Flathead High earns high marks from review team

Flathead High School has received accreditation from AdvancED and was noted for its diverse course offerings and a strong school community.

The school’s technology infrastructure and data collection, however were noted as areas of improvement.

AdvancED is a nonprofit that “conducts rigorous, onsite external reviews of PreK-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential,” according to the organization, which reviews schools around the nation and the world.

The accreditation process covers five standards: purpose and direction; governance and leadership; teaching and assessing for learning; resources and support systems; and using results for continuous improvement.

The AdvancED accreditation process is optional and schools pay for the service. It is not associated with state accreditation.

Flathead High School Assistant Principal Michele Paine headed up the process and said the feedback of an external review team is one of the benefits of going through the accreditation process.

“It’s just an additional way to check how are we doing as a school,” Paine said. “It’s something we have historically done.”

A group of AdvancED-trained educators from Bozeman High School served as the external review team.

Flathead was commended for “powerful practices” and lauded for its variety “of diverse, equitable and challenging learning experiences that develop multiple learning, thinking and life skills.”

“Being an IB school is a huge thing and something to be proud of, but we don’t believe we can stop there. We always ask ourselves, ‘What do our kids need,’” Paine said, noting that Flathead now offers Project Lead the Way classes in biomedical and computer sciences.

Reviewers saw the school’s support services as tailored to student needs, thus contributing to decreases in the dropout rate and increases in student achievement.

Positive relationships forged between staff and students also were evident to reviewers.

“We were marked particularly high on student relationships and having a supportive, positive and welcoming culture in the classroom,” Paine said.

Two areas of improvement that reviewers marked as priorities included the use of data for continuous improvement and updating technology infrastructure.

Reviewers noted that Flathead could improve its use and collection of data, indicating the high school should create a comprehensive student assessment system and set best practices for analyzing and communicating data to evaluate programs and student growth — show comparisons or spot trends — while driving curriculum and instruction.

Paine noted this is something the school is working on and that teachers in different subject areas often have common assessments and have conversations on student learning.

“As a district we develop district-level performance tasks for students to get data,” Paine said adding that the school has begun using a new test data component of PowerSchool, a student information system.

Paine also noted that there is a gap in student data from the state standardized test (given to 10th graders) when the Criterion-Referenced Test was replaced by the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which was field-tested in 2014. Results from the 2015 test given in April are expected to be released Dec. 21.

“What is hard about this one is the fact that our CRT scores are dated from 2013,” Paine said. “The good news is that all juniors take the ACT now and we have two years of data from that.”

Another “improvement priority” was technology, in particular informing stakeholders “how current technology infrastructure inhibits the use of digital media for the purpose of instruction and student learning to achieve district and school goals.”

This fact hasn’t escaped administrators at Flathead. Technology improvements have been an ongoing concern at both Flathead and Glacier high schools.  

“We see technology as a tool that’s a necessary part of school,” Paine said. “Obviously we haven’t been able to pass a technology levy.”

Other opportunities for improvement related to strategic continuous improvement aligned to professional development programs and improving community engagement and communication with stakeholders.

Glacier High School is currently going through the AdvancED accreditation process with results expected in February.

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.