About FAA

    El Toro High School’s Freshman Academic Advantage (FAA) is an innovative program designed to help students improve academic achievement by the careful placement of students in a focused, block-scheduled environment.

    Students are chosen for the program using multiple measures that included test scores, grades and other academic records. It is imperative to remember that the FAA program is not an intervention or remediation program, but an innovative way for selected college prep students to increase academic achievement.

     FAA contains the same curriculum of our college preparatory classes, but is formatted and delivered in a way that is designed for academic success and a productive high school experience. Students in FAA are enrolled in English 1 and Algebra 1, just like the hundreds of our freshman students, but FAA classes are blocked, meaning taught back-to-back in the daily schedule and by the same instructor. This allows for creative and effective blending of curriculum, not only for mastery, but for reinforcement.

    The English 1 curriculum includes a survey of authors, themes styles of world literature that focuses on genres. The curriculum also includes a variety of writing assignments designed to boost academic writing skills and explore writing as a method of self-expression and reflection. A variety of oral presentations are also part the English
1 curriculum. Assuming that beyond a formal education is a full-time job and that higher-paying jobs are usually connected to higher-level technical or business skills, the English 1 class places an emphasis on reading, writing, speaking, listening and research skills that will not only promote success in formal education, but the working world as well.

The Algebra 1 curriculum focuses on operations with numbers, solving and graphic algebraic equations and laying a foundation for more advanced math study. Generally, the content of the first three chapters of the book is review, but brand new algebra concepts are quickly added to the mix.

    The FAA program, as part of El Toro’s world-class high school education, is designed to move students toward these goals by stressing three important foundations: community, content and mastery. These foundations interact to give the program its dynamic and specialized nature.

THE FOUNDATIONS

        The foundation of community in the FAA program is important because it affects how learning takes place. Any community must have expectations and teamwork in order to be successful.

          In the FAA classroom, expectations about behaviors that lead to learning are clear and carefully enforced. The highest of these expectations are on-task behaviors that involve speaking, attention to task and expenditure of effort (in other words, speaking when appropriate, doing the work at hand and working hard to do a good job).

         Valuable expectations are best realized through teamwork. In the FAA program, it is expected that the instructor, parents, students, and support providers will work as a team, treating each other like family, to provide academic success for all students in the class. Dragging an unwilling runner across the finish line is very different than providing training and encouragement to the developing athlete. The expectations and team roles that are foundational to the FAA community are keys to getting The Job of School done well.

          The second foundation is content. Beyond monitoring the learning community, the instructor’s primary function is the classroom is to provide relevant and rigorous content to FAA students. Parents will agree that content must be relevant so students can easily see they will “use this stuff” in the future.

           When core content is not only relevant, but rigorous, students will be able to function successfully in the future as older students and employees, as well as be the critical thinkers society must have to survive and thrive.

         The third foundation is mastery. Students who work in a community and are exposed to content that is relevant and rigorous, will be able to demonstrate the mastery of skills that are essential to academic and workforce success. Almost every citizen must work for a living and The Job of School is to prepare students to be productive citizens and workers.

EL TORO AND BEYOND

          Students should learn at an early age that careers that provide the most satisfaction are not always the ones that have the highest salaries. The best career path for any FAA student is a unique and distinctive reflection of each student’s individuality. However, all successful and happy workers have a common set of skills: a passion for their work, the practice that leads to skill mastery and the discipline to get through the less-desirable parts of any work day. Students in the FAA program are encouraged to use these three mastery skills to become masters of core content as they prepare for the career and academic adventures they will soon choose for their lives. Students and parents in the program will hear much about the skills + stamina = success equation that summarizes and extends the foundations of the program.

MORE INFORMATION
The freshman year continues a journey rooted in the hopes and dreams of parents, students, teachers and school support personnel. El Toro’s FAA program can be an important factor in the success of that journey.

More information about El Toro’s Freshman Academic Advantage (FAA) program is available at http://faa.aj2.us or by emailing Ron Archer, FAA teacher at archerr@svusd.org

About the instructor
Mr. Archer is celebrating his 33rd year as a teacher in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and because he has two teaching credentials (English and math), over the years he has taught a variety of curricula at a variety of levels, honors to workshop. He has extensive experience working in block and blended curricula, most recently with the American Journey program at Mission Viejo High School. This program received national attention (and most importantly, praise from students and parents) for its innovative curriculum design and delivery. Mr. Archer has worked with teachers Districtwide to effectively develop and deliver productive classroom experiences.

Mr. Archer lives in Mission Viejo with his wife and is the father of three children, ages 24, 21 and 19.