Assessing the Challenge Index

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Rebecca Sipos

Once again Jay Mathews, a reporter for the Washington Post, has released his Challenge Index, the ranking of high schools determined by calculating the number of college level tests taken in a given year divided by the number of graduating seniors.

I was happy to see that McLean High School (where I taught before retiring from teaching and coming to work for CEP) was ranked 13^th on the list of schools in the Washington, DC area. It was the highest ranked school in Fairfax County Public School District, a fact that I’m sure made the folks on the McLean faculty proud—especially since they were also ranked high in the national list of the top 200 high schools. I’m sure there is lots of celebrating going on in schools all over who consider themselves to be among the best high schools in America because they made the list.

But is that legitimate? I agree with Mathews on the need to offer challenging courses to anyone who wants to try. As a former Advanced Placement English teacher, I’ve seen kids who had never taken an advanced class before rise to the challenge in my class. Even if they didn’t pass the test, the introduction to the advanced curriculum and the struggle to learn pays dividends in college, which is what Mathews has found through his research. But being a good school requires so much more than that. Continue reading →

The Greenfield Way: Transforming our School Culture with Character-Based Discipline

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Rebecca Sipos

By Claudia St. Amour, counselor

By the fall of 2008, Greenfield Elementary School was well on its way to integrating its core values of respect, responsibility and kindness into our school culture. This is when we began the serious task of taking a critical look at our school-wide discipline system, through the eyes of the Character Education Partnership’s 11 Principles and our own core values.

What Discipline Looked Like Then
Our school operated with a “ticket” system for severe infractions (from a list of disrespectful and unsafe behaviors) and “card turns” in the classroom (green to yellow to red and beyond). Students who earned a ticket also earned the consequence of after-school detention. Students who “got to red” on the color chart missed a recess or lost a similar privilege. Chronic card turns also resulted, ultimately, in the student receiving a ticket as well. On the reward side, we offered “Caught Being Good” slips for children who “did the right thing” when they thought no one was looking. These slips were pulled from a jar in the office once a week for prizes at the school store.

Continue reading →

Assessment and Sustainability

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Rebecca Sipos

Posted by Brian McKenney, Principal, Long School

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, S.R. Covey suggests that when planning a program one should start with the end in mind. At Long School, before planning new initiatives, the character leadership team analyzes data from the CHARACTERplus® School Report, completed each spring, to get a basic picture of the current state of our school.

The CHARACTERplus® School Report is a survey of staff, students, and parents designed to assess individuals’ opinions, feelings, and beliefs about the school. That data provides useful information, from which the character education team identifies specific areas of need (e.g. Students’ Feelings of Belonging, School Expectations, etc.) that correlate with principles from Character Education Partnership’s Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education. At Long School, assessment plays the role of bridge between what has been and what should be. It is the end and the beginning of an endless cycle of school improvement.

The likelihood that character initiatives will survive and thrive over the years, regardless of changes in student population, personnel, and community is also carefully considered when planning new initiatives. Continue reading →