Need Some Parents; Need Some Students

I've written before about the results of our Quality Assurance Review, or QAR. This refers to the visiting team of educators that came to South last December.

The accreditation process outlined by the State of Michigan consists of seven standards. Two of these standards, Governance and Leadership and Stakeholder Communications and Relationships, call for greater student and parent involvement in school improvement decisions. With this in mind we are expanding the leadership team for our high school, the people that make up our school improvement team. Specifically, we are looking for two parents and two students to work with our staff on school improvement initiatives. The following are some of the specifics regarding membership on this team:

• We are seeking two students in grades 9-10-11 and two parents of students in grades 9-10-11 to be added to the school improvement team
• The term for those selected will be the balance of this school year and the duration of the 2009-10 school year
• Meetings are held monthly, usually on the third Monday of the month, at 3:15 PM
• There may be occasional task-specific meetings of short duration in addition to the monthly meetings
• There will be one full-day meeting in August for the purpose of data interpretation and goal setting for 2009-10
• One of the early responsibilities of parents and students will be development of a survey that will be administered to all parents and students in the spring of 2009
• Survey results will be used in the development of school improvement goals for 2009-10
• Representatives selected are expected to serve as liaisons to other South parents and students

Applications for these positions are available through the South website by using the Parent tab and clicking on the School Improvement Team application. Student applicants are also to use the South website, using the Student tab and clicking on the School Improvement Team application.

Applications are due in the principal’s office by the end of the day on Friday, Feb. 27. Current members of the school improvement team will make selections from those that apply, with notification of the selections to all involved by Friday, March 6.

Should you have any questions, please contact me via email at al.diver@gpschools.org at your earliest convenience. We look forward to your participation.

A New Start

It may be hard to believe, but we're halfway through the school year already. By most measures, we had a good first semester. One area of concern, however, dealt with attendance patterns for many of our students.

With encouragement from the Board of Education, we attempted to change our attendance policy from previous years. In the past, students that accumulated three (3) unexcused absences earned an "attendance F" despite their academic standing in the class. The same held true for students that accumulated eleven (11) excused absences. Members of the Board of Education felt the previous policy was too punitive and damaging to a student's grade point average.

So with the start of the 2008-09 school year we relaxed the attendance policy. Although it never officially became Board policy, the directive was to eliminate the concept of "attendance F's". The end result was that there was really no cap on the number of days a student could miss during this previous semester.

What we learned during this trial period is that too many of our students lack the maturity to act responsibility. We had far too many students "skip" individual class periods or entire days, resulting in a large spike of unexcused absences.

More problematic, however, was that we witnessed a significant increase in the number of parents that called in their sons and daughters for excused absences. Comparing '08 to '09, from the start of school until just before the holidays, there was an increase of more than 20% home call-ins. The number of students that exceeded the previous threshold for excused absences increased dramatically. Missing that much school has an extremely negative impact on student performance.

For example, a significant number of our students missed more than 60 hours of class time in the time frame listed above. And there really is no excuse. In the real world, employees would be terminated early on.

So there will be a change second semester. Although we won't know the details for another couple of weeks or until the Board of Education adopts the new regulations, there will be a cap on absences once again. And although we won't issue "attendance F's", students that exceed the cap will be removed from any class where absenteeism is excessive.

We really need cooperation from parents with this change. Missing a single day equates to six hours of instruction, with five days leading to 30 hours missed. Those are lectures, labs and discussions that just can't be made up no matter the efforts of all involved. Please help us maximize student achievement by doing your part.

An Option For Students

This only pertains to students, or their parents, that are in the class of 2011 (current sophomores) or beyond.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of your right to request a Personal Curriculum (PC) for your son or daughter. In January 2007, the Michigan legislature passed laws related to new high school graduation requirements. These new requirements are called the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC). The MMC contains more rigorous standards for graduation with a high school diploma. The MMC must be followed beginning with students who were in the 9th grade in the fall of 2007, our current sophomores, or the class of 2011.

We hope that the new MMC requirements will improve the quality of education for ALL Michigan public high school students. We are also aware that some students have special talents and interests that warrant additions to the curriculum. Other students may have disabilities that require some accommodations to keep the MMC meaningful and fair. If you believe your son or daughter needs a Personal Curriculum, you must make a request for consideration of a PC, then a team is formed to determine what curriculum changes are appropriate. The MMC requirements and allowable PC modifications are listed below.

The new MMC law requires the following when considering a Personal Curriculum:
• The PC must be requested by the parent or guardian.
• The PC may not be needed if the MMC for a student can be addressed with other reasonable arrangements.
• When needed, PC is written by a group of knowledgeable people that includes the parent and school staff.
• The PC must adhere to the MMC content standards as much as is possible for the student. In other words, the essential content expectations for graduation must still be met.
• The PC may exceed the requirements of the Michigan Merit Curriculum.
• The PC may contain some special provisions for students with documented disabilities.
• The PC must be approved by the Superintendent of the school district.
• The PC may be adjusted during the course of the student’s high school education using the same process, as appropriate.

More detailed descriptions of the Michigan Merit Curriculum and a Personal Curriculum are available via the website at http://gpschools.schoolwires.net/gpsouth/site/default.asp by clicking on the “Parents” tab and then Personal Curriculum. Deadline for the application is February 2, 2009.

Enjoy The Break

Just two days away from Christmas, I don't think there's much doubt it will be a white one this year. As a matter of fact, it's snowing right now, adding to the nearly 10" already on the ground.

To all students and staff, we made it! Some were concerned that going these extra two days might result in extreme absenteeism. After all, many school districts dismissed their students for the holiday break on Friday, December 19, a snow day for nearly everyone across the state.

The major concern for Grosse Pointe was whether we would meet the 75% attendance threshhold that is established by the State of Michigan. The regulation from the state is that 75% of a district's students must attend for the day to "count" toward the days/hours requirement.

I am happy to report that our attendance was better than expected. While we might average about 92% attendance on any given day, we were better these past two days than many feared. On Monday, 12/22, we had about 86% of our students attend and today we had about 82% in attendance. In either case, we were in good shape.

So off on vacation we go. In talking to students and staff, it seems many more are staying close to home this year. But no matter what you are doing over the next 10 days or so, have fun and be safe.

Here's wishing you the very best the New Year has to offer.

Much To Be Thankful For

At a time of such economic upheaval, especially in Michigan, it is easy to get embroiled in negative conversations. It disturbed me to watch how representatives of the "Big Three" were treated by members of Congress, especially when the legislators may secretly believe they have more to gain from a collapse of the Big Three than if they were to remain solid.

I have a vested interest in this discussion. Many members of my family were employees of the auto industry and my youngest daughter and son-in-law are new engineers with GM. There isn't a day goes by that I don't worry about their economic future with the company. It even goes so far that I worry about my oldest brother's GM pension and health care. It appears that no one is really protected financially anymore.

However, there are times I am extremely grateful. I am hopeful that the new leadership in Washington will lead us to better times. Time will tell if serious changes are possible, but the optimism and positive messages that I have observed so far can only help a cautious public. It has been my experience that confidence is the best predictor of success. Until we are confident, we have little chance of moving forward with the bold steps that are likely necessary to climb out of this hole.

I am also thankful I work in a community that is so supportive of education. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we have "great" kids. They are bright, respectful, and committed to doing well. They have educational aspirations far beyond high school, making our jobs much easier.

As we enter the Holiday season, I wish all of you the very best of the New Year. We must be confident that '09 will be an improvement over the challenges of '08. And for that, we will be thankful.

Happy Holidays!

Early Results Are In

As I shared with you last time, we just hosted and completed our school improvement audit. The visiting team of five educators was here last week for more than two days. During the visit there were formal conversations with 41 stakeholders and informal conversations with countless others. All in all, I felt both the process and feedback we have received so far have been very worthwhile.

As mentioned earlier, there are seven standards that constitute the school improvement process. Many facets are included in the process, with the visiting team looking for artifacts or evidence of vision and purpose, teaching and learning, wise use of resources and effective communication.

Within each of the seven standards, there are four potential categories:
1. Not evident
2. Emerging
3. Operational
4. Highly Functional

The visiting team found South H.S. to be "highly functional" in five of the seven standards. For the other two, we were deemed to be "operational". The two standards needing attention are Leadership and Governance and Use of Data.

To improve in Leadership and Governance, we must spread our vision and commitment to goals throughout the South community. The visiting team felt that not enough stakeholders were on board with clear goals and the commitment to improvement. The good news is that this is an area we can address with improved communication.

To improve in the area of Use of Data, we need to gather and utilize data more frequently than we have to this point. We need to capture data on student performance on individual assessments and have teachers use that data to drive instructional decisions. As with the previous standard, we can address these deficiencies with a commitment to better utilize data.

It has been more than six years since South experienced an external audit for the purposes of accreditation, and we won't receive the official written report until January. In this case, we passed the test and are deemed "accredited" by the visiting team. However, we have work to do and we have already begun to address those concerns.

We will keep you posted regarding our progress and I would like to give particular thanks to those that participated in the process.

It's Time For An Outside Look

Beginning tomorrow evening, we will be going through an external audit at South. The purpose is to see if we are doing what we claim to be doing in regard to school improvement. In this case, an external review team made up of five educators will take a close look at what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.

During two full days on December 3-4 the team will meet with many stakeholders of the South community. This list will include students, teachers, parents and administrators. The visiting team will take a close look at our specific school improvement goals and the rationale behind them. They will check to make sure we use data effectively and have instituted programs that address weak areas identified by the data.

This audit is part of earning "accredited" school status. Over the years, the process has changed as a result of legislation and changes in governing bodies. What used to be simply North Central accreditation has come under the umbrella of an organization called AdvancEd. This group has developed a process for school improvement combining No Child Left Behind (national) and Education Yes (state) initiatives. There are now seven standards and 40 indicators of success that must be addressed. The visiting team will look for artifacts or evidence of our commitment to the process.

An external review gives us a look at our school that we can't through our own eyes. Going into the audit, we feel we are in good shape. However, my greatest hope is that we will get honest feedback so that we can get even better. After all, when it comes to school improvement you should never be finished.

Wish us luck!