Torch Intermediate SchoolA School in the Bassett Unified School District

How Torch Creates a Coherent School Vision

• Stay focused: The goal to increase student achievement drives all other goals and decisions made at the school.
• Maintain consistency: Medina believes in keeping the same leadership over time, as well as maintaining the same programs. For example, programs like AVID are continually improved through professional development, rather than changing programs when new ones are introduced to the field of education.
• Fight complacency: Torch constantly works to increase student achievement, no matter what levels the school has reached in the past. There is always room for improvement. The school studies Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, which teaches that “good is the enemy of greatness.”

The Principal’s Vision:

“Every child is capable of achieving academic excellence and the extent to which you believe that or disbelieve that is the extent to which you’re going to set a high standard.”

How Torch Teaches English Learners (ELs)

• Track data longitudinally: Data are tracked over time for individual students, for groups (such as ELs) and for the entire school. If achievement appears to be “flat-lining” over time, new strategies are sought to propel the student(s) forward.
• Focus on English Learners: A lot of attention is given to ELs due to the size (29%) of this population at Torch. All teachers have Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development (CLAD) credentials and all ELs receive English language development (ELD) from a highly qualified teacher. A resource teacher tracks the progress of all ELs, who are grouped based on their ELD level and provided with supplemental instruction after school.
• Give teachers responsibility: The resource teacher meets with teachers to discuss strategies to use with ELs based on data, and teachers frequently meet in their PLCs to discuss data and collaborate. However, the ultimate responsibility for student achievement lies at the classroom level. Teachers know and may decide what is best for their students.

How Torch Relies on Teacher Expertise:

“We do use data to a certain extent to help drive the instruction. But we don’t rely on it solely. We trust our instincts. We have great professionals here…we do rely on their expertise in combination with the data.”

—Joe Medina, Principal

How Torch Relies on Teacher Expertise

• Trust teacher instincts: Torch uses data in combination with the teachers’ expertise to drive instructional decision making. Due to the fact that there are so many great teachers at Torch, according to the principal, trusting their instincts and expertise is encouraged when planning instruction.
• Give teachers opportunities to develop curriculum and assessments: Based on student data from writing assessments, teachers at Torch developed a writing program including a rubric and anchor papers (student-written papers selected by teachers to demonstrate performance at various levels). The staff that developed this program trained themselves to be leaders, taking the initiative to teach others how to use it. Principal Medina believes that “writing is one of the most authentic forms of assessment that we have.”
• Provide teacher-led professional development: Torch provides much of its own professional development on site, which is conducted by teachers. A lot of this training focuses on how properly to deliver English Language Development (ELD) and how to work effectively with ELs. Teachers are able to provide this training to each other because all educators at Torch hold CLAD credentials.