Chipman Junior High and school community stakeholders collaboratively developed the vision statement, which drives the direction of the school.  This was a team effort with consensus from families, students, District Board of Trustees, Chipman teachers/staff and community members.  The School Site Council spearheads the on-going process of maintaining a clear vision by using input through surveys and a series of meetings with the School Leadership Team, Curriculum and Instruction Committee, Principal’s Coffee Klatch (monthly parent/principal group meetings), English Language Learners Advisory Committee, classified staff and students.  Chipman Junior High’s Vision reflects middle school researched-based recommendations of Caught in the Middle, and Turning Point, which focus on excellence, equity and development of appropriate education.  The vision and beliefs statements echo Turning Point’s viewpoint that these students, “Are not junior high school kids, or junior older adolescents, or older children.  They really are kids at this early adolescent phase in their life, which has a distinctive characteristic.”  Chipman Junior High and our community believe that this is a great period of student academic/personal growth and development of self/cultural-identity.  The vision statement is reevaluated and updated on an annual basis serving a dual purpose, in that it allows for an opportunity to self-check the school’s direction and enables Chipman Junior High to remain in synch with the current needs of its students and the community  The revised and annual goals are adopted to support standards-based curriculum.  This occurs in the School Site Council (composed of parents, students and staff), Leadership Team (Department Chairs and Principal) and Instructional Team (technology, math, reading, language arts staff) when the past year’s multiple assessment results, attendance data, parent surveys and teacher comments are reviewed.  Collectively each team refines strategies and specifies how the school will use human and capital resources to augment instruction.  For example, based on last year SAT/9 results, SSC and the teams determined that struggling students needed additional opportunities to work on reading comprehension skills.  The SSC directed funds for a creation of a Reading/Writing lab and hiring additional instructional aides to provide focused instruction.  Benchmarks provided an ongoing assessment to determine student progress and to redirect instruction.  The success of this project is evidenced in an improvement across the board in test scores and scoring above the District/State averages (see table).  Chipman also exceed the State API growth targets in all areas. 

Chipman Junior High sets high expectations using the Standards of Excellence, which are a rigorous set of content and performance standards that are aligned and meet or exceed the California State Standards.  The Standards of Excellence have been in place since 1997 in Reading/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, History/Social Science, Physical Education, Visual/Performing Arts, and recently English Language Development and Health Education.  The Standards of Excellence are researched and written with community input and teams of teachers representing all grade levels in the district’s Curriculum Commission.  Methodically, the committee compared the standards line by line, each standard with the State standard.  These standards are working tools, posted in Chipman’s classrooms, incorporated into teacher’s lesson plans, and reported to parents in newsletters.  One of Chipman Junior High teachers participated in this process and has been instrumental in ensuring the use of Standards Of Excellence into Chipman’s academic instruction. 

Chipman Junior High School Site Council, Principal and staff work closely with the Research and Evaluation Department to interpret and communicate disaggregated student assessment results Standardized Testing And Reporting (STAR) and district Benchmark scores to both parents and the community as a whole.  To facilitate sound instructional decision-making, the data is disaggregated by student characteristic (i.e. by program, ethnicity and gender).  Chipman uses data to identify struggling subgroups and to direct instructional resources to improve student achievement.  For example, identified students who score in the 3^rd stanine or lower are referred to the Instructional Tutoring for Student Achievement (ITSA) an after-school program.  The ITSA program provides 10 to 1 student to credential teacher ratio with instructional focus on improving reading comprehension and math skills.

The vision/mission statement along with the school’s belief statements has been posted in every classroom and on the school web site.  The School Site Council (SSC) has included the statements in the school plan and copies of the vision are posted in the front office, giving all who cross the school’s threshold a clear understanding of the school’s purpose.  It is a living document that enables the entire Chipman School community to maintain its focus on providing the best education possible for all children.  The Principal details the SAT/9 results and the targeted objectives in the monthly newsletter with an overview of student successes and areas of focus.  In addition, parents receive detail explanations of results and the evaluation process in teacher/parent and principal/parent conferences.