Preparing Career Ready Graduates

• Culture
• School environment and culture were welcoming to visitors, supportive, colleagial,
• Schools were focused on achieving their vision, and the staff were all moving toward a common focus
• Classroom Learning
• Every classroom had "Objectives, Purpose, and Agenda" on the board
• Standards based
• Depth of learning is more important than breadth
• Real world application, learning opportunities and projects
• Students develop character and competencies for college and career success such as presentation skills, teamwork, problem-solving, communicating with adults/teachers/instructors, leadership,
• Professional Learning
• Collaboration time for teachers.  Every morning at HTH as well as once a week in the afternoon.  2.5 hours per week at CVLCC. 
• Teachers focus on student projects, discuss student needs
• Teachers collaborate in teams
• Principals respect professional development time, let teachers focus on instruction, project and students rather than logistics or management issues
• Partnerships
• Business leaders, community, industry experts come and teach and volunteer
• Student Achievement
• All of these schools are more focused on student learning, project-based learning, student development, etc....than test scores, yet, at the same time, their test scores are high or rising, 
• CVLCC was in PI a few years ago with an API in the 500's.  They know have an API of 853.  They had a statewide rank of 3 and a similar school rank of 1 just three years ago.  They no have an statewide rank of 7 and a similar school rank of 10.
• There is a strong beleif that teaching students through real-world learning will lead to higher student achievement and learning without having to focus specifically on student achievement
• While achievement is important, talking to teachers about test scores does not engage or inspire their passion.
• Second language is not a barrier but an asset and an opportunity. 
• At CVLCC, 53% of their students speak spanish as a first language
• They teach a 50-50 dual immersion program (GLAD school)

Are there other schools, closer to Fresno, which we can visit?

How will it look, does it make sense, what does it feel like, how might it work in our schools, how do we get there?

What we need to do for Project SUCCEED

• Teachers need to be on board
• Teachers need to be included in the planning
• Teachers who have been involved with the Project SUCCEED planning and come on site visits need to be involved in leading teacher presentations and planning as we move Project SUCCEED forward.  We need to have them help drive the ideas.
• Future planning for Project SUCCEED needs to include all of the people who have been coming on site visits. 
• More site visits!  Seeing these schools is probably one of the best ways to get teachers and site leaders excited about new possibilities.  We need to get more teachers from our schools to come and see schools like these.
• Need to provide teachers time for collaboration
• Teachers need to see, read, and discuss research on these best practices
• Sustainability is key.  Project Succeed can just be another thing to do.
• It will take years to make sustainable changes
• Need to communicate with parents and involve them in the planning
• A Westside focus could be a valuable method for making this more than just another thing.  We need to establish a core focus with a clearly defined set of design principles for West Fresno Schools, and then allow schools to differentiate or develop programs to achieve those goals.
• We need to ask teachers what they need to improve student learning
• We need to find a way to articulate a K-13 plan, even though we dont have a middle school currently for all Westside students in West Fresno.

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