Manual High School Pathway Proposal: Accountability Clock Hearing Letter from the School Leader and Community Design Team

We are excited to share our plan and commitment to Innovation and transformative improvement at Manual High School. On October 3rd, 2019, the State Review Panel (SRP) recommended that Manual continue to leverage Innovation status as an end-of-clock action, and we are fully prepared to implement our renewed plan with consistency and fidelity in partnership with the University of Virginia (UVA). The SRP recommended this pathway based on their assessment of our leadership capacity, a strong partnership with the University of Virginia in supporting the implementation of the plan, support from stakeholders including school, district, and community partners, our promising Early College / Bio-medical and technical education pathway, and our commitment to leveraging critical flexibilities with staffing and hiring top talent.

Our focus on providing a world class Early College Model at Manual will ensure that our students have increased opportunities to succeed in college and career. Already, we are seeing initial yet dramatic improvement in our school culture, and we are seeing promising results in our academic focus area of best first instruction through deep lesson planning towards rigor and cultural responsiveness. Our Innovation Status is a critical component in ensuring the continued success and growth of Manual, by providing the space, flexibility, and framework for thinking strategically about aligning our time, people, and money to achieve the best outcomes possible for our students. At the core of our plan is the implementation of our promising Early College Model. With this innovation renewal, we also have: a new leadership team, strong stakeholder support, a partnership with UVA, and an Early College Model with multiple new pathways, including a biomedical career focus and technical education program. In addition, our redesigned educator incentives aim to combat and end the high teacher turnover that has plagued our school over the past decade. These incentives build upon the school culture work that has contributed to increased teacher and staff retention. College is now more within reach than ever for Manual High School students. Through our Early College Model, Manual students will be immersed in an engaging college-going culture with higher levels of accountability and support, allowing students to earn both a high school diploma and 60 college credit hours (or the equivalent of an associate’s degree) for free. This experience is invaluable for students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, because the jobs that require training beyond high school are growing three times as fast as jobs that require only a high school diploma. In 2020, 74% of all Colorado jobs will require education beyond high school. Early college is a proven strategy for future success, as students are more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, and complete a college degree. This innovative model provides the opportunity for students to simultaneously earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree. Through a partnership with Community College of Denver, students are able to take free college-level courses while in high school, creating an intentional pathway that leads to a college degree. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to explore career opportunities and earn an industry certificate in an area that interests them — such as graphic design and illustration, accounting, web research, and more. Our entire school community is deeply committed to our school plan and the success of our students. Stakeholders have engaged in open and transparent sessions to evaluate, give feedback, and inspire the creation of this plan. We’d like to thank our community partners, parents, students, faculty, staff and DPS support partners for all of the assistance, ideas, and support identified throughout this plan. Through this plan and our commitment to its implementation, we will put Manual High School on a strong course to ensure that Every Student Succeeds! Thank you on behalf of our school community, Joe Glover, Principal Manual High School

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Overview- Brief overview of the pathway proposal

Manual High School opened in 1894 as one of the first schools in Denver to educate women and African Americans. We have a rich and impressive legacy of achievements as well as distinguished alumni that include mayors, civic leaders, actors/actresses, business leaders and change agents. While we are proud of our school and the progress we are making, in recent years we have not provided the quality of educational opportunities that all of our students deserve and are necessary for our school to flourish. Through this plan and in partnership with the University of Virginia (UVA), we fully intend to dramatically improve these outcomes.

2014-15 2016 2017 2018 2019

DPS SPF Accredited On Probation Accredited On Watch Accredited On Priority Watch Accredited On Priority Watch Accredited on Probation

STATE SPF Turnaround

(Lowered due to DPS Request)

Priority Improvement

Priority Improvement

(Lowered due to DPS Request)

Priority Improvement Priority Improvement

We have begun the necessary improvements in instructional excellence and agree with the State Review Panel’s recommendation to fully implement the Early College Model through Innovation Status in order to significantly improve our overall academic outcomes. Through our updated innovation plan, we have brought on a new leadership team, reestablished stakeholder support, created a partnership with the University of Virginia (UVA), and have refined our Early College Model with a focus on the biomedical career pathway and technical education programs. In addition, our renewed educator incentives and support systems build upon our strong school culture systems and aim at continuing to dramatically increase teacher and staff retention. In spring 2019, Manual hired a new principal charged with both assessing the school’s needs and planning for improvements in the 2019-20 school year. Throughout this improvement planning process our school community, has focused deeply on understanding our root causes and most critical performance challenges. Through this process, the principal, Joe Glover, met with staff members, community groups, students, and families. Over the summer and fall semester, we engaged with UVA, SchoolWorks, the DPS Board of Education’s School Performance Compact Process which included deep analysis data and school-wide systems that narrowed our focus to key strengths, root causes, priority performance challenges, and ultimately key strategies for improvement. As a result of this Innovation Renewal and State Accountability Planning process, Manual has begun to address these root causes and priority performance challenges. We are committed to making the critical improvements needed to change our school’s trajectory and dramatically improve outcomes for students, the following elements are critical to our Innovation plan and success of our school. Our plan focuses on making these critical improvements that are needed to change our school’s trajectory and dramatically improve outcomes for students.

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Early College Model

Our updated Early College Model provides students with the opportunity to concurrently earn, upon graduation, a high school diploma, an associate degree, a postsecondary credential, or at least 60 college credits. Through our Early College Model, students are now beginning college coursework and career and technical education options as soon as their freshman or sophomore year. Our Early College Model leverages our postsecondary and industry partnerships which allows for the implementation of this innovative model:

● Community College of Denver ● Western Colorado University ● University of Colorado at Denver: CU Succeeds ● Emily Griffith Technical College ● Denver Health

CTE/Bio-Med: CTE will be using courses from Project Lead the Way: Principles of Biomedical Sciences, Human Body Systems, and Health and Wellness, along with other specialty concurrent enrollment courses. In addition, students will be participating in career exploration, mentorships, and internships related to careers they are interested in and would like to explore. The medical focus will help our students educate and advocate for their own family members, empowering them to take control over their own bodies and health care. Secondly, with a strong STEM-based course of study, our students will be ready for the exploding and understaffed health care job market of the future, providing them an edge over non-STEM educated applicants. Lastly, our campus is minutes away from the Saint Joseph and Denver Health medical communities which employs hundreds of Denver residents with high-paying jobs. Our students will be exploring careers, receiving mentoring, and working as interns within this medical community, as well as facilities that support these medical communities.

Med Connect Career and Technical Education Pathway

The Biomedical Sciences, Research and Development, or Med Connect CTE Pathway at Manual, is a DPS-approved career pathway. Manual consulted with the Medical Advisory Board, which includes Denver Health, Kaiser Presbyterian Saint Luke’s, and Lutheran Medical Center, to determine which medical careers were in highest demand in the Denver Metro Area. The Med School at Manual is designed to immerse students in classes and work-based learning that allows them to explore a variety of medical careers. Students enrolled in the program are given multiple unique opportunities for education and future employment including:

● Earning an Industry Certification while in high school

● A pathway for obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree at a reduced cost

● Working in specific medical field positions right out of high school

● A hands-on, work-based education to explore fields in the healthcare industry

● Engagement with school organizations and competitions

Med Connect students visit local hospitals and laboratories, meet professionals in a variety of healthcare fields, and practice their skills with hands-on activities. They participate in the DPS Career Connect programs which provide opportunities to: explore careers through workplace site visits and job shadowing Career Exploration (Career X), connect with mentors in the healthcare industry (Career Coach), and participate in internship opportunities during the summer and school day (Career Launch). These experiences and course curricula are the backbone of the program. Together, they help students identify which medical track they want to pursue.

The Med Connect program at Manual supports students’ access to careers in health care, which include: Doctor, Nurse, Nutritionist, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Dentist, Dental Hygienist, Radiologist, Phlebotomist, and Forensic Scientist. Students also have access to complete an Industry Certification in one of the following areas while in high school: Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Certified Patient Care Technician, Medical Administrative Assistant, Emergency Medical Responder/National Registry EMT, Pharmacy Technician, Certified EKG Technician, Medical Assisting, Phlebotomy, and National Entry Level Dental Assistant.

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The following elements are critical to our Innovation plan and ongoing success of our school: 1. Early College School Model: Manual is committed to effectively implementing an Early College Model focused on

our students’ most desired Med-Connect Biomedical pathway, in partnership with Denver Health. Through this unique Early College Model, students can access rigorous college-level coursework and earn an Associate’s Degree while acquiring their high school diploma. Early Colleges are proven to dramatically improve student investment, college admission, and college graduation rates.

2. UVA Partnership on implementing our school model with aligned instructional systems: Manual has entered into a partnership and will expand support from UVA in implementing the school model, designing and implementing key instructional and school culture systems. The University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE) program has shown strong results in working with other DPS schools. Through multiyear executive education and on-site partnership, UVA will help drive organizational learning and collaboration to empower our school to heighten focus, improve internal ways of working and confront difficult problems.

3. 90-Day Action Planning with UVA: Through our partnership with UVA, we will also continue to utilize a 90-day plan that helps ensure our focus on the implementation of key action steps related to our Big Rocks priority focused on establishing strong instructional systems.

4. Teacher’s College (Development & Retention): Teachers at Manual reflect our student population. We emphasize recruiting and retaining top talent and continue to retain one of the most diverse teaching staff in the district. Manual is committed to providing high-quality teacher professional development through our professional development process, Teacher’s College.

5. Enrollment Sustainability: The 2020 freshmen class is our first class of students that have matriculated from the new McAuliffe Manual Middle School that is intentionally co-located on our campus to build an intentional pipeline of students who can access our school. Through this partnership, we are poised to increase enrollment with their incoming 9th-grade classes with an average of 120 students per year.

6. Improved Learning Environment: Every core classroom at Manual has been updated with 21st-century tools and instructional technology 1:1 learning platform.

7. Increased Community Engagement: All Manual teachers are now trained in the Parent Teacher Home Visit Program, a proven way to increase student attendance, parent involvement, and student engagement.

8. 9th Grade Academy: Students will matriculate into Manual through an intentional 9th-grade summer academy to prepare them for the high school experience and onboard them into the course sequences and planning for their unique Early College student roadmap.

9. LIGHT Team: Aligning all socio-emotional support through a comprehensive and dedicated team of wrap-around support to ensure consistency in student culture systems from attendance, engagement, and mental health.

10. Sustaining Innovation Status Flexibilities: Through our reaffirmation of waivers from the district, state, and the collective bargaining agreement we are able to recruit and retain the best teachers for our students, leveraging our resources, and customizing our programming to meet the needs of our students and our community.

In order to be implemented effectively, the Innovation plan requires targeted waivers in the following areas:

Curriculum ● Allow the school to implement a curricular model based on the Early College Model

PD ● Allow school to determine PD for Teachers and School Leaders and not require staff to attend district PD

when it is not aligned with the school needs. ● Allow the school to direct more PD time for staff to effectively implement the school’s educational program

Calendar ● Allow the school flexibility in creating a daily and annual calendar and to offer targeted PD and aligned schedules to ensure successful execution of the school’s plan

Human Resources

● Allow the school to flexibility in order to recruit and retain teachers that demonstrate effectiveness in the Early College Model.

● All teachers hired using annual contracts to ensure the school is attracting and retaining high quality teachers.

● Allow the school to recruit and hire early / outside of the DPS timeline ● Allow refusal of limited term assignments of staff from district ● Allow schools to create unique roles based on the school-model

Budget ● Allow flexibility in budgeting to ensure the school is able to direct adequate resources to classroom

instruction and will budget on actual teacher salaries. ● Allow school-determined additional stipends for added responsibilities, incentives, performance ● Allow financial sponsorships/grants without DPS overhead charges

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This model and aligned support from the district and the University of Virginia will ensure the rapid improvement of school performance and ultimately lead to transformative improvements in student outcomes.

Background- Brief description of the school

School Manual High School

Grades Served 9-12

Model/ Focus Early College High School

Region / Neighborhood Near Northeast/ Whittier

Primary Contact Joe Glover, Principal joe_glover@dpsk12.org 720-423-6377

Our Vision: At Manual High School, students to step into their greatness through powerful learning experiences that

propel them to positively impact their community and take their place in the world.

Our Mission: Through our Early College Model we offer students the opportunity to complete an Associate’s Degree

through our Bio-Medical pathway. Our students develop an unshakable mindset of achievement, high expectations,

resiliency, and critical thinking that prepares them for post-secondary success. Every student at Manual is challenged,

nurtured, and supported by highly-trained and innovative teachers in a technology-rich and college-focused

environment.

Our Model: Manual High School students come from a variety of diverse backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in degreed or professional fields. Our students come from families that value education to such a high degree that some have moved from their home countries to Denver for a better education. Our focus on the Early College Pathway Program supports students to complete secondary and postsecondary courses while enrolled in high school such that, upon successful completion of the curriculum, the student will have completed the requirements of a high school diploma and an associate's degree or other postsecondary credential or at least sixty credits toward the completion of a postsecondary credential.

With an Early College Model, Manual can not only provide the financial assistance needed, but also provide the support necessary to navigate the college system. Many of our students are “first generation” attenders: they will be the first students in their family to matriculate from high school to college. Thus, these students need mentoring related to navigating the intricacies of college systems, such as selecting courses, buying textbooks, finding tutoring, or talking to professors. The Early College Model will provide all of these resources, allowing our students to enter the workforce as skilled contributors or continue on to finish their four year degree. Manual students need the Early College opportunity to flourish and give back to their community, strengthening the entire city of Denver.

Since Manual High School received its Early College designation in spring 2017, we have been building momentum towards full early college implementation. It is important to note that Manual is in year 2 of a 6 year implementation plan and has now refined this plan in light of the new legislation. Being early in our plan, we have not yet experienced the results of full implementation; however, through this plan we are able to support students in completing the program in 4 years. Our current 9th grade class will be the first cohort of students that will fully engage in our 4 year Early College Model resulting in both a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree. Students in our current 10th -12th grades may also work toward this goal and acquire college credits, but with the shift in legislation cannot complete the program on the initially designed 6 year pathway. While we began the program last year, 27 of our 55 graduating seniors were able to graduate with college level credits.

Manual High School’s current enrollment is 310 students. With the Innovation plan and improvements detailed in the renewal, and as the school rating moves to Meets Expectations, we plan to grow to 500 students by the 2024-25 school year. Our goal is to increase the number of students earning college credits in high school by having 80% of Manual students earning concurrent enrollment credit with the intent of attending a 4 year college or university, 30% of Manual students who complete an Associate’s Degree or Postsecondary Credential by high school graduation, and 37% of Manual students taking CTE courses in the Med-Connect Pathway.

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Student Demographics

FRL SPED ELL Hispanic / Latino African American White SoC

87% 23% 22% 56.8% 32.1% 5.4% 94.6%

While middle school students matriculate into Manual from all over the city, our strongest feeder pattern is from McAuliffe Manual, a new, intentionally designed feeder middle school located within our high school campus. Through this intentional co-located middle school we have partnered with DPS to help build a stronger enrollment pipeline and aligned programming. This school year is the first year that McAuliffe Manual has matriculated students to Manual as the middle school began phasing in one grade at a time in 2016. We believe that with this partnership, along with our improving reputation and outcomes with our Early College Model, we will be able to re-attract a viable enrollment of 500 students over the next few years. McAuliffe Manual alone has 121 8th graders that are well situated to matriculate to Manual High School.

Enrollment Forecast

GRADE 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25

9 88 100 125 125 125 125

10 69 88 100 125 125 125

11 76 69 88 100 125 125

12 76 76 69 88 100 125

Total 309 333 382 438 475 500

New Leadership The new leader of Manual High School is Joe Glover. Joe has experience both at the college level as an instructor and as an Assistant Principal in three of the largest high schools in Denver Public Schools. Having designed and implemented infrastructure and systems that helped his prior schools function to effectively meet the socio-emotional and academic needs for thousands of students, Joe is focused on creating the systems and structures that Manual needs to stabilize its operations despite numerous changes in leadership and staff throughout the years. Joe is committed to building positive relationships with the community, parents and families, and students and to effectively manage resources with a focus on equity to increase student achievement and opportunities for all. Under Innovation status, the school leader will be able to maximize distributive leadership capabilities and be nimble enough to best serve the needs of Manual students on a day-to-day basis.

Support from University of Virginia Partnership for Leadership in Education (UVA-PLE) A significant additional support Manual will be receiving is participation in the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leadership in Education (UVA-PLE). The UVA-PLE program has shown strong results in working with other DPS schools and across the country. The UVA-PLE's transformative and tailored leadership development program increases the capacity of district and school teams to shape their own future and achieve lasting improvements in student learning. Through multiyear executive education and on-site partnership, UVA will help drive our organizational learning and collaboration in order to empower our school to heighten focus on implementation of our school model and aligned systems and structures, as well as developing the adaptive leadership skills needed to confront persistent and unique problems. Our participation in this program began in the 2019-2020 school year and is being expanded to support the implementation of this Innovation plan and support the school leader’s onboarding into this important work.

During the summer of 2019, we initiated our partnership with UVA and drafted our first 90-Day Action Plan that focuses on lesson planning structures and PD in Teachers College with a connection to our Observation/Feedback cycle (also noted as an area to prioritize in our 2018 External School Review). In Teachers College, teachers plan collaboratively along with their coach or evaluator. The coach/evaluator’s role in Teachers College is to do observations and give feedback to connect learning back to the student work being discussed. Teachers use data to inform the next week’s planning and improve their lesson plans through this continuous improvement cycle.

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Analysis of student performance- Trends in student achievement data and root causes of underperformance.

Historical Performance in Key Indicators: (see UIP and 90-Day Plan for comprehensive analysis)

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

EBRW (P/SAT) Overall Status N/A N/A 32% 28% 27%

Math (P/SAT) Overall Status N/A N/A 10% 13% 13%

4 Year Graduation Rate 52.7% 59.2% 73.8% 71.9% Not available yet

ACCESS % On Track 73% 54% 51.4% 32.43% 27.91%

ACCESS MGP 59 41 61 50 48

Key Takeaways: The persistent root causes of underperformance are attributable to the challenges of inconsistent leadership/ turnover

and a lack of implementing a cohesive and aligned school model.

● Leadership Inconsistency- Since closing and reopening in the 2007-2008 school year, Manual has had seven

different principals, each with his/her unique vision for the school.

● Model Inconsistency- With the fluctuation in leadership, the school’s academic program has never been fully

established and implemented into a coherent school model.

These challenges have led to a lack of implementation of aligned instruction and school culture systems to a compelling

school model. As a result of this, our school has suffered from inconsistent instructional planning, access to grade-level

content, and monitoring of student progress, as well as the inconsistent implementation of strong culture systems to

address attendance, academics, and engagement.

Notable Trends and Priority Performance Challenges:

Priority Performance Challenge 1: Overall low rate of students graduating high school as “college and career ready” without the need for remediation in literacy and math. Specifically, not meeting expectations on the pass rates on Accuplacer, SAT, and CE/AP courses that demonstrate readiness for college.

Priority Performance Challenge 2: Overall low rates of students “on-track for college readiness” Specifically, the number of Manual students who meet the college readiness benchmarks (PSAT 9, PSAT 10 and SAT) are significantly below DPS and state expectations.

Priority Performance Challenge 3: Student Engagement - Attendance The number of Manual High School students who meet the DPS attendance threshold of 93% does not meet expectations and is below the level necessary for students across the school to experience success.

1. Root Cause: Lack of Standards Based Instruction and Assessment. School-wide, teachers have an inconsistent understanding of grade-level standards, how to design tasks that appropriately assess those standards, and how to support students in mastering them. Systems to support staff in instructional planning, and in the monitoring of student progress towards mastery of CCSS, have not yet been implemented cohesively.

2. Root Cause: Inconsistent Implementation of Whole Child Supports. We are in the early stages of implementing a comprehensive whole child system that addresses the significant barriers to attendance, academics and engagement.

While continuous improvement and refinement efforts have made incremental improvements in several measures, the

larger challenge of incoherent programming and leadership turnover necessitates a deep focus on implementing a

strong school model with aligned instructional systems with fidelity. Therefore the plan for Manual’s improvement is

rooted in codifying an instructional model with deep implementation support from the University of Virginia. Our focus

on implementing this model ultimately will ensure that Manual HS has strong school-wide instructional systems, raised

expectations through the college and career model, and relevant and exciting course work. The core of this approach

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focuses on revitalizing and deeply implementing a compelling school model and aligned systems that are clear and

consistent to all stakeholders so that ultimately students thrive.

Improvement Efforts Actions taken to improve outcomes, and impact of prior state or federally funded support.

Over the past several years Manual has been engaged in defining and refining their vision for academic success. This process has resulted in a significant effort to focus on creating culturally responsive instructional experiences that meet the diverse needs of their students. While these efforts have been effective in creating a strong school culture, ultimately the focus on teacher created curriculum has shown to be ineffective in meeting the grade-level needs of the content. In addition, the school has had significant leadership changes that have brought about new energy and systems, but again without the focus and broad buy-in for a vision to take hold. In the spring of 2019, DPS hired Joe Glover to assess the needs of the school and has spent the last several months engaging in a deep root cause analysis with staff, district administrators, UVA partners, and through the State’s Review Panel process to plan for and begin implementing significant changes to the school model and instructional systems that are reflected in the school’s accountability pathway plan.In large part, previous efforts were unsuccessful because of the inconsistency of leadership and the lack of a consistent instructional model. Please see the root causes above in the “Analysis of Student Performance” section.

History of Recent State/Federal Funding

Grant Name

Year Awarded & Award Amount

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19

NCLB Title I $109,277 $7,300

$116,364 $110,702 $94,940 - -

Diagnostic Review - - $28,500 - - -

EASA Title I - - - - $91,911 $103,037

Colorado Student Reengagement

- - $324,425 $139,292 $276,825 $300,000

School Turnaround Leadership Development

- - - - - $94,153

Through these additional resources, we have been able to support strategic school planning efforts with dedicated staffing for key priorities around culture and instruction. They have enabled the school to engage in this process to deeply assess its needs and align all systems and structures under the new vision and academic model. Ongoing District and Supports for Plan Implementation

Denver Public Schools is committed to prioritizing support to Manual HS and the effective implementation of this innovation plan. Through the district’s Intensive Tier Strategy, Manual HS will receive the following additional supports to help ensure the successful implementation of the plan and ultimate dramatic improvements in opportunities and outcomes for students:

1. DPS Tiered Funding over a period of 5 years, delineated as follows:

2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024

$440,000 $432,000 $432,000 $285,000 $110,000

2. Regional Support from the Instructional Superintendent and the Regional Team, consisting of: two math specialists, two literacy specialists, one culturally-responsive education specialist, and one improvement and leadership partner.

3. Tiered Departmental Support, including: a dedicated HR recruiter, dedicated HR partner with a caseload of only 5 schools, Improvement Science Partner, an escalation partner, a dedicated instructional specialist also with a caseload of only five schools, and intensive support from the district’s School Improvement Team, which includes deep planning aligned to Manual HS’ Innovation Plan, UIP and Strategic School Plan.

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Formal partnership with the University of Virginia, which includes: extensive professional learning and coaching in the areas of adaptive leadership and change management, dedicated time for systems analysis and intensive planning, a cohort of school leaders partnered in this work, and guidance from a national leader in school improvement work (UVA).

Pathway Identification- rationale for selected pathway and selection process

Our proposed pathway is innovation status with implementation support from UVA. Based on an in-depth analysis of our school systems and structures, the State Review Panel (SRP) has also recommended that Manual leverage innovation status as the end of clock action. The SRP recommendation aligns with the district’s recommendation and is based on the rationale detailed in the SRP’s report, including a belief in the new leader’s capacity, a strong partnership with the University of Virginia in supporting the implementation of the plan, support from stakeholders including school, district, and community partners, promising Early College / Bio-medical and technical education pathway, and commitment to leveraging critical flexibilities with staffing and hiring top talent.

We considered all options including school closure, charter conversion, and partial and full management partnership. We agree with SRP recommendation of Innovation Status and think that the other options, particularly school closure and charter conversion, would not result in significantly improved opportunities for students and that the school’s plan, when implemented with fidelity and aligned supports will result in significantly improved opportunities and outcomes for students. We have begun to implement a partnership with the University of Virginia and believe that with this added support we can assure cohesive and aligned implementation of the plan. State Accountability Planning – Stakeholder Input Manual High School deeply values community engagement and has included family voice and input through various structures. In order to garner significant stakeholder input and support for our Innovation plan and overall program goals we have engaged staff, students, and community members in reaffirming and revising our commitments to our school. These efforts built upon the community commitments established through our Common Grounds Process in 2015.

Throughout this process, we conducted an inclusive and collaborative dialogue around the ideas and perspectives of diverse cross-sections of Manual students, parents, faculty, staff, administrators and community members. To support this comprehensive engagement process, we hired a bilingual Community Liaison for the first time this year who supports with sending out community newsletters, updating our social media, student recruitment, and our partnership with McAuliffe Manual. The ongoing input from parents and community members has yielded many themes for our school’s ongoing improvement efforts including the need for increased communication from the school and particularly, increased outreach to our Hispanic families. Many of the initiatives, ideas, and feedback from these activities have directed our renewal and revitalization of our Innovation plan.

Parent and Community Member Engagement: In partnership with the Office of Family and Community Engagement, we held several community conversations including:

● Community meetings at Manual on April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, October 14th, December 5 ● Community meeting at Blair Caldwell Library on December 12 ● Community meeting at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center on October 21st ● Parent-Teacher conferences, October 15 and October 16th ● “Cup of Joe with Principal Joe Glover,” parent small group input meetings (monthly) ● Manual Council/CSC (monthly - every second Tuesday).

We also continue to partner with the Friends of Manual, an alumni and community group that supports our students, and have full support from them around our Innovation plan. The Friends of Manual High School is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the academic achievement and overall high school experience of students at Manual. Friends of Manual was started by a group of alumni committed to public education in Denver with a desire to find ways to connect in a positive way with their alma mater. Friends of Manual High School has evolved over the past several years to truly reflect the notion of “friends” and seeks to bring a diverse range of stakeholders together to provide a greater sense of community and enthusiasm to the Manual campus. This group demonstrates leadership in

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reclaiming the legacy of constructive activism and pride that has long been associated with Manual. We want to make sure that this special school has the on-going support of a wide range of alumni and other committed friends.

Staff Engagement: Beginning in January 2019, Principal Glover had one-on-one meetings with every staff member to ask what staff were most proud of, what are the areas of growth for Manual, and the associated supports needed. On August 9th 2019, in welcoming back teachers, we reviewed our vision, mission, values, and we reviewed the synthesized feedback shared from the January one-on-one meetings with staff. This feedback drove our initial planning for our major improvement strategies and focus on our Early College Model. In addition, we conducted feedback sessions about our Innovation Renewal Process to gather input from students, staff members, and families. We have solicited ideas, concerns, and feedback during our daily PD sessions as well as over email and conducted weekly office hours to continue the conversation about the Innovation plan.

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School Design Plan - Timeline of Implementation/Scope, Innovation Status Approval Results

Timeline for Implementation:

The following actions will take place to support the implementation of the plan.

2019-2020 School Year:

1. Finalize the Updated Early College Model

2. Communicate the updated Innovation Plan with staff, families, students, and feeder middle schools

3. Winter: UVA Instructional Coherence Session, and updating the school’s spring 90-day plan.

4. Spring: UVA Site Visit on Instructional Coherence, DDI, Observation/Feedback, PD, Instructional Planning,

Coaching. UVA will conduct a full site visit and coaching session on the implementation of this plan and

associated big rocks. Through this process, UVA will support the regional team and school leadership team in

conducting a Foundational Systems Analysis and plan to achieve “Deep” execution of these systems over the

next two years.

5. Spring: Manual’s ILT will evaluate curricular choices and adopt core content curriculum with support from the

DPS Curriculum and Instruction team and input from UVA.

6. Summer: UVA Summer Session focused on instructional leadership, plan implementation, and 90-day plan

priorities for the fall semester. Over those three days, district leadership teams and principals focused on further

leveraging strengths to build on success, addressing gaps in implementation, innovating to promote change and

reinvigorating change efforts.

Ongoing During the 2020 and 2021 School Years:

1. The regional team including the Regional Instructional Superintendent will conduct 60-day Continuous

Improvement Cycles to assess the impact of the school’s innovation plan and related 90-day action steps.

2. The Tiered Supports team will hire an Improvement Science Partner who will be on the Manual staff and will

implement a research study on the effectiveness of implementing this innovation plan and the supports needed

from the district and UVA in order to effectively support the implementation of the plan. Monthly the

Improvement Science Partner will meet with UVA, district Instructional Superintendents, and the Tiered

Supports team to identify the status of this improvement effort. During these meetings, these groups will

identify additional support needed as determined.

3. UVA will provide targeted coaching and support the school leader and leadership team through the partnership

detailed throughout this application, of which a detailed scope of work is attached in the appendix.

UVA will provide targeted coaching and support the school leader and leadership team through the partnership detailed

throughout this application, of which a detailed scope of work is attached in the appendix. (See Appendix for Scope of

Work with UVA)

Innovation Status Approval:

● Manual’s Council / CSC (100% Approval)- On January 7th the Manual school governance committee, the CSC,

voted to approve the innovation plan as the state accountability pathway (12 of 12 in favor).

● Manual Administration (100% Approval)- On January 7th the Manual administration team voted to approve the

innovation plan as the state accountability pathway (5 of 5 in favor).

● Manual Teacher/ Staff (95.8% Approval)- On January 13th the Manual teachers voted to approve the

innovation plan as the state accountability pathway (23 of 24 in favor).

DPS Board of Education: On January 21st the DPS Board of Education held a public meeting to review the Innovation

plan / State Accountability Pathway and held public comment and a vote to approve the plan on January 23rd.

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Goals & Progress Monitoring Plan - Student Outcome Goals and Progress Monitoring Plan

In order to truly understand the impact of this plan we will be implementing several reporting and progress monitoring

structures. These progress monitoring processes will ensure that we have a clear focus on monitoring both the

implementation of the plan as well as ongoing monitoring of the impact of the plan on student achievement. Finally, as a

school district we are partnering with the University of Virginia to support a two year study of the implementation of the

plan and its impact so that we can clearly identify the specific actions and resources that have made the greatest impact

on school improvement. To this end, we are leveraging the State’s Pathway Implementation grant as well as district

central funds to hire an improvement science partner that will be embedded in the school and will lead the progress

monitoring and reporting processes for the district and state as well as supporting ongoing improvement efforts for the

school.

Progress Monitoring - Plan Implementation and Impact

External School Quality Reviews:

● Annually the school will receive a school quality review to assess the overall quality of the school from

SchoolWorks.

Fall and Spring UVA Reports, with 3 school and district visits per year

● UVA staff will provide quarterly site visits and reports on plan implementation that focus on observing the

implementation of key action steps detailed in the school’s 90-day plans. Quarterly updates on implementation

of school’s 90-day plans with UVA (additional detail is available in the UVA Scope of Work in the appendix)

Comprehensive Evaluation of Program Implementation and Impact

● At the end of the 2 years of implementation of the state accountability pathway, DPS in partnership with UVA

will develop a comprehensive report assessing the implementation and impact of the improvement plan.

Through this process DPS is hiring a dedicated School-based Improvement Science Partner who will facilitate

PDSA cycles with the school leadership team and report quarterly to the district and board on the effectiveness

of the implementation of the plan.

CDE staff will also provide a progress monitoring report to the State Board twice per year (March and September) and

utilize a common template based on data from site visits and data the school shares with them.

Progress Monitoring - Key Action Steps and Student Data

Monthly Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Meetings

● Monthly throughout the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school year, UVA will collaborate with the school leader, the

Improvement Science Partner, and Regional Instructional Superintendent to monitor the school’s action steps in

the school’s 90-day plan which include monitoring implementation of key systems and key student outcomes in

the district’s Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) data dashboard. These meetings will culminate in an

assessment progress toward student performance goals, and Key Systems Implementation and related next

steps action planning. (additional detail is available in the UVA Scope of Work in the appendix)

● 90-Day Planning - UVA will support the school leadership team and district supervisors in refining and assessing

the big rocks and related action steps in the school’s 90-day plan with continuous revisions and refinement each

January and August.

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Innovation Plan Implementation - Progress Monitoring with UVA

Category Description Expected Result

Establish and

Sustain Key

Instructional

Systems

Establish, Implement, and Achieve Deep

Implementation of Key Systems on the

Foundational Systems Rubric: (Culture

Systems, Equity Practices, DDI,

Observation/Feedback, Instructional

Leadership, Instructional Planning &

Delivery)

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support

the schools will be at “Core” execution of all key

systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric.

By the end of 2 years of the Innovation Plan support

the schools will be at “Deep” execution of all key

systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric.

Identify, Develop,

and Sustain

Leadership Team

Competencies

Identify and develop skills for all

leadership team members responsible

for creating and implementing Key

Systems on the Foundational Systems

Rubric.

This will be monitored through the

identification of staff needs using the 9

Box evaluation tool and creating

individual learning plans with dedicated

support for each leadership team

member on their key system

responsibilities.

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support

the schools will have identified and developed all

leadership team members on the skills needed to

deeply implement key systems on the Foundational

Systems Rubric.

By the end of 2 years of the Innovation Plan support

the schools will have retained all leadership team

members responsible for implementing key systems

on the Foundational Systems Rubric. In addition, the

school will have developed a plan to move towards

deep implementation of these systems.

Achieve

Significant

Student

Performance

Outcomes

Dramatically increase performance on

key district and state measures:

● District SPF Rating

● State SPF Rating

● Key academic performance for

Students of Color

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support

the schools will achieve a rating of “Approaching” on

the DPS and State SPF.

By the end of 1 year and 2 years of the Innovation

Plan support the school will increase the graduation

rate for Students of Color, on track to graduation

rates for Students of Color, and Whole Child

Measures for students of color. (See goals in 90-day

Plan for specific targets)

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Progress Monitoring Key Student Outcomes /Expected Results

The following school goals are aligned the school’s UIP and will result in Manual meeting state and district expectations on the School Performance Framework. See the Education Program section for an in-depth explanation of how we plan to measure and improve student learning.

Literacy MGP Math MGP Students Meeting

Literacy Benchmark Students Meeting Math

Benchmark

Current 2019 SPF 38 49 26% 13%

2020-21 55 55 40% 40%

2021-22 60 60 45% 45%

2022-23 65 65 50% 50%

Attendance (% of students

with attendance above 93%)

Seniors Graduating

Remediation free in English

Seniors Graduating

Remediation free in Math

Students improving one or

more performance band on the

PSAT/SAT Math

Students improving one or

more performance band on the

PSAT/SAT English

Current 2019 SPF 29% 63% 61% 47% 51%

2020-21 45% 85% 85% 80% 80%

2021-22 60% 90% 90% 90% 90%

2022-23 75% 95% 95% 100% 100%

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Appendices- UVA Partnership Scope of Work, UVA 90-Day Plan, Approved Innovation Plan

UVA Partnership - Scope of Work

UVA Partnership in support of Manual High School

The support plan outlined below provides the foundation of support the school will receive during the remainder of the current school year (2019-20) and ongoing during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years to ensure the successful implementation of the school’s innovation plan and aligned actions to build and sustain strong instructional systems with the capacity to deeply implement continuous improvement practices. 2019

● Summer program (June 2019): Full week in person for principal + 1 AP. Over six days, leadership teams work together to understand root cause needs, launch organization change efforts, learn how to drive decisions with data, establish focused execution plans and create a learning organization that continuously adapts. It also serves to create honest conversations and build trusting relationships between the district turnaround leadership team and principals in order to co-create and sustain change in the partner schools.

● Fall site visit (September 2019): A UVA-PLE team visits each school after winter session to help each school assess progress on their turnaround plans and determine next steps. PLE extended the site visit time to allow for deeper analysis of each schools progress and potential next steps.

2020 ● Winter program (January 2020): 3 days in-person support for principal + 3 members of team. Having launched a

change initiative the previous fall, school and district teams spend three days deepening their learning with a focus on data driven instruction and collaborative decision making. Skill building around effective data use is coupled with leadership development focused on motivation, prioritization, and leading change through midcourse corrections. School and district teams leave the program ready to take their change initiative to the next level for the spring and for year two.

● Spring site visit (~February 2020): A UVA-PLE team visits each school after winter session to help each school assess progress on their turnaround plans and determine next steps. PLE will extend the site visit time to allow for deeper analysis of each schools progress and potential next steps.

● Participation in Spring Retreat (April/May 2020): On-site support (at central office) on specific topic TBD to help school leadership teams advance their instructional and change leadership skills while capturing and applying lessons learned for the year.

● Summer program (June or July 2020): 3 days in person district leadership teams and principals (+1 AP) focus on further leveraging strengths to build on success, addressing gaps in implementation, innovating to promote change and reinvigorating change efforts to overcome resistance.

● Fall site visit (Fall 2020): A UVA-PLE team visits each school after summer session to help each school assess progress on their turnaround plans and determine next steps. PLE will extend the site visit time to allow for deeper analysis of each schools progress and potential next steps.

2021 ● Winter program (January 2021): 3 days in-person support for principal + 3 members of team. The final executive

education program of the core partnership focuses on distributing leadership throughout the organization and creating organizational energy for sustainable success. In addition to rich dialogue designed to sharpen school and district focus for the second semester, learners reflect on their own approach to change and leadership and work to embrace a mission-focus for the journey ahead.

● Participation in final Spring Retreat for Core Partnership (April/May 2021): On-site support (at central office) on specific topic TBD.

UVA Partnership Scope: The proposed scope will fully maximize the foundation outlined above and align to the state required Innovation Plan rubric. Through our Innovation Plan support we seek to balance deep thought partnership and progress monitoring for increased student outcomes with supporting the leadership capacity of both district and school leaders. Ideally the Innovation Plan support results in: Identifying school level gaps -> Defining the root cause of the gap -> Identifying central office resources to help address gaps (including identifying if the resources do not exist) ->

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Action(s) (by district and/or school) to address gaps -> Progress monitoring to determine efficacy of support -> Distributed leadership capacity -> Sustainable student outcomes

Goals of Innovation Plan Support for Manual

Category Description Expected Result

Establish and Sustain Key Instructional Systems

Establish, Implement, and Achieve Deep Implementation of Key Systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric: (Culture Systems, Equity Practices, DDI, Observation/Feedback, Instructional Leadership, Instructional Planning & Delivery)

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support the schools will be at “Core” execution of all key systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric. By the end of 2 years of the Innovation Plan support the schools will be at “Deep” execution of all key systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric.

Identify, Develop, and Sustain Leadership Team Competencies

Identify and develop skills for all leadership team members responsible for creating and implementing Key Systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric. This will be monitored through the identification of staff needs using the 9 Box evaluation tool and creating individual learning plans with dedicated support for each leadership team member on their key system responsibilities.

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support the schools will have identified and developed all leadership team members on the skills needed to deeply implement key systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric. By the end of 2 years of the Innovation Plan support the schools will have retained all leadership team members responsible for implementing key systems on the Foundational Systems Rubric. In addition, the school will have developed a plan to move towards deep implementation of these systems.

Achieve Significant Student Performance Outcomes

Dramatically increase performance on key district and state measures:

● District SPF Rating ● State SPF Rating ● Key academic performance

for Students of Color

By the end of 1 year of the Innovation Plan support the schools will achieve a rating of “Approaching” on the DPS and State SPF. By the end of 1 year and 2 years of the Innovation Plan support the school will increase the graduation rate for Students of Color, on track to graduation rates for Students of Color, and Whole Child Measures for students of color. (See goals in 90-day Plan for specific targets)

● Continuance of semester site visits (Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022) to support implementation of school Innovation Plans–In a traditional core partnership PLE conducts 3 site visits to each partner school. When providing Innovation Plan support for Manual, we propose to continue site visits through Spring 2022. Our site visits will continue to align to school 90-day plans and other rubrics to measure progress (i.e. Foundational Systems Rubric, Curriculum Self-Assessment). PLE team will inquire about progress on each school’s 90-day plan and brainstorm/problem-solve potential highest impact next steps to support the successful implementation of each schools Innovation Plan.

○ Provide suggestions to school leaders with strong acknowledgment of contextual considerations. ○ Explore implementation of leadership growth activities for principals.

Instructional Superintendent’s for Manual commit to weekly site visits in each school for the duration of support agreement. ● Additional executive education to enhance leadership team action planning and capacity (Summer 2021, Fall

2021, Winter 2022) ○ Summer 2021: 1 day executive education program in Denver for school ILTs to name focus areas for

2021-22 school year and retain commitment to and progress against each schools Innovation Plan.

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○ Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022: Participation in Sustainability Executive Education to enhance

distributed leadership, continuance of Innovation Plan and problem-solving. During the final year of the partnership, we will provide deeper support to help the school leadership teams tackle complex challenges unresolved during the first year and ensure continued momentum for implementing their Innovation Plan. The sustainability support will help them address their most mission-critical challenge in moving forward on their key instructional systems while building their leadership capacity to innovate, distribute leadership, and solve future problems. Tentative schedule for Sustainability participation is:

Timeline Programming and Support

August Call with district team on 90-day plans

September/October Program kickoff calls with each district team

October/November 2.7 day program with three-person school team and at least one district representative per school – Charlottesville, VA

Winter Independent work

January/February District Site Visit – In District

Spring Virtual webinar & Independent work

April/May 2.7 day program with three-person school team and at least one district representative per school – Charlottesville, VA

● Accountability/Progress Monitoring for Denver support team and schools – ● Both in-person (aligned to site visits and executive education programs) and virtually, PLE team will review

progress of student outcomes, delivery of support, implementation of Innovation Plans, etc. for both school leaders and district leaders.

○ A minimum of monthly virtual check-ins with Instructional Superintendents and Improvement Service Specialist to gauge progress, provide thought partnership on recommend next steps, etc.

● Human Resources support for schools – ○ Utilizing existing DPS resources (9 Box analysis, LEAP and LEAD frameworks), facilitate virtual

conversations to ensure strong teacher PD plans are in place. ○ Propose at least twice (spring 2020 for start of next school year and spring 2021 for start of next school

year). ● Master Schedule support for schools –

○ Leveraging work done in 2019-20 through core partnership, first name the needs for each school in making changes to the master schedule, articulate resources necessary to implement changes, determine timeline for changes (i.e. 2020-21 or 2021-22) and progress monitoring for duration for partnership.

Category Description Expected Result/ Key Actions

Assess School’s Level of Key Systems Implementation

Conduct Foundational Systems Rubric Analysis

Spring 2020 – Conduct a Foundational Systems Rubric review to assess the current state of key systems and establish 2 year goals to get to Core Execution of all systems by spring 2021, and Deep Execution by spring 2021.

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Assess School’s Level of leadership skills/competencies in Key Systems

Assess all leadership team members skills in their core functions using the 9 Box analysis

Spring 2020- Determine the level of support needed for each ILT member to get to core execution of leading the key systems they are responsible for. Develop individualized action plans for each role, with named support from the school leadership, regional leadership, central office, and UVA targeted support.

Annual Strategic Planning Process

Provide guidance and input into the school’s improvement strategies, and systems planning for 2020-2020.

Spring 2020 Spring 2021 Spring 2022 UVA partners participate in the School’s CIP and 90-Day plan process and strategic planning process for 2020-2021 in order to identify needed supports for:

● Aligning ILT Supports to the Foundational Systems Rubric

● Master Scheduling to ensure rigorous courses are offered to all students

● Assess staffing needs aligned with budget and school priorities, as well as outcomes from the 9 Box ILT review

● Support school leadership in identifying effective and distinguished staff to incentivize for retention.

● Determine ongoing progress monitoring process of overall goals (assessing student performance using the district’s dynamic Progress Monitoring Tool, and On Track to Graduate Report)

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Monthly Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Meetings

Monthly throughout the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school year, UVA will co-facilitate the school’s CIP Meetings to assess progress toward student performance goals, and Key Systems Implementation.

Monthly CIP Meetings- UVA and the school’s Regional Instructional Superintendent will meet with the school’s ILT and key staff to review key student data measures in the district’s dynamic Progress Monitoring Tool and On Track to Graduation Report. Based on the data analysis the team will identify short term action plans to meet individual student needs in order to achieve the performance goals described above. In addition, during the monthly CIP meetings, this group will assess the progress toward implementing key systems on the foundational systems rubric and develop key action steps based on their assessment:

1. Key District Supports (Regional Team, Central Office Supports)

2. Additional Targeted Supports from UVA (this could include coaching for the IS, Principal, or ILT, or distinctive supports including consulting supports from SREB on high-school specific needs, which may include PD, ILT structures, curriculum assessment, teacher coaching, master scheduling, community engagement, etc.)

Following each CIP the team will update the school’s 90-Day plan with key actions and aligned supports needed until the next month’s CIP meeting. 90-Day Plans will be shared with district leadership and the CDE Partner for review and input.

Quarterly School and District Visits

UVA staff will provide quarterly site visits that focus on observing the implementation of key action steps detailed in the school’s 90-day plans.

Quarterly: UVA will send a team of experts to each school to review the implementation of the key actions in the 90-day plan and progress toward student outcome goals using the district’s progress monitoring tool and OTG Report, and progress toward implementation of key systems on the foundational systems rubric (DDI, Observation/Feedback and coaching, Instructional Systems). During these visits the team will observe the school’s key systems in action, observe the impact of these systems on classroom instruction through classroom walkthroughs using the rigor rubric. These meetings will also include targeted coaching to the school’s Instructional Superintendent, Executive Leadership sessions for the school’s ILT, review of each ILT member’s 9 box personal development plan, and assessment of the district’s implementation of aligned supports.

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Regular Feedback and Coaching to the School’s IS, Improvement Specialist and Principal

Monthly in-person or virtual coaching sessions on implementation strategies and adaptive leadership practices

● The UVA support partner will have a monthly touchpoint with the IS, Improvement Specialist and school leader to assess challenges and successes toward the actions detailed in the 90-day plan. In year 2, include discussion of sustained implementation of Improvement Plans.

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Link to the Innovation Pathway plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S3UvqtdILRyIbssDJKqWrWztIrRABjJSZTpznncBSys/edit?usp=sharing

Link to UVA 90 Day Plan:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRtw-dzaxHIIIJB7T5GreCmPqPQV_KwR/view?usp=sharing

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