Staff Forms Culture Team

The school has recently established the Academic Culture Implementation Team, a group of teachers whose chief goal is to improve the academic culture of the school. The team, formed at the start of second semester, aims to ensure that students are adequately prepared for college.

According to Physics teacher Adam Randall, a member of the Academic Culture Implementation Team, the team was created after the school reported to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) its intent to create teams of teachers, staff administrators and administrative assistants who will tackle issues seen on campus.

“Groups of staff [members] meet on Wednesday afternoons to brainstorm issues that they’re passionate about or possible problems we should be focusing on,” Randall said. “We try to come up with some sort of plan to change the school for the better.”

The central goal of the team includes improving the level of academic performance by raising the Accountability Performance Index (API) score to at least 900 points.

The team plans to access the school database in order to find correlations between student GPA’s and scores on standardized tests.

One of these tests includes the Early Assessment Program (EAP), a test taken by juniors to measure their readiness for college-level study. According to the study, 59 percent of students last year did not demonstrate college readiness in college-level English and 31 percent did not demonstrate college readiness in college-level Math.

Randall believes that this may be a result of grade inflation.

“We must find the balance between awarding students with the highest grades possible that ensure their ability to compete with others, but at the same time guarantee that they’re academically and intellectually prepared for the rigorous coursework at colleges,” Randall said.

The group hopes to convince students to take testing more seriously. It is looking into a system in which teachers can phone or email parents of students who fail to complete homework assignments on time. It also aims to contact college-level teachers to find out what skills are necessary in college so that students can transition more effectively.