Purpose
The purpose of the High School Essential Program Components (EPC) Resource Kit (Resource Kit) is to support the efforts of school districts in districtwide planning and implementing the nine Essential Program Components of a high school academic program. The Resource Kit offers suggestions consolidated from practices in selected school districts in California, some of which have state-monitored and Program Improvement (PI) schools.
The California Department of Education (CDE) recognizes that all schools are unique. Accordingly, suggestions within this Resource Kit are meant to serve as guidelines that may be adjusted to meet the needs of each school site.
Introduction
The State Board of Education (SBE) has endorsed the use of nine Essential Program Components (EPC) for high school instructional success:
- Instructional Program: Standards-aligned English-language arts and mathematics textbooks and SBE - adopted Pre-Algebra and Algebra I textbooks
- Student Access to High School Standards-aligned Core Courses (master schedule and pacing schedule)
- Principals' Instructional Leadership Training
- Teachers' Professional Development Opportunities
- Student Achievement Monitoring System
- Ongoing Instructional Assistance and Support
- Teacher/Department and Subject Matter Collaboration
- Intervention Programs for Students Performing Below Grade Level Standards
- Fiscal Support
Getting Started
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Gather necessary resources. This first step recurs throughout this resource guide for each of the Essential Program Components.
Since this Resource Kit is designed to assist in the implementation of the nine Essential Program Components, the first two documents you will need to download and become familiar with are the following:
- The Academic Program Survey (APS), used to assess the school status in each of the nine Essential Program Components.
- The APS Rating Description, designed to accompany the survey.
Other key resources
that will assist in the implementation of the Essential Program
Components can be found in the Key Resources.
High school administrators should note that the content of the
High School EPC Resource Kit is consistent and congruent
with California's school reform initiatives. Intensive training
in the concepts is part of the Principal Training Program (Assembly
Bill 75; Chapter 697, Statutes 2001).
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Conduct the APS and rate your school's progress in implementing the Essential Program Components.
The concepts and activities included in the Resource Kit are best put into practice by a team or teams willing and able to gather and use appropriate resources. The survey should be taken and assessed in collaboration with key stakeholders.
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Contact the director of your Regional System of District and School Support (RSDSS).
For assistance in understanding the Essential Program Components (EPCs) and learning how districts can support their use in schools, readers are urged to contact their local RSDSS (DOC; 86KB; 2pp.) director for advice and assistance.
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Prioritize your actions according to areas of weakness.
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Develop a logically sequenced timeline for implementing priority EPCs.
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Review, collapse, and accelerate your timeline wherever possible.
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Implementation of the nine EPCs is intended to help a school focus narrowly on key elements to develop literacy in underperforming high school students. Maintaining a sharp focus on the specific EPCs where work is needed is essential so that improvement occurs on a timely basis.
Terminology
Throughout the Resource Kit certain terminology is used in ways with which you may not be familiar. This section of the overview covers terms that may need clarification.
The terms English-language arts and reading/language arts in other documents may be used interchangeably. However, for the purposes of this document these terms are limited as follows:
The term English-language arts is used when referring to standards and core instructional materials that are at grade level for high school students in the ninth and tenth grades.
The term reading/language arts is used when referring to SBE-adopted instructional materials used at the earlier grade levels (K-8) to teach the standards.
The term interventions refers to academic instructional programs that are in addition to or in lieu of the regular grade-level core instruction and are intended to support and accelerate student learning and close the achievement gap between grade-level peers. Interventions are planned to be temporary and are accelerated by providing more time focused on area of need.
Interventions are categorized by degree of student need, which is based on achievement data gathered from a variety of valid multiple measures. According to those data, students and the interventions they receive are categorized as follows:
- Benchmark interventions1 are intended for students who are satisfactorily achieving grade-level standards but on occasion may require additional assistance and support for specific standards and concepts. These students would benefit from ancillary materials, tutoring, software assistance, additional time with the teacher, and differentiated instruction. Without this support they could fall behind and fail to score at the proficient level on statewide tests.
- Strategic interventions are intended for (1) high school students who are at or above sixth-grade standards in English-language arts but are not able to pass the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE); and/or (2) students who are unable to demonstrate proficiency in Algebra I and/or at risk of failing the mathematics portion of the CAHSEE.
- Intensive interventions are intended for high school students who are unable to demonstrate proficiency in the six-grade standards in English-language arts and/or are unable to demonstrate proficiency in the seventh-grade standards in mathematics. Because these students have the greatest need, their intervention program should temporarily replace enrollment in "a-g" core courses.
Extensive information regarding intervention programs and instruction is available in EPC Resource #8.
1Benchmark interventions are discussed in the frameworks but are not included in the Essential Program Component Academic Program Surveys.
