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A Profile of the Achievement |
When we look at the accountability reports from 2000-2005, an overall trend of increased test scores has been noted. In
the few instances where test scores have declined, an analysis of the scores show that students who have been at Coral
Academy for more than a year increased in their scores, while students who were new to Coral Academy score in a lower
percentile.
In the 2002-2003 school year, we received an "Adequate" designation. In the 2003-2004, 2004-2005 school years, we
received the "High Achieving" designation for our middle school and "Adequate" for our high school. The school improvement
plan is also included with this report.
Coral Academy of Science has a primary focus of teaching math, science and technology, but we emphasize all of the core
classes as being important to a well-rounded education. We also promote foreign language, art, and music as important
elements to becoming college-bound. Our curriculum is designed around state standards in all subject areas that have
state standards and the materials selected to support the teaching is from the materials used in Washoe County School
District.
Coral Academy of Science is chartered as a tuition-free, college-preparatory school with the mission of teaching students
in a small, diverse community to be successful in a globally-oriented environment and preparing them for college. Therefore,
we have never been identified as an at risk school, do not collect extra funds for having at risk students, do not solicit
or classify students as at risk. Our population does include SE and LEP students at the percentage of 8% SE and 8.6% LEP.
The majority of our services are approximately 95% mainstreamed in the regular education classroom with accommodations
individually designed for each student's needs. We offer ongoing training and professional development for teachers to
enable them to assist students with special needs in their classrooms. Our special education teachers also push in to the
classrooms on a regular basis. Approximately 5% of the time, our students are pulled out for special instruction in the
core areas of math and English based on their individual needs. We have developed and are enhancing a basic reading program
for all of the students who are reading below their grade level by two grades. This is a very basic reading program teaching
encoding and decoding of words and incorporates the use of phonics and other strategies to help the student catch up in
their reading skills.
We continually look at and examine the strategies used in the classroom to create an optimum learning environment and are
able to make changes immediately when we see a better approach to helping students learn. Our current enrollment is
approximately 365 students with 46% female and 54% male, 1.7% American Indian, 8.3% Asian/Pacific Islander, 24.9%
Hispanic, 3% African-American, and 62% Caucasian or other. Our performance on the Terra Nova percentile rankings in
reading put us at the 58th percentile in 2000 -- 2001, and we moved to the 67th percentile in 2001 -- 2002. In language
we moved from the 52nd percentile to the 62nd percentile in 2001 -- 2002. On our eighth grade writing test for
2004 -- 2005, our scores improved over the last year by 5% in all categories with no emergent readers. On our latest
Stanford 10, our students on the average scored 29% at or above grade level. An indicator that would significantly lower
the above scores is the fact that 25% of our students are reading below the sixth-grade level.
The organizational structure for communication and collaboration between staff and administration includes face to face
meetings, phone interaction, emails, trainings, informal meetings and professional development days. We have established
both grade chairs and department chairs to organize and facilitate meetings with teachers to discuss issues and
collaborate on solutions for the different grades and departments with copies of the agendas and meeting notes sent to
administration. These meetings afford staff an opportunity to integrate curriculum and ensure that the standards are
being taught progressively across classes and grades. Meeting together builds a strong rapport and camaraderie among
staff and promotes the healthy exchange of ideas and techniques.
Through this interactive exchange among teachers and administration, we have implemented a program to aide students who
because of ESL or other issues are struggling in all of their classes. We have further assessed the students’ skill
levels and have implemented a beginning reading program for the most needy of these students. To expand our efforts for
next year, we have learned we will need more staff time available as well as money for more materials. It is also through
this structure that the academic probation program is translated down to the individual student. Any student failing in
any class is assigned probation and will be supervised by a teacher at their grade level. Students sign agreements
acknowledging their deficiencies and establish a plan of correction which may include tutoring after school or parental
involvement to help with motivation.
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