Graduate Ready eNews
From AISD's Redesign
The Graduate Ready eNews keeps parents, students, and community leaders informed about AISD's High School Redesign. The eNews highlights campus efforts to improve student performance and asks for your input and ideas every month. We want to hear from you - send your comments to officeofredesign@ austinisd.orgStories in upcoming issues of Graduate Ready eNews:- What Students Think About Advisory
- Academy of Global Studies at Austin High
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English Language Learners Are Top Priority
"The strategies I have learned from WestEd
have revolutionized the way I understand teaching and relate to the students in
my classroom."
- Math teacher, Lanier High School
One of the top goals of the Office of Redesign is to
increase the academic performance of English Language Learners (ELLs) in AISD. ELL's traditionally score lower than the district average on state accountability tests. Five of twelve high school campuses have 20%
or more students identified as Limited English Proficient (LEP). In 2007, AISD
entered into a partnership with world-renowned ELL scholar, Dr. Aída Walqui,
and her team of experts at WestEd to increase the effectiveness of instruction
for ELLs at two
demonstration campuses, Lanier and International high schools. These schools
are now entering the third year of this collaboration.
"Teachers now have the
tools to effectively challenge our students to a much higher level."- Leticia Vega, Principal,
International High School
The
built-in sustainability that is part of the WestEd model is one of the reasons
AISD elected to work with WestEd. In Dr. Walqui's words, "As we created a model
of school change, there was one issue we wanted to avoid: sometimes very successful whole-school
innovations are sustained only as long as the charismatic leader is there...so,
we decided we needed to build capacity to continue the development and
redesign."
As a result, seven AISD
teachers and administrators have been prepared to coach teachers and lead
professional development. Austin will offer its first Building the Base
Institute starting August 3-5 to train over 50 teachers from different high schools and
middle schools in these ELL strategies throughout the year.
Because
of the success of the demonstration schools, the work with WestEd will expand
to include Reagan High School in 2009-2010.
For more information about Dr. Aida Walqui CLICK HERE and for more about the WestEd program CLICK HERE.
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Real World Connections
Senior Internship Opportunities at LBJ High School
LBJ High School has offered a senior internship course for students in the Performing and Visual Arts Academy each
of the last two years. This course gives participating students an opportunity to
develop skills that are needed to succeed in the workplace and to put these
skills to use in a professional working environment.
Through the senior internship class, students have worked with groups
such as Pro Arts Collective, Women & Their Work, KAZI Radio, Ballet Austin,
the Writer's League of Texas, VSA of Texas, Austin Film Society & the Dell
Children's Medical Center.
"What I liked best was the responsibility of managing the internship
with other activities... the learning experiences that can't be taught
in class." -LBJ Student Intern
Part of the curriculum for Senior Internship comes from IRRE
(Institute for Research & Reform in Education), a group that has partnered
with Redesign implementation at LBJ High School. IRRE was so impressed with the outcome of the
first year of implementation of Senior Internship that they asked the
instructor and participating students to discuss the program at IRRE's annual
conference in May 2008. The Senior
Internship course was also highlighted in the May 2008 issue of Educational
Leadership Magazine.
According to Michael Scacia, the instructor for Senior
Internship for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years, "the program not only
helps students graduate with the skills to succeed, but it also helps them to
develop leadership skills and a perspective that is oriented towards the
future." Mr. Scacia also highlighted the
courses emphasis on teaching students healthy ways to solve problems and to persevere
through difficult situations.
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Eastside Teachers Focus on 21st Century Skills
for All Students
A team of teachers and administrators from Eastside Memorial
Global Tech traveled to Washington D.C. this summer to attend the Asia
Society's Partnership for Global Learning Conference as part of their
preparation for opening Global Tech in August 2009. The Global Tech team received rigorous training designed to help them build an academic program focused on 21st century skills and global competencies for all Eastside students. Conference speakers included Tony Wagner, school reform author and Co-Director of the Harvard Graduate Leadership Group; Linda Darling Hammond, Charles Ducommon Professor of Education, Stanford University; and Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement. All agree that learning subject content is critical, but that colleges, employers, and the economy require that students think critically, work in teams, and use what they know to solve real world problems.
Eastside Global Tech and Green Tech are flagship examples of the next generation of American schools. Beginning in August 2009, students will develop project teams, conduct thorough experiments and research, develop potential solutions to real world problems, and develop multi-media presentations that will be presented to a jury of adults. Eastside Global Tech and Green Tech graduates will not just learn -- they will put what they are learning in to action.
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Flashpoints
- Faith & Education Collaboration to Hold Meeting on
August 5th
The Faith & Education Collaboration has been meeting
throughout the summer to develop resource materials (such as informational
flyers, worksheets, training sessions, etc.) to support Fall Semester
activities that are part of the "College is Possible" awareness campaign. The next meeting of the collaboration is set
for August 5th and will take place at David Chapel Missionary
Baptist Church at 11:30 AM. For more
information contact, Raul Alvarez of AISD's Office of Redesign at raul.alvarez@austinisd.org or
(512) 414-8729.
- The Academic Youth Development (AYD) program,designed to to improve student performance in Algebra I, increased the number of schools participating this summer from 3 to 7. Last summer 62 students from Akins, Travis, and Anderson participated. This summer over 120 students from Akins, Travis, Anderson, Bowie, Lanier, Reagan, and Crockett took part in AYD, a program.
- AISD's Office of Dropout Prevention and Reduction has
announced a two-week dropout recovery initiative, We CARE (Connect,
Address, Recover and Educate). The initiative will use volunteers to
make calls
from their homes during the evenings and weekends
to students who have dropped out and their parents to encourage the
students to return to school this fall. The initiative will kick-off
with several elected officials and community leaders on Saturday,
August 1st. The district is seeking 80+ volunteers to participate in
We CARE. Please call 414-0324 or 414-0322 if you are interested in
volunteering for We CARE!
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