CAPE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL 
A Professional Learning Community
2009-10 Academic Year

Section I:  A Brief History of Professional Learning Communities at Cape Central

In the fall of 2001, our Southeast Missouri Regional Professional Development Consortium hosted a day-long presentation by Rick DuFour in Cape Girardeau in which DuFour gave an overview of the development and implementation of the Professional Learning Community model of school reform at Adali Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, where he first served as principal and then later as superintendent.  Mike Cowan, principal, and Cory Crosnoe, former assistant principal, attended the presentation, and by the end of the day, both were enthusiastic about how PLC could be implemented at Cape Central.  Later that fall, Cowan and Crosnoe briefly shared some of their observations with the faculty.  However, given that we were immersed in preparing to move to the new high school the following fall, we concluded the timing was not right to implement a significant reform initiative. 

After we had settled into our new high school in the spring of 2003, Cowan presented the faculty a more detailed introduction to the DuFour model of PLC and asked for volunteers to write a vision, mission, values and goal statement for Cape Central that would guide our school for the next 5-7 years.   The faculty volunteers composed the statements below which were adopted by consensus of the faculty and have guided our thinking and work with PLC for the past four years.

Our  Mission is to educate, encourage and assist all students who enter our doors to achieve their greatest potential during their life journey.

Our Vision is to become a learning community that nurtures ability, celebrates achievement and honors diversity in a safe environment in which all students can reach their greatest potential.

Our Values of dignity, integrity and justice will guide how we conduct ourselves daily and how we interact with all members and guests of our greater learning community.

Our Goal is to develop daily supportive relationships within our learning community that will build in each individual a positive identity with our school and a sense of responsibility for learning.

With the support of our Comprehensive School Reform Grant, we spent four years (2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07) in collaborative study of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) model of school reform and how it could best be implemented on our campus.  In addition to site visits to Dufour’s Adali Stevenson High School, Blue Valley Kansas High School, and other high schools designated as PLC model schools by Solution Tree in Bloomington, Illinois—the organization that publishes the DuFour PLC materials—we hosted a Solution Tree consultant on our campus and sent members of our faculty to multiple DuFour workshops on PLC as well as to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education workshops on PLC.  Simultaneously, and quite significantly, as our study progressed, the state of Missouri adopted increased graduation requirements in mathematics and science effective for fall 2006 that further confirmed the validity of our study and our need for significant reform of our academic program at Cape Central.

In pursuing our study, we formed three PLC collaborative learning teams that met numerous times in after-school sessions and during evening symposiums under the auspice of our CSR Grant.  The three learning teams were Freshman Success, Student Achievement, and Instructional and Collaboration Time.  Our teams reached consensus in support of the following conclusions. 

 1.        A need for formal intervention for freshmen as they transition to high school

2.         A need to reward students for academic success and personal responsibility as they progress through high school

3.         A need to increase the number of dual-credit and Advanced Placement courses and to increase the diversity of student enrollment in those courses

4.         A need to increase the opportunity for completion of additional state graduation credits in math and science

5.         A need to increase the opportunity for recovery from lost credit for at-risk students

6.         A need to include enrichment as well as recovery courses in our summer school program

7.         A need to institute a regular schedule of faculty collaboration time

8.         A need to reduce overall class size and total teacher load

 
In the spring of 2006, we hosted a series of graduation symposiums for faculty to study the impact of the new state graduation requirements on our students and how these requirements could best be facilitated in our continued implementation of the PLC model of school reform.  In early summer 2006, the following Cape Central faculty (Beth Brunkhorst, guidance chair; Crystal Cerny, communication arts chair; Pat Johnson, family and consumer sciences chair; Julia Jorgensen library and media services chair; Pam Richmond, social studies chair; Mary Shelton, mathematics chair; Patty Wamble, business education chair; Mike Cowan, principal) volunteered to meet in a culminating review of our four years of collaborative study and generated the following proposal for the 2008-09 academic year at Cape Central High School.

Section II:  Proposed Structure of our Academic Day

Our daily schedule would be increased by 30 minutes:  currently our first bell is at 7:30 and our last bell is at 2:15; proposed bell times would be 7:25 and 2:40.  One Friday each month would include instructional collaboration time for faculty and staff with students dismissed at the end of period six (1:00).   Our daily schedule would be configured into an eight-period academic day rather than the current seven-period day.   

All freshmen will be required to take eight classes per day, and one of the eight will be our new course called PAS (Preparing for Academic Success).

All sophomores will be required to take eight classes per day.  Those who are off-track for graduation will be encouraged to enroll for a second year of PAS.

All juniors will have the opportunity to take eight classes per day.  Those who are off-track for graduation will be encouraged to enroll for a third year of PAS.   Those juniors who have demonstrated continued success in academic achievement, attendance and conduct during their first two years on our campus will be eligible to attend school one period less per day (period one or period eight).

All seniors will have the opportunity to take eight classes per day.  Those who are off-track for graduation will be encouraged to enroll for a fourth year of PAS.   Those seniors who have demonstrated continued success in academic achievement, attendance and conduct during their first three years on our campus will be eligible to attend school one or two periods less per day (periods one and two or periods seven and eight).

Section III:  Implementation of PAS (Preparing for Academic Success)

The curriculum for PAS (Preparing for Academic Success) would include the following:

  1.       Intervention in literacy and study skills

  2.       Academic preparation and tutoring

  3.       Responsible relationship building with peers, faculty, staff

  4.       Implementation of the Missouri Model Guidance Program by guidance staff

  5.       Presentations by counselors, nurses, resource officer, faculty, staff and guests lecturers on the following topics:

5.1              Bullying

5.2              Sexual harassment and dating relationships

5.3              Health and wellness and related lifestyle choices

5.4              Safe and prudent use of the internet

5.5              Safe driving and license laws and regulations

5.6              Ethnic diversity issues

5.7       Others relevant issues that occur over time

  6.       Manners, etiquette and social skills

  7.       Development and monitoring of four-year graduation plans

  8.       Formal college and career planning

  9.     Computer availability (especially for those who do not have access at home for the completion of academic assignments)

10.       Introduction to student life at Cape Central

            10.1     Introduction to Cape Central vision, mission, values and goals

10.2     Student Senate activities

10.3     Introduction to clubs, organizations and teams

10.4     Activity passes

10.5     Cape Central history and traditions (alma mater, The Jungle)

Section IV:  Reasons for Change

1.         Current Data on High School Graduation and Dropout

1.1       National graduation rate is 69.9% as of June 2007 according to Education Week and the Gates Foundation; national graduation rate for African-American students 53.4%.

1.2       Missouri graduation rate is 75.0% as of June 2007 according to Education Week and the Gates Foundation; Missouri graduation rate for African-American students 55.8%.

1.3       Cape Central graduation rate is 79.9% as of Fall 2006 and based on a five-year average (2002-2006) as reported to DESE for Annual District Report Card; Cape Central graduation rate for African-American students 60.1%. 

2.         Projected Dropout for the Cape Central Freshman Class of 2007 (Graduation Class of 2011) based on our current five-year average is a loss of 20.1% of our 330 first-time freshmen or 66 students.            

3.         Our state mandate to increase our graduation rate is significantly greater due to the additional units of math and science as now required by the State of Missouri beginning with the Freshman Class of 2006 (Graduation Class of 2010).

4.         Our Cape Central goal is to raise our rate of graduation from 79.9% to 90% and our rate of admission to college/postsecondary programs from 76.4% to 90% after four years of the implementation of our PLC Model.  For comparison, the current rate of admission to college/postsecondary programs in the State of Missouri is 64% and in the nation is 51%

In a June 2006 special edition of PrincipalLeaderhsip, a publication of the National Association of Secondary Schools, the entire issue was devoted to a study of 25 breakthrough high schools. These twenty-five high schools had worked to reach a notable level of academic accomplishment designated 90/90:   90% or above rate of graduation and 90% or above rate of acceptance into a college/postsecondary education program.

Typically, when you read such studies they are of high schools that have somehow managed to select or limit their student populations.  However, to be included in the Breakthrough Study, the school had to have 50% or more of its students from a minority population and 50% or more of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

If we compare the attributes of those 25 breakthrough high schools to Cape Central, according to our district report card’s five-year average of 2002-2006:  we have a district minority population of about 30.8% and a district free or reduced-price lunch population of about 51.1%.  In other words, we would not have qualified for the study because our minority percentage is too low.

We believe this is a good news/bad news scenario:  good news because our student body would be considered less at-risk than those schools in the Breakthough Study and bad news because our five-year average rate of graduation is 79.9% and our five-year rate of acceptance into college/postsecondary programs was 76.4%.  By these two standards, the 25 high schools in this study—varying in size from 270 students to 4,500 students—in a focused comparison became more academically successful than we are currently being at Cape Central.

Although each high school had its own story of success to tell, the NASSP study was looking for commonalities and it identified five among the 25 schools:

All of the schools worked hard to assure their school environment was physically and emotionally safe.   

All of the schools worked to assure a rigorous and relevant curriculum that related content to practical applications. 

All of the schools worked to establish an intense literacy program of high-level reading, writing and speaking across the curriculum. 

All of the schools worked to establish an academic program with a wide variety of honors, dual-credit, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. 

All of the schools worked to establish an internal collaboration among faculty and staff and an external collaboration with the greater community.

Section V:  Attributes of Systemic Change

1.         In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.  (Max DePree in Leadership is an Art)

2.         We can change without improving but we cannot improve without changing.  (Joe Carroll in The Copernican Plan).

3.         Research on systemic change maintains that it takes 3-5 years of full implementation before one can conduct a credible assessment of the impact of substantive change.

4.         Cowan’s Third Theory of Change:  Whatever you do, one-third will embrace it; one-third reject it; one-third will be happy either way.

Thank you for taking the time to read an overview of our Professional Learning Community Plan for 2009-10.  If you have questions or need for clarification, please feel free to contact Mike Cowan at 335-8228.