Seattle Public Schools Creative Approach Schools Application

Application Due to Joint Committee Amended Proposal Submitted October 12, 2012

The Creative Schools Approach (Innovation Schools) as described in Article II of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (2110 2113)

SEA and SPS will develop and negotiate a process, approved by both parties, that will allow agreed upon schools to be able to apply for broad exceptions from SPS policies and collective bargaining agreements in return for enhanced autonomy and accountability. The process designed will include how schools qualify and from which SPS policies and collective bargaining agreement sections schools may be exempted.

Name of School: Nova High School/The Nova Project

Principal:

Dr. Mark Perry

2 1. Start-up Date: When will your Creative Approach School begin? Novas inquiry instruction and learning approach as seen in our classroom, committee, experiential learning, school without walls, and independent studies structures have long supported reflective, radical transformation of our learning environment to best serve the needs of our students (Dewey, 1938). This perpetual transformation has always included staff, student, and parent voices. With the Creative Approach School proposal and process, we are deepening our intentionality around meaningful competency and inquiry-based learning that emphasizes culturally relevant and responsive curriculum and instruction, social and environmental justice and the arts with a specific and intentional focus on supporting the growth and success of students of color and marginalized, underrepresented, and historically disenfranchised students (hooks, b. 1994). Education at its best responds to diversity with respect, affection, and insight. (Marcus, n.d. as cited in Madian, 2010) We will put into practice the initial structural changes to support our Creative Approach design in fall, 2013. How does our CAS proposal differ from our current practice? Summary Abstract: Nova will consolidate its current model and move to a 7-12 model and includes both middle school and high school components. Experience in Seattle Public Schools and research validate the challenges and trauma a poor middle school experience produces and SPS graduation rates continue to reflect a definitive gap in student success between white students and students of color and historically disenfranchised students that has shown little change over the past three decades (Came & Ireland, 2012; Shannon & Bylsma, 2003). Novas CAS proposal incorporates cognitive and non-cognitive instructional and non-instructional pedagogies and personalization structures that have shown to be effective in dramatically reducing the achievement and opportunity gaps evident in SPS schools. The balance between instruction and personalization is the key component and, as outlined in the following proposal, Nova is attempting to make a qualitative leap in serving all students and modeling for other urban schools the effectiveness of inquiry and competency-based instruction leading to the reduction and elimination of all gaps based on race and socio-economics within a social justice framework rooted in research and informed practice (Hess, 1995).

2. Give an Overview of your Creative Approach School Design: Nova is a school dedicated to socially constructed learning experiences that focus on what is meaningful and worth knowing for students and staff. We strive to build strong, safe and socially just communities inside and outside of our school walls. We believe learning looks different for each person and thus should be a flexible and malleable personalized process driven by the learner with support and guidance from caring mentors and other learners (Clarke, 2003). At Nova, students and staff are both learners and teachers. We work to find balance between personalization and community responsibility. The goal is for all students, with a specific and concentrated focus with students of color and historically disenfranchised, low-income, and socially impacted students, to achieve success academically, socially, and emotionally. We will continue to stress

3 the importance of looking at issues, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation to move the question from do these issues matter to yes, they matter; this may seem like a small semantic issue, but it is the foundational key to tackling, decreasing, and eliminating the achievement gap for any student negatively impacted by institutional racism and other contributing institutional oppressions (Ladson-Billings 1995). Historically, Nova has served populations of high school students who prefer a more personalized educational experience where choice is an expected dynamic from both student and teacher. Many students at Nova do not conform to the mold required to succeed at traditional comprehensive high schools, including the negative impact of decades of institutional racism (Watkins, 2001; Wagner, 2010) . Through informal and anecdotal qualitative queries, it is clear that many of our students would have preferred a Nova middle school experience as well. Some of our students come to us ready for the Nova experience. Most, however, require an initiation and induction process to orient them away from a traditional paradigm toward an inquiry paradigm. Too many of our students have had unsuccessful schooling experiences that have included bullying, alienation, inequitable and unfair categorizations and disciplinary procedures, and/or counseling that has effectively pushed them out of their comprehensive high schools based on subjective and biased assumptions. A new component we would like to address is to reach students during their middle school years. This could help these students be better able to succeed in high school and transition out of Nova career and college ready as active participants for a just and humane world. What follows is an overview of Novas Creative Approach School Designs essential structures at the 3, 5, and 7-year benchmark stages. Structures Nova nurtures and grows students already in various stages of development; metaphorically speaking, we nurture and grow the blooming of students starting at their point of entry. It is clear that we could make a deeper, more meaningful impact were we able to begin nurturing and growing students as seeds in their middle school years. Many of the proposed structures and benchmarks that follow are deeply connected to this direction. By Year 3: Nova will have recruited and developed a middle school component gradually transitioning students into grades 7 and 8, which will ultimately consist of students in grades 7, 8, 9. We are open to considering starting with 6th grade, but based on adolescent research and precedent (Walker, 2005), we would prefer to set up a joint 7, 8, 9 section and a 10, 11, 12 section with fluidity with and between the two sections. We will have created a school schedule, such as an extended school day (Time, Learning, and After School Task Force, 2007), to meet the needs of our student population. We are initially proposing a school day that goes from 8 am to 6 pm with staff allocated to the times that most serve to guarantee success for students. Weve also discussed the idea of an 8-8 scheduled to best accommodate the greatest number of students. It is well established that early morning is not necessarily the most effective

4 learning time for adolescents. We anticipate that there would be a middle time in the day when most of the students would be at Nova, some starting earlier, some later. We will have hired an Assistant Principal based on need and increased student numbers. We will have expanded our support systems (Crisis Team, Social Worker UW/SU partnership). We will have included a Senior Culminating Collaborative Social Justice Action Project as a graduation requirement (see Miles Horton and the Highlander Folk School, now Highlander Research and Education Center at: http://highlandercenter.org/) We will have advanced our work on developing scaffolded benchmark thresholds based on the following competencies: academic, transitional/vocational, community/identity, and social justice. By Year 5: Nova will have created and implemented a fully operational action/social justice-based middle school/high school experience that is non-graded, competency, inquiry, project, and problem-based. We will have set up wraparound support services for students (Crisis Team, Social Worker, Transition Coordinator, Nurse, teen health center). We will have refined and solidified our scaffolded benchmark thresholds based on the following competencies: academic, transitional/vocational, community identity, and social justice. Nova high school students will be co-teaching classes for middle school students with certified teachers. We will work to develop an active pre-service teacher preparation component that also serves as a Seattle Public Schools professional development site. This will include university partners and teachers in training, possible partnering with the newly established Seattle Urban Teacher Residency. By Year 7: Nova will have implemented a fully functional School Without Walls (SWOW) component, partnering with local farms and social justice organizations for action-based school programs (e.g. urban farms, sustainable/living buildings). We will have fully implemented a coherent 7-12 educational experience with benchmarks, competencies, and electronic portfolios with narrative transcripts, in addition to the traditional SPS transcript.

5 3. Creative Approach characteristics: Please give explicit detail and elements of your design plan. Based upon the above overview and framework, the elements and processes of our design plan are detailed below: Elements Inquiry and Competency-Based Education and Action Nova will develop and implement a fully functional non-graded competency, inquiry, project, and problem-based teaching and learning system. Currently, it is difficult to be compliant with SPS curriculum mandates. We are constricted by the SPS transcript that doesnt adequately describe the courses, competencies, and work successfully completed by students. Additionally, seat-time mandates, that have been partially mitigated by Novas Alternative Learning Experience status, are in contradiction to the essence of a competency and inquiry-based pedagogy and curricula. As a creative approach school we will be developing and implementing ways to make the non-graded competency, inquiry, project, and problem-based teaching and learning system central to all aspects of our school design (Stephenson, 2011). We want to dramatically expand this system to include all course work and to develop competencies related to community involvement, social justice, identity, life skills, and transitions after high school. We intend to incorporate noncognitive skills (as recently highlighted in Paul Toughs, How Children Succeed; his research focuses on the critical relationship between cognitive and non-cognitive learning and how these skills have not been honored nor taught to students who have traditionally not been successful in school, specifically low income and students of color). Our intention is to create more formal scaffolding of both cognitive and non-cognitive competency-based benchmarks and thresholds and increase the coherence of each students entire middle school and high school experiences and careers. Through inquiry and competency-based education and action, Nova will move fully away from the age/grade paradigm and focus on meeting each student where they are academically, cognitively, non-cognitively, socially, developmentally, and emotionally in a multi-age middle and high school structure. Coor/Advisories: Balancing Instruction and Personalization One of the keys to student success at Nova is the balance and relationship between instruction and personalization. Coor is the name of the personalized advisory system that is at the heart of Nova. It serves a number of essential functions from governance, to community building; from orientation to social justice. It also serves as the schools primary source for communication and action. Communication, technology, community involvement, and coherence have all surfaced as significant and necessary places to grow. We are currently engaged in a process to evaluate and improve our internal systems of communication to start this growth. We anticipate making changes in Fall, 2013 based on what we learn. Additionally, we will develop and incorporate into this initiative an ongoing evaluation process to assess if these changes are meeting our goals. One area we need to improve is the training and ongoing professional development of teachers who serve as advisors and the need to address substantive issues, such as secondary trauma, that are not

6 traditionally address in teacher preparation or school district professional development (van Dernoot-Lipsky, 2009). This ongoing process includes students, staff, and families. Possible changes include re-evaluating how classes are structured and offered, how classes are created, training for students in teaching classes, leadership training, committee times and offerings, school wide physical activity and literacy initiatives, change in the structure of our social justice activities and times, curricularbased study halls, interdisciplinary classes, school without walls and changing to a combination quarter and semester system, something possible within a fully implemented competency-based credit structure. Collaboration and Community As stated above and elaborated below, Novas ongoing, organic transformation is dependent on purposeful and intentional collaboration among staff, students, families, the district, and local community organizations. Community partnerships are critical in our ability to support students. A fundamental component to our Creative Approach plan is a commitment to deepen our capacity to give back and grow aspects of our school, neighborhood and surrounding communities through project-based, action-oriented, real-life, social justice educational opportunities and experiences. We believe in building and sustaining a compassionate and caring community within our school and being active partners in the larger Seattle and Seattle Public Schools communities. Details of community partnerships can be found in the following section, Section 4. Documentation of Learning and Assessments Any assessment is only as good as the action that arises from it (James, 1998). We are proposing to radically change how we document learning and the type and style of student transcripts to make them more accurate, coherent, and relevant to the actual learning experiences of students. We will develop and use a system that incorporates: Student electronic portfolios that chronicle the entirety of a students learning at Nova; Narrative transcripts; Electronic graduation portfolios for all seniors; State and national standards, as well as common core standards, as the basis of our competency system; Standards-based assessments that meet and/or exceed national standards and pass our internally-established standard of meaning and relevance. We will develop and beta test an electronic, multi-dimensional competencies wheel that allows students to identify competencies met, the level at which the competencies have been met, in which classes specific competencies are accessible, and how to incorporate multiple competencies into their individual learning portfolios.

7 We want to develop a web-based library of exemplary student work that will serve as a portal for students to view examples of projects, essay, research, book projects, and other student applications of course activities that reflect high levels of creativity and engagement. Congruent with this process, we want to establish a lib guide boilerplate where every teacher can create web-based lib guides for every class. These will include basic class information, such as the course objectives, syllabus, outcomes, and assignments. It will also include links to sources and resources applicable to the specific course. Depending on the course, the lib guides can be interactive; they can be updated continually, and can include course blogs and student conversation rooms moderated by the teacher. Additionally, we want to expand the initial flip teaching project created by a Nova math teacher. She created a series of mini-lectures/presentations available online for students who need want to move ahead more quickly or who need a refresher on a specific math concept. We would like to expand the concept of flip teaching throughout our curricula, making the flip teaching videos available to students at Nova, students at other schools, including student taught flip lessons, and to create inquiry teaching flip teaching videos and modules for new teachers and teachers in other schools. Authentic Student Leadership We will increase the development of student leadership through the training of current and new staff, in course evaluation and feedback to teachers and coordinators, in deciding what kind of classes will be offered, and in the knowledge and skills needed from new hires, as well as training in teaching classes and leadership. A specific and intentional emphasis will be focused on training students of color and historically disenfranchised students. We will bring in trainers representing communities not normally represented in schools in cooperation with parents, families, and students. Nova Teacher Preparation and Professional Development We are interested in establishing Nova as a model for teacher preparation and ongoing instructional professional development. Nova would become a training/preparation site for prospective and new teachers based on our competency, inquiry, and project and problem-based pedagogy and curricula. In numerous research studies, it has been shown that that in urban schools this type of methodology and structure effectively decreases the achievement gap and serves to support the success of all students with no ceiling on learning (Delpit, 2006, 2012). Processes Participatory Action Research We want to create and establish a reflective and problem solving process that models for students personal, collective, and systems change. This process is rooted in a long history of action research in education and schools. It is an inquiry process that creates a spiral of discovery and collection of data based in everyday practice leading to a collaborative cycle of reflection, change, and re-entry into the inquiry process. We anticipate this will involve teachers, staff, students, and families.

Inquiry-Based Processes The power of an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning is its potential to increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and research-based disposition towards teaching and learning. Inquiry honours the complex, interconnected nature of knowledge construction, striving to provide opportunities for both teachers and students to collaboratively build, test and reflect on their learning. (Stephenson, n.d.) Inquiry processes are a foundational piece of teaching and learning at Nova. We have used the inquiry process as a way to identify the essential aspects of our school that we do not want to lose while crafting and becoming a new creative approach school. We are using the same type of process to identify the aspects of our school we want to improve and change in our CAS proposal. We will also create an inquiry process that will establish criteria to evaluate the success of the changes and the structure and format of our CAS proposal over the first three years and beyond. Shared Decision-Making Shared decision-making and student voice within a democratic school (Dewey, 1916) are essential to the success of our program. Due to cuts, building closures, RIFs and union issues that prohibited student voice in teacher evaluations, many of the places where students had meaningful voice at Nova have been lost over the last few years. In being a creative approach school we will be reviving and expanding student voice into all aspects of the school. Sustainability We have several sustainability related initiatives that we anticipate starting as part of the creative approach school process. We are building strong partnerships with outside organizations to create internships for students including work on sustainability projects within our building. We propose creating a sustainability vocational track of classes that will include farming and cooking healthy organic foods with the mission of having this healthy food option available for students and staff to eat regularly. The heart of our sustainability initiative will be within our instructional and personalization system combined with the new structures that we will create to document student progress and success, student electronic portfolios that document student work and completion of competencies, and a Nova narrative transcript. 4. Parent and Community Involvement: How are parents and community members involved in the development of this plan? Our Creative Approach School plan is being developed through a series of community meetings involving staff, students, and parents. In total, over 100 meetings have been held since last Spring to discuss becoming a creative approach school.

The staff met numerous times during the 2011-12 school year and at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year to discuss the challenges and needs of our current school. This led to the identification of new intentionalities and helped us craft processes for community input. During these same times, students in numerous classes created and shared different designs for a future Nova. Similar discussions were regularly held in coor (advisory) groups and committees, always including students and staff and often including parents. During spring 2012, two days of classes were dedicated to Creative Approach design development, followed by two hour-long sets of schoolwide meetings to collect, synthesize, and further develop potential designs. Community-wide meetings, each three hours long and open to staff, students, and parents, were held on four subsequent Wednesday mornings to develop our plan. Discussions within classes, committees, and coor groups also continued through the spring. The most recent meeting with the Nova parent community to present our CAS proposal was held on October 9, 2012. What motivated our staff to select this Creative Approach Schools approach? As noted above, the Nova staff met numerous times during the 2011-12 school year and at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year to discuss the challenges and needs of our current school. Staff has experienced a frustration with both district and SEA limitations in serving our students in the best ways possible. We currently have to work within the constraints of district mandated curricula and schedules and SEA mandated policies that do not allow for student input in teacher evaluations. Nova staff believes they can better serve our students and want to be held to a higher level of accountability so they can have more flexibility and freedom to create relevant, innovative, and engaging curricula with students having an active voice in evaluating instruction and participating in co-creating classes with teachers and other students.

What motivated our school community to support the CAS approach? The broader Nova community has expressed in all-school meetings, parent meetings, and other forums a need to build Nova as a sustainable institution with equitable funding based in the principals of democratic schooling. There is near unanimous agreement that the CAS process would support the growth and sustainability of Nova as a viable and valued schooling experience that is needed within Seattle Public Schools. Numerous parents have requested and supported our desire to develop a Nova middle school.

How will our parent community support the CAS approach we are proposing? Parents are a vital part of the Nova community. Our current structures provide many opportunities for parent input and feedback. The response to the CAS process has been positive and supportive. We do have a small number of parents who actively support Nova, but do not support the CAS process and the SPS/SEA Memorandum of Understanding. Their basis for not supporting CAS is grounded in their belief that the MOU opens the door to charter schools in SPS and the undermining of union rights for teachers and SEA represented staff. This concern is not shared by the overwhelming majority of Nova SEA represented staff.

10 How will families give input and feedback about our CAS plan? How will this feedback be incorporated? In Fall 2011, an initial community-wide meeting was held, attended by staff, students, and parents, to discuss our vision for our school and to air thoughts on the Creative Approach Schools designation. A follow-up full community meeting was held again in Spring 2012 after numerous students and staff discussions to craft our intent proposal. The writers of the intent proposal actively sought out feedback and incorporated it into the proposal. The same process is being carried on to develop and write the full amended CAS proposal. Additionally, our PTSA president has organized parent discussion groups of the Creative Approach design. In its newsletters, the PTSA has also sent regular updates of our design process, including invitations to give feedback and join the planning process.

How will our student community engage in our CAS plan? As noted above, since last spring and continuing this school year, students met together and with teachers and community members to look at what classes we offer and how to best serve all students at Nova. They discussed in classes what they want to learn and how they best learn and created and shared different designs for a future Nova. Similar discussions were regularly held in coor (advisory) groups and committees, always including students and staff and often including parents. The two days of classes we dedicated to Creative Approach Schools to design and develop proposals, followed by the two hour-long sets of school-wide meetings to collect, synthesize, and further develop potential designs was extremely well received by students.

How will our staff and parent community (and our student community) ensure fidelity to our CAS plan? Noted throughout this proposal is a commitment to be held to the highest accountability for student learning and success. We have a track record for serving underserved students as noted in our recent Washington State Achievement Awards for closing achievement gaps and extended graduation rates. We are proud of this work, but we know that there are no guarantees without constant reflection, evaluation, and innovation.

What criteria will our CAS plan propose to measure its success? We are currently working to develop criteria that will measure success. The primary measurement with be a combination of quantitative and qualitative data focusing of student success. This will include competency credits earned, achievement gaps closed, extended graduation rates, and climate data, as well as portfolios of student work, performances, exhibitions.

What partnerships, if any, will you anticipate developing to support your Creative Approach School? Given our mission to serve all students in a safe, engaging, and meaningful school environment and provide a safe space for personal safety and coherent and exciting growth, we are a community

11 that has created a web of relevant and ever-expanding partnerships. The following is a partial list of these partnerships and a modest list of those that are still a gleam in the eye. Existing Partnerships with Organizations that Promote Empowerment and Support of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth We have partnered with several organizations to do collaborative projects related to fundraising, education, advocacy and community within the LGBTQ community. These organization include: Queer Youth Spaces, Lambert House, Seattle City Parks, Camp Ten Trees, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Allyship, Life Long AIDS Alliance, National Gay Lesbian Task Force, GLAD, GLSTN, BENT, Seattles Mens Chorus, Ingersol Gender Center, Northwest Network, Bend-it, Reel Girls, Girls Rock Camp, and Glitter Tribe. We have worked with many local activist and educators to have staff trainings about LGBTQ youth with the Nova faculty. Our students have participated in several forms of advocacy for LBGTQ youth to organizations beyond Nova and continue to be invited to further organizations. They have spoken to the Seattle School Board, at Holy Names, on National Public Radio (KUOW), to a class at the University of Washington, to the staff of our Teen Health Center, to a board of local organizers working on queer youth homelessness, and on panels for both Allyship and Northwest Network. Youth beyond Nova use our transgender and gender variant resource center and several of the organizations listed above have referred youth to our center for supplies.

Anticipated Partnerships with Organizations that Promote Empowerment and Support of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth Continuation and expansion of present partnerships We are committed to creating youth led trainings about LGBTQ youth for Nova Staff, middle and high schools, and other organizations that request these trainings.

Existing Partnerships with Green Organizations A group of Nova students, supervised by an experienced ecologist/teacher has been working weekly to restore the habitat of Interlaken Park.

Anticipated Partnerships with Green Organizations Continuation of present partnerships Nova is part of a consortium, along with Friends of the Cedar River Watershed, applying for a Paul Allen grant as part of the Local Living Textbook

12 We are pursuing a partnership with the Nature Consortium, based in West Seattle, which focuses on restoring and expanding the green belt along the Duwamish River, linking ecological restoration and renewal with art. We would like to work with the Beyond Coal Campaign of the Sierra Club to oppose the huge coal exports via train proposed for our state and to promote renewable energy and conservation as a replacement for coal. We would like to explore partnerships with local farms and farmers as we gradually expand our capacity to grow and cook our own meals at the school.

Existing Partnerships with Organizations that Promote Social Justice We are working with a language school in Xela, Guatemala, and students are traveling there to experience a new culture with a focus on service. We have an active weekly group sewing dresses for the Little Dresses for Africa organization that distributes dresses in Malawi. We sent 297 finished dresses to them this past spring. There is a committed group of students and parents at Nova that meets weekly to make quilts for Project Linus, a group that solicits blankets and covers for children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. We are connected to a fund-raising group in East Timor.

Anticipated Partnerships with Organizations that Promote Social Justice Continue and expand the scope of our current partnerships.

Existing Partnerships with Organizations that Build and Develop Student Voice Stephany Hazelrigg has created The Naked Truth on Stereotypes, arts-based experiential workshops and performances in high schools, colleges, and communities to examine, explore, and express their own identities while deconstructing stereotypes. After two years of contracting with her as the curriculum facilitator, she is in the process of training a Nova faculty member to carry on the curriculum at Nova. The Young Playwrights Program (YPP) is ACTs flagship education program, sending professional playwright teaching artists into area schools for 10 weeks to teach the basics of playwriting to Puget Sound-area students. Between the in-house Nova Poetry program and Naked Truth, our students have had the confidence and skills to participate in the Youth Speaks Slams in this city. Two Nova students, Donte Johnson and Raven Taylor, won places on a team of 5 slammers to compete in the Brave New Voices competition in San Francisco during summer, 2012.

13 Hollow Earth Radio is the Pacific Northwests freeform online radio station that presents a forum for underrepresented music, sounds and perspectives. Groups of Nova students, accompanied by a Nova artist/ teacher, provide on-air content every week for 2-3 hours. We actively support our students to become KUOW student interns. We have made solid connections with Reel Grrls. Reel Grrls empowers young women from diverse communities to realize their power, talent and influence through media production. We have built a strong connection to The Vera Project, Seattles all-ages volunteer fueled music and arts venue. We have made use of Veras sound engineering training at Nova, and we have presented art and band shows at the venue. We support and encourage students to actively participate in the Seattle Young Peoples Project (SYPP), and at Youngstown. We support and encourage students to participate in the programs and offerings of Richard Hugo House.

Anticipated Partnerships which Build and Develop Student Voice We plan to continue the above partnerships. We would like to find a way to create residencies for writers at Nova, either through a partnership or on own. We would like to explore connections with alternative publishers, such as Seal Press, to see what collaboration might look like. We would like to explore creating our own documentary films, in the spirit of the slam poets in Chicago with their film, Louder than a Bomb. We would need to explore the technical mechanics, marketing, and financing, as well. This goal will spark new partnerships.

Existing Partnerships within the Seattle Public Schools Weekly science support at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School provided by a team of students headed by an experienced scientist/science teacher Weekly reading tutoring at Leschi Elementary School provided by a team of students led by an experienced LA/History teacher and a Special Educator Weekly mentoring/support of a special education class at Lowell Elementary School provided by a team of students led by an experienced Special Educator

Anticipated Partnerships within the Seattle Public Schools

14 Continue Bailey Gatzert Elementary School science support Continue Lowell Elementary School mentoring/tutoring support Expand Leschi Elementary School program to include math tutoring as well as reading

Existing Partnerships with Colleges and Universities We currently host UW Pipeline tutors at Nova We provide a safe and nurturing space for student teachers who choose to explore a democratic teaching model. We have made connections with Seattle Pacific University, University of Southern California, Central Washington State, the University of Washington, and Antioch University Seattle. We collaborate with the University of Washington Philosophy Department and the Northwest Center for Teaching Philosophy to Students to teach philosophy at Nova and to teach students to teach philosophy to younger students.

Anticipated Partnerships with Colleges and Universities Through Prof. Daniel Winterbottom, we would like to link to the UW Department of Landscape Architectures students to carry out specific sustainable living projects together. We would like to explore partnerships with colleges and universities who wish to offer and create a coherent student teacher experience in democratic education. Many of our current faculty has had experience in college teaching and in teacher preparation, and this seems like a natural avenue to explore.

5. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment are critical elements to the success of every school as it relates to student academic growth and closing the opportunity gap: Please describe the essential elements of your instructional model and how it sets high expectations for what students should know and be able to do across grade levels and subject areas? Please include how different student learning styles will be addressed and different teacher instructional styles will be implemented? Instruction designed around the careful examination of real phenomena, and the pursuit of significant questions formulated by both teachers and students, have delivered results in emotional engagement, memory retention, and cognitive understanding that challenge the results of didactic teaching (Dow, n.d.). The essential elements of our inquiry model that we want to keep and develop further, as well as expand as our participatory research indicates, include: seminar discussions where students are both initiators and discussants; inquiry labs in all subject areas;

15 development of math instruction with a multiple focus on high skill level, communication, and creativity in problem solving; Instructional styles range from direct instruction, mini-lectures, flip teaching, cooperative group solving, peer to peer critiques, inquiry with questions and answers provided by students (whats worth asking and finding out), to student-led inquiry labs and experiential project and problem-based learning.

One of our goals is to increase activities that are shown to be relevant to the students who attend Nova through inquiry-based, authentic, experiential, problem-based teaching and learning. The overarching goal is to increase student engagement through models of effective instruction (Bennett & Rollheiser, 2001; Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2009; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2011). We want to shift the learning paradigm from a constrictive this is going to help you in the long run to this is fascinating and relevant (and the precursor to lifelong learning). Learning will be relevant and rooted in every day issues and life circumstances without sacrificing standards. Themes and topics will be developed with students that can be addressed through problem sets based on their inherent, immediate, and long-term problems and issues. We place a strong value on student resourcefulness taking their resourceful problem solving and moving it into the classroom (Pressley & Woloshyn (Eds.), 1995). Some students come with academic skills, others with a wide variety of what is often characterized as street-smarts skills, some with a combination of both skill sets the challenge is to bring both continuums together for the benefit of the learning for all students. Lastly, teacher induction is an ongoing conundrum at Nova. This is not an easy place to be a teacher or staff person (Haberman, 1991). Staff must be open to letting the process of working at Nova inform their own personal and professional learning. They must be good listeners, a skill that doesnt always come naturally and to be successful at Nova, staff must model good decisionmaking with and for students. Our current induction process is inadequate from recruitment to hiring to orientation to immersion in the program. Through the process of being a CAS schools, we want to create a new induction process that better serves staff, students, and families.

6. Evidence, Research, or Rationale: What evidence, research, or rationale will be implemented that will serve as the foundation of the design of your school, to ensure you are effectively raising student achievement, and closing the achievement gap? The costs and consequences of dropping out have become increasingly serious for individuals and for society. Students who drop out are more likely to be unemployed and to earn less over their working life. Trends toward a higher skilled labor force will make it even harder for dropouts economically. Although many dropouts pursue a GED certification, it does not adequately prepare young people for attaining well-paying employment or for accessing higher education. Dropouts tend to experience higher levels of early pregnancy and substance abuse, and they tend to require more social services of various types. Young people who are imprisoned or sentenced to adult prisons are likely to be school dropouts. (Shannon & Bylsma, 2003)

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It is well documented that the dropout rates in urban schools for students of color (specifically African-American, Native American, Latino/a, Samoan, and Southeast Asian are significantly higher than white students ranging generally from 30-40% (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009). In Seattle, a student in these named groups usually has only a 50% probability of graduating from our high schools. This is unacceptable. We understand, and this is substantiated in the research, that many students need more time to graduate. The developmental pace of adolescents is not identical. We want to create a system that acknowledges this fact and looks at graduation as a 3-6 year process. This effort is supported by the recent Annual Report to the Legislature of Washington States Graduation and Dropout Statistics (Came & Ireland, 2012) that shows an increase in graduation rates among students who attended a fifth year. The speed of growing up cannot be dictated. Adolescence is a time of identity exploration and safety is a key component to providing an environment where teenagers can make good choices, ask questions, and learn from their missteps and mistakes, as well as developing healthy peer-to-peer and adolescent-to-adult relationships. Very few urban schools have figured out how to eliminate the achievement gap and serve all students. Nova, as an entire program, currently and as a creative approach school, is breaking new ground and will continue to do so. Our Creative Approach Schools plan pushes the boundaries of current research. There is ample evidence and precedence of various structures, elements, and processes delineated in our proposal, some of which is noted below. A Combined 7-12 Middle and High School Model A great deal of research exists on the topic of school size (Howley & Howley, 2006; Jones, 2006; Kafka, 2008; Strike, 2008; Terling Watt, 2003) and it is largely within this context that discussions of districts and schools transitioning to K-6 and 7-12 organizational models take place. A summary of research on grade configuration (Education Center, 2009) notes that while some studies in the U.S. suggest that 7-12 schools are not as effective, the reviewers argue that anecdotally, staff who worked in the former middle schools (7-8) who are now in 7-12 buildings indicate that the behaviour of the Grade 7 and 8 students has improved in the 7-12 setting (pp. 12). This sentiment is corroborated by a principal who indicated an improvement in the culture and climate of the school with the 7-12 configuration (Education Center, 2009). Walker (2005) outlines the pros and cons of a 7-12 configuration. The benefits of a 7-12 model include: 1. Fewer transitions to new school settings. Research indicates that students can lose up to a year while adjusting and that fewer transitions result in students not losing time due to the transition adjustment. 2. Possibility of more consistency and coherence in the curriculum. 3. More leveled course offerings. 4. More opportunities for older students to be role models for younger students. (p. 2). The cons the author lists have to do with:

17 1. School programs often tend to revolve around the high school students needs, not around those of the young adolescents. 2. Fewer opportunities for more students to have leadership positions in extracurricular activities. 3. Teachers are not well trained in meeting the needs of the young adolescent (p.3). To address the first and third issues, schools in Ontario, Canada, many of which employ the 7-12 organizational model, ensure that specifically trained teachers are in the 7-8 classrooms. As seen above, Novas Creative Approach Plan obviates any dearth of leadership opportunities for students, as suggested by the second issue and will delineate the necessary competencies for all new hires, including those for the 7, 8, 9 positions to ensure the best possible candidates. Learning from other schools experiences and the research will help Nova avoid some of the previous pitfalls and create a 7-12 combined school that is new and innovative and could serve as a model for other urban schools in Seattle and elsewhere. Competency-Based Education and Action Outcome-based [Competency-based] education is about preparing students for life, not simply getting them ready for college or employment (Brandt, 1992/1993, p. 66). Competency-based education is about student performance and application of knowledge and understanding and aligns with Novas Creative Approach Plan to engage more deeply in inquirybased, action-oriented social justice activities. How well students understand the nature of the problem investigated through the inquiry approach will impact the quality of their action and civic and social justice engagement over their lifetimes. An incredible precedent for schools for action-oriented social justice was set by Miles Horton and the Highlander School serving as a model for Novas Creative Schools Approach Plan. From the civil rights movement to issues of community and public health, Highlander, arguably the birthplace for the planning and articulation of the civil rights movement, serves as a researchaction school for people young and old who desire to make their community and world a more humane place to live. Social injustice permeates in various insidious forms today and Nova, through its Creative Approach plan, will be a center for addressing these issues while increasing student engagement and achievement guided by competency-base education and action. Collaboration, Community, Shared Decision-Making, and Authentic Student Leadership There is an exceptional amount of current research on these elements of Novas Creative Approach Plan. Garmsten and Wellman (2009) discuss the importance of a professional community (p. 14) in successful schools. They articulate six elements of school community to ensure student success: 1. Compelling purpose, shared standards, and academic focus; 2. Collective efficacy and shared responsibility for student learning; 3. Collaborative culture;

18 4. Communal applications of effective teaching practices and deprivatized practice; 5. Relational trust in one another, in students, and in parents; 6. Individual and group learning based on ongoing assessment and feedback (Garmsten and Wellman, 2009, pp. 15-18). Deal and Peterson (2009) discuss the importance of school culture, including community and shared leadership, in creating and sustaining successful schools, as do Fullan (2009) and Evans (1996). It is in these elements that Nova staff are committed to creating the Nova creative approach school. We are a staff with deep values rooted in social justice and modeling among ourselves the school we want to be and working collaboratively to ensure that we set a high standard for intra-staff interactions and behaviors that promote a positive and balanced work environment and a healthy learning environment for students, as well as a welcoming and comforting environment for all types of families. 7. Accountability and Use of Data: How will you measure student achievement? Please include progress monitoring as it relates to formative and summative assessments and how you will use data for collaborative inquiry around how to improve student outcomes, specifically as is it relates to student achievement and closing the achievement gap? As Nova moves to an entirely competency-based system, performance-based assessment will be expanded for purposes of both formative and summative assessment. To support such a system of competencies, we will develop a strong database for tracking competency achievement and qualitative and quantitative student progress. Currently, Nova utilizes an anachronistic, but functional database separate from eSIS to track all students. This was necessitated by the inability of eSIS to capture the types of learning and data needed to effectively evaluate student progress at Nova. Our internal database includes written monthly updates on every student. We utilize this data to look at the monthly updates in advisory groups and as a whole staff. When needed, we create individual intervention plans and wraparound services supports. Even though the technology needs a major upgrade and reconfiguration, the underlying philosophy is what we want to grow and sustain. It is based in the idea of redemptive and restorative justice and growth. We allow for repair. What this means is that time is a relative concept for adolescents and managing time is often more different for them than it is for adults. We build in time for reflection and the ability, when mistakes are made, for students to take authority over their learning. We put a strong focus on the non-cognitive skill of making good choices. By teaching to the competencies in courses, this allows us to help students repair themselves. We ask the questions: how and when do you make mistakes and how do you correct them? Every school has a hidden curriculum. We want to make ours transparent with students and among staff. The data we collect is both quantitative and qualitative. We value both. Storytelling and anecdotal data can often tell more about a student and their needs and successes than a test score or attendance rate.

19 Students in a transformative process tell amazing and compelling stories about how they have found their way to direct and take authority over their lives, actions, and choices (Schubert, 1991). We will expand and formalize our time to work collaboratively as a staff to create appropriate support systems for students. Our competency-based school will require an increased level of collaborative inquiry as we work to ensure a coherent and meaningful educational experience for each of our students. This deepening of data-informed personalization will allow us to pinpoint skill deficits and strengths for each student in the building. Such personalized collaborative inquiry and support has been demonstrated to especially benefit those students who have been systemically underserved in their previous educational experience, thus helping us to close the achievement gap (Lopez and Sullivan, 1992). 8. Evidence of success: What benchmarks and timelines will be proposed to measure and evaluate school success within the first three years? Initial benchmarks will focus on the number of competency credits earned per semester, disaggregation of socio-economic, racial, and special education student data, and extended graduation rates. The expectation is that over the first three years we will see significant progress toward eliminating disparities based on race and socio-economics. 9. Waivers: Are you requesting a waiver from district policy or the Collective Bargaining Agreement? As we move forward, waivers may be needed in the areas of curriculum and structure, such as an extended school day. Initially, we request a waiver for next year to include student input in the staff evaluation process and the ability to hire staff who have direct and documented experience with inquiry, competency, and project and problem-based instruction, as well as serving in an advisory role with students since personalization is a key element at Nova. Staff expertise and experience in the areas noted throughout our proposal are critical to the success of the program and the students. 10. Budget (cost neutral or external sustainable funding) and Decision Making: We are not requesting any new funding nor are we currently seeking any external funding. All that we ask for is to be funded equitably with other Seattle Public Schools high schools. Please attach documentation of the 80% SEA membership Approval Upon Completion of the full Application The Nova SEA represented staff participated in a voting procedure via a secret ballot on October 10, 2012 to vote on Novas final, amended CAS proposal. There are 25 SEA represented staff at Nova. 22 staff members voted yes, one staff member voted no, and two staff members were absent. Of the staff present for the vote, 95.6% voted yes; of the total SEA represented staff, including staff absent on the day of the vote, 88% voted yes.

20 References Alliance for Excellent Education (2009). Understanding High School Graduation Rates in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/understanding_HSgradrates Brandt, R. (1992/1993). On outcome-based education: A conversation with Bill Spady. Educational Leadership, 50(4), 66-70. Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. (2009). Shaping school culture: Pitfalls, paradoxes, & promises. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Education Center. (2009). Retrieved from http://blog.amdsb.ca/pdf/arc/bluewater-sh/_SchoolGradeConfigurationResearch.pdf Delpit, L. (2006). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New Press. Delpit, L. (2012). Multiplication is for white people: Raising expectations for other people's children. New York: New Press. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. In The essential Dewey: Volume 1. Eds: Hickman, L. and Thomas Alexander, T. (1998). Indiana University Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. In The essential Dewey: Volume 1. Eds: Hickman, L. and Thomas Alexander, T. (1998). Indiana University Press. Evans, R. (1996). The human side of school change: reform, resistance, and the real-life problems of innovation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Fullan, M. (Ed.). (2009). The challenge of change: start school improvement now! (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Garmsten, R. J., & Wellman, B. M. (2009). The adaptive school: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups (2nd ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. Haberman, M. (1991). The pedagogy of poverty versus good teaching. Retrieved from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_haberman.pdf Hess, Jr., A. (1995). Restructuring urban schools: A Chicago perspective. New York: Teachers College Press Highlander Research Center. (2012). At http://www.highlandercenter.org/ hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress. New York: Routledge. Howley, A., & Howley, C. (2006). Small schools and the pressure to consolidate. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 14(10), 1-31.

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Jones, Jeff. (2006). Leadership in small schools: supporting the power of collaboration. Management in Education, 20(2), 24-28. Kafka, J. (2008). Thinking big about getting small: An ideological genealogy of small-school reform. Teachers College Record, 110(9), 1802-1836. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Towards a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal. 32(3), 465-491. Stephenson, N. (2011). Introduction to inquiry-based learning. Retrieved from http://teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html Strike, K. A. (2008). Small schools: Size or community? American Journal of Education, 114, 169-190. Terling Watt, T. (2003). Are small schools and private schools better for adolescents emotional adjustment? Sociology of Education, 76, 344-367. Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Van Dernoot-Lipsky (2009). Trauma stewardship: An everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Wagner, T. (2010). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It. New York: Basic Books. Walker, K. (2005). 7-12 grade configuration. The Principals Partnership. Retrieved from http://www.principalspartnership.com Watkins, W. (2001). The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954 (Teaching for Social Justice, 6). New York: Teachers College Press.