Progress
by Jeremy Watt
January 26, 2012
Third quarter mid-term is next Tuesday, and students will be bringing progress cards home once more. Primarily due to a couple of field trips and illnesses, several students had a rough time (academically) starting back after Christmas break, and we provided a lot of tutoring to help get them caught back up. Our students are great, and it is always nice to know that they will be polite, report as expected, and get busy trying to do better. I am hopeful that many more students achieved their learning goals than when we monitored grades two weeks ago.
Each year it is surprising to me the number of ideas and suggestions that enable us to continuously improve together in our district. One additional piece of information included in this article is our intervention plan (how we respond when students do not succeed). Many students, teachers, parents, and patrons are familiar with it, but I wanted it to be found in one more place, so it is included below. We assess it's effectiveness each year, and always work to make it better. If you have thoughts or comments, please let me know.
I included a picture of our building trades house on 21st Street that was taken just 3 short weeks ago. Since then the look of the house has changed quite a lot as Mr. Godfrey and his students continue to work. Their work is analogous to the work parents and teachers accomplish with students. We all work together as a team to invest blood, sweat, and tears, and the finished product is a work to behold!
PCHS INTERVENTION PLAN – 2011-2012
Level 1: All Students
*Grades will be figured approximately every two weeks.
*Teachers will turn in a list of D’s and F’s only to Mr. Watt.
*Teachers must also notify Mr. Watt if they don’t have any students with D’s and F’s.
*A common grading scale of A = 90-100 will be used by all teachers.
*Quarter grades will be figured, not a running total. The semester grade will be the average of two quarters.
*Individual teachers will decide point values in each class.
*Students not on the D and F list will earn extended lunch time and will attend activity period meetings.
Level 2: Students with D’s and F’s
*Students with D’s and F’s will be notified and the interventions will begin.
*Parents will be notified (or at least attempted to be notified) within 24 hours of the interventions.
*Students with D’s and F’s will not have extended lunch privilege.
*Students with D’s and F’s will attend tutoring every advisory period for two weeks (until grades are figured again). On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, students with D’s will remain in their 5th period classroom for mentoring and tutoring. Students with F’s will report to the library for tutoring. These students will not attend meetings during this time.
*Advisory tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays will take place in the regularly scheduled classroom. There is no activity period on these days. Therefore tutoring will take place when the students without D’s and/or F’s go to extended lunch.
Level 3: Students with F’s
*Students with F’s, discipline issues of ISS and OSS (not cell phone violations), and students that have broken the attendance and tardy policies will not be allowed to attend any activity that takes them out of the school day. A student breaking the attendance policy means that the student has been asked to write an appeal to the teacher committee. A student breaking the tardy policy means that this student has had to serve a detention with the principal (not the teacher). Weekend and evening trips are allowed.
*Students with F’s who are involved in MSHSAA activities will be ineligible for 5 days and must attend a minimum of 5 tutoring sessions during advisory period before playing again. Before-school tutoring sessions will be set up by the student with the principal for early-out days when necessary. These athletes will be allowed to practice with the team when possible.
*Participants/athletes with an “F” may not miss a class to travel away to an event/game.
Level 4: Students failing classes and not earning credit to graduate
*At-Risk meeting with student, parent(s), teacher(s), counselor, special services director, social worker, and principal
