 |
| Workshops on improving the transition to high school were among the offerings at a Middle-High Forum where 15 district teams shared best practices |
|
The move from middle school to high school can be a rocky time for adolescents. That’s why some districts are creating ninth grade academies — to make the transition easier. As much as they may ease a difficult passage for freshmen, however, launching these ‘schools within schools’ can be less than smooth sailing for educators. For any high school planning to start an academy, learning the ups and downs from districts that already have can be invaluable.
Dozens of educators participating in The Consortium for Public Education’s Middle-High Forum got inside perspectives on the process from Franklin Regional and Steel Valley school districts. Workshops on the two districts’ experience were among 20 learning sessions presented when the Forum convened in December.
District teams participating in the Forum offered most of the sessions, on topics ranging from freshman mentoring programs and teacher leadership teams to kindergarten readiness programs and using data to drive school improvements. The Consortium also presented workshops, including one on adult learning, to help teams expand engagement in their projects among colleagues and another on teen dating violence and its impact on school culture.
All 15 district teams participating in the Forum are working on projects to improve performance in their schools. The Forum’s organizers support them with research and coaching to identify problems, plan and implement solutions and evaluate their outcomes. The broader objective is to use those projects to create a culture for continuous, systemic improvement.
Like a number of other structured opportunities available through the Forum, the December workshops were designed to help districts share best practices.
“It’s very beneficial for us to look at other schools, even though they’re sometimes very different than ours,” said Ken Bissell, an assistant middle school principal from Greensburg Salem School District. “We’re not going to make a mirror image of something another district may be doing, but we can modify it for our school and make it work.”
Bissell noted that Greensburg Salem, which presented findings from a peer-mentoring program for ninth graders and a “summer success” program for rising eighth graders considered “at risk” for academic difficulties in the transition to high school, got the idea for peer-mentoring from another Forum participant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many attendees selected sessions about projects their own schools might want to try. That’s what drew Chartiers Valley High School Principal Dr. Terri Flynn and other members of her team to sessions on ninth grade academies, also known as freshman academies. “We’re interested in anything having to do with that transition to high school,” she said, after attending Elizabeth Forward’s presentation. She noted that some other team members listened in on Franklin Regional’s workshop.
Although the 45-minute workshops could easily have been longer, for Flynn they were a point of departure. “This gave us a focus on what different schools are doing; I know which schools we can contact to learn more.”
Another important aspect of workshops taught by districts themselves is that they convey not just successes, but barriers that must be overcome to achieve it.
“It was not a smooth ride,” said Dana Metzgar, an English teacher at Franklin Regional as she led discussion on her school’s ninth grade academy. “Our ninth grade academy isn’t perfect. We’re presenting the struggles so you can learn from them.”
Franklin Regional’s experience also held another lesson of value for any district. Although Franklin Regional was performing well — with proficiency scores on standardized tests significantly above state averages — the academy was a response to internal discussions about how even the best performing districts can improve.
“Even if you’re seeing that 80 percent of your kids are performing [at a high level], you have to ask about the other 20 percent,” Metzgar said. That’s a large number who aren’t.”
Franklin Regional’s ninth grade academy, though only in its second year and though still a work in progress, has proven an object lesson on finding room for improvement in even the best districts. “We’re seeing fewer homework issues,” said Courtney Cassidy, a math teacher who presented the workshop with Metzgar. “We’re seeing fewer test failures.”
|
