B.E.S.T. Academy High School has launched “Best Part of the Day” (or BPOD). Each morning, students adjust their bow ties, tuck in shirts, pull up pants, shake hands with administrators, and chat with counselors and teachers as music plays.
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Middle School Transformation
APS students begin the 2010-11 school year on Monday, Aug. 9, with a projected enrollment of 47,789 students at more than 100 schools throughout the district. On the first day of classes, teaching and learning will commence in all APS schools that are on the traditional calendar. The district also has three year-round schools that began classes on July 14. Here are some of the programs and innovations that will greet students and their parents on the first day of class…
Effective teacher in every classroom
· Effective Teacher in Every Classroom (ETEC) is the latest APS school reform program. Statistics show that an effective teacher in the learning environment is the most essential element in spearheading student academic achievement. This data-driven program includes new technology to help principals and administrators evaluate teacher performance and provide professional development support with the goal of placing an effective teacher in every classroom.
Small schools/learning communities in all high schools
· Small schools/learning communities are associated with all APS high schools this year. The program started five years with the conversion of Carver High School into The New Schools at Carver that now has four small schools incorporated into the single campus. Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, all APS high schools have been effectively transformed into small schools/learning communities. This program has proven successful in nurturing students and escalating academic performance, while reducing dropout rates and increasing graduation rates.
Middle school transformation
· The middle school transition program was piloted last year at several APS middle schools and is being expanded to all APS middle schools for the 2010-11 school year. Part of the program involves the 6th grade transition that uses dual certified teachers in English/Social Studies and Math/Science in transitioning incoming middle school students from elementary schools into a two-teacher environment. The program is intended to nurture first-year middle school students and ease their transition from elementary school, where students are often taught by one or two-teachers.
There’s a great article in the AJC recently about APS’ Middle School Transformation initiative, which seeks to not only ease the transition from elementary school but also, by extension, hopes to provide a clear path to high school. That’s a neat trick, and one of the key elements this initiative can be found in a pilot program that reporter Kristina Torres examines in the article. The program focuses on sixth-graders (the first-year students at middle schools) at four different APS schools: Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Inman, Kennedy and Price middle schools. Torres followed CSKYLA student Breasya Jenkins through her classes to see how they’re set up differently than at other schools …
Instead of reporting to four different teachers for regular academic subjects like science and social studies, these students report to only two. Instead of a bell schedule with classes lasting less than an hour, a “block” schedule increases the amount of time students spend on each subject. So while a typical class period might be 55 minutes elsewhere, sixth-graders at Breasya’s school spend, for example, 80 minutes in math.
The idea is to ease the passage as students go from being king of the hill on one campus to a peon on another that also has higher academic expectations. It’s now in place at Coretta Scott King, Inman, Price and Kennedy middle schools.
“In elementary school, they have one teacher for all their core academic subjects. They come to middle school and it’s a huge change,” said King teacher Sarah Grant, who teaches both sixth-grade math and science in the new program. “In middle school, a lot of the onus is on the student. They become responsible for their own work. Sometimes that can be overwhelming for them.”