Greetings BHS Families-
I hope the first day(s) of school are going well for you and your family. I enjoy watching our students reconnect with friends and teachers that they haven’t seen since last school year.
Behind the scenes, our teachers have been hard at work for about two weeks already. We spent several hours as a staff going over a variety of data: academic, behavioral, attendance, and perceptual survey results. We used that data to determine areas of strength and areas of growth. Along with some direction from the school board, we set a few goals for this school year. I’ll summarize them here:
We are looking to increase the number of students who are proficient/advanced on the PreACT and the ACT. Some action steps relating to this goal include an early fall practice test (see elsewhere in this newsletter), ensuring research-based practices such as alignment to learning targets and gradual release of responsibility are implemented in daily instruction, increasing exposure to ACT style questions and test conditions in class settings, and working with students to analyze their own test data through data chats.
An area of celebration for BHS is that last year, approximately 92% of our students had 0-1 major referrals. It is our goal this school year to keep that number above 90%. We want to continue to promote a positive student culture and reinforce desirable behaviors when we see them. We will continue to use proactive classroom management strategies and effectively communicate our expectations for students.
Our final goal involves improving staff morale through continued support, transparency, and consistency in our staff’s approach to student behaviors, particularly with the small percentage of students who receive more than one referral. Continued professional development on the topic, peer observations, and more data sharing are actions associated with this goal.
We have a lot of great things going on at BHS, but we can’t be complacent. We expect our students to have the same growth-mindset and will work to instill that throughout the year. Your support, as always, is necessary and appreciated.
Let’s have a great year!
