District Administration - February 2012 - (Page 52)

The Game Changer Rex Bell Elementary School Principal Timothy Adams and Jones welcome students on the first day of school last fall. Students from Manual Cortez Elementary School greet Jones and share their student projects with him. sprinted to work. The district’s 49 high schools have begun tracking students by name, and those at risk were sent to Saturday or after-school bootcamps taught by the best teachers to prepare for the state exit-level exams. Schools also offered online courses that allowed students to recover lost course credits in eight weeks. About 2,500 seniors were so far behind that school officials tried to persuade them to return for a fifth year to finish. About 85 percent have stayed, and district offi- Department of Labor; the United Way of Southern Nevada; and the Nevada Public Education Foundation to start a mentorship program at 10 of its neediest high schools. Each campus will have a “graduate advocate coordinator” to oversee the mentoring, which will pair students with business volunteers, charged with preaching the importance a high school diploma and higher education. In some cases, companies have offered scholarships and job shadowing opportunities. “Instead of the community turning their backs on us, they opened their arms.” —Pedro Martinez, deputy superintendent, Clark County (Nev.) School District cials are encouraging some into adult education programs. “It’s all hands on deck,” Martinez says. His main vision is that all students are “ready by exit.” Whether students enter college or choose to work after high school graduation, what matters most is that they have the knowledge and skills to perform and be successful in either environment. The district has also partnered with Workforce Connections, an affiliate of the “Instead of the community turning their backs on us,” Martinez said, “they opened their arms.” Raising Expectations With Nevada adopting the common core standards, Jones is pushing more rigor in Clark County’s classrooms. He’s getting rid of remedial classes, which had become the default for students. Instead of lowlevel pre-algebra, students will take alge- bra by eighth grade, and advanced biology will become the norm, not a basic principles of science course, which had been the norm. “I personally think the dropout rate is based on the set of low expectations,” Jones says. “Kids know the difference.” To prepare students for the more challenging curriculum, the district is rolling out Saturday and before- and after-school classes for 46,000 struggling students in grades four through eight. Next year, 22 of the 59 middle schools in the district will adopt a tougher program—either the College Board’s pre-AP Springboard curriculum; Project Lead the Way’s science, technology, engineering and math program; or International Baccalaureate. Enrollment in the district’s virtual high school was up 33 percent this school year, from 9,000 to about 12,000. Jones said his goal is to have 100,000 students over the next five years take some form of blended learning. The district also has embraced the state’s new growth model, publishing color-coded school report cards on its Web site so the data is transparent to parents. Teachers are receiving training on the growth model this year, and it could become part of their job evaluations 52 February 2012 District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2012

District Administration - February 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Conversations
Product Focus
What Can U.S. Schools Learn From Foreign Counterparts?
A New Prescription for Fighting Drug Abuse
The Game Changer
The Legal Implications of Surveillance Cameras
CIO News
Mobile Devices Drive Creative Instruction
Products
Crisis Response
Professional Opinion
Problem/Solution
New Directions

District Administration - February 2012