I interviewed Principal Kim Schaefer, of Whitehorse High School (WHS). Kim said the school has about 300 students, grades 7 thru 12, 99% Navajo, 33% English Language Learners, and 100% free or reduced lunch.
A. Trends and Benchmarks: Whitehorse is in “school improvement,” the benchmark is the center of everything, how they get measured, and seeing where kids are at, three times a year. The school is very transparent with all their data, students are constantly seeing the data and scores. Teachers set a goal of the benchmark at the beginning of the quarter, then based on their six week assessment, the goal may be adjusted. The data is posted throughout the school, they have bulletin boards in the halls showing data, it also gets sent home to all stakeholders.
Three benchmarks used to measure progress at …show more content…
Academic Performance Goals: WHS has three goals in their ninety day action plan, which are heavily tied to the benchmark data. The three goals include: 1. Foster an inclusive culture of collaboration, and parent engagement by proactively communicating clear learning targets in student progress, to improve the effectiveness of services for students who need ongoing support. The school is trying to use data in a collaborative manner 2. Leverage effective instruction. 3. Narrow the focus, ie: promote a culture of adult learning and collaboration, a clear and concise focus. WHS doesn’t want to do a lot of things halfway, they hope to do these three things extremely well in collaboration and effective instruction.
The school has highly ambitious goals for this year, which they will probably not fulfill. For example, go from a 3% proficient rate in 7th grade science, to 40% on the SAGE. Principal Schaefer seriously stressed, they don’t want to be an F School next year. WHS is looking for 30% growth in their proficiency rates, which is huge growth. Schaefer said that some schools aim for 10% and never get there. WHS is saying they need 30% to make it out of the F
A. Trends and Benchmarks: Whitehorse is in “school improvement,” the benchmark is the center of everything, how they get measured, and seeing where kids are at, three times a year. The school is very transparent with all their data, students are constantly seeing the data and scores. Teachers set a goal of the benchmark at the beginning of the quarter, then based on their six week assessment, the goal may be adjusted. The data is posted throughout the school, they have bulletin boards in the halls showing data, it also gets sent home to all stakeholders.
Three benchmarks used to measure progress at …show more content…
Academic Performance Goals: WHS has three goals in their ninety day action plan, which are heavily tied to the benchmark data. The three goals include: 1. Foster an inclusive culture of collaboration, and parent engagement by proactively communicating clear learning targets in student progress, to improve the effectiveness of services for students who need ongoing support. The school is trying to use data in a collaborative manner 2. Leverage effective instruction. 3. Narrow the focus, ie: promote a culture of adult learning and collaboration, a clear and concise focus. WHS doesn’t want to do a lot of things halfway, they hope to do these three things extremely well in collaboration and effective instruction.
The school has highly ambitious goals for this year, which they will probably not fulfill. For example, go from a 3% proficient rate in 7th grade science, to 40% on the SAGE. Principal Schaefer seriously stressed, they don’t want to be an F School next year. WHS is looking for 30% growth in their proficiency rates, which is huge growth. Schaefer said that some schools aim for 10% and never get there. WHS is saying they need 30% to make it out of the F