
When Parkway Heights entered program improvement, district leaders began conducting walkthroughs and meeting with teachers to look at what was going well and what needed to be refined. They generated data for schools and trained them to use the data and assessment management system so they could pull information on their own.
This required a shift in mindset—something Assistant Principal Jonathan Covacha speaks to:
Engaging Families
For Parkway Heights, involving the entire school community in the success of their students was an important part of their improvement plan. Many of Parkway’s parents work multiple jobs, and providing spaces where they could engage with the school and their kids made a big difference.
Math and Science Night
Math and Science Night is an opportunity for students and their families to spend quality time together. Leaders at Parkway feel this event is a great way to get parents and guardians invested in their student’s education.
The event has been so effective that teachers and administrators are working to create a similar event for English language arts.
English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC)
The ELAC Committee is a crucial part of any school, especially a school with a large English learner population, but Parkway wasn’t seeing enough involvement from parents. By better understanding parents’ availability and shifting the meeting times accordingly, Parkway grew their ELAC committee from two parents and three staff members to an average of 30 parents.
According to Assistant Principal Jonathan Covacha, encouraging participation was all about welcoming diverse populations through a variety of initiatives, including creating a position for a bilingual school liaison:
“Parents might be reluctant to come to us, but having someone who speaks their language and understands their situation means families are more open to coming in. It has a big impact for them. They know that staff members are approachable and that they can ask that question.”
Engaging Students
For Parkway Heights, it was just as important that students were actively involved in their own success, and school leaders implemented a number of programs to ensure that kids had the support they needed.
Advisory
Advisory is a class that meets two days a week and enables students and teachers to cultivate relationships and engage on important topics. Teachers check grades, help students with missing assignments, and work with students to set learning goals. They teach life skills, including organization and team building, and teachers will often take a thematic approach, such as working on a recent anti-bullying film festival.
English Learner Club
In the EL Club, many long-term English learners who have been in American schools for six years or longer and plateau at the mid-level California English Language Development Test (CELDT) score are given extra support after school. Mathematics and language arts teachers work together to craft supplemental curriculum that will help their English learners.
How Has This Changed Parkway?
This work started a decade ago, and there have been a number of different administrators and teachers leading the efforts at Parkway and different emphases throughout the years. This community has remained focused on improving instruction for all students, especially English learners, and using data to inform and continuously improve their efforts.
Shawnterra Moore-Thomas: “When we’re communicating, we’re talking about practices that are good for all students, but we want to amplify practices that are good for English learners…We look at how students are performing, where their strengths are, but we can also look at which students need more support and have conversations about what interventions we’re going to have…It’s a learning process. We haven’t mastered it, but these are things we need to remind ourselves of.”
The AIM Team @ SMCOE
Mefula Fairley, Educational Support Services
Allie Jaarsma, Office of the Superintendent
Cameron Lewis, Educational Support Services
Nancy Magee, Student Services
Nabila Massoumi, Curriculum and Instruction Services
Brian Simmons, Educational Support Services
Deann Walsh, Educational Support Services
Special Thanks
Students, Staff, and Parents of Parkway Heights Middle School & South San Francisco Unified School District
For more information about Achievement in Motion or to nominate a school visit: http://www.smcoe.org/learning-and-leadership/educational-support/achievement-in-motion-closing-the-gap/
