WEBVTT 00:00:11.066 --> 00:00:14.386 I'm Don Davis, the principal of Waterford High School in Waterford, California. 00:00:14.846 --> 00:00:19.866 The question is how did our five pillars guide our turnaround process? 00:00:20.426 --> 00:00:26.436 And the pillars actually serve as our core and guiding principles. 00:00:27.156 --> 00:00:31.616 Actually, when the school was established, we established pillars. 00:00:32.415 --> 00:00:37.376 But over time those have evolved; they've changed. 00:00:37.576 --> 00:00:42.866 Through discussion with our teachers, with our district office, 00:00:43.586 --> 00:00:50.276 with our focus groups from our community, we always are revising those pillars. 00:00:54.476 --> 00:01:00.396 The first pillar was pursuing excellence, and the excellence movement has kind of come 00:01:00.396 --> 00:01:02.556 and gone in education and other places, 00:01:02.556 --> 00:01:08.156 and I felt like the reason that it didn't stick was it was too ambiguous. 00:01:08.656 --> 00:01:10.686 It wasn't well understood. 00:01:10.926 --> 00:01:16.346 So we decided here, when I say "we" I mean the teachers together and myself and our staff, 00:01:16.906 --> 00:01:22.886 was to identify excellence and what does that mean. 00:01:23.636 --> 00:01:28.126 And so we put our descriptor, and it's improving, first, improving instruction, 00:01:28.866 --> 00:01:32.476 improving operations, okay, improving your programs. 00:01:32.516 --> 00:01:36.386 After you have your state data and your summative data, 00:01:36.536 --> 00:01:38.666 you can look at how effective your programs are. 00:01:38.666 --> 00:01:45.946 So you're going to improve instruction, operations, and your programs so that students achieve, 00:01:45.946 --> 00:01:50.806 countywide and statewide, recognition for their academic achievement, 00:01:51.066 --> 00:01:53.246 their athletic achievement, and their achievement in the arts. 00:01:57.546 --> 00:02:05.946 Personalization is a term that gets tossed around in schools, but what does it mean? 00:02:06.506 --> 00:02:10.996 If we are going to have a school that embraces personalization, 00:02:10.996 --> 00:02:13.476 we need to define it and live it out. 00:02:13.886 --> 00:02:17.106 And it's the idea that students will become well known by adults, 00:02:18.116 --> 00:02:26.626 that teachers commit to one another, to their relationship, to the professional community. 00:02:28.416 --> 00:02:34.086 And so that was a founding principle for our school, and it's endured until today. 00:02:34.256 --> 00:02:38.486 All of our teachers, everyone is involved with something beyond the classroom, 00:02:38.486 --> 00:02:42.096 with some aspect of student life beyond the classroom. 00:02:42.096 --> 00:02:47.816 Whether it's coaching a team, advising a club, advising a class, 00:02:48.446 --> 00:02:52.086 every teacher says that's going to be one aspect of my role here. 00:02:52.666 --> 00:02:58.516 Plus, there is the personalization staff member-to-staff member or teacher-to-teacher 00:02:59.086 --> 00:03:03.236 that we just live out and we believe that that's important. 00:03:07.856 --> 00:03:10.106 We have another-what we call being purpose driven. 00:03:10.856 --> 00:03:15.256 Being purpose driven means that you're going to embrace the standards 00:03:15.436 --> 00:03:17.216 that are established for California. 00:03:17.866 --> 00:03:19.786 You're going to embrace those content standards. 00:03:19.786 --> 00:03:29.476 You're going to review data that's formative, that's occurring right now in your classroom 00:03:29.476 --> 00:03:34.556 or with your formative assessments, that you're going to have that help guide your instruction. 00:03:38.746 --> 00:03:41.746 The other pillar here is that we are standards-based, 00:03:41.806 --> 00:03:46.836 which means that our instruction advance content standards, 00:03:47.146 --> 00:03:50.706 our assessments assess the content standards, 00:03:51.066 --> 00:03:56.926 that when we have professional conversation here it will be 00:03:57.776 --> 00:04:01.156 in large part associated with our standards. 00:04:05.936 --> 00:04:08.296 Our final pillar is our use of time. 00:04:09.106 --> 00:04:11.916 Now, we operate on an alternating block schedule, 00:04:12.336 --> 00:04:16.586 and a block schedule isn't necessarily the answer for school improvement as much 00:04:16.586 --> 00:04:24.456 as every minute is held precious and that our instruction then encourages good use of that time, 00:04:24.966 --> 00:04:27.356 that students are engaged, students are producing. 00:04:27.916 --> 00:04:32.976 Our master schedule is developed in such a way that time is honored.