Huntington High School Ramps up Pursuit of Priorities
As 2014 faded away and a new year began on January 1, Huntington High School faculty and staff members were at the ready, set to ramp up their pursuit of a set of priorities designed to provide the more than 1,300 students in the building with a top notch education.
Huntington students have a long track record of achieving academically in disciplines across the board. Graduates continue to gain admittance to top tier colleges and universities and alumni have a history of finding success in career fields that run the spectrum, even reaching service in the White House.
Principal Carmela Leonardi said that teaming at the ninth and tenth grade levels is one of the school’s important priorities. “This gives teachers an opportunity to meet daily to review achievement data for individual students or groups, plan strategies for improved performance and collect formative data to determine effectiveness,” she said.
Dr. Leonardi has engaged in intensive training of teachers in the use of Data Wise, an improvement cycle she became familiar with during a summer workshop at Harvard College three years ago. Assistant Principal Brendan Cusack has lent his efforts to support this initiative.
Changes to the format and content of periodic meetings with parents have also been implemented. “This comes out of a researched approach that presents parents with specific data on academic areas that need improvement, describes the strategies being implemented in the classroom in order to improve performance and discusses ways in which parents can support the work of teachers through home based strategies,” Dr. Leonardi said.
Huntington High School administrators and teachers have started implementing this new approach with team conferences involving individual freshman and sophomores during the current school year. “Together with parent academies and community walkthroughs, this constitutes some of the work we are doing on increasing parent engagement to improve students’ academic performance,” Dr. Leonardi said.
Classroom “walkthroughs” are also being utilized to see instructional practices in action. “These are performed in addition to formal observations by myself and the other administrators who work at the high school,” Dr. Leonardi said. “We are focusing on collecting data in student engagement (use of paired and small group work), teaching and use of academic vocabulary to strengthen background knowledge and the use of higher order questions asked by the teachers or students.”
The data accumulated from the walkthroughs is discussed during faculty meetings. “We compare the data from one month to the next and determine how far we have come in implementing instructional strategies that increase learning,” Dr. Leonardi said. “At each faculty meeting teachers are also asked to share effective strategies they have tried and found useful as well as technology that can enhance learning or communication with parents.”
Another priority involves providing students socio-emotional support. “Work in this area began with the creation of a book discussion group of about 25 teachers who joined Brenden and I in a close read of Carol Dweck’s book, Growth Mindset,” Dr. Leonardi said. “We have already shared a short informational video at a faculty meeting where one of our book discussion teachers highlighted how she introduced the concept to her students. The original group was also involved in the development of a student workbook we are now piloting. The premise of this research states that a growth mindset, focused on effort and perseverance as well as hard work, will change academic weaknesses into strength and allow students to see mistakes and struggles as essentials for learning. We are excited about this project and will soon be able to review the results of our action research and see whether use of the workbook should be continued.”
Huntington High School has been asked to participate in a research study through Harvard involving the administration of student and staff surveys to pinpoint whether students and teachers feel safe and valued. “A preliminary review of survey data is very promising,” Dr. Leonardi said. “With the support of Harvard researchers, we are planning to implement several strategies and institute a student based planning group.”
Dr. Leonardi plans to take faculty members through an activity called “circle of concern” this week. “It will explore our own level of empathy before deciding on the next steps that should be taken in order to increase the socio-emotional support we provide for the students,” she said.
Annual goals for the school and a statement of philosophy are also in place for the high school. Dr. Leonardi said the key phrases at Huntington High School are: “Is what we are doing making a difference? How do we know? How can we get better in whatever the data shows us we need to improve in?”