Student Opportunity Act Public Feedback
As part of the process of submitting our response to the Student Opportunity Act for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Whittier Tech must provide our draft plan for public comment.
You may enter your comments here.
The draft plan is as follows below:
Whittier Tech
Student Opportunity Plan: SY 2021-2023
Commitment 1: Focusing on Student Subgroups
Which student subgroups will require focused support to ensure all students achieve at high levels in school and are successfully prepared for life?
As noted in our strategic plan, Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School is committed to ensuring all of our students achieve success in school and after graduation. However, we recognize that not all student groups have experienced the same level of success to date. Based on a review of our district data, our economically disadvantaged, English learners and students with disabilities are not experiencing the same level of MCAS outcomes as their peers.
We are committing to intensive work to close achievement and opportunity gaps for these student subgroups and recognize that this important work will take not just the efforts of district staff, but also our families and community.
Commitment 2: Using Evidence-Based Programs to Close Gaps
What evidence-based programs will your district adopt, deepen, or continue to best support the closure of achievement and opportunity gaps? What resources will you allocate to these programs?
Within the last few years, Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School has actively worked to adopt strategies that focus on closing the achievement and opportunity gaps for our various student groups. Alongside several other improvement strategies detailed in our strategic plan, we intend to continue and deepen our work on two important initiatives already underway.
1. Inclusion/co-teaching for students with disabilities (SWD) and our English Language Learners (ELL). An independent review of our MCAS scores and our ELL Access scores identified that our district could make further progress in serving our SWD and our ELLs. We intend to invest in one new ELL instructor as well as two English tutors that will support our lowest-achieving students. We also intend to implement a peer-based after school homework program where our National Technical Honor Society students can work with both or SWD and our ELL students to support them while also actively working to create conditions for student success. Our inclusion pilot program will be available to all SWD, including students of color, English learners, and low-income students.
2. Early College programs focused primarily on students underrepresented in higher education. Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School is committed to creating in partnership with Northern Essex Community College (NECC) with the primary mission of preparing students, particularly students who are under-represented in higher education for college-level coursework. We have intentionally focused on increasing the number of students that attend college after high school graduation by offering multiple pathways into a dual enrollment program at Whittier.
Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School and Northern Essex Community College have had a strong and multi-faceted partnership over the past several years which includes: articulated credit, dual enrollment in the Advanced Manufacturing degree program through the vocational program, offering when possible dual enrollment courses in the academic areas, students choosing to enroll individually in courses at NECC for dual enrollment, and of course a continuous relationship for transfer from Whittier to NECC. While each piece of the partnership is wonderful, as partners, we believe now is the time to create a comprehensive program accessible to all students, especially students who are under-represented in higher education that attend Whittier. We will continue to apply for the Early College Designation to ensure that our students are provided as many educational opportunities as possible while actively working to close achievement and opportunity gaps throughout the process.
The budget for Early College is $50,820
FY21 budget item - Amount - Foundation CategoryELL Teacher - $123,159 - Classroom & Specialists Teachers, Employee BenefitsELA Tutors - $32,780 - Other Teaching ServicesSeal of Biliteracy Exam - $240 - Instructional MaterialsEvidence-based program identified by DESE: Early College ProgramSOA program categories: I - Developing additional pathways to strengthen college and career readinessCommitment 3: Monitoring Success with Outcome Metrics and Targets
What metrics will your district use to monitor success in reducing disparities in achievement among student subgroups? Select from the list DESE metrics or provide your own. (Please note that targets will be added to this section once SY 2020 data is released this fall.)
1) DESE outcome metrics:
✓ Access for ELL Results
✓ Number of Students Receiving the Seal of Biliteracy
✓ ELA mean SGP
2) Custom district metrics:
✓ Enrollment in Early College
Commitment 4: Engaging All Families
How will your district ensure that all families, particularly those representing the student subgroups most in need of support, have the opportunity to meaningfully engage with the district regarding their students’ needs?
Whittier Tech recognizes that family engagement is critical to ensuring successful outcomes for all students. Given our focus on student subgroups, it is particularly important that we find ways to effectively engage our families of our English Language Learner students.
We recognize that existing family engagement opportunities at our school may not be effective in reaching all families. Therefore, in addition to our ongoing family outreach we are also committing to continue and expand our Freshman Orientation day, Parent Night meetings, Title I Parent Meetings, SPED PAC Meetings, School Council, Access Parent Meetings, and Whittier Tech Booster Club. We will measure the engagement of families through their attendance and follow up with those families for feedback for the purpose of improving our outreach.
Please summarize your stakeholder engagement process, including specific groups that were engaged:
Whittier Tech included a variety of stakeholders to lead our community engagement efforts and to ensure broad and demographically representative participation. We engaged the following groups: students, parents, teachers, members of the community, the leadership team, both administrative and cluster leaders, and the school committee.