Description:
Vaux Big Picture High School (BPHS), a school in The School District of Philadelphia’s Innovation Network, opened in September of 2017 as the City of Philadelphia’s first public, neighborhood contract school. In 2016, Members of the School Reform Commission authorized the School District to enter into a contract with Big Picture Philadelphia (BPP) for its program, based on selection from the competitive process: Request for Qualifications (RFQ) No. 143. Vaux BPHS is managed by Big Picture Philadelphia through a four-way contract with the School District, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. The current contract term with the School District is December 16, 2016-June 30, 2022.
This contract is needed to continue educating students through innovative learning models. Vaux BPHS’s educational model is designed to engage students through small class sizes, an advisory model, student-centered project-based learning, and real-world internships. Students at Vaux BPHS are drawn primarily from the Sharswood community. Authorization of this contract allows the School District to keep its commitment of providing a quality system with fresh and innovative models and options. Vaux BPHS’s educational model aligns with the District’s plan to achieve Goals and Guardrails as articulated below:
GOALS 1 & 2: Every student READS on or above grade level; Every student performs on or above grade level in MATH.
Vaux BPHS delivers traditional academic content in a nontraditional, engaging manner, through project blocks. Project Blocks seek to expose students to real-world challenges in order to engage them in authentic, meaningful learning through a collaborative approach. The Project Block structure asks teachers to spend part of every block operating as a project manager, students who need additional support to build foundational skills are afforded additional attention, allowing the teacher to differentiate the learning experience.
GOAL: Every student graduates ready for COLLEGE and CAREER
In addition to core classes, Vaux BPHS students across all grade levels participate in their flagship Real World Learning (RWL) program two full days per week to engage in hands-on career exploration. Students complete seven professional development benchmarks (including service-learning trips, informational interviews, and individual and group shadow days) before selecting an individual or cohort-based internship.
Guardrail 1: Welcoming and Supportive Schools
At Vaux BPHS, Resilience Specialists remediate barriers to success by providing students with comprehensive social-emotional and basic needs support. Resilience Specialists make direct, individual contact with 100% of students at least twice per year using a trauma-sensitive intake process to gather baseline wellness data and provide any immediate interventions needed.
Guardrail 2: Enriching and Well-rounded School Experiences
Vaux BPHS leadership assembles the entire school for whole-school town halls every quarter that are followed by grade-specific celebrations. Beyond the school day, Vaux BPHS offers a robust array of athletic opportunities - including girls’ volleyball and cheerleading, girls’ and boys’ basketball and track, co-ed football, and boys’ baseball. After school clubs include anime, Butterfly Club (a girls’ group),100 Black Men Success Academy, chess, creative writing, film/drama, entrepreneurship, financial planning, and more.
Guardrail 3: Partnering with Parents and Family Members
Vaux BPHS considers parents and families as essential stakeholders in their students’ success. In addition to traditional engagement activities like back-to-school night, parent-teacher conferences, and end-of-year celebrations, parents regularly weigh in on and impact programmatic and fiscal decisions.
Guardrail 4: Addressing Racist Practices
Vaux is committed to diverse hiring and cultural competency among staff and volunteers. Curricula is culturally relevant and addresses the needs of our most marginalized populations, using a restorative approach to discipline, focusing on food security through Vaux’s new school nutrition program and growing partnership with the American Heart Association, and consistently asking for student feedback in formal and informal ways. Through these strategies and more, Vaux BPHS aims to create a nurturing and healing educational space where youth feel comfortable learning about themselves and addressing injustices in the world around them.
The School District’s Office of New School Models/Innovation Network has primary responsibility for the evaluation of this contract with the ongoing support from the District Performance Office. For Vaux BPHS, the School District has implemented a standard Performance Evaluation Matrix across eight metrics: (1) Attendance, (2) Literacy and Numeracy, (3) Retention and Promotion, (4) Graduation Rates, (5) Character Education and Conduct, (6) Standardized Exams, (7) Postsecondary Outcomes, and (8) School Climate Rating. Moreover, data from the SPREE and qualitative data from Instructional Walkthroughs, Operational Walkthroughs, and Instructional Rounds will continue to be used to measure the success of this contract.
Throughout the duration of this current contract, the success has been measured using a four-part approach/accountability framework to the formal annual evaluation of all contracted schools in the Innovation Network via evaluation of Vaux BPHS’s quantitative and qualitative data, as articulated in the aforementioned paragraph. The framework guides the Innovation Network Office ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and assessment work. Using the accountability measures, Vaux BPHS's quantitative data shows that they came close to or within expected targets and qualitative data shows 80.5% of contract requirements were met.