Accountability 05/06

Accountability Contract
2005-2006

Vancouver Island West School District 84

District Profile

Vancouver Island West School District 84 serves approximately 460 students in the District’s five schools. Three of the schools, Kyuquot, Zeballos, and Tahsis, are located in remote rural communities. Travel to these schools from the District Office in Gold River requires a commute by logging road of 1½ hours to Tahsis, 2½ hours to Zeballos and a four-hour commute to Kyuquot by logging road and water taxi. The District serves a diverse community which includes a significant First Nations enrollment of approximately 44%.

School District 84 includes the following schools:

· Captain Meares Elementary Secondary School, Tahsis:

· Kyuquot Elementary Secondary School, Kyuquot:

· Gold River Secondary School, Gold River:

· Ray Watkins Elementary School, Gold River:

· Zeballos Elementary Secondary School, Zeballos:

K-12

1-12

8-12

K-7

K-12

35 students

45 students

130 students

165 students

70 students

Each of the four communities served by Vancouver Island West School District 84 has a unique history and set of circumstances that have had an influence on each of our schools.

The communities of Gold River and Tahsis have undergone substantial changes as a result of once vibrant industries that have ceased operation in the past ten years. In Gold River, the closure of the pulp and paper mill and in Tahsis the closure of the sawmill brought about these changes. Captain Meares School in Tahsis, once the largest school in our District with an enrollment of 400+ students in Kindergarten to Grade 12, is today the District’s smallest school with 35 students. Each of the two schools in Gold River once had enrollments of 300 to 400 students. This year Gold River Secondary School has registered 130 students and Ray Watkins Elementary School, 165 students. The changes within these two communities and the resulting reduced student enrollments have had a significant impact on the schools which have included:

Diminished course offerings
Elimination or reduction of positions such as counsellors and librarians
Teachers assigned courses outside of their training and experience
Reduced teacher turnover
Reduced flexibility in staffing
Increased social issues caused by the loss of employment or relocation of families
Loss of support services in the school and the community
Significant change in the community demographics as management and skilled workers and their families left the community

The schools of both communities continue to face the challenges caused by these changes and seek to find successful options for the delivery of educational services for their students and community.

Approximately 25% of the enrollments of the two schools in Gold River are members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations. Captain Meares Elementary Secondary School has a very small enrollment of First Nations students with most traveling to school by water taxi from the community of Esperanza.

Zeballos Elementary Secondary School enrolls a student body which is predominantly First Nations and serves a community which is based on an economy of seasonal tourism, fish farms, fishing and logging. The location of the Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations near the community of Zeballos is a relatively recent development. Approximately 20 years ago, these two First Nations communities relocated from their settlements on the inlets to Zeballos so their children could attend school. In the past two years, the school has expanded to offer a K to 12 program but prior to this expansion, students were required to leave the community to continue their education beyond Grade 10. While the First Nations community recognizes the importance of education, schooling within its community is a recent development compared to most other communities. The need to develop practices and skills within the family which will develop and support their child’s learning is certainly evident.

Kyuquot Elementary Secondary School is located in our most remote community of Kyuquot which is accessible by air or water taxi. The majority of students enrolled are members of the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nation. The community faces major challenges with limited community capacity and employment opportunities. Community leaders express their concern for the students’ lack of hope and vision for their future. The opportunities that education will provide for one’s future is not a well established belief or value for many of the students. Other than the teachers and the nurse, there are few role models in the community who have pursued education to achieve a career goal.

Approximately 95-98% of the students in the schools in Zeballos and Kyuquot are of First Nations ancestry. The enrollment of Vancouver Island West School District 84 includes a significant number of First Nations students, most of whom reside on reserve. Our District and the local Education Committees completed a draft Enhancement Agreement at the end of the 2004-05 school year. The goals of this agreement have provided our District with the basis for our initiatives outlined in goal two.

Our District has a Local Education Agreement with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council which represents the Bands within our District. This agreement outlines the responsibilities of the Board and the Council in providing educational programs and services to the students of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations, the Ehattesaht First Nations, the Nuchatlaht First Nations and the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nation who reside on reserve.

Staff in the District includes a Superintendent of Schools/Secretary-Treasurer, a Human Resources Administrator, an Operations Supervisor, a 1.0 FTE District Special Education Coordinator, a 1.0 FTE Computer Technician, 2.0 FTE Administrative Assistants, 40.5 FTE Educators (includes Principals), and a 0.4 FTE Aboriginal Education Vice Principal who has responsibilities for programs and services in the two schools located in Gold River. The Education Support Staff in schools equals 22.25 FTE full and part-time employees and the Operations Support Staff equals 11 FTE full and part-time employees. In addition, our students are supported by Native Education Workers, positions which are jointly funded by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, the Nuchatlaht Band, the Ehattesaht Band and the District.

Goal 1

Goal statements help to focus priorities for improving student learning.

Objectives help to focus goals into more specific areas of attention.

· What specific goals have been chosen for improving student achievement?

· What objectives have you chosen to support your goals?

· How do the goals and objectives address student achievement for all students?

To improve reading and writing skills for all students at all grade levels.

Objective 1: To ensure 85% of K to 3 students meet or exceed expectations in reading and writing for their grade level.

Objective 2: To ensure 85% of Grade 4 to 7 students meet or exceed expectations in reading and writing for their grade level.

Objective 3: To ensure 85% of Grade 8 to 12 students meet or exceed expectations in reading and writing for their grade level.

Objective 4: To ensure all teachers contribute to the development of student literacy.

Rationale

Improving districts and schools have a thorough and connected set of reasons, based on evidence, for the selection of their student achievement goals.

· An assessment of students completed at the end of the 2004-05 and beginning of the 2005-06 school year indicate that 82% of the First Nations students need the support of an English Skills Development program.

· DART assessments completed in the 2004-05 school year indicate that at a minimum, 29% of our students do not meet expectations.

· FSA results for the past 6 years indicate that a substantial number of our students do not meet expectations in reading and to a lesser extent in writing.

Performance Indicators/Evidence

Schools should consider at least three sources of evidence including classroom, school, district and provincial data. Analysis of this evidence contributes to the decision to select a goal and enables the school and district to monitor progress.

· When setting your goals what data did you consider?

· What data did you find most useful?

· What did the data tell you about the achievement of all students?

· How are you disaggregating data to get a deeper understanding of what the evidence indicates?

· What did you observe when you considered your participation rates?

· How are you tracking data over time?

ESD enrollment	2005-06	First Nations Enrollment	%
K	4	4	1.000000
1	14	21	0.666667
2	16	19	0.842105
3	12	14	0.857143
4	8	9	0.888889
5	20	24	0.833333
6	15	16	0.937500
7	15	17	0.882353
8	20	23	0.869565
9	15	21	0.714286
10	18	23	0.782609
11	13	16	0.812500
12	9	16	0.562500
Total	179	223	0.819188

DART Assessment Results: Meeting or Exceeding and Minimally Meeting Expectations

		% M or Ex	% MM		% M or Ex	% MM
Grade	# students	Fall 04	Fall 04	# students	Spring 05	Spring 05
3	24	62.5	4	19	74	0
4	31	55.0	10	21	81	0
5	2	50.0	0	no report	no report	no report
6	15	60.0	0	16	87.5	0
7	33	75.0	0	27	93	0
8	31	39.0	29	25	44	6
9	36	50.0	27	32	62.5	4
10

FSA Results

Reading Comprehension: Meeting or Exceeding Expectations

Grade 4 District Results:

	99/00		00/01		01/02		02/03		03/04		04/05
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
All students	29	56	24	55	18	47	17	68	20	69		63
Female	16	73	15	63	8	47	7	70	10	63		58
Male	13	43	9	45	10	48	10	67	10	77		67
Aboriginal	0	0	3	20	3	21	1	13	1	20		38
Non Aboriginal	29	73	21	72	15	63	16	94	19	69

Grade 4 Provincial Results:

	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05
All students	79%	78%	80%	77%	80%	79%
Female	83%	81%	83%	80%	83%	78%
Male	76%	75%	77%	75%	78%	81%
Aboriginal	56%	55%	56%	57%	62%	61%
Non Aboriginal	81%	80%	82%	79%	82%

Grade 7 District Results:

	99/00		00/01		01/02		02/03		03/04		04/05
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
All students	38	60	31	76	18	41	19	49	12	33		53
Female	18	62	22	79	9	47	9	64	5	28		35
Male	20	59	9	69	9	36	10	40	7	39		71
Aboriginal	0	0	6	55	0	0	2	17	2	13		10
Non Aboriginal	29	73	25	83	18	60	17	63	10	48

Grade 7 Provincial Results:

	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05
All students	81%	76%	76%	77%	80%	77%
Female	84%	78%	79%	80%	84%	80%
Male	78%	74%	74%	73%	76%	73%
Aboriginal	56%	52%	52%	54%	59%	53%
Non Aboriginal	82%	77%	78%	78%	82%

Grade Four Writing

District Results:

	99/00		00/01		01/02		02/03		03/04		04/05
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
All students	NA	NA	38	86	29	73	21	91	23	85		58
Female	NA	NA	22	96	15	79	8	100	14	93		56
Male	NA	NA	16	76	14	67	13	87	9	75		59
Aboriginal	NA	NA	10	67	10	63	6	75	msk	msk		20
Non Aboriginal	NA	NA	18	97	19	79	15	100	21	91

Grade 4 Provincial Results:

	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05
All students	NA	91%	94%	94%	91%	90%
Female	NA	95%	96%	97%	95%	95%
Male	NA	87%	91%	91%	87%	85%
Aboriginal	NA	77%	84%	86%	77%	75%
Non Aboriginal	NA	92%	94%	94%	92%

Grade 7 District Results:

	99/00		00/01		01/02		02/03		03/04		04/05
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
All students	NA	NA	35	80	15	42	16	42	24	67		58
Female	NA	NA	25	81	11	65	9	56	14	82		56
Male	NA	NA	10	77	4	21	7	32	10	53		59
Aboriginal	NA	NA	6	50	0	0	1	11	6	43		20
Non Aboriginal	NA	NA	29	91	15	56	15	52	18	82

Grade 7 Provincial Results:

	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05
All students	NA	81%	84%	79%	90%	90%
Female	NA	90%	91%	87%	95%	95%
Male	NA	72%	78%	72%	84%	85%
Aboriginal	NA	61%	66%	62%	75%	75%
Non Aboriginal	NA	82%	86%	81%	91%

Strategies

Strategies are actions and activities at the classroom, school and district level that will contribute to the achievement of the goal and objectives.

· What instructional strategies are you using in your improvement efforts?

· What other strategies are you using?

· How did you determine the strategies to support your goals and objectives?

· How are you focusing your efforts on the schools or groups of students you are most concerned about?

· What staff development plans are in place to support your strategies?

· How are you monitoring the strategies and adapting or refining them as needed?

- Initiate a reading intervention program in all schools for students in

Kindergarten to Grade 3 who are not meeting expectations.

- Initiate an English Skills Development Program to address the literacy needs of the First Nations students Kindergarten to Grade 12.

- Continue the literacy intervention program established in three of our five schools.

- Involve all teachers in a program of staff development and professional development addressing literacy strategies (September 22/23, 2005).

- Provide financial assistance for teachers and teacher assistants to attend summer literacy institutes.

- Involve teachers and students of Grade 5 and 7 in a Grade Wide Write project and initiate a Grade Wide write at the Grade 3, 6, 8 and 9 level.

- Schools will continue to assess students using PM Benchmarks and DART with a continued emphasis to collate data on a District basis with review at the District and school level.

- Continue to involve the Principal and teacher leader of literacy from each school in a program of staff development and network of promising practice.

- A team of Principal and teacher representatives will attend the Leadership for Learning Academy and share the ideas gained through the District Literacy Team.

Structures

Structures are the resources, time and organization that will contribute to the achievement of the goal and objectives.

· What structural changes are in place/are you considering as a result of identifying areas for improvement?

· Tell us about any particular research that helped you make your decision.

· How are you monitoring your structures and adapting or refining them as needed?

· What promising practices from other schools or districts have you considered?

- A District Literacy Team has been established with a teacher leader and the Principal of each school. Role of this team is to share ideas, assist in the development of a District literacy plan and to identify needs for staff development.

- Provide schools with additional funds to purchase resources for school based literacy initiatives.

- Hire additional staff to implement the ESD and literacy intervention program.

- Structure an ongoing staff development program for the staff of the ESD program.

- Communicate with all staff regarding the need for and the gains being made in the ESD program and outline strategies that teachers can employ to support the students involved in the program.

- Three of our five schools continue with a school wide dedicated time for literacy instruction of approximately 30 to 50 minutes per day.

Performance Targets/Expected Results

Clearly articulated expectations for short and long term results support school and district planning for student achievement.

· What are your expected results/performance targets?

· How are you monitoring your results?

· How are you considering the results of all students?

· What results are you finding so far?

· Based on your results, what adjustments are you making?

· Have there been surprises or unexpected outcomes?

· Have you identified any new challenges?

- All students in the ESD early intervention program will progress by at least one year of reading level in the 2004-05 school year.

- To have all students meeting or exceeding expectations in reading comprehension and writing by 2010 as measured by the performance standards.

- To have all teachers demonstrate strategies used in their classroom that contribute to the development of student literacy.

Goal 2

Goal statements help to focus priorities for improving student learning.

Objectives help to focus goals into more specific areas of attention.

· What specific goals have been chosen for improving student achievement?

· What objectives have you chosen to support your goals?

· How do the goals and objectives address student achievement for all students?

To improve the success for all First Nations students.

Objective 1: To have the First Nations students in our schools experience the same level of success and achievement enjoyed by other students.

Objective 2: To have each of our schools embrace, embody and value the heritage and culture of the First Nations people.

Rationale

Rationale is a thorough and connected set of reasons, based on evidence, for the selection of student achievement goals.

· Why did you choose these goals and objectives?

· What specific groups of students are you most concerned about? How did you determine this?

Forty four percent of the District’s students are of First Nations ancestry. The level of achievement of these students and the presence of First Nations language and culture in our schools has been identified as the priorities of our Enhancement Agreement. The District must honour its commitment to this agreement by addressing these two issues.

Performance Indicators/Evidence:

· When setting your goals what data did you consider?

· What data did you find most useful?

· What did the data tell you about the achievement of all students?

· How are you disaggregating data to get a deeper understanding of what the evidence indicates?

· What did you observe when you considered your participation rates?

· How are you tracking data over time?

English Skills Development Enrollment:

Grade	2005-06	First Nations Enrollment	%
K	4	4	1.000000
1	14	21	0.666667
2	16	19	0.842105
3	12	14	0.857143
4	8	9	0.888889
5	20	24	0.833333
6	15	16	0.937500
7	15	17	0.882353
8	20	23	0.869565
9	15	21	0.714286
10	18	23	0.782609
11	13	16	0.812500
12	9	16	0.562500
Totals:	179	223	0.819188

- Completion rates for students enrolled in a program that will lead to a school graduation certificate, a Dogwood certificate, as well as those enrolled in a school completion program.

- Literacy levels as represented by Benchmarks, DART, FSA assessments and report card marks for language arts based on the use of the BC Performance Standards.

- Numeracy levels as represented by report card marks.

- Social responsibility as represented by a record of referrals for behavioural issues.

- Attendance reports for all students.

- Number of students registered in special programs.

- Number of students participating in extra curricular activities.

- Students identified as at risk socially or academically.

- Language and culture program activities.

- Number of conferences with parents and level of parent participation in the school.

- A review of the students’ presentation of their portfolios.

Results to report on:

	2005-06	reading	writing	numeracy	social responsibility	in support programs	parent participation	full promotion at year end
Enrollment		# nme	# nme	# nme	# nme
K Class 2005/06	K
K Class 2004/05	1
K Class 2003/ 04	2
K Class 2002/03	3
K Class 2001/02	4
K Class 2000/01	5
K Class 1999/00	6
K Class 1998/99	7
K Class 1997/98	8
K Class1996/97	9
K Class 1995/96	10
K Class 1994/93	11
K Class 1993/92	12

Strategies

Strategies are actions and activities at the classroom, school and district level that will contribute to the achievement of the goal and objectives.

· What instructional strategies are you using in your improvement efforts?

· What other strategies are you using?

· How did you determine the strategies to support your goals and objectives?

· How are you focusing your efforts on the schools or groups of students you are most concerned about?

· What staff development plans are in place to support your strategies?

· How are you monitoring the strategies and adapting or refining them as needed?

· What strategies or interventions are you finding promising?

- On a quarterly basis the First Nations Education Advisory Committee and staff with direct responsibility for First Nations education for each school will meet to review student performance indicators and program activities.

- An annual report will be compiled to record and represent this information and our progress towards the stated goals of this agreement.

- An annual meeting of all First Nations Education Advisory Committees will be held to share strategies, successes and experiences in addressing the goals of this agreement.

- The District will initiate an English Skills Development Program.

- The District will meet with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and the representatives of the Northern Tribes on a bi-monthly basis to review the initiatives being undertaken by the District and the Tribal Council to improve the achievement and esteem of the First Nations students in our District.

- School staff and members in each community will begin the development of a language and culture program with a goal of having an accredited language program.

- A representative of the District will become an active member of the Aboriginal Circle of Educators for Vancouver Island.

Structures

Structures are the resources, time and organization that will contribute to the achievement of the goal and objectives.

· What structural changes are in place/are you considering as a result of identifying areas for improvement?

· Tell us about any particular research that helped you make your decision.

· How are you monitoring your structures and adapting or refining them as needed?

· What promising practices from other schools or districts have you considered?

- A position of Vice Principal, Aboriginal Education, has been created for the 2005-06 school year.

- Quarterly meetings between each of the schools and the local Education Committees to review the achievement of the students.

- Initiatives being undertaken to implement the language and culture program.

- Bi-monthly meetings with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and Northern Chiefs.

- Each school will allocate a portion of the targeted funds to support the initiatives of the language and culture program.

- The organization of the ESD program.

- Use of targeted dollars to support the language and culture project.

Performance Targets/Expected Results

Clearly articulated expectations for short and long term results support school and district planning for student achievement.

· What are your expected results/performance targets?

· How are you monitoring your results?

· How are you considering the results of all students?

· What results are you finding so far?

· Based on your results, what adjustments are you making?

· Have there been surprises or unexpected outcomes?

· Have you identified any new challenges?

- Our first step will be to establish benchmarks in the identified areas for each grade cohort and to continue our efforts to work towards the accomplishment of our identified goals.

- All students in our ESD program will achieve at least one year’s gain in reading and writing levels.

- All parents of students placed in special programs or support programs will have been involved in meetings to review the needs of the student and provide their consent for the support.

- The schools of the District will have a basic language and culture program to implement in the instructional program for all students for the 2006-07 school year.

	2005-06	reading	writing	numeracy	social responsibility	in support programs	parent participation	year end promotion
Enrollment		# nme	# nme	# nme	# nme
K Class 2005/06	K
K Class 2004/05	1
K Class 2003/ 04	2
K Class 2002/03	3
K Class 2001/02	4
K Class 2000/01	5
K Class 1999/00	6
K Class 1998/99	7
K Class 1997/98	8
K Class1996/97	9
K Class 1995/96	10
K Class 1994/93	11
K Class 1993/92	12

Goal 3

Goal statements help to focus priorities for improving student learning.

Objectives help to focus goals into more specific areas of attention.

· What specific goals have been chosen for improving student achievement?

· What objectives have you chosen to support your goals?

· How do the goals and objectives address student achievement for all students?

To provide all students with access to a quality instructional program with a diversity of course offerings.

Objective 1: To provide all students in Grades 10 to 12 with an expanded course selection offering for the 2006-07 school year.

Objective 2: To develop a plan for all students to participate in a relevant on line learning exp