SELF-STUDY VISITING COMMITTEE REPORT

WESTERN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
CALIFORNIA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

FOR

Enterprise High School

3411 Churn Creek Road
Redding, CA 96002

Shasta Union High School District

March 26 – 29, 2006

Visiting Committee Members

Jess Borjon, Chairperson
Principal – Woodcreek High School

Charlean Andes, Member
Teacher – Nevada Union High School

Kathy L. Connelly, Member
Counselor – Placer High School

Gail Dube, Member
Teacher/Administrator – Mattole Triple Junction High School

Eric Mackensen, Member
Teacher – Sutter Union High School

Gwen Neu, Member
Resource Center Director – Mattole Valley Charter School

Chapter I: Community Profile

Enterprise High School has been in existence for 50 years, and is nestled at the base of two mountain ranges in Shasta County, California. The city of Redding is home to over 80,000 people and is the largest population center between Sacramento and the Oregon border. Enterprise High School prides themselves on a tradition of strong academics complemented by music and athletic programs and is a proud member of the Shasta Union High School District. Parents, students, teachers, and community members work together to create a school that challenges students with a rigorous and relevant education marked by a real sense of community.

In the last five years, Enterprise has seen a change in the clientele they serve. With the increase in the housing prices and economic changes in Redding, Enterprise is seeing less transient type of families moving into the Enterprise area. However, they still have a large group of lower socioeconomic students who are at-risk and struggle throughout school. Enterprise anticipates seeing a further change in their clientele as economic changes in the community promotes stability in their student population by decreasing their mobility rate of 31%.

During the twentieth century, Redding's main industry was lumber, but with the demise of the lumber mills, this is no longer the case. Local research indicates that currently Redding's biggest industries are retirement, whose income tops the list at eighteen percent, followed by manufacturing at 17%. Government transfers (Social Security, Medicare, welfare payments, unemployment compensation and veterans’ benefits) in Shasta County account for 23% of total personal income, well above the 14% national average. Tourism industries are also recognized as a secondary industry in Shasta County.

As of July 2004, the racial makeup of the city is eighty-six percent White, Hispanic or Latino, 4% Native American, 3% Asian, 1% African American, >1% Pacific Islander, 2% from other races, and 3% from two or more races.

The median income for a household in the city is $34,194, and the median income for a family is $41,164. Males have a median income of $35,985 versus $24,652 for females. The per capita income for individuals living in Redding is $18,207. Sixteen percent of the population and 11% of families are below the poverty line. Of the total population, 21% of those under the age of 18 and 8% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Redding has three public high schools – Enterprise, Foothill and Shasta—as well as several middle schools, over a dozen elementary schools and several religious and other private schools. There are three colleges in the area: Shasta College is a two-year community college offering a wide variety of day and night classes, National University, and Simpson University, a private Christian school. Chico State University is 85 miles southeast of Redding.

Enterprise High School was a Program Improvement school during the initial implementation of PI in 2001. Enterprise qualified because of low Academic Performance Index scores. After two years of growth in API scores and what appeared to be a path to exiting, the measuring stick for schools changed to include the AYP indicators. Due to a CAHSEE school-wide participation rate of 91%, Enterprise was frozen at the second year PI status for two more years. In 2005 Enterprise exited program improvement (PI) status.

Academic Performance Data:

EHS API as Additional Indicator (Subgroups)
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
School-wide	676	674	659	683	708	719	743
White	696	703	684	710	722	736	754
SED	556	526	554	571	654	648	671
State Target	560	560	560	560	590	590	590	620
State Rank	NA	7	6	7	7	8	TBA
Similar Schools	4	1	1	3	5	7	TBA

School Analysis:

The growth in the API that Enterprise High School has experienced over the past four years can be attributed to two major movements that have raised the level of instruction for the last three years. The first is a school-wide literacy focus that began in 2002-03 that has focused on the use of common instructional strategies including frontloading and reading expository text, and common assessment strategies by the teaching staff. The second is the use of CST data (released test questions, power standards in relation to pacing, and results of previous year CSTs) given to each department at the beginning of each year for program planning. This has focused the instruction in each class, allowed the teachers to understand how to set goals based upon the CST data, and further aligned the instruction with the measures being tested in the CSTs. The result of these efforts has shown the movement of students from the third and fourth quintiles (Basic and Below Basic) to the upper two quintiles (Advanced and Proficient) in the ELA. A possible explanation for the Far Below Basic quintile remaining the same (Grade 11 ELA) or declining (Grades 9 and 10 ELA) can be attributed to a high level of mobility (17%) for the school, as the more mobile, the lower the test scores.

While data to create the API measure is spread over six areas including CST and CAHSEE data, it is clear that a school-wide literacy movement that began in 2002-03, has affected all instruction. Our CAHSEE rates (p. 5-6) far exceed the state average in both ELA and Math, and our CSTs for Math have seen movement from the lower two quintiles (Below Basic and Far Below Basic) in 13 of the 22 math quintiles. CST data from Social Science and Science indicates that in the last two years there is less movement in the lower quintiles but the percentage of students in these quintiles has remained the same.

While there is a disparity in the API between our statistically significant subgroups of SED and White (83) and School-wide (72) in 2005, the gap has decreased greatly since 2000 when the disparity was White (177) and School-wide (148). The gap began to shrink in 2003 following the implementation of the school-wide literacy focus and alignment of instruction to CST measurement.

VC Analysis:

The trend in API data shows a steady growth in the school’s performance in both school-wide and the largest student group (white). The growth is attributed to increased focus on literacy skills. The school is also making gains in sub-group areas although the school recognizes there are still some gaps that need addressing. The VC recognizes the school’s efforts, such as the “Double Block”, are meeting the needs of all students.

California Content Standards Tests -- All Students
Data reported are the percent of students achieving at the Proficient or Advanced level (meeting or exceeding the state standards).

Subject	School			District			State
	2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005
ELA	46	45	50	49	47	51	35	36	40
Math	27	23	29	28	25	29	35	34	38
Science	45	48	42	42	40	41	27	25	27
Soc Studies	37	38