Tuscarora High School

Loudoun County Public Schools

Comprehensive Needs Assessment - Executive Summary

801 North King Street Leesburg, VA. 20176

571-252-1900

www.lcps.org/Tuscarora

Mrs. Pamela Croft

LCPS School Profile

Virginia School Quality Profile

School Improvement Plan

The major initiative for our school this year continues to be Personalized Learning (PL) as the primary method for the delivery of instruction.  The school’s PL team continues to develop and deliver professional development to the staff regarding “best practices” for incorporating PL into their instruction. Personalized learning strategies consist of these four core strategies: Flexible Content and Tools, Targeted Instruction, Data Driven Decisions, and Student Reflection and Ownership.

The school offers several programs designed to support the students’ academic, behavioral, and/or social emotional needs, especially during this time of distance and hybrid learning.  Our Husky Support Team (HST) meets twice a month to discuss the needs of students who have attendance issues, have disengaged in distance learning, or demonstrate a need for extra support. The HST includes administrators, counselors, the school psychologist, social worker, attendance secretary, nurse, parent liaison, and attendance officer.  The team discusses students in grades 9 and 10 during the first meeting of the month and students in grades 11 and 12 during the second meeting of the month.  In addition, the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) committee meets monthly to review and analyze school discipline data to identify students in need of behavioral support.  

During the 2020-2021 school year, all students will start their synchronous instructional days with an Advisory lesson where teachers will have opportunities to connect with the same groups of students over a specific lesson of the day.  These advisory lessons focus on supporting students’ academic success, addressing behavioral needs, incorporating Sources of Strength to address social emotional needs, increasing students’ connection with the school community while in distance learning, among other important topics.  

        Teachers and students are further empowered with extended learning opportunities through the creative use of new technologies and digital resources.  These resources further enhance the implementation of Personalized learning and create greater student engagement in distance learning.  These resources include Schoology, Jamboard, Padlet, Desmos, and a variety of digital assessment tools for students to demonstrate their learning and share their thinking.  

During the school day, students have the opportunity to extend their learning through Learning Labs for each instructional block and Study Hall. Learning Labs are 20 minute blocks in which students needing additional assistance may meet with their teachers to discuss academic progress and concerns and to receive additional support. During the Study Hall block, students have time to seek specific support, complete assignments, receive additional help, and work on enrichment activities.  Content specific labs, such as Math Lab, Reading Lab, Writing Lab, Science Lab, are available during Study Hall blocks.  Students are able to check into their Study Hall block and then “check into” a content specific lab for targeted support in a specific content area.  

Based on the school climate surveys and the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA), the data showed several areas of strength.  

• Perceptual data shows that students feel safe in their school environment. Advisory groups are intentionally designed where students, as a group, stay with their same Advisory teacher for 4 years.  With Advisory scheduled at the beginning of each synchronous day, teachers and students are able to build strong trusting relationships and serve as a consistent part of distance learning.  
• Our faculty views the strong staff collaboration skills as a strength.  Master schedules are intentionally designed to include protected time for Collaborative Learning Teams (CLTs) to meet consistently and collaborate to design and improve instruction and assessment practices.  
• Parents appreciate how well the staff works with our diverse student body.  The school team supports families and community needs with various events including monthly food distribution, EL family connections, and the Backpack coalition, to name a few.  Several programs are also in place to empower students.  The PEER program empowers students by coaching them in communication and basic counseling skills so that they are able to better support and help their peers.  The AVID program empowers students by preparing them for college readiness and success in a global society.  The AVID program has been very successful and there are continued opportunities to grow this program.  
• Increased ability and comfort level among staff and students in using online and multimedia skills.
• Analysis of discipline data revealed a continued strength in the relatively low rate of discipline incidents, specifically suspensions.
• Analysis of the attendance data shows an improvement in the overall absentee rate from 15% to 12%. This represents a 3% decrease in the absentee rate for our student body overall.
• Analysis of SOL data revealed that English reading scores exceeded the target for students in the subgroups of Black/African American students and students with disabilities. In Math, SOL scores exceeded the target for students in the subgroups of Hispanic students, students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students.  Intentional use of assessment programs, like iReady, and targeted interventions support student growth.
• The graduation target rates were met in 5 of the 8 demographic groups. This has been attributed to strong academic supports in and out of the classroom.  These supports include teacher collaboration in CLTs with intentional focus on Personalized Learning,  targeted interventions included in the development of Individualized Intervention Plans, and interventions from the Husky Support Team (HST), where students needing support are identified and provided resources.

Based on the school climate surveys and the CNA, the data revealed several opportunities for growth.  

• Strategies and supports to engage and re-engage students in the distance learning environment.   Analysis of attendance data showed that discipline incidents relating to attendance (skipping class) continue to be the most significant area where students need continued support.  While the work of the HST continues, distance learning has been challenging for many.  
• Perception data indicates that students would like to see more recognition from staff.  While the distance learning environment appears to create limitations on our traditional ways of recognizing students, staff can work to explore other means to acknowledge students for their accomplishments, recognize students for their efforts, and motivate students to persevere.  Positive reinforcement can occur more frequently with individual students or small groups of students.  More intentional and specific feedback can be provided to reinforce specific student behaviors.  
• Process data indicates that there is a need for continuous improvement to create a more engaging authentic learning environment for students, which includes growing our capacity to implement Personalized Learning (PL) and Project Based Learning (PBL).  An intentional focus to improve instructional practices during CLTs, department meetings, and professional learning opportunities will help us improve in these areas.  
• While AVID has been successful at Tuscarora, there is still room for us to grow and increase our impact.  
• Analysis of the attendance data showed that the absentee rate for Hispanic and EL increased significantly during the 2018-19 school year.  Analysis of graduation rate data showed English Learners are graduating at a rate more than 24% lower than the next lowest group, students who are economically disadvantaged.  While the 2020-2021 school year is an unusual year, we will continue to focus energies to re-engage students, increase student attendance in distance learning, and provide resources to support increased on-time graduation rates among all student groups.