Adobe Middle School & CIS Academy Classes

Focused Area

Improving School Climate for Youth-At-Risk

Relevance to Focused Area

Our presentation proposal relates to the area of improving school climate for Youth-At-Risk by fostering a caring and supporting environment for a sub-population of students that often are often discarded from the school setting through behavior or academic consequences. Our goal, as a school and academy, is to keep these students in school and set them on a successful path through High School, and give them the social and emotional stability to foster growth and consistency in life.

Primary Strand

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance to Primary Strand

The Academy Class has a primary goal of improving student's academic performance in a school setting. Student's are expected to improve their academic grades and performance from previous school years, and are taught academic and social skills that are expected in the educational system. Students are also taught the skills that it takes to succeed in life and in non-academic settings. These skills transfer to leadership roles in the school, and improved behavior, attendance, and student accountability.

Brief Program Description

Program participants will learn how to implement an Academy class in their school that fosters at-risk youth's development of academic skills, social/real-world skill development, and character maturation. Participants will learn about our process for identifying students, tracking data, and creating a climate that fosters growth opportunities for identified students.

Summary

Adobe Middle School & Community in Schools (CIS) Academy classes are an educational setting for 45 high risk middle school students in Elko, NV. These students spend 48 minutes a day in their academy class working on academic skills, social development, character building, career/college preparation, and behavior improvement. The class is focused three days of the week on academic improvement and study skills; students are expected to work on assignments, study for tests and remediate targeted learning. The other two days of the week are spent working through social improvements in the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens", learning job and career skills, and working through life improvement situations. (i.e. opening checking accounts, filling out resumes, etc.). Mr. Zataray, our Academy teacher, is the case manager for these 45 students and the rest of his day is spent checking on his students in order to build positive relationships and breakdown barriers for their academic success, as well as working with the classroom teachers, and monitoring data for student progress.

Our presentation will focus on providing other schools with the framework and practical background to create and sustain a working classroom environment such as this in their school. We would explain the task of identifying students for this program, the data that we track, and parent participation that is required of the families. We will explain the breakdown of the class structure, the successful and unsuccessful lessons that we have learned in the implementation process, and how this program is a link to other classrooms and our advisory program. Our hope through this presentation is to give other schools the tools to foster a caring and supportive classroom Academy environment in their buildings and promote student growth in high risk students through our model.

Evidence

During the 2013-15 school years we have seen the following indicators of student success in our Academy students. A 75.7% increase in individual GPA from previous non-academy school year. A 52.6% increase in school attendance based on previous non-academy school year. An 84.2% improvement in behavior and discipline referrals to the office based on Powerschool log entries from previous and current school years. An 85.7% increase in attitude and commitment to school based on student and teacher surveys. Finally, a 57.9% decrease in student out of school suspensions from the previous school year.

Format

Poster Presentation

Biographical Sketch

Colby Corbitt is the principal of Adobe Middle School in Elko, NV. In 2009 Mr. Corbitt took over Adobe after it was labeled the worst performing middle school in the state of Nevada. He has since transformed it into a 4-star middle school and a school that is respected district wide as a model school and a school with a culture of acceptance and student performance. Prior to his administrative duties at Adobe Mr. Corbitt was a classroom teacher in grades 3rd, 5th, 6th, and Special Education.

Jorge Zataray, works as a CIS funded Academy Teacher at Adobe Middle School. He is in his 3rd year in this position. Mr. Zataray began his professional career as an instructional assistant and then moved to a study hall position at Adobe. Mr. Zataray has a passion for working with at-risk youth and believes that every student has the capabilities in them to change and sustain a successful attitude in life and in school.

Start Date

11-5-2015 5:45 PM

End Date

11-5-2015 6:45 PM

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Nov 5th, 5:45 PM Nov 5th, 6:45 PM

Adobe Middle School & CIS Academy Classes

Program participants will learn how to implement an Academy class in their school that fosters at-risk youth's development of academic skills, social/real-world skill development, and character maturation. Participants will learn about our process for identifying students, tracking data, and creating a climate that fosters growth opportunities for identified students.