Replicable Practices

• Albiani staff have developed common assessments, collaborative group work tests, and common pacing guides with problem solving strategies taught and implemented throughout the year.

• Literacy is emphasized in all departments. Staff have adopted “TBEAR”- a paragraph pattern taught to all students incorporating a topic, bridge, citing evidence from the source, analyzing evidence, and a concluding statement.

• Social studies staff have developed a common rubric, common formative assessments and performance tasks modeled after the Smarter Balanced Assessments where students analyze multiple sources and write an argumentative essay.

• All teachers use an interactive student notebook to help students stay organized and measure their growth over the year.

• AVID is offered as an elective class which focuses on WICOR strategies, tutorial support and college awareness activities. All AVID students are expected to enroll in one honors/accelerated academic class during the school year.

• Math support classes are offered in both seventh and eighth grade. The course offers remediation and uses the common core curriculum with support materials. Special education students are supported in regular education classes by teachers and paraprofessionals.

• Parents are involved in school councils and in such programs as: Coffee for parents, parent lunch visitations, Bring Your Parent to School day, Falcon Fiesta before school starts and Student Led Conferences during Spring Open House. The school’s Parent Outreach Coordinator matches parents and community volunteers to classroom tutoring opportunities.

• Weekly “advocacy lessons” tied into school activities, personal character, and behavior expectations are taught in third period classes.

• To encourage, monitor, and design opportunities for student engagement in school activities, Albiani uses the “5 Star Students” scanning system to provide an effective tool to help educators drive student involvement in school events.