Developing School and Community Profile

Our school participated in a site visit and survey by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. The survey was taken at the end of our first year of our parents, students, and teachers. The NWRL report provided an overview of our school, a general description of the educational program, how we assess students, performance goals, governance, and financial data. The student profile includes ethnicity, special education, free/reduced lunch, gifted, LEP, and gender. We have posted the school profile information and other information about our school on our web site. We also have a school brochure that is provided to prospective students and members of the community. We had five teachers, the principal and two parents participate in character education training this first year. Through the character education training, we surveyed the students, parents, and stakeholders from the community to choose nine character traits. We celebrate one trait each month and the teachers dedicate one lesson plan each month to the trait.

Defining Philosophy, Mission, Vision, Objectives

Our philosophy, mission, vision, and objectives were defined by a school design team. A survey of students in the Meridian School District demonstrated a high interest in a medical arts charter high school. A needs assessment was sent out to the medical community to identify career opportunities and possible preceptors for job shadows and internship placement. Stakeholder involvement was accomplished with evening meetings and surveys. The design team gathered information from members of the community to define the philosophy, mission, vision, and objectives. We reviewed all of these our first year with a coalition team made up community members, business leaders, and parents. Through our participation in a character education training program provided by the state department of education, we learned to meet with a coalition team and review our mission, vision, objectives and to get suggestions for character traits, for each month for the school year. Our traits this year are communication, respect, confidence, leadership, dependability, integrity, responsibility, compassion, and maturity. Our school selects students of the month for recognition based on the monthly theme of the character trait.

Identifying Desired Results for Student Learning

Our school identified reading proficiency as a desired result for student learning. Our 10th grade students demonstrated a 79% proficiency in reading on the the fall ISAT testing. Our teachers concentrated on reading skills in all classes for students to read for data, facts and ideas. Our teachers used multiple choice reading questions in the classroom to assess student reading skills. We were very pleased with the results when our 10th grade students demonstrated 98% proficiency on the spring ISAT. Another desired result for student learning was for students to acquire elements of language for writing, research and analysis of information. Our 10th grade students tested 79% proficiency on the fall ISAT test. Our teachers used literature to compare and contrast fiction, nonfiction, poems, plays, biographies and autobiographies. Students learned about the writing process and how to apply grammar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling. We were ecstatic about the results when our 10^th grade students demonstrated 100% proficiency in language use on the spring ISAT test. We identified math skills as a desired result for student learning. Our 10th grade students had 64% proficiency on the fall ISAT. Our teachers had students solve problems, use equalities, interpret graphs, use equations, use square roots and geometry to acquire math skills. We were very pleased with the results when our 10th grade students demonstrated 91.8% proficiency on the spring test. We also identified Spanish skills, history skills, health skills, science skills, and health occupation skills as desired results for student learning. We feel our students had a tremendous year and acquired numerous learning skills that allowed them to achieve in all areas of the curriculum. Tools to measure desired results for student learning will be the ISAT, DWA, PSAT, COMPASS, ACT, SAT, end of course tests, portfolios, internship report, drop-out rate and state board test for certified nursing assistant.

Aligning the Organizational Structure of the School

Our school aligned and organized the junior courses and curriculum sequence during the past year. We registered the first class of juniors this fall, 2004-05, for their core courses and electives. The junior students were enrolled in required core courses for English, algebra 2, anatomy/physiology, health applications, medical terminology, medical Spanish, and psychology. For electives, we offered introduction to emergency medical procedures, personal training, psychology 2, honors biology and Spanish 3. We also organized concurrent college credit for honors biology, anatomy/physiology, and health applications with Idaho State University. We organized college credit with College of Southern Idaho for health occupations and medical terminology. We are organizing with NNU to register students for college credit in psychology 2 during second semester. Program curriculum is aligned to state and clinical standards.

Developing Long Range School Improvement Plan

We are developing long range goals to apply for a character education grant and a state charter school grant. Our goal this year will be to develop required courses and electives for our first senior class next fall. We will have to write curriculum this school year to align with the state standards and hire the needed staff to get ready for registration. We will need to develop our certified nursing assistant program to provide the needed classroom hours and clinical hours that will be supervised by a registered nurse. This will be a great challenge because of the shortage of nurse educators and the salary difference that exists between the nursing profession and teaching profession. We will develop school improvement goals this November after the fall ISAT tests so we can identify the areas for improvement. Our long term goals are to have the students develop a student portfolio based on a rubric measurement from the National Healthcare Foundation skill standards. The portfolio will have a letter of introduction, a resume, a health care project, a script of an oral presentation, a record of service learning hours and community projects, a copy of a current first aide and CPR card, an internet web site or power point, evidence of leadership, a journal entry, and a skill test. Students will be able to save this on a CD ROM and take a copy with them when they graduate. We are very excited about this professional learning experience and feel our students will have a unique and measurable assessment of their job skills as they enter their post-secondary educational and career experiences. Long range goals will be to prepare students for success at the post secondary level and job skills for the world of work, develop partnerships with clinical preceptors, and align curriculum with state and clinical standards.