- Falcon High School
- Innovation Meeting 1
- Topic 4: Final Thoughts
Community Meeting, Topic 4: Final Thoughts
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The last exercise for the group was an opportunity to reflect on some of the work they did during the evening. Some groups posed new questions stemming from the work they did during the meeting. Other tables used the opportunity to reiterate concerns about the current system.Several themes emerged on the cards that groups brought forward to end the evening:
- Grading
- Communication
- Innovation
- Community
- Implementation
FHS Meeting 150217 Board 4
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Themes
Preliminary Plan DesignBased on the work of the first meeting, a preliminary design for the educational program at Falcon High School beginning in fall 2015 may include:
Priority Purposes
Priority Characteristics to Preserve or Establish
Priority Characteristics to Eliminate or Prevent
PREPARATION
· Students are prepared for life after high school, whether academic study, vocational learning, business, service, or leadership.
· Students are prepared with personal character traits like critical thinking and problem solving that will help them contribute successfully to society.
· Students are prepared with practical life skills for communications, finances, productivity, and organization.
· Students are prepared to succeed on individual pathways determined by their strengths and preferences.
INDIVIDUALIZED
· Multiple forms of assessments give opportunities for different kinds of learners to demonstrate their mastery.
· Teachers use formative assessments to reveal the status of current learning and identify needs for further learning.
· Assessments and feedback are consistent across teachers through the use of common rubrics and explicit learning goals for comprehension and performance.
· Feedback is timely and targeted to give students direction about what they need to improve.
UNGRADED HOMEWORK
· Feedback on homework should include guidance as well as recorded scores that impact each student’s overall grade.
EASY OR FREQUENT RETAKES
· Retest or retake opportunities must not motivate low effort on the first attempt.
INCONSISTENCY
· Teachers should apply the same academic and work quality standards to the same kinds of assignments and assessments.
GRADE DEFLATION
· Grades should reflect increased rigor and improved performance, not confusion or novel reporting systems.
COMMUNICATION
· Assessment grades and feedback tell parents and students how the student is progressing toward mastery of content and skills.
· Transcripts and profiles communicate to colleges in language that is clear, familiar, and comparable to other schools.
· Grades and feedback inform students about their strengths and weaknesses.
· Assessments measure and report performance quality defined by a rubric or detailed syllabus.
CLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY
· Accountability expectations are clearly defined for students, parents, and teachers.
SOFT ACCOUNTABILITY
· Expectations for student completion or performance are unclear or inconsistent.
· Expectations for teacher feedback and reporting are unknown or unenforced.
FAMILIARITY
· Report cards use familiar grading language and reflect effort as well as comprehension and skill.
· Transcripts use language and formatting that matches what college admissions and scholarship committees expect.
OBSCURE LANGUAGE OR PROTOCOLS
· Phrases like “modified majority” or “mode minus one” create confusion and require frequent redefinition.
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Discussion: Priority Purposes
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Having now walked through the first community meeting virtually, do you feel the priority purposes column of proposed plan design captures:
- The overall concerns raised in topic 1?
- The highly valued purposes of the education system at Falcon High School presented by the table groups in topic 2?
- The themes around high priority characteristics of the education system the group identified in topic 3?
Why or why not? What priority purposes are missing?
Please be specific with your comments as we will use them to frame the next community meeting on March 5.Comments (0) -
Discussion: Priority Characteristics to Preserve or Establish
Posted by:Do you feel the "priority characteristic to preserve or establish" column of proposed plan design captures:
- The overall concerns raised in topic 1?
- The highly valued purposes of the education system at Falcon High School presented by the table groups in topic 2?
- The themes around high priority characteristics of the education system the group identified in topic 3?
Why or why not? What priority characteristics are missing?Please be specific with your comments as we will use them to frame the next community meeting on March 5.
Comments (0) -
Discussion: Priority Characteristics to Eliminate or Prevent
Posted by:Do you feel the "Priority Characteristics to Eliminate or Prevent" column of the proposed plan design captures:
- The overall concerns raised in topic 1?
- The highly valued purposes of the education system at Falcon High School presented by the table groups in topic 2?
- The themes around high priority characteristics of the education system the group identified in topic 3?
Why or why not? What characteristics to eliminate are missing?Please be specific with your comments as we will use them to frame the next community meeting on March 5.
Comments (0)