A Time for Reflection

This Year's 31 National Honor Society Inductees!

I am hoping to have the following commentary published in the Vigilant:

The sparkling lights on the houses, the crisp winds and the home baked treats can only mean one thing, the holiday season is upon us. Amongst all the bustle, I try to use this time to look at what I wanted to get done in the past year, what was actually accomplished, and where I need to go from here. I do this on a personal, spiritual and professional level. I also think it’s an appropriate time to do it for Cassopolis Ross Beatty Junior/Senior High School.

Last year we took a hard look at our curriculum and saw that some changes needed to happen. Without getting into the specifics (which I will be happy to do with anyone who would like to call or come by, 269-445-0541), we needed to increase our college level offerings and advanced classes, raise the bar for all our classes and, above all, improve our test scores.

This is what needed to get done.

To increase the number of college/advanced offerings, we had to take a step back to move forward. We will switch between College English and World Literature yearly, and we had to rebuild our AP Calculus program starting with proper training for the teachers. It will be back next year.

Despite that, we ran four college/advanced classes in the 2006-2007 year: Accounting, Computer Applications II, College English, and Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus. We are running eight such classes on campus this year: AP English, World Literature, Physics, Advanced Biology, Accounting, Computer Applications II, Horticulture and Animal Science. More are planned for next year.

In order to improve the curriculum classes, science, math and English all were reviewed and redesigned last year, and social studies is currently doing the same. For science, every student will take earth science and the first halves of both chemistry and physics. In addition, every student must pass biology and either the advanced part of chemistry or physics to graduate.

For math, the state objectives have been raised so much that Algebra I is taught from both Algebra I and Algebra II books, Algebra II is taught from Algebra II and Pre-Calculus books and Pre-Calculus is being taught from Pre-Calculus and Calculus books. No publisher has yet created individual books that meet the Michigan standards, but we are looking into other options.

For English, the curriculum has become almost entirely literature-based. I overheard the comment from one English teacher that, “What we used to teach as our [advanced] junior curriculum has now become our standard sophomore curriculum.” These curricular improvements have come a long way in helping us raise the bar for all our students.

To improve our test scores we have implemented the Plan/Do/Check/Act (PDCA) model. (To learn more about this model, please visit the blog at RBJSHS.blogspot.com and read the August 16, 2007 entry.) For us, that means, based on past standardized and teacher-written tests, every student receives time during school for either extra help understanding important concepts or educationally enriching activities if they already understand the concepts. In addition, broad monthly objectives are talked about every day, posted in every classroom and announced each morning by administration. Staff members have visited us from another school interested in seeing what we are doing so they can adopt it for their own building, and we expect another in the near future.

It needs to be noted that this whole process has been teacher driven. If it weren’t for our teachers’ dedication to our students and their drive to improve what and how students learn, all the good intentions would fall flat. Specifically, Mrs. Kelly Hargrove and Mrs. Brooke Hari have led the charge and done all of the detail work that has made this a successful program.

We will have a better idea of how effective the process has been after the students receive the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) scores towards the end of the year. The MME is the exam all juniors take in March and includes the ACT college entrance exam. We will take the scores the students receive on the ACT and compare them to the scores they received as sophomores when they took the PLAN, a sort of pre-ACT exam. These results will be presented to the board and should tell us how successful the PCDA process has been. After that, we will be able to locate our areas of weakness, adjust our methods, and continue to improve.

This is how we have started to address these issues.

Next year, we have several things planned for continued improvement. We plan on including two more AP classes, and I am hoping to receive approval for more direct college credit classes. In addition, the PDCA process will be expanded so greater amounts of extra help in a variety of areas will be available to our students. Graduation requirements should be expanded to include preparation for certification on Microsoft Office Products. A foreign language credit will be required for all students. We are moving toward a place where every student will leave Cassopolis with a part of their college degree already completed.

This is where we need to go.

The holidays are a time for celebration, but also a time for reflection. 87% of the seniors who graduated in 2006 are currently attending college. I won’t believe we have arrived at where we need to be until 100% attend college. The best way I can see that happening is to make sure that every student has a start on their degree before they ever leave. If you have ideas or concerns and you would like a chance to voice them, the Principal Advisory Council meets every third Monday at 5:30 PM, or just drop by the high school. To make sure I am here to greet you, you may wish to contact us at (269) 445-0541, but it is not required. You can also keep up with our goings on by reading my weekly blog at RBJSHS.blogspot.com. Have a great holiday season!

December Objectives

Vocabulary Enrichment: Using the words around unfamiliar words to determine meaning (context clues)

Percents & Fractions: Changing percents to fractions, like .50 to 1/2

• December 5th, from 8-8:30 AM Herff Jones will be here to meet with seniors about invitations and other graduation information.
• December 5th, from 3:00-5:00 PM, the district will be honoring Mrs. Christine Locke, our board president, for achieving the platinum recognition from the Michigan School Board Association with a tea here in the high school cafeteria! Join us in celebration!
• December 8th is the District Christmas Party!
• December 12th Herff Jones will be here at 10:15 AM to meet with seniors about invitations and other graduation information if anyone missed the first meeting.
• December 12th is the Honor Roll Breakfast-Invitations and information to follow.
• On December 15th the Afro Club will have a Dodge Ball tournament. Call Mrs. Haines at 445-0508 for more information or to sign up a team.

Quote of the Week:

Nothing will work unless you do.-Maya Angelou