1. ICAN & Middle Level Accelerated Update Citizens Advisory Committee~ January 9, 2012

2. ICAN Update

3. What is the ICAN Program? Middle School ICAN The Individual Course Achievement Now (ICAN) program provides online course recovery for students ICAN uses web-based coursework developed by Spokane Virtual Learning (SVL) to help students to gain skills necessary for promotion to the next grade level ICAN classrooms are located at each Spokane Public Schools middle school so that students can be assisted in person and online

4. Who Is Eligible for the ICAN Program? For students who have failed an ICAN course What is an ICAN course? 2011-12 ICAN COURSE OFFERINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL English 7-8 Middle School Math 1-2 ICAN courses are web-based SVL courses designed to assess each student’s prior content knowledge Students are guided through only the core learning standards they need to demonstrate mastery of the course, which takes an average of 6-8 weeks to complete

5. How Are ICAN Students Supported? ICAN students have class time scheduled with an ICAN classroom teacher who is their educational and personal support advocate ICAN students work with online teachers who are their academic content specialist ICAN students can access their coursework from a computer anytime, anyplace ICAN student progress and teacher contact is tracked in an electronic system to make sure the student’s teachers and counselors know how to best support the student

6. Where Do Students Register for ICAN Courses? Counselors will meet with identified students and communicate with families for registration ican.spokaneschools.org ICAN teachers will help new students complete an ICAN Success Plan to support success ICAN students can attend ICAN classes before, during, and after school, depending on the school

7. Middle Level Accelerated Update

8. Big Ideas Review committee recommendations for Middle Level (ML) Accelerated Share Fall 2011 grades for students in ML Accelerated Share recommendations for revisions to identification criteria

9. 2010-2011 ML Accelerated Committee Work Committee comprised of 25+ teachers, principals, and central office administrators Revised the identification criteria to ensure consistent identification across schools Centrally, Instructional Programs brought English teachers together to review the curriculum for the course so that the instruction was horizontally aligned across schools Worked with elementary and middle level principals to create a parent and teacher handbook, a common presentation to share with families, and a common template to list those students who met the criteria and those who would be waitlisted

10. Review the Criteria Math  Criteria for Placement Criteria for Placement  Waitlist Waitlist English  Criteria for Placement Criteria for Placement  Waitlist Waitlist Criteria for Continued Placement

11. Back

12. Waiting List Back

14. Waiting List Back

16. 2011-2012 ML Accelerated Math  4 sections of ML Accelerated in Math  1330 students enrolled in an accelerated math class: 661 met criteria, 555 waitlisted. English  2 sections of ML Accelerated English  711 students enrolled in an accelerated English class: 196 met criteria, 461 waitlisted.

17. ML English Accelerated Data

18. ML Math Accelerated Data

19. Inferences From the Data There is no significant drop in performance of our students who were waitlisted when compared to students who met all criteria in English Students were almost twice as likely to meet the math criteria as the English criteria English criteria appears to be too narrow to identify all students who would benefit

20. Connection to SPS CCR Framework Principle Three: Provide a range of high-quality college and career preparatory tools and curricula for all students and their families. All students are expected to take on academic challenges; Honors and college-credit courses will be available to all students. The 2011 AP Diagnostic surfaced a large number of students who had were likely to earn a 3 or more on the AP exam, but were not enrolled in AP courses.

21. Recommendations for 2012 Reconvene the ML Accelerated Committee to:  Broaden the committee and include 4-6 parents  Define criteria for entrance into 7 th grade Algebra  Align our practice with Principle 3 in the SPS CCR Framework and expand access to ML Accelerated courses either by:  Allowing students and families to opt into the course,  Creating a process for students to challenge the course (by taking an assessment) for entrance into Accelerated English or Math, or  Maintaining the current identification process with revisions to English criteria  Strategize how to communicate the revised process to parents and families

22. Pros and Cons of Opt In Pros Allows access for those students who have the skills to be enrolled in the course Allows more students access to AP courses Is supported by Principle 3 in the CCR research Aligns with our process in high school Cons There could be a perception the classes are less rigorous There may be some students who may not be successful in the accelerated course

23. Pros and Cons of Challenge Process Pros Allows access for those students who have the skills to be enrolled in the course Allows more students access to AP courses Cons Administering the assessments and communicating back out to schools Could be seen as a “high-stakes” assessment for students and families (test-anxiety) Not all families and students will feel comfortable taking an assessment and may not utilize this option

24. Lessons Learned Continue to work out glitches in the teacher recommendation protocol at elementary Refine and tighten communication between levels and to families When increasing the number of students in accelerated courses, highly effective districts add support structures like Summer Bridge, AVID, or other support features