1. June 6, 2012

2.  Clarify the facts  Describe breadth of root causes  Provide an overview of interventions  Review speculations about academic achievement at TJ  Next steps  Q&A – index cards  Exit slip suggestions – index cards

3.  Students  Teachers  Administrators  Parents  Counselors  Staff  FCPS Officials

4.  The math performance of the Class of 2015 is lower than previous years, although not by SOL “pass advanced” standards  15% recommended for the “watchlist” compared to 8%  Down to 11% (2015) and 7% (2014) this quarter  This might be a one year anomaly  We have used some four year trends to identify patterns in students “at risk” – another 15%  We have many interventions in place  99.5% success rate due to teacher, counselor, administrator, and parent support

5.  Admissions criteria and test difficulty  Acceleration of math curriculum grades 3-8  TJ regarded as a “prep” school rather than a STEM school  SoLs don’t emphasize problem solving  The meaning of an “A” from middle school varies  Lack of study skill development  Instructional approaches to challenge all students adequately  Setting accountability standards that might be too high  Parent and peer pressures to accelerate

6.  8 th period open tutoring: (W/F)  8 th period small group “stickies” (M)  8 th period peer-tutoring (M)  8 th period study skills sessions  Individual meetings with counselor and teacher  Preassessment for SOL readiness with review of trouble spots

7.  Watchlist if cumulative unweighted GPA is below 3.3  Individual student plans created by counselor, teachers, admin, parent, student  Address study skills, work habits, tutoring, etc.

8.  Meeting with principal to review progress and offer suggestions

10. SpeculationMy thoughts  Students admitted to TJ define our school success  TJ standards have declined  Nature and nurture both count  TJ diploma, “frosting” in curriculum, “decoration” affected by variability in performance

11. This metric is based solely on the ratio of number of APs: the total enrollment of students for a single year and does not account for differences in four year schools to two-year academies or APs taken during sophomore or junior year.

12. SpeculationMy thoughts  New teachers have lower grades than other teachers.  TJ has remedial classes  Consistent grade distributions  All math/science classes are honors level, we offer remedial support to lift students

13. SpeculationMy thoughts  Students are not prospering like they did in the “good ole days”  The interest to attend TJ has changed  Students who earn B’s and C’s don’t belong here  Standardized metrics exceptionally high, research advancement, increase in junior AB calculus enrollment  US News ranking, perceived college gateway  We provide intervention support. Students not meeting the 3.0 average often have C’s, D’s, and F’s in math/science

14.  Opening two extra help sessions before final exams: June 6 from 6-8pm, and June 9 from 8am- 12pm in Rm 243.  Distributing an end-of-year survey to students to obtain a representative sample of good experiences as well as ideas for improvement  Posting online modules for summer practice based on the final exam item analysis  Recommending students take the FCPS online trigonometry course if they did not perform well in 4 th quarter algebra II/trig  Making a commitment for unified Blackboard resources next year in algebra II/trig

15.  Providing an online algebra diagnostic assessment over the summer, and then offering a boot camp based on results  Issuing a pre-assessment to algebra II/trig students in the fall to provide interventions before grades are released  Piloting a new instructional model – “flipping the classroom” – to provide attention to wide variability in student readiness  Parent-based support systems - TBA  School district officials dialogues to address root causes and policy changes - TBA

16.  All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them but confront them - Admiral William Halsey