California Department of Education
2015 California Gold Ribbon Schools Program
Middle and High School Application: Part B
Hillview Middle School
Model Program Summary
1. Name of Model Program:
Future of Learning Initiative
2. How long has this Model Program been in place?
Less than 2 years
2-4 years
5-8 years
3. What is the Target Area? (Choose at least one area.)
Target Areas:
Career Technical Education
Chronic Absenteeism and Dropout Prevention
Civic Education Awareness
Closing the Achievement Gap
Education Supports
Nutrition and Physical Activity/Education
Parent and Community Involvement
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Use of Technology
Visual and Performing Arts
4. What are the target populations? (Check all that apply.)
Race/Ethnicity Subgroups:
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Asian
Black or African American
Filipino
Hispanic or Latino
(Continued on next page)
8+ years
California Department of Education
2015 Gold Ribbon Schools Application: Part B
Hillview Middle School
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
White
Two or More Races
Other Student Groups:
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
English Learners
Students with Disabilities
At-Risk Students (Academic, Social, Emotional, Behavioral, or Health)
English-Language Arts – Students Not Yet Proficient
English-Language Arts – Advanced Learners
Mathematics – Students Not Yet Proficient
Mathematics – Advanced Learners
Other Core Subject Areas – Students Not Yet Proficient
Other Core Subject Areas – Advanced Learners
Other (specify)
5. What strategies are used to implement the Model Program? (Check all that apply.)
Strategies:
School Climate
Small Learning Communities
Parent Involvement
Data-Driven Decision Making
Health Support
Social/Emotional/Behavioral Support
Professional Development
Other (specify)
6. Is this model program initiated by your district and implemented district-wide?
Brief answer: The Future of Learning Initiative has spurred the development of school
climate reform efforts, Response to Intervention and Instruction, 1:1 iPad use to enhance
teaching and learning, and design thinking as a tool to address complex challenges.
California Department of Education
2015 Gold Ribbon Schools Application: Part B
Hillview Middle School
Model Program Narrative
1. Description of the Model
Hillview's "Future of Learning Initiative" is a comprehensive, multi-pronged model that
meets students' needs on many levels. Our goal is to define what learning will look like in five
years and become that school right now. We recognize that in order for all students to be
successful, Hillview must have a school climate where all students feel safe and supported, a
well-planned Common Core-aligned curriculum that prepares students for college and career
readiness, and the tools needed for both students and teachers to realize our lofty goals for
success. When Hillview cut the ribbon on its state-of-the-art campus in the fall of 2012, we
aspired to improve our eduational program to match our gleaming new facility. While we had
enjoyed a long record of student success, we also realized that we were more of a "one size
fits all" school, and that some of our students were not thriving in our environment. We served
the needs of our proficient and advanced students, sending them off to high school prepared to
excel, and yet we were not closing the achievement gap for our under-performing and
traditionally under-represented students. Not only were we not addressing the academic needs
of this population as well as we could, they were also more likely to receive serious disciplinary
consequences. The Future of Learning Initiative promised to address these inequities.
First among our reform efforts was the development of a robust Response to Intervention
and Instruction (RTI2) program, with Tier 2 and 3 interventions for both academic and
social/emotional supports. Using dignostic tools such as the Scholastic Reading Inventory
(SRI) and Scholastic Phonics Inventory (SPI) in English, and the Mathematics Diagnostic
Testing Project (MDTP) in math, we now know even before the school year begins whether our
students are below, at, or above grade level. Students who are two or more years below grade
level in either ELA or math receive support in two-period Acceleration classes, using the
feedback of such programs as System 44 (phonics program), Read 180, or Math 180 to set
goals and move toward mainstream courses. Students one year below grade level receive one
additional period of support in Math Plus or Writing Plus. Our goal is to have all students at
grade level in both English and math by the time they graduate from 8th grade.
Academic interventions are only one way we support students. We also have implemented
programs that address the social and emotional experience of our students. “Thrive” is a Tier 2
strategic intervention that creates a strong bond between a group of students and a teacher. In
this elective program, students spend three days a week in same gender groups engaged in
curricula designed to surface and address their social and emotional needs. The relationship
between student and teacher is strong, and this connection motivates students to apply
themselves with more effort in their studies. The remaining two days are spent on homework
support. “PIVOT,” a Tier 3 intensive intervention, is reserved for those 12 students in our
school who most struggle with behavioral challenges. Our school psychologist, behavior
coach, and wellness coordinator work with the students and their families to develop two clear,
achievable goals, and the attainment of these goals is monitored daily by all teachers. As
PIVOT students maintain a certain level of goal achievement and do so consistently, they earn
rewards and privileges that gradually reinforce appropriate behavior that supports academic
success.
We next addressed our responses to student misbehavior. In the 2011-12 school year, we
analyzed our discipline data and noted with alarm that our traditionally under-represented
students (students of color, students from a lower socio-economic status, and students with
California Department of Education
2015 Gold Ribbon Schools Application: Part B
disabilities) were more likely to receive more serious consequences than white, Asian, affluent,
and mainstream students. In 2012-13, we put in place strategic interventions such as Thrive to
counter this trend, and in 2013-14, we piloted a Restorative Justice program, which has now
become standard practice. While the results of this last program are discussed in more detail
in section 3, we have seen our number of suspensions dropped precipitously.
In the heart of Silicon Valley, Hillview had begun to explore the power of tablet technology
to improve student learning outcomes, recognizing that mobile learning devices and cloudbased computing was where learning was going. We had started with a 1:1 iPad pilot program
in a single 8th grade academy (small learning community), and in 2012 -13 expanded this to
the entire 8th grade. Facing some challenges with providing iPad professional development to
only a third of the school, we made the bold move in 2013-14 to expand the program schoolwide. This allowed us to bring all our staff along in utilizing this technology and creating
together our iPad "power tools" and instructional strategies. In 2014-15, we added our "Digital
Drivers License" (DDL) program to better support our students to become efficient, productive,
and responsible users of technology. DDL also features a parent education component, in
which we message the same lessons our students receive to our parents, thus assisting them
in parenting their much more technology-proficient "digital native" children.
A positive school environment and a focus on technology will not alone yield mastery of
Common Core standards. With the transition to Common Core, we understood that we had to
quickly shift gears to prepare our students to demonstrate proficiency on the new
assessments. To that end, we engaged our English and math departments in creating
Common Core-aligned pacing guides, curriculum maps, and benchmark assessments.
Parent education is yet another key component in a successful school. The school of the
future has an obligation to keep its parents up to date on topics that concen their children.
Hillview's Parent Education Series, begun in the fall of 2013, has brought many well-known
experts to present engaging and interactive evening events. Authors, researchers, and filmmakers such as Leonard Sax (Yes! Gender Matters), Devin Prouty ("Sleepy Students"), Lisa
Solomon (Moments of Impact), Jennifer Siebel Newsom (The Mask We Live In), Lenore
Skenazy ("Free Range Kids"), Ralph King (Extreme by Design), and Christine Carter (Raising
Happiness) have presented to our entire district community on important educational and
parenting trends. Our College Bound program reaches out to parents of our students who are
more liklely not to attend college, due to parent education level, socio-economic status, or
ethnicity. College Bound events often coincide with Parent Education Series evening. Parents
also participate in our Character Education program, receiving training from our counselors
and delivering lessons in the classroom to our 7th and 8th graders.
Hillview also believes the school of the future furnishes its students with unique and
memorable learning experiences that transcend the four walls of the classroom. To this end,
our Mini-Course program gives students a 1-week in-depth exploration of a subject that they
are passionate about. Debuting in the spring of 2014, Mini-Course week featured 42
compelling courses that sent our students all over the Bay Area to pursue topics that appealed
to them, such as coding, veterinary medicine, fashion design, and documentary filmmaking.
2. Implementation & Monitoring of the Model
One of Hillview's most powerful strategies in implementing and monitoring the Future of
Learning is design thinking. Partnering with Stanford's renowned d.school, we have adopted
the methodology of design-based principles to solve some of our biggest challenges. When
our Design Team gathered in the fall of 2012, we asked ourselves, "What kind of bell and
master schedule will more accurately reflect the needs of our students, the desires of staff, and
California Department of Education
2015 Gold Ribbon Schools Application: Part B
the hopes of our parents?" We shadowed, interviewed, and engaged students, parents, and
staff to surface the desires of all our stakeholders, and from this process came a number of
innovations, including a modified block schedule to allow students more opportunity to engage
in deep Common Core tasks, a richer offering of elective courses, a two-period Humanities
Core period to assist our 6th grade students in their transition to middle school, and the aforementioned Mini-Course program. Design thinking is not only a tool for ideating, but the iterative
nature of design forces one to revisit the results and assess their quality. Our design team
reconvened in the fall of 2014 after one year of the new schedule and re-empathized with our
stakeholders; this collaboration yielded more improvements to our master schedule and bell
schedule. So impressed were we with the promise of design thinking as a tool that we
engaged many of our staff in Stanford d.school-run training so that our students, too, could
appreciate the power of this process.
The Future of Learning also owes much to our hard-working staff who take advantage of
deliberately created collaboration times and participate on the teams that serve as the
catalysts for change in our school. Not only does our master schedule afford teachers at a
particular grade level and subject area a common prep time, but also our early release bell
schedule carves out 2 different kinds of collaboration. On Wednesdays, our staff has
“Academy Collaboration." During this time, teachers who work together in the 9 academies, or
small learning communities (SLC's), meet to discuss their students. Using a Google docs
template, the team records its curricular highlights, poses questions for administration, and,
most importantly, shares students of concern, whether that concern be academic or social/
emotional. The school leadership team, including the principal, associate principal, vice
principal, school psychologist, and counselors, review academy notes, lending advice, sharing
resources, or otherwise collaborating to ensure each student gets the support he/she needs.
On Thursdays, staff enjoys "PLC Collaboration," working together in their grade level and
subject area teams to perform the heavy lift of Common Core curriculum and assessment
creation.
Staff members also help monitor the Future of Learning by virtue of their teacher leadership
on any number of school teams that "own" the implementation and monitoring of various
programs. The Asset Team (which takes its name from the 40 developmental assets
celebrated by the Search Institute and publicized by Project Cornerstone) has been
instrumental in creating opportunities for service in our school and local communities;
developing character education materials; recognizing students for their chacter, collaboration,
and commitment to learning; publicizing the successes of our pyramid of interventions; and
brainstorming ways to get students more involved and engaged in activities such as clubs,
intramurals, Associated Student Body-run events, and the W.E.B. (Where Everybody Belongs)
program, where 8th graders serve as mentors to a group of 6th graders over the school year.
The RTI team meets weekly to discuss the students it serves, monitoring progress and
marshaling the resources to ensure both academic success and social-emotional well being.
The Technology Team keeps its finger on the pulse of the 1:1 iPad program, identifying
challenges, planning professional development, and discussing the adoption of new tools.
Finally, while our Curriculum Committee offers a venue to implement the transition to Common
Core, our Academy Council facilitates the smooth running of our day-to-day operations.
The implentation of our 1:1 iPad program required us to surmount the monumental
logistical challenges of managing nearly 900 devices, protecting student privacy, and
deploying suites of apps. In addition, we had to provide timely professional development to
ensure our teachers were prepared to optimize the iPad's potential. We sought out thought
leaders in education technology to help create the framework of our program, identifying the
skills we think the iPad can help develop, as well as adopting the so-called "SAMR"
California Department of Education
2015 Gold Ribbon Schools Application: Part B
framework, which encourages practitioners to move from a beginning stage of "substitution,"
where technology merely acts as a substitute for a paper and pencil task, all the way up to
"redefinition," where technology allows for the creation of tasks that were previously
impossible. We sent teams of teachers to Ed Tech Teacher's iPad summits in Boston and San
Diego; we hosted a "Learning Reimagined" conference for our entire district, as well as other
local districts; and we used staff development days to offer "home-grown" sessions by our own
teachers to showcase impactful instructional and learning tools like Edmodo, formative
assessment apps, and collaboration platforms.
3. Results of the Model
Our RTI2 program began with Tier 2 interventions in 2012-13 and added Tier 3
interventions in 2013-14. Since its implementation, we have successfully “graduated” many
students, accelerating them toward grade level. This year alone, 7 students have moved up,
either from System 44 to Read 180, or from Read 180 to mainstream Language Arts courses.
Our suspensions have dropped dramatically, down from 114 incidents in 2011-12, to 83
incidents in 2012-13, and finally to only 10 in 2013-14. We successfully diverted 14
suspensions, and only three suspensions affected students of color, students with disabilities,
or low-SES students. That 30% rate was down from over a 75% rate in 2011-12. We have
established baseline data with recent administrations of the Search Institute “Me and My
World” and “Attitudes and Behaviors” surveys, as well as the California Healthy Kids Survey.
Our 1:1 iPad program continues to improve. We have surveyed both parents and students
about their experiences with the device. Students overwhelmingly report that the iPad helps
them learn and stay organized. Parents have asked for, and are now receiveing, more
education about how to help students develop healthy habits around technology use. With the
support of our district tech department, we have identified the need for a more powerful mobile
device management (MDM) system, and will soon be transitioning to one of the best MDM’s
out there. Our professinal development continues to expand; our teachers are becoming
expert practicioners and there is not a PLC on campus that does not have at least one
technology maven ready, willing, and able to share best practices with his or her teammates.
Our transition to Common Core is progressing rapidly. In English and Math, pacing guides
and curriculum maps have already been created, and benchmark assessments are in place
and are being administered each trimester. ELA is adding a reading and language assessment
to supplement the already-created writing assessment. In addition, we are working to enter
these scores in the district’s new data warehouse, Illuminate, so that student achievement
profiles are easily accessible and growth can be monitored.
Our Parent Education Series continues to be well-attended, and we have also instituted an
annual outreach to the families of our Tinsley Transfer Program students, scheduling a special
parent-teacher conference event in East Palo Alto or East Menlo Park that lets these families
know that we will meet them more than half-way in serving the needs of their children.
The Mini-Course Program, a huge undertaking in 2013-14, returns this year with over 40
fantastic opportunities for student exploration and enrichment, and is scheduled to take place
the week prior to our spring break. The main changes in the program were implemented due to
our staff’s feedback, and they are committed to delivering an even more amazing experience
in the program’s second year.
Finally, design thinking is clearly established as the method by which we address school
and district conundrums. This year we are leveraging it on a school level to redesign our
outdated and uninspiring vision and mission statements, and on a district level to more fully
define our World Language program and our teacher evaluation system.