School Journeys
In response to requests for samples of programs and documents which schools have created to address the Standards of Accreditation, CPSS now offers more professional development related to the Standards and topics of secondary school redesign.
CPSS knows that teachers and administrators also wish to see sample documents. This section of the website provides stories told through a school's documents of successful efforts to create
- a set of core values, a set of beliefs about learning, and a set 21st century learning expectations that address academic, civic, and social competencies;
- analytic rubrics developed by teachers to be used school-wide with all students;
- other documents created by schools related to school-wide learning expectations
Charles E. Shea Senior High School, located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and serving 1055 students in grades 9-12, is preparing for a decennial visit in May of 2011.
Chris Lord, Shea's principal said, "On the first day of school in late August of 2009, the entire faculty met by pre-established Standards' committee and applied the Commission Rating Guides to school practices in order to refocus on the 2011 Standards for Accreditation. Armed with this information, the faculty then met to establish a new mission. After three re-workings of the document, a fourth version was presented to the district office, and the district now has adopted a set of learning expectations for all of the district's secondary schools. Proficiency on the learning expectations in each class and for each student is now reported out on reportcards/progress reports. In addition, the appropriate learning expectations are identified in the student portfolio, now a requirement for graduation. This takes the learning expectations from the mission statement to the curriculum to the teaching all the way to the final graduation assessment--student portfolios.
To give the students their voice, the 'We Are...Shea High!' element was added by the committee in December referencing a cheer widely heard at student assemblies and sporting events. The Friends of Shea parent group was kept apprised of the mission as it was developed. They added our school motto to the bottom in version 12 (Something Special is Happening Here). We now have a well-established and well-understood mission statement based on wide variety of constituents."
Shea High School's new document
Lincoln High School, located in Lincoln, Rhode Island and serving 1088 students in grades 9-12, was evaluated in 2008. Principal Kevin Harrington is working with a team of teachers to embed the use of the rubrics in instructional and assessment practices. He cites the school's "rubrics on the road" program as being particularly successful:
"Developed by speech and language pathologist Celeste Canham, the oral presentation rubric is broken down by sections to better explain to students what is expected. The oral presentation rubric is used to judge our exhibition presentation, which is a graduation requirement. Originally only housed in her classroom, Mrs. Canham adapted the model to a travelling display that is used when she consults with classroom teachers in a variety of subject areas. This became know as our 'rubrics on the road' program."