Principal's Message - February Edition 2012

Dear JHS 13 Community,

There are less than 35 Days until the ELA exam and Math exam. The urgency to prepare our students for these exams is increasing as the days go by. Our latest promotional assessment in January showed significant improvements from November. We are hoping the next assessment (March 6th and 7th) will continue to show progress. To ensure our students are ready for the exam, we need to be taking advantage of every second, minute, period, and program in our school.

We set up the Saturday Academy to support preparation for the exams. We have only been pulling in about 50 students. Our goal is to triple this population. We need the help of our parents to make sure our children are attending and are focused when they are there. We will continue to invest efforts into the recruitment so our goal is met. In fact, students with low attendance will be offered Saturday Academy days to reduce the number of absences he or she currently has. This could be the difference maker in catching these students up on the instruction they have been missing but also increase their chances of passing the state exams.

Everyone can contribute to improving our student results by investing efforts into several initiatives. The first is making sure our students are reading as much as possible. Whether it’s a magazine or a book, we need our children to be pushing through the article or chapter. We cannot settle for low-level books either like comic books or illustrated books. We need to build up our students stamina to read an entire piece within a limited amount of time. Parents, we can do this buy purchasing magazines related to your child’s interests. Teachers, reading can be moved into every lesson if we truly wanted it that way. Reading is exercise for our children, and they need to be in shape by April 17th.

The second is to develop as many opportunities during the school day or week to have students read and write. It could range between short response questions using the RAFT method or essays. Regardless, students need to improve their ability to convert their thoughts into written words. This comes from repeated opportunities in classes throughout the day and constant feedback on how to improve. This will help students perform better on both the math and ELA state exams. Parents can encourage their children to read and summarize or write a response from one of the character’s point-of-view, write a journal, write a reaction to an article, or even write a letter to a family member. Computers help in motivating our babies to engage in the writing process.

The third is student feedback. If you are not giving back at least two to three assignments per week or posting assignments on your bulletin board with teacher feedback, then you are leaving the students to figure out how to improve on their own. Obviously, leaving it to a 11 to 14 year old child to find out on their own what is the correct way to critically think, analyze, predict, etc…then we are setting them up for failure. Students need to be receiving clear and thorough feedback as much as possible. This should not be only left to “x’s” and checks letting them know if an answer is correct or wrong. There should be written feedback or the use of a rubric to communicate areas of success and how the student can improve. Parents can read through their homework assignments or proofread any writing they do for personal reasons or for work. The feedback is gold in forwarding our students for the state exam.

Again, the urgency to prepare our students for the state exams is now. If you are not investing your time into better supporting our children, then you need to begin as soon as possible. This is not a task only for ELA and Math teachers. It begins with parents making sure their children are reading and writing at home. It continues with any teacher of any subject using data to drive instruction, providing opportunities to read and write during class, and giving students as much feedback as possible.


Sincerely,

Jacob T. Michelman
Principal

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE SCHOOL GOALS ARE? STATUS UPDATE

35% INCREASE OF STUDENTS MEETING PROFICIENCY IN ELA AND MATH

The latest exam results from the ELA and Math mock exams will be our last clear picture of what our students know. It is our responsibility to take this information and address the areas our students need to improve. We need to prioritize according to the expectations of the state exams. There are certain skills and content which will be stressed more than others. It does not make sense to reiterate skills and content that will barely be covered on the state exams. We have to use our time wisely. Since we are unable to go over every single standard in a short amount of time, we need to identify our prioritize according to areas of weakness and the expectations of the state exam.

The exam this Tuesday will be the last chance for our students to get a practice testing environment before the actual test. It is important for us to identify students who still struggle to complete the test in the allocated time. We can explore ways to create more time for the student or get the student support in using his or her time more efficiently.

92% ATTENDANCE

We continue to fluctuate from 89% to numbers as high as 95% for daily attendance. Our students who take a day each week are holding the rest of the school from reaching excellence. The school has made these students a priority.

We have been setting up contracts, meeting with students, and referring families to the Administration for Children Services to combat excessive absences. We will continue with these efforts when students have over 13 absences. We will need the community to further promote attendance by urging students to get to school on time and to make students feel welcomed when they return from an absence. We will not be able to improve our daily percentage if we do not work as a community to improve our attendance. We are currently at 91.7%. This is 0.3% below our goal for the year. Please take the time to speak to a student who struggles to come to school.

CITY-WIDE SURVEY ACHIEVING “ABOVE AVERAGE OR HIGHER” ON AT LEAST 80% OF THE CATEGORIES

Several committees have been working hard to assess our current status with communication. It has been a very interesting process. We have identified every constituent and who they speak to in our community. To further the process, we have conducted several surveys to get input from as many constituents as possible. For instance, the parent survey administered at the beginning of the year showed a need to improve the conference process. Too many parents were sitting and waiting to meet with a teacher. For the February conference, we adjusted the appointment process. Parents were given a schedule upon entrance. This reduced the wait time significantly. By having a strict schedule, conferences were more targeted and parents were able to meet with all of their children’s teachers.

The recent teacher feedback showed an improvement in clear expectations of the discipline code. In fact, the results were doubled revealing a clearer understanding of how the system is organized. We will continue to use the surveys to improve the school. Thank you to everyone who has filled one out or is about to fill out one.

PARENTS – IF YOU HAVE NOT FILLED OUT A CITY-WIDE SURVEY, YOU NEED TO DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IT IS THE GREEN ENVELOPE YOUR CHILD MIGHT HAVE PUT IN HIS OR HER BAG.

MOVING AT LEAST 25% OF OUR SPECIAL EDUCATION POPULATION TO A LESS RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT

Students continue to be brought before the Child Study Team for a less restrictive environment. Special education is only supposed to be a temporary placement. If we do not devote time to helping students step into a regular education setting, then we are holding them back from reaching their full potential. We are urging parents and teachers to identify ANY special education children who are great candidates to move to a less restrictive environment. That could include a self-contain student to Inclusive (ICT), a SETSS student no longer receiving those services or even cutting down the number of days, or a mandated student for counseling. Its about teaching the child to excel in an environment where there is less support. If we are not making this a priority, we are risking these students futures as they could be devoured in high school by the quick reduction of supports when moving on from middle school.

If you have not done it yet, please refer a student to the Child Study Team to be placed in a less restrictive environment. If the child is not moved, there will at least be a plan to make it happen at a later date. Make a difference today.