The School Environment

Case High School is located in Sparks, NV. This school is a four-year public high school which serves approximately 2,200 students, making it the largest of the comprehensive high schools in the district. Reed High school had been accredited continuously by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. There are many environmental and contextual factors that effect Case High School as well as the community needs surrounding the school.
Community Facts
The city of Sparks was chartered in 1906. . This city is located in Washoe County, Nevada and was established in 1905 and sits just east of Reno. The most recent census states the population to be 90,264. It is a sister city to Reno, NV, being right next door. The community relies on much of its revenue from the gaming industry. However, recently the city of Sparks has expanded its work force by bringing in small tech firms which helped by expanding the warehousing industry. There has been enormous growth during the past twenty years. In 1970 the population was 28,702, in 1980 in was 53,230, in 1998 it was up to 61,560 and currently is climbing towards 100,000.
Due to low wages earned in the gaming industry, often jobs are not stable and employees are far from earning livable wages. Many of the families are transient and move from city to city in search of higher paying wages. This effects the lives of the students that attend school. Often the students at Case High School may move several times in a year and so they are not at school for an extended period of time. This effects their ability to make and keep lasting friendships as well as their ability to gain and retain information learned in school. The instability of many students’ lives interrupt their learning experience.
This interruption in the learning experience can be exasperated or diminished by staff members at the school, it all depends on how it is handled. Dedicated staff members can diminish the interruptions. A teacher who is very organized with their content and lesson plans will easily catch a student up on any work they have missed. They will have worksheets available, welcome letters for new students entering at any time during the semester, seating charts for easy identification and keep in contact with parents if there is any concerns. The administrator’s support the teachers by making sure that new students grades are transferred quickly and efficiently, updating teachers on the student’s backgrounds and letting teachers know if and when the student withdraws from a class. Often teachers are not told what happened to a student when they withdraw from a school; that student will just “disappear” from the attendance roster. Reed High School has helped teachers stay abreast of their students by sending out daily reports of student withdrawals and admissions. The report describes who has withdrawn from the school and where they went as well as any new students and where they are coming from. This report helps inform teachers of important changes in the school community.
School Schedule
The school year is 180 days in length. The year is made up of two semesters, eighteen weeks each, or four nine week quarters. Case High School has recently changed from a rotating block schedule to a full 7 period, 50 min. schedule every day. Students now have seven classes a day. This is much different from previous years. Previously they meet with only four classes per day, on a rotating schedule with every period lasting 73 minutes in length. There were three 7 minute passing breaks and a 42 minute lunch. There was a 25 min. Enrichment period, 4 days a week, where students would get needed information and have time for homework completion. During the 2013-2014 school year they changed the schedule. Now students have 7 classes and attend each one every day. This is a huge change. Classes are shorter, only 50 minutes instead of 73. They shortened the passing time between classes to only 5 minutes and took away the Enrichment classes. These were a lot of changes to make in one year. The students have less time to get to class, more classes in a day, less time to do homework and more classes on their schedule.
These changes were not highly accepted by students and have overwhelmed teachers as well. Teachers were told they could vote on the schedule choice out of a list of several options. They took into consideration everyone’s input. However, one item that was not up for vote was adding another class onto the school day. That was a requirement passed down from the district. This addition was due to the number of students not passing high school because of credit deficiencies. Now students have more opportunities to get credits with more classes offered. However, this a greater daily work load for both students and teachers. The shortened passing times have both teachers and student literally running to make it to the bathrooms and back. When there are over 2,000 students in the hallways it is difficult to navigate to the bathroom and back in 5 minutes. There should have been further research and more options rather than forcing strict workloads onto those of us who are already taxed out on time and effort.
There should be mandatory “seat-time” for those people in the district who make decisions. They should have to spend time in a classroom to see the real working conditions of schools before they make decisions that only worsen the environment. The morale at Reed High School is at an all-time low. Teachers cannot keep up on the workload. Students, as well as teachers, feel that they are being punished for those who chose to fail classes. There just does not seem to be a lot of thought going into the decision-making process that effects thousands of people.
Faculty and Staff
Case High School has a very large staff. There is a faculty of 130 teachers, seven counselors, one career center coordinator, a nurse, a clinical aide, two librarians, and athletic director, three NJROTC instructors, one freshman dean and one dean of students, four vice-principals, one principal, and a support of staff of approximately 50 people. Case teachers have been awarded the prestigious “Greater Reno Chambers of Commerce Teacher of the Month” award, the “National Presidential” award, as well as “National Board Certification.”
The staff has followed the rigorous process of being fully accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The accreditation “recognizes higher education institutions for performance, integrity, and quality to merit the confidence of the educational community and the public. Accreditation or pre-accreditation by a postsecondary regional accrediting agency qualifies institutions and enrolled students for access to federal funds to support teaching, research, and student financial aid.” (NWCCU, 2014) Case High School was accredited during the 2008-2009 school year and this school year is the next NWCCU accreditation. This process grades the school on several standards according to the accreditation process.
This accreditation process not only insures federal funds, but helps ensure parents and community supporters of the high level of standards and achievements at the school. This rigorous process encourages improvement through continuous self-study and evaluation. The school, as well as individual classes are evaluated and the results are transparent. “Regional accreditation is a process of recognizing educational institutions for performance, integrity, and quality that entitles them to the confidence of the educational community and the public.” (NWCCU, 2014).
There are many factors that contribute to the analysis of the success of Case High School. Some of these factors are environmental, such as the Nevada lifestyle and gaming economy, while others are contextual, such as the school schedule and quality of the staff members as well as the accreditation of the school itself. The needs of the school, staff and students must be weighed when considering all of the many factors that contribute to the school as a whole.