Capitol Collegiate Academy
Figure 1.28: Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Reading Chart
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Figure 1.28: Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Reading Chart
Within this framework, students will be held accountable for their learning in a variety of different ways. They will also be able to share that learning through a variety of modalities, therefore building both skill and will in student performance. Curriculum Design Marzano, a leading national expert on curriculum design, identifies several school-level factors of effective schools. These factors are researched-based strategies that provide guidance towards developing a strong curriculum supporting student performance and confidence in their abilities. Some of these strategies are outlined below in Figure 1.29.101 The primary groups that are consistently executed at high levels in the most effective schools nationally are course curriculum, lesson design, and classroom management. When these three areas are implemented at high levels, schools can be sure that staff and students know where they are going and what they want to achieve, how they will get there, and what it will take in order to be successful. Having such clear expectations and goals in the form of an academic program supports a college preparatory mission and a strong academic environment. Figure 1.29: School-Level Factors of Effective Schools
SCHEDULE Academic Calendar In order to make certain the success of our mission, it is critical that students are given more time in the classroom. Extended learning time is a strategy we will use to ensure that all students master the knowledge, skills, and mindsets necessary to realize this vision of success. This includes additional time in the critical areas that will help to determine the achievement of students in their continued education: reading, writing, and mathematics. In Ten Steps to Doubling Student Performance, Allan Odden states that schools that greatly improved and maintained high levels of student achievement “set aside a large amount of time for the most important subjects, particularly math and reading… nearly all districts and schools ‘protected’ instructional time for core elementary subjects, particularly mathematics and reading. The time when instruction was being provided for these subjects, especially at the elementary level, was buffeted from interruptions, intercom messaging, trips to the principal office, etc. Everyone in the school knew that this time was to be used to provide instruction in reading and mathematics, period, and was to be used for nothing else.”102 To accomplish this, Capitol Collegiate will operate with an extended school day and year, as well as extended professional development for teachers to target individual student achievement. Extended Learning Time The academic calendar for Capitol Collegiate will be significantly longer for both students and teachers than the traditional public school calendar. The first day of school for students will be August 22, 2011 and the last day of school for students will be June 20, 2012. The school doors will open for all students at 7:30AM, with the school day officially closing for students at 4:00PM. (The school day will end at 5:00PM for students in the fourth through eighth grades.) Students in kindergarten through third grade will receive fifteen hours of English Language Arts instruction per week in additional to at least seven hours of math instruction per week. This extended time in core subject areas will prepare students for success throughout their academic careers. Extended Professional Development Capitol Collegiate will also operate a longer year for teachers through over 20 full professional development days throughout the year in addition to shortened days once per week for three hour staff development sessions. This extended professional development time will allow teachers the space to collaborate with peers, analyze student data, construct action plans for individual students, and study best practices to ensure student achievement. Research regarding resource allocation and professional development indicates that extensive professional development time is one of the most critical components put into place by high-performing and improving schools.103 Capitol Collegiate will provide teachers with extended time monthly and significant time weekly to address professional development needs, as many teachers typically must engage in these efforts on their personal time and over the summer otherwise. Extended Assessment All early elementary students at Capitol Collegiate will be given regular assessments focused on their literacy acquisition and development as well as their grade-level math abilities. Beginning in second grade, students will be given interim assessments regularly throughout the year. These assessments will allow teachers to determine mastery of standards. “Data Use for School Improvement: Effective Practices for School Improvement” identifies assessments as important tools in providing teachers with the data necessary to pinpoint levels of student performance, but that it is the analysis of that data which promote the knowledge of teachers and their ability to target individual student needs104 “While no set of state tests are perfect, the places producing gains in student learning go far beyond state tests and incorporate more data on student performance, and use it in implementing a cycle of continuous instructional improvement that continuously toggles between data on student performance – formative, benchmark or summative, curriculum and instructional strategies, and their impacts on student achievement”105 Capitol Collegiate will provide teachers with the time and professional development required to assess student mastery on assessments and provide an accurate picture of student performance to discuss with families. Additionally, parent conferences will be held three times per year to share student mastery information with families. (Please see school calendar in Element 1 and Family Involvement for more detail.) Parents will also be given quarterly report cards of their child’s achievement. If at the end of the year there is concern over a student’s mastery of specific standards, an intensive week of review will be given to those students. This time may be extended to a two-week period for students in the fourth through eighth grades. We will ensure that we take every step possible to provide students with the opportunity to access the curriculum. Homework Capitol Collegiate will provide students with more time in school, as well as provide students with daily homework assignments to extend student learning outside of the school day. Students in all grades will receive homework, varying in length depending on grade level. All students will be held accountable for completing homework assignments, with homework focused on the reinforcement of material covered in class. These figures are generally in-line with the recommendations of the PTA. Please see Figure 1.30 for more detail. Figure 1.30: Minutes of Homework Per Night and Per Year in Each Subject106
Academic Calendar for the 2011-12 School Year Summer Teacher Professional Development In order to prepare for the successful opening of Capitol Collegiate, teachers will begin professional training on July 25, 2011 for a four-week professional development block. This summer teacher session will reduce to three weeks in subsequent years, with the additional week added during the first year in order to address the one-time requirements and trainings necessary for year one of a new school.107 This professional development will be followed by 12 full days and an additional three hours per week of development time during the school year. The July and August professional development calendars are found in Figure 1.31 and are included in Figure 1.32. The blocks colored in red include the four weeks of summer staff professional development, with four days available for small-group family orientation in orange. Parent orientation will be the responsibility of school leadership in order to give teachers more time to plan for the start of the year. Family orientation will also give families the opportunity to bring their children to see and acquaint themselves with their new classrooms and school environment. Figure 1.31: Summer Professional Development for Staff
Full School Calendar: 2011-12 Students will attend school for 192 days. School days will have extended time with every Wednesday shortened by three hours for professional development. Please see Figure 1.32: Annual School Calendar on the following page. Figure 1.32: Annual School Calendar 
Extended Time – Value Added Comparison Extended time is a critical component of ensuring that students are prepared to compete, achieve, and lead in high school and in college.108 Figure 1.33 outlines the time comparison of students at Capitol Collegiate with traditional models. Figure 1.33: Time Comparison of Traditional Models vs. Capitol Collegiate 
Daily Schedule Capitol Collegiate operates with the mission to prepare students in kindergarten through eighth grades to compete, achieve, and lead in college and in life. In order to achieve this mission, it is critical that Capitol Collegiate provide its students with a focused and extensive literacy curriculum, targeted numeracy and mathematical skills in both math procedures and problem solving, and access to a standards-based science and social sciences curriculum. Additionally, in accordance with Education Code Sections 51210 and 51222, students in grades one through six will receive 200 minutes and students in grades seven and eight will receive 400 minutes of physical education every ten days.109 Capitol Collegiate will operate with an extended school day to accommodate these academic needs. A typical school day will extend from 8:00 AM when classes begin for students until 4:00 PM for students through grade four and until 5:00 PM for students in grades five through eight.110 Students in Kindergarten through grade four will have the opportunity to remain at school until 5:00 PM if their parents would like additional tutoring time for them. On Wednesdays, dismissal for all students will be at 2:00 PM to allow for professional development and collaborative planning time. Schedule Figure 1.34 provides a sample schedule for students at Capitol Collegiate. This plan reflects students in Kindergarten through grade eight, or when the school is fully enrolled. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday follow a common schedule with Wednesday shortened to accommodate staff development.111 Figure 1.34: Sample Schedule
The schedule for Wednesday is provided in Figure 1.35. Figure 1.35: Wednesday Schedule
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS FOR TARGETED STUDENTS Students Achieving Above Grade Level Capitol Collegiate’s structured learning environment and academic program are designed to promote and support student achievement. Whether a student enters Capitol Collegiate several grade levels behind or with advanced academic standing, we believe all students should receive the support needed to reach their personal bests, all potentially reaching mastery of the content at various points in the year. We will provide that support to advanced students, just as we will provide support to students who struggle with mastery. Using assessment data, we will identify our more advanced students and ensure that the curriculum and pace of instruction is challenging enough to accelerate their learning. The use of flexible ability grouping will allow differentiation in the pace of instruction for students with different academic needs, without separating materials covered in class. Students who are reading above grade level, for example, will participate in a reading seminar of advanced texts and textual analysis in place of the decoding class. Students who excel in math and science may receive special projects in place of subject material that has already been mastered. In social sciences, advanced students may work with primary sources or complete analytical activities on pieces of historical evidence or read more advanced texts. Just as individualized instruction after school may be used for students who are struggling, the same basic principles of differentiation can be applied to advanced students. Additionally, students will be able to access advanced content in their favorite areas during enrichment class. If these accommodations are insufficient, the Dean of Academics will work with teachers to provide additional support for those students who require it. Reviewing each student individually, we will ensure that we are making the best accommodations for gifted and advanced students in order to best meet their academic needs. English Language Learners 112 As a school located in South Sacramento, Capitol Collegiate expects a significant number of English Language Learners (ELL). Based on the population of elementary and middle schools in the proposed school area, approximately 40% of students may be ELL. It is imperative to the mission of the school that this population of students achieves at the same level as any other subgroup. Compliance, Student Identification, and Support Services Capitol Collegiate will serve its ELL students in accordance with all applicable Federal Laws and Regulations and in compliance with California state law. The instructional staff of Capitol Collegiate will adhere to the following plan with ELL students:
The primary objective for all services delivered to ELL students at Capitol Collegiate is to provide a structured support system to help students gain English proficiency. We want all students to gain full access to the curriculum as soon as possible and will adopt the best and most proven strategies to help them do so. The curriculum and support provided to these students will be selected primarily on the basis of quickest acquisition of English. Because a variety of languages may potentially be spoken at the school as a result of the rich diversity of the area, Capitol Collegiate will not specifically target any one language in the curricular program. Instead, we will respect the home language of all students and appreciate the strong heritages from which they originated. In order to reach our goals of strong English proficiency we will provide a developmentally appropriate approach to English. Identification of Limited Proficiency Students In compliance with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education, parents will complete a language questionnaire upon enrolling at Capitol Collegiate. If on this questionnaire the parent indicates that the student speaks a language other than English or that English is not the primary language spoken at home, the students will be classified as having a primary language other than English (PHLOTE). However, more information will be collected regarding the English proficiency of the students, as there could be additional contextual information leading to a correct assessment of the student’s English proficiency. For example, the student may have spent some of his or her life in a foreign country, the student’s grandparents speak a language other than English at home, or English may be spoken slightly less than 50% of the time but still has a significant presence in the home. Such situations should not lead to a student being placed in a program for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) children.113 Our goal is to ensure that we have accurately assessed and classified the language abilities of our students to ensure that we are serving them in the most effective way. Instructional Practices for English Language Learners Capitol Collegiate will educate all ELL LEP students in Structured English Immersion (SEI) classrooms. Additionally, ELL and LEP students will have access to tutoring and instructional support in the afternoons and as needed. SEI has repeatedly been shown to be the most effective way of ensuring that LEP students master English and meet high academic skill and content standards: Two years after the passage of California’s proposition 227 (mandating SEI classes) the Institute for Research in English Acquisition and Development (READ) concluded LEP students had improved in all subjects due to the elimination of bilingual education and implementation of structured immersion. Further, the greatest gains were made in school districts that implemented the most intensive English-immersion programs (Amselle & Allison, 2000). Although LEP students in all grade levels showed improvement, the younger students seem to have benefited most from English immersion. This corresponds to the results reached by Johns Hopkins University linguists. (Brownlee, 1988)114 SEI provides a more structured approach to learning English and bends English grammar and vocabulary instruction with the teaching of content.115 Federal law expects school programs for ELL students to be based on sound educational theory, to provide ELL students the opportunity to participate with the other students in the educational offerings, and to show evidence of producing academic success.116 As a result, our SEI program is designed to:
In this program, ELL students will receive the same academic material as those students who are native speakers of English. All classroom instruction will take place in English. However, the level of English used for written and spoken instruction will be modified appropriately for ELL students with the stated purpose of holding every student to high academic standards. In this regard, we will not pull ELL students out of core subjects for English support, nor will ELL students be excluded form any extracurricular activity based on their English proficiency. All ELL students will be in their regular classrooms for instructional time. Our classes are structured with teacher-center direct-instruction programs, which are geared to all literacy learners, especially ELL students. In addition, ELL students have tutoring time in small like-skilled groups, homework tutors, and adequate homework time. Further, our primary grade ELL students will utilize the River Deep Early Reading (computer-based) adaptive reading program which targets Kindergarten through third grade students in three levels (emergent, beginning and fluent) with individually paced daily instruction. Data in Support of Programmatic Plan In our K-8 program we know that ELL students “respond well to a plan of instruction in which each aspect of the language builds on another, with plenty of opportunities for practice…The goal is for [ELL students] to gain fluency in English as quickly as possible in a non-threatening setting and to move gradually into the mainstream, the place where the challenging classes abound, and learn with the other children.”117 Because of immigration patterns in Sacramento specifically, a large numbers of non-English speaking students are in South Sacramento schools. The debate over the most effective way to educate these ELL students has, as a result, intensified. Research and data indicate that a structured approach to teaching English, while respecting the home language and culture of students, is the most proven strategy for building English proficiency and academic success in students. Assessment, Monitoring, and Exit Criteria for Students Students identified as ELL will be assessed on at least an annual basis to determine their progress in English proficiency. These students will take the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) test annually until they are reclassified as fluent English proficient (RFEP). After reclassification, they will be closely monitored to ensure ongoing proficiency. In addition to the CELDT, Capitol Collegiate will monitor the progress of ELL students with regular English proficiency assessments throughout the year. We expect that the results of this data will expedite the rate of students gaining proficiency throughout the year. Our goal is for kindergarten and first grade students to be proficient within seven months. The state expectation for English proficiency is set at three years. We will assess student proficiency at the school by using the Language Assessment Scales (LAS), student performance on benchmark exams, teacher observations, and oral fluency assessments. Specifically, proficiency development will be assessed through the following goals:
Should a student at Capitol Collegiate not make the progress expected, that student’s academic plan will be adjusted as needed to better suit the individual needs of the student. Staffing Plan for English Language Learners Capitol Collegiate will make every effort to recruit and hire teachers for our ELL population. This effort will focus on hiring teachers who are ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) certified and will place a special emphasis on teachers who speak the predominant languages of those spoken by ELL and LEP students, as well as hiring for all areas required by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). This will allow education staff to provide stronger instruction within the immersion classroom as well as better enable the school to communicate with parents. Teachers who require it (working within an immersion classroom and working with parents) will be certified with English learner authorization to work with English learners. English Language Learners and English Language Development (ELD) Capitol Collegiate fully appreciates and remains incredibly sensitive to the challenges that English Language Learners face and will do everything we can to support their needs. We will combine the support structures already in place within the traditional classroom with strategies and lessons in which English Learners are incredibly engaged. We will specifically teach ELD standards and requirements within Literacy Blocks 1 and 2 in our daily schedule. ELD will be taught in small groups based on student need. In addition to SDAIE strategies mentioned, students will receive specific ELD instruction. This instruction will include all of the standards, as outlined by the California Department of Education (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/englangdevstnd.pdf). These standards outline specific strategies that teachers should utilize and explicitly state what students need to know to be able to master English Language Arts. The CDE states: “Teachers are to monitor the students’ acquisition of English and provide correction so that kindergarten students working at the advanced ELD level and students in all other grades working at the early advanced level will have internalized English-language skills to such a degree that the teacher will often observe the students correcting their own grammar, usage, and word choices in speaking, reading, and writing.” We absolutely commit to this level of instruction for a minimum of 30 minutes per day with students. This instruction will occur during the Advanced Centers component of the day or as an equivalent substitute for the River Deep Program. There are at least four general contexts in which language intervention can be provided: individual, small group, classroom and caregiver training. Four language-teaching strategies have been demonstrated to improve children’s language abilities. These are: prelinguistic milieu teaching, to help children make the transition from pre-intentional to intentional communication; milieu teaching, which consists of specific techniques embedded within a child’s ongoing activities and interactions; responsive interaction, which involves teaching caregivers to be highly responsive to the child’s communication attempts; and direct teaching, characterized by prompting, reinforcing and giving immediate feedback on grammar or vocabulary within highly structured sessions. In all cases, it is important to set the stage for language learning by creating opportunities for communication, following the child’s lead, and building and establishing social routines. In addition to SDAIE strategies listed in above sections, lessons for ELD will also occur in line with the context provided above:
These methods may include: word walls, index flash cards, choral reading and response, sentence scrambles, vocabulary matching tea parties, mapping, visuals, the use of questioning strategies based on student production levels, labeling text and pictures, modeling correct language, allowing processing time, and having picture talks. We will also consider the specific differences between SDAIE and ELD instruction and in student characteristics as outlined by Johns Hopkins University (below): 
As mentioned, there are several development stages in learning a language, which includes speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Each of these will be utilized within a lesson to ensure that students meet content standards. English Learners will be re-classified as Fluent English Learners when they: 1) demonstrate fluency on the CELDT, 2) reach a proficiency score on the ELA portion of the CST, 3) demonstrate authentic fluency in class through the four areas listed above and 4) are identified by their regular teachers as fluent. Much of this evidence will be found in student work and through encouraging active participation in class. Students who are re-classified will be monitored for two years using the same criteria to ensure that no additional support is necessary. This monitoring will be a qualified teacher in conjunction with the school leader. Details on the Instructional Methods to Be Used to Deliver Services to English Language Learners118 Capitol Collegiate will be methodical in identifying students’ abilities in all language areas (reading, writing, listening and speaking) in order to track their progress and ensure they are improving in their skills. Once we establish a baseline of each student’s ability, we will adapt instruction in each of the four strands to provide the support where it is needed. We will develop rubrics based on performance expectations that are standards-aligned and conduct schoolwide assessments in each language strand throughout the year. In all classrooms, teachers will modify instruction by creating an inquiry-based environment. Students will be able to conduct experiments and show mastery by categorizing, matching, and recording observations that they may not be able to do through text. This will build their proficiency in language at a developmentally appropriate pace. Additionally, teachers need to be aware of the language levels of their ELL students and include language development activities within their content areas. By pushing-into content area classes, floating teachers will also be able to provide valuable support with academic language and difficult concepts. We will use the Tiered Thinking Across Stages of Second Language Acquisition Approach, which uses Bloom’s Taxonomy to categorize what ELL students should be able to do at each level of language development: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced Fluency. For example, if a teacher is teaching about photosynthesis and plant life, that teacher might use the following strategy with a student who is in Early Production: contrasting the features of two types of plants using phrases like “The ___ has ___. The ____ does NOT have ____.” With a student who is at the Speech Emergence level, however, the teacher might use comparative language such as “This leaf is bigger than ____. This is the tallest _____.” The Speech Emergence student will be more able to comprehend the comparative statements whereas the Early Production student needs contrasting statements. This approach allows ELL students to access the core curriculum. Additionally, we will use the following research-based techniques:
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