Principal's Message - January Edition 2010-2011

Dear JHS 13 Community,

Happy New Year to everyone! I want to welcome you back to school. Our first week back has provided clear evidence the preparation before break has paid off. Many of our classrooms have picked up where they have left off. The Student Management Team continues to show growth almost daily. We are working together to close the gap of communication that exists with the school and the student management team. Many times, these individuals are the last to hear about specific events or circumstances set up in the morning. We have managed to develop a system to share daily announcements and absences. As for assemblies, field trips, or specific teacher arrangements, we are still exploring ways to make sure everyone is attuned to what is happening in the school. All students breaking school rules, and are officially reported on Teacherease, are receiving consequences. By the end of the month, they will be receiving them on a timely basis. Our suspension list had reached a three week waiting list. Working with Mr. Ciano, Edgar, and the suspension system, we have been able to clean this area up. We hope by the end of January, we will be able to assign suspensions within a four day wait (this gap is to make sure the letters are mailed out and the family has time to contest the repercussions during a conference or further investigating can take place upon the request of the family.)

There is still much more work that needs to be done to support teachers who continue to struggle with classroom management. We also need to address our students within our academies and as a whole school culturally. We need to communicate regularly what is acceptable behavior and teach our students when they
are not making good decisions. Great opportunities are teacher-student conferences, hosting advisory in place of homework help, one-on-one conversations during class, having students fill out a reflection sheet during class and giving feedback at a later time, or even hosting the student after school for a detention to go over why the repercussion was assigned and how it can be avoided in the future.

Before break we were able to host our winter Spirit Week, our third Winter Olympics, and our first ever Pep Rally. A huge thank you to all of the teachers and staff who were able to plan and assist especially Ms. Willis, City Year, and the Golden Falcon Academy. The collaboration between Jackie Robinson Scholar Academy and Golden Falcon was wonderful to see. I hope in our next event we can generate collaboration among all three academies. The School Improvement Team will be putting together a calendar of events where each academy will have the opportunity to host or work with another academy to support the culture building in our school. When students feel that they are a part of something bigger, they begin to believe in the cause that it represents. They also trust in the direction and the people behind it especially if the payoff is worthwhile. The S.I.T. recognizes this and wants to expand on it. Although the attendance team did not reach our goal of 85% attendance on the 23rd of December, we believe the effort we made produced a higher attendance for the day before holiday break than we have ever had before. We will be surveying the students to find the root fo some of the causes of absenteeism for pre-holiday school day.

Our next three weeks will be dedicated to preparing for the Quality Review. The shift we have to make is to expedite the unfolding of several initiatives to meet the expectations of the Department of Education sooner rather than later. Everything that will be worked on in the next three weeks are initiatives that we were going to be put in place at one time or another before the end of the school year. I feel as though since we were going to have them all in place before the end of the year, it only makes sense we go forth with them now to get the recognition of supporting students and teachers in a measurable and efficient manner because we will not be assessed on this again until next year. The challenge we have is to take on many projects in a short amount of time. The benefit of moving forward is, by the time the Quality Review is over, we will be primarily sustaining and refining our efforts, not building (which is the most difficult part.)

As a community, the need to work together is higher than it has ever been. Consistency in coming to work, participating in any area where you feel you can assist whether during the school day or after, taking part in one of our per session opportunities, or even giving your input or feedback on the planning of projects. These are simple steps that can be done. If you are getting involved with our preparations for the Quality Review then you are committing to making the school better. If you are struggling to meet the needs of our students, which is no easy task, then this may be the way to find out how to do so. If you have not discovered a way to get involved, then do so today. It is never too late. We cannot achieve what we so rightly deserve (a great school and rewarding atmosphere) if we are not all putting our efforts toward the same cause, educating our children. If you need help, then do not hesitate to ask. There are more people ready for supporting than the number of people who are struggling. Let's align what our perspective of support looks like and move forward with it. The task of reaching the top is much easier when we are all helping each other to get there.

Continue with the great work you are doing. Incredible achievements are just ahead. Be a part of those celebrations by getting involved today. One school, one future.

Sincerely,

Jacob T. Michelman
Principal

CHECKING IN WITH THE SCHOOL GOALS

10% INCREASE OF STUDENTS MEETING PROFICIENCY IN ELA AND MATH

One of the initiatives being launched by the Cabinet are the student goals. Our attempt at this last year landed in a system unable to be maintained for several reasons. Our vision was to simplify the process and align our efforts across all subject areas. By using the two areas of focus this year, writing and critical thinking, we were able to generate a rubric for the purpose of identifying goals in critical thinking for our students. We were able to develop four areas for teachers to work with students. Each department will be responsible for identifying a level or rating for each child in two of the four areas of the rubric along with targets we want the students to reach by June of 2011. The initiative will be the vehicle for driving instruction to offer more opportunities for students to do higher level thinking. It will assist in encouraging collaboration among teachers where the student goals will have a large amount of overlap among departments. In addition, teacher ratings next year will be based on a similar goal setting process for our students. Finally, it will be essential in looking at how the students are learning and what we can do to improve student learning. By improving the critical thinking skills of our students, it is inevitable they will perform better on both their state exams. By using the student goals to unite our efforts, we are solidifying substantial progression for a large population of our students.

We will also be launching a writing rubric in the next two weeks to align our expectations of what good writing should look like. Eventually, next year, we will use this rubric or a similar one to set goals for students in writing. For now, we will finalize the rubric, share it with staff, and begin rating our students responses to extended response questions or writing pieces. We hope we can encourage teachers to use their bulletin boards to showcase the rubric with student feedback. By producing stronger writers, our students will improve their achievement on both state exams.

92% ATTENDANCE

Our average attendance continues to fluctuate between 90 and 91 percent. We are still struggling with days before breaks along with Mondays and Fridays. We put several initiatives together for the 23rd of December. We managed to just break 80% but have a need for more research to produce higher numbers. Sometime in the next two weeks, we will be distributing a survey to students to find out what we can do in the future to promote higher attendance. In the meantime, we encourage staff to take accurate attendance so students records can be kept accurately. We also need staff to set up a welcoming environment in their classrooms. Our numbers indicate a large portion of our students are taking a day here or there and most frequently on a Monday or Friday. We need to stress the importance of coming to school and how missing one day will affect their growth and learning but simultaneously give them assistance to catch up when they do miss. Finally, maintain a welcoming environment. Make them feel that they are important by posting their work and celebrating their achievements in your room.

CITY-WIDE SURVEY ACHIEVING “ABOVE AVERAGE OR HIGHER” ON ALL 12 CATEGORIEST

he School Improvement Team will finalize the strategy plan this coming Friday. Until then, we have identified Positive Behavior Intervention Services (PBIS) as a first step in improving the school environment. It will address the high need for improving the staff and student relationship. In addition, we will be building culture with events and aligning our classrooms and management as much as possible to forge the necessary consistency in setting clear expectations. While we strategically tackle the biggest issues identified from student and staff surveys, we will also be working to create a culture of better decision making for both students and staff and supportive environment to help everyone reach their goals. Once the strategy plan is in place, we will revisit the issues and concerns shared before and during our November 2nd meeting. We will be assembling a PBIS committee while also moving forward with the teacher teams who spoke about concerns raised earlier in the year. In the meantime, please continue to disperse red feathers for students who are exemplifying our core values.

EXPANDING INTERVENTIONS TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR 15% OF OUR POPULATION

As more people use Teacherease to enter their incident reports, we are able to gather data on our students. Using the data we were able to identify ten of our students who have been written up the most. The Child Study Team has gathered the names and have been working with the counseling team to put together Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Improvement Plans for these individuals. By developing consistent methods that have proven to work with these children, we may be able to decrease the amount of times these students interrupt the learning process. We hope to begin exploring the different ways we can support these children to improve their engagement in class and help get them on the course for success.

The school continues to struggle to get teachers to refer students to the Child Study Team. There are a number of teachers who have removed or disciplined the same child repeatedly and have not sought support from the Child Study Team to either get these individuals more services or to gather strategies for the teacher to progress with the student. We are letting our students down if we are solely relying on discipline to change the unwanted behaviors of our students. We have to come to the realization that additional support or a thorough plan can make the biggest difference. Please make sure you have made at least one referral to the Child Study if you continue to struggle with a particular student.

Please continue to work hard toward our Destination of Excellence!
One School, One Future!