Farrington High School School Improvement Status

Summary of Progress

Governor Wallace Rider Farrington High School transitioned into wall-to-wall college and career academies in the 2018-2019 school year. The Academies of Farrington High School aims to produce college, career, and life-ready graduates through rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning experiences in and out of their classrooms. Four academies (Creative Arts and Technology Academy, Engineering Academy, Health Academy, and Public Service Academy) earned the National Career  Academy Coalition's (NCAC) model academy certification, and the Business Academy became a certified academy. The academies continue to work with post-secondary institutions and industry partners to ensure relevant college and career experiences for all students.

Student voice and choice are at the forefront of all students' experiences in the school's college and career academies. Incoming first-year students have a voice and choice in joining an academy. The middle school students begin learning about the academies with videos, flyers, academy ambassador panels, and interest surveys to assess which academy best fits their goals. They visit all the academies in person to learn more about academy student activities. The feeder middle schools and Farrington host middle school academy parent night, where parents of middle school students learn about Farrington's college and career academies. All these transition activities culminate with an academy selection week where students collaborate with their teachers and advisers in selecting an academy.

The school empowers teachers by forming the Teacher Leader Cadre (TLC), a cadre of teacher leaders who develop and lead teacher professional development. Before the pandemic, the TLC quickly transformed the teaching and learning culture on campus, as the impact of teachers collaborating with and learning from one another has been an innovation. Peer collaboration also trickled down to the classroom, where students began to teach students through different integrated units. With the restarting of the TLC in 2022, the school hopes to reignite its collaborative culture that was halted by the pandemic.

The faculty continues to work on Quad D lessons for rigorous, relevant, and engaging lessons. Quad D lessons are interdisciplinary and require collaboration for cross-content learning and skills. Collaboration occurs within the school and with community organizations for more relevant and real-world learning. The Engineering Academy's project, in partnership with the World Surf League (WSL), is the epitome of a Quad D project at Farrington. In two years, students designed and built a merchandise trailer for the WSL.

The school continues to develop the Farrington High School Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. Teachers use the reading and math data from Star Renaissance, the school's universal screener, to strengthen the

Tier 1 curriculum for all students and to identify students needing additional support. The teachers started using the Panorama Student Success Dashboard to document and monitor students' academic, behavioral, SEL, and physical progress.

The school's literacy plan is beginning to see a sustained impact in student achievement. Students demonstrated increases in all content areas during the pandemic. All the efforts of departments and academies have resulted in the following proficiency scores: 58% in ELA, 22% in math, and 32% in science. Also, the Farrington EL Success Plan is starting to result in more achievement by our multilingualstudents. In 2023, 56 members of the class of 2023 earned their Seal of Biliteracy.

Overall, Farrington High School continues to offer rigorous and relevant student learning experiences so that all Governors Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve.