On 05/24/2021 Appleton Area School District Assistant Superintendent Steve Harrison reported to the Board of Education how student credit recovery efforts were going.
They currently have approximately 46 Graduation Coaches providing support to approximately 167 Senior. They also have Approximately 50 Credit Recovery Teachers providing support to approximately 276 students.
(Of note, the number of Graduation Coaches hasn’t changed much from a month ago, but the number of Credit Recovery Teachers has doubled from the 20-25 that were participating a month ago.
Also of note, per the Wisconsin DPI website, the total fall third Friday count for students at Appleton’s three high schools was 4,133. 27.6% of students had at least one F on their first semester report card which would be approximately 1,140 students. 20.1% had at least one incomplete which would be approximately 830 students. The approximately 443 students receiving Graduation Coach and Credit Recovery Teacher services works out to 38.9% of students who had at least one F on their first semester report card. There was no mention made during the presentation as to whether those remaining students had declined services or had not been offered services.)
Superintendent Harrison did note that 1,228 incomplete and failing grades had been recovered across all three high schools. Approximately 80% of incompletes had been converted into passing letter grades.
He reviewed the three Credit Recovery Options available to students following the second semester. As he stated “We recognize that not one single pathway may necessarily be the right fit for any one student.”
1. Credit Recovery Through Summer School
AASD, as normal, is offering summer school courses from June 14-July 2. They looked at data to see what course areas had the highest number of F’s and incompletes and made sure that their summer school course offerings were aligned with that.
2. Credit Rescue For Incompletes Issued At The End of 2nd semester
This had originally been scheduled to be available June 5-June 30 but had been extended through mid-July. Students can work with a number of teachers both virtually and in-person to finish incomplete courses and convert them into letter grades.
3. Credit Recovery In-Person/Hybrid Through Edgenuity Platform
The third option was a mix of in-person support with Alternative Education staff and online support through the Edgenuity platform. This will be available for students at North, West, and East high schools as well as Central. This option is aimed at providing additional flexibility that perhaps wouldn’t be available with the traditional summer school option that has a set, scheduled time for summer school.
They are also offering summer school opportunities for Elementary and Middle school students.
Both of these will be delivered in-person with mitigation strategies in place. The focus will be on Math and English Language Arts readiness as well as providing enrichment opportunities that they had not been able to offer during the regular school year.
He stated that their plan for the 2021-22 school year was to provide fully in-person instruction 5 days per week for all grade levels. Students who want a virtual option can utilize the established online options of Wisconsin Connection Academy and Appleton eSchool.
He then opened the floor up for questions.
Board member Deb Truyman said it was great to see this many students were recovering credits. She wanted to know if the grade score students needed to achieve to pass the class had been adjusted at all or if any adjustment had been made to the standards of what resulted in an A vs a B vs C, etc.
Superintendent Harrison said that the District Leadership Team had worked hand-in-hand with the administrative teams at the highschools to look at additional ways that students with incompletes could demonstrate necessary learning. They focused on (1) what are the essential targets/components of a given course and (2) what were some different ways that a student working with a Graduation Coach or Credit Recovery Teacher could demonstrate what they had learned. He said that during the school year, that demonstration might have been through a paper/pencil assessment. Perhaps now it could happen through a performance based type of activity or through a verbal demonstration of understanding. They were trying to provide flexibility to both students and staff through the different opportunities in place.
Deb said that made a lot of sense. Her other question was regarding returning to full in-person instruction in the fall. She wanted to know if that meant the length of the school day would return to normal at the high school level. She saw a post on social media that referenced a potential shift and she wondered if, as a Board member, she should have been aware of that.
Superintendent Ben Vogel said that they absolutely had in mind a return to 5 full days of in-person instruction for the upcoming school year. They were not looking at any “major” changes to their 8 period day. However, they’ve had a design team looking to see how they could fully maximize the high school bell schedule.
DPI requires they provide 68,220 instructional minutes every year, but, with that in mind, they were trying to see how they could have a consistent bell schedule across all three high schools. Historically, they’ve all had different bell schedules. Having a set schedule across the high schools would allow for planning opportunities for teachers as well and opening up opportunities for teachers and staff to work across buildings. They also wanted to provide individual student support opportunities.
They’ve had a team working on this for the last several months. They want a consistent bell schedule and weekly PLC [which I’m assuming means “Professional Learning Community”] time for staff members because they require a lot of their staff. In some cases there may only be one teacher in a building who teaches a subject so a consistent schedule may allow that single teacher to get together with others in another building and talk about how they can provide the best instruction for students in their classes.
Deb thanked him for his answer and thought the idea made sense. She said she thought it was important for her to know that now so that, when she got questions about it, she would have more answers.
Board President Kay Eggert asked him, in light of numerous pointed questions they had received about this, to clarify that the change in bell schedule and opportunities for PLC time and student support time would not impact the total instructional minutes for the students.
Superintendent Vogel confirmed that, no, it would not. DPI very clearly outlines the number of instructional minutes and those will look the same as they did before the pandemic.
He stated that another piece he didn’t mention was that they’ve known for some time that a later start time for older students is beneficial. They were trying to figure that out, but that was a broader conversation that they wanted to have that would include students and parents.
View full meeting details here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C2XR5Q6924F4
View video of meeting here: https://youtu.be/5NXF8QRZPiU
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