greenfield high school

WASC Three-Year-Term Revisit Revised 3/08

THREE-YEAR-TERM REVISIT

VISITING COMMITTEE REPORT

WESTERN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

FOR

GREENFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

225 S. El Camino Real

Greenfield, CA 93927

South Monterey County Joint Union High School District

April 21 and 22

Visiting Committee Members

Steve M. Tietjen, Ed.D., Chairperson Superintendent, Los Banos Unified School District

Dr. Joan Delzangle, Teacher, Retired

Ms. Vicki Leoni

Teacher, Tulare Joint Union High School District

WASC Three-Year Term Revisit Visiting Committee Report

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I. Introduction (1/2–1 page)

Include the following:

General comments about the school and its setting and the school’s analysis of student

achievement data.

The city of Greenfield covers an area of 1.7 square miles. It is located in the heart of California’s

Salinas Valley, approximately 135 miles south of San Francisco, 95 miles south of San Jose, 40

miles south of Salinas and 60 miles north of Paso Robles. The City of Greenfield is located between

the Gabilan mountain range to the east and the Santa Lucia mountain range to the west. The city of

Greenfield lies within one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. The area is known

as the “Salad Bowl of the World.” Over $2 billion (US) worth of fruit and vegetables are produced

and shipped annually across the United States and abroad. The area is also known as a premier wine

grape growing region due to the rich soil and desirable climate.

As of 2012, there were 17,726 people, 3,907 households and an average household size of 4.52. The

median income for a household in the city was $49,299. In recent years, the town has seen a sizable

influx of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Many Oaxacans speak Triqui and/or

Mixteco, indigenous languages not related to English or Spanish and as a result they have a difficult

time being able to communicate. Latinos comprise 91.3% of the population, White 5.7%, African

American, 0.8%, American Indian 0.3%, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0.07% and Asian 0.9%.

The unemployment rate is 11.0 (U.S. Average is 8.6). Recent job growth is negative; jobs have

decreased 0.88%.The estimated median house price in 2012 was $149,400. Many households have

extended family members living with them.

Government service employs a large number of people in the area: teachers, fire fighters, correctional

officers, forestry workers, and police officers make up this group. The economy of this area is

predominately agricultural. Approximately 90% of the Greenfield High School parents/guardians

work in some type of agricultural industry; such as packing, irrigation, harvesting, and about 5% are

migrant workers working between Greenfield and Yuma, Arizona.

Significant changes or developments that have affected the school since the last visit.

Changes in Administration, Faculty, and Staff In July of 2012, the State of California appointed Dr. Daniel Moirao as the new State Administrator

of South Monterey County Joint Union High School District.

Since the previous WASC visit in 2009-10, there has been a series of administrative changes at

Greenfield High School. These changes include three principals, four vice principals and one interim

dean of students.

During the past three years, Greenfield High School has seen a significant turnover of teachers.

Twenty-eight teachers have either retired, transferred school sites, voluntarily left the district, were

given pink slips due to reduction in force or were non-reelected.


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There have also been a number of changes among the student support staff at Greenfield High

School. Five classified staff positions (Registrar, Counseling Secretary, ASB Clerk, Community

Liaison and Security Guard) were eliminated due to financial constraints and district centralization.

In 2010-2011, a SRO was hired for Greenfield High School. The current SRO has been on medical

leave since before this school year started and returned in February 2013. A paid security guard was

hired on October 31, 2012. The security guard will remain until the end of the school year.

In 2012-2013, an EL instructional coach was hired part time to assist with CM (Constructing

Meaning) implementation.

Executive coaches were hired for administrators across the district.

The CELDT coordinator’s position was eliminated at the end of 2011 school year.

A CELDT reclassification coordinator’s position was instated in January of 2013.

In 2010, a foreign language teaching position was eliminated.

In 2010-2011, music and sign language teachers were hired.

In 2012-2013, a second art teacher was hired.

In 2010, the state administrator reassigned the athletic director position to administration.

In the 2012-13 school year, an athletic director was hired.

Bell Schedule

In the 2010-2011 school year, the district implemented a six period day to create additional

instructional time through longer periods for each class.

In 2012-2013, the district reinstated the seven period day.

II. Follow-up Process (1/2–1 page)

Briefly comment upon the school’s process for follow-up, including the capacity of the

school to monitor implementation and accomplishment of the areas for improvement as

recommended by the previous visiting committee.

The School’s ability to monitor their own progress regarding the implementation of the

improvement plan as recommended by the previous visiting committee has been impacted by the

high turnover of certificated staff, both teachers and administrators. Even though the school’s

personnel has had an extremely difficult environment in which to operate, the staff has continued


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to preserve in order to maintain continuity of goals for students. The current State Appointed

Administrator was a member of the previous district administration and has knowledge of the

past challenges and current goals of the school. The new principal has a background in program

improvement processes.

In 2012-2013 staffing has changed; one staff member is working part time as CM coach, and one

special education teacher is now the Special Education Interim Director. In addition, when the

Greenfield Portola campus closed, one permanent teacher was transferred to Greenfield High School

to teach math and Independent Study. To accommodate the vacancies in the master schedule two

teachers have temporary contracts. All permanent teachers are highly qualified and CLAD

certificated.

The district continues to review and enforce the implementation of the LEA District Plan. Members

of the GHS staff review data and revise the Single Plan for student achievement annually. This plan

is submitted to Greenfield High School site council and the South Monterey County Joint Union

High School District School board annually for approval.

III. School’s Progress on Critical Areas for Follow-up (2-4 pages, but more may be needed)

A. Comment on the accomplishment of each schoolwide action plan section, noting which

critical areas for follow-up have been addressed through each section. In this succinct

summary of the school’s progress since the full visit, comment on any observable

impact on student learning.

Staff uses California Standards Test results to evaluate courses, classes, subgroups and individual

students each year, and uses this information to create the Single Plan for Student Achievement.

Through this analysis, staff works to align assessments to CST standards, improve classroom

instruction and create goals for the following school year. The staff also compares CST scores to

each student’s grade in each course. The previous year’s goals are evaluated to determine how

well they were met, taking current resources into consideration and considering new resources if

necessary. Resources added since the last WASC visit include the implementation of CM

(Constructing Meaning) strategies, USA Test Prep, double periods for English Language

development, READ 180 and SDAIE programs, and SMART goal cycles. The AVID program

was brought to the campus in 2010. Strategies to improve student performance are then outlined

and compiled in the SPSA, which is given to the School Site Council and School Board for

approval.

Each department monitors these goals, and teachers identify strengths and weaknesses. The

Academic Program Survey is used in the English and Mathematics Departments to stimulate

reflection and discussion, which then leads to modifying curriculum and adjusting instructional

strategies. The software program SChool Plan is used to analyze data.

The implementation of regular collaboration days on Wednesday afternoons allows teachers to

work together on these efforts and continue to monitor the School-wide Action Plan, making


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adjustments as necessary.

After the last WASC visit, the critical areas for follow up became part of the School-wide Action

Plan. Those critical areas included the need to improve communication with parents, the need to

address the achievement gap in the ELL population, and the need to develop a system so that

student performance data drives instruction. To address the need to inform parents on student

performance, the school has made the Aeires program available to parents online and now uses

the Alert Now system to notify parents of school events and meetings. Annual progress on these

critical needs is reviewed at the beginning of each year, and a summary of progress in created.

This school year, 2012-2013, Professional Learning Communities were established. These PLCs.

department chairs, and School Site Council members meet to review student data and

conclusions and revise the yearly report. Every WASC Focus Groups also meets to collect and

review data and respond on the progress made toward meeting critical needs. The WASC report

is assimilated into the SPSA.

B. The Follow-up Process: Progress on Schoolwide Action Plan

The school’s action plan addressed four critical areas of follow-up left by the visiting committee.

Progress has occurred in each area as shown in the summaries given below.

Goal #1: Academic Area of Improvement

A. Improve student achievement in Language Arts and Mathematics.

B. Adopt curriculum for support classes in English and Mathematics.

Read180 is adopted and used for students in 9th

grade who are reading three or more

years below grade level.

USA Test Prep is used for warm-ups, CST and CAHSEE preparation.

Edge is used in Special Education and EL classes.

Side by Side is a program used for ELD1/Newcomers.

Kaplan test prep books are used in ELA and math CAHSEE prep classes.

Odysseyware is the online program used for the credit recovery classes.

C. Promote tutoring programs so that more students take advantage

of these opportunities.

Math and English departments offer after school tutoring twice a week, which include

incentives to students who attend.


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Currently, every student receives a call through Alert Now informing parents of after

school tutoring opportunities.

The morning bulletin announces tutoring opportunities as a daily reminder.

Students meet with the counselor to determine eligibility for after school tutoring.

Teachers are reminded to announce tutoring opportunities in the Bruins Doins’ Bulletin.

GEAR UP provides tutors in the classroom for pull out sessions for students who need

more one-on-one instruction in a small group setting.

SES is funded through Title 1 for students performing below grade level to receive

additional assistance through Avanza. Students who complete the program keep the

laptop they were given to access this online program.

D. More honors and AP courses are desired by several students and

some staff.

AP Calculus, AP Biology, and AP Economics were added to the master schedule within the

last three years.

More teachers have attended AP training.

More Pre-AP English classes have been added to the master schedule. An additional honors

World History class was added in the 2012-2013 school year.

More students are taking the AP tests each year.

E. Reinstate summer school to insure student recovery.

Due to financial restraints of the district and the state not funding summer school,

traditional summer school was eliminated. However in the summer of 2012, the district

offered a four week online credit recovery Odysseyware session.

For the past two years, the Migrant Education Program offered the summer academy

(MESA) for credit recovery.

For the past two years, GEAR-UP has offered a summer school program to help the

students meet graduation and A-G requirements.

Goal #2: Academic Area of Improvement

A. Refinement and modification of benchmarks and curriculum maps.


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B. The process of collection, disaggregation, and analysis of student

achievement data needs to drive instruction for student academic

achievement. (Goal 2)

The school district continues to use SChoolPlan to analyze and disaggregate data to increase

student achievement.

Teachers have received training each year on how to use SChoolPlan to interpret data and set

achievement goals.

During collaboration time, departments and PLC groups continue to work on SMART goals,

benchmarks, CST scores, data analysis, curriculum maps, and CM content learning/language

goals.

An effort has been made to CELDT test students during the summer so that staff has access

to the most current CELDT levels at the beginning of the school year.

C. Align curriculum maps from Special Education and support classes to

those in core areas

Co-teachers and instructional aides support core teachers with instruction, curriculum

maps and learning strategies in a push in model. The core teacher is responsible for the

subject content. Special Education teachers collaborate with each other and with core

departments in order to support student learning. Two core teachers and two Special

Education teachers attended a Co-teaching conference in 2012-13 to bring back strategies

including co-teacher support on differentiation of instruction.

D. Provide time for teachers to work with benchmark data and student

work to identify areas of weakness and strength, share effective lessons

and develop materials to improve reading and writing in the content

areas.

Collaboration days were reinstated in the 2010-2011 school year.

For the past two years, collaboration time focused mainly on departmental collaboration.

Currently, collaboration time is divided into specific categories: Interdepartmental PLCs,

WASC FOLTs, Committees, Department Meetings and Common Core discussions.

Math Department has many benchmarks that they analyze as a department and look at

data to help them map out their needs. From the benchmark data, math teachers saw a

need to reorganize the sequence of how math classes are offered. Since 2012, the math

sequence has changed so that freshmen students now enroll in Geometry and take

Algebra I or II when they are sophomores.


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E. Address the issue of limited credit recovery options for students who fall

behind.

In 2011-2012, Odysseyware was available for student’s afterschool.

Currently, there are two credit recovery classes utilizing the online Odysseyware program in

the master schedule.

In 2012-2013, an Odysseyware Saturday class is available for students whose schedule does

not permit credit recovery classes.

Home to Hospital is available through Greenfield High School for students who are unable to

attend school for medical reasons.

For two years, the Independent Study program was conducted through the South Monterey

County Independent charter school. The Independent Study program is now a part of

Greenfield High School. Students in this program are able to recover credits through

individualized instruction, with the goal of returning to the high school or graduating.

Students who are not on track to graduate are referred to Portola Butler Continuation School.

For the past two years, GEAR-UP has conducted summer school through Pearson online.

The focus is to increase the numbers of students who meet A – G requirements.

Concurrent Enrollment with Hartnell Community College is available to students who need

to make up credits or want to further their education.

The county Migrant Program provides migrant students with the PASS Program and summer

school opportunities for credit recovery. After school tutoring and test proctors were

available for students working to complete their PASS books and to proctor tests.

Goal #3 Staff Development and Area of Improvement

A. Vertical and horizontal staff collaboration time and staff

development to increase student achievement.

B. Communication by all staff with parents needs to contain

information about student performance on a regular basis and prior to

failure in a consistent way. (Goal 3 and 4)

Teachers and staff continue to contact parents/ guardians to inform them of their

student’s failures and successes, either through emails, phone contact, parent conferences

or letters sent home.


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Staff and teachers are available for parent conferences whenever requested.

Additionally, IEP meetings, 504 plans and Student Study Teams are in place to

communicate with parents/guardians about the long and short-term goals for their child.

Alert Now is used to inform parents/guardians of attendance, important meetings and

events happening at Greenfield High School.

The marquee is consistently used to inform the community of calendared events, progress

reports, and upcoming activities.

Other communication with parents occurs through back to school night, letters home in

English and Spanish, parent orientation nights and migrant education parent nights.

C. More communication is needed between the district office, school

staff, and parents.

The current State Administrator has tried to increase communication from the district

office to the school, staff, students and parents by creating a State Administrator’s Blog

on the district website.

There is a new district web site that has many resources for parents, students and staff.

Several teachers were trained in placing web pages on the Greenfield High School

Website. Administration maintains a newsletter to the community on the principal’s

corner of the school website. The school’s calendar of events and assessments is on the

school’s webpage.

D. A long-term structured professional development plan is needed to

support all teachers in using research-based instructional strategies

In the past two years, CM training has been offered to the staff. Teachers are

beginning to implement CM strategies in their classrooms, including Think-Pair-

Share, language frames, learning and language goals, equity sticks/cards and Frayer

squares. All teachers have been trained in SChoolPlan and are using the program to

assess SMART goals. Collaboration time was allocated to department meetings,

WASC FOLTs, curriculum map revisions, SMART Goals, SChoolPlan, CM training,

EL strategies of the month, USA Test Prep training, committees, common core

training and faculty meetings.

E. For the past three years teachers have had the opportunity to

attend trainings. Trainings include but are not limited to: SChoolPlan Training

Common Core Training

CM Training

AVID Training

AP Training

California League of High School Conference


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Math Coaching

ELD Coach

Co-Teacher Training

Special Education Job Alike Training

USA Test Prep Training

EXCEED Training For Sp. Ed. Teachers

PLC training

F. The process of collection, disaggregation, and analysis of student

achievement data needs to drive instruction for student academic

improvement.

Staff has engaged in generating, analyzing, disaggregating and collecting CST and

benchmark data. Staff comfort levels and expertise differ in regards to analyzing and

collecting data. Some departments excel, and other departments are in the beginning

stages of data collection.

Currently, the staff at GHS has begun to implement SMART Goals in an effort to

improve student achievement. The data from the SMART goals helps determine which

instructional strategies are used, where reteaching is needed and measure the level of

student success.

English writing benchmarks are used district wide. All English teachers attended an in-

service to calibrate scoring. These benchmarks are aligned to the common core

standards.

The math department continues to use their benchmarks to drive instruction.

Social Science is using USATestPrep to create pre- and post-tests.

The Science department continues to use and develop common benchmark testing for

their classes.

Goal #4: School Culture Area of Improvement

A. Stakeholders will increase a sense of ownership, responsibility and

belonging by taking an active role in education.

Greenfield High School continues to have academic rallies, sports banquets, and scholarship award

night. Homecoming was reinstated and spirit and FFA week continued. The first ASL Idol took place

in the student union. ASL students performed at the football games and signed Christmas carols

throughout campus. GHS had an increased sense of ownership, responsibility and belonging after

promoting and sponsoring the Every 15 Minutes event for juniors and seniors. Community members

and organizations worked together to organize and fundraise for this event. The marquee was used


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for notifying the community of upcoming events. Students were promised incentives (open campus)

for scoring proficient or advanced on the CSTs by the principal, but there was no follow through and

students were never rewarded.

B. Recommendations: Priorities and or additional areas for improvement:

identify and note areas that need to be given priority for the school’s ongoing

improvement. (This may also include critical areas for follow-up.) Identify new

areas of concern, if applicable.

1. Develop further methods of data gathering so that teachers and staff use all means of data

analysis to enhance learning and to inform instruction.

2. Develop additional means to redesignate ELL students so that they can engage in

traditional learning.

3. Explore options in order to offer more varied elective courses such as Home Ec, Drivers

training, Agriculture, Band and Art.

4. Develop a plan to arrange for a two year contract to change the graduation requirements

for graduating students affected by the schedule change in 2011 and 2012.

5. The students and staff reported to the committee the possibility of an underlying gang

problem in the community. Students were concerned about their personal property.

Therefore there is a need for increased security on campus.

6. Improve articulation with middle school and the elementary school district in the areas

math, language arts, and behavior expectations.

C. Commendations related to progress; note and report on significant progress

the school has made in responding to the critical areas for progress and

carrying out the related action plan.

1. The long-tenured core of teachers have a commitment to student achievement and the

support of the new principal and the current school approach to program improvement

process.

2. Return of collaboration days which allows for more structure for staff development.

3. The implementation of credit recovery software, Odysseyware, which allows students to

get back on track for graduation.

4. Increased effort to communicate with parents and community.

5. Improved relationship with State Administration.

6. Implementation of new electives in Art, Music, and Ag, and programs that bond the

students to the school culture, such as Link Crew, and the continuation of FFA, Drama

Club, Art Club, Athletics and so forth.


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