Freshman Transition: a Trend Began to Develop That Showed Some Students Were Unprepared
Corrective Reading: A comprehensive reading intervention that offers three distinct elements to ensure that students are successful. The program is designed to so students learn how to learn as they master more complex skills and strategies. The materials are presented at a brisk pace by teachers using a highly scripted format with carefully chosen examples and exercises which engage even the most reluctant readers.
There are two strands to this program: Decoding and Comprehension. Each strand includes four levels. The program may be taught in a single-strand or a double-strand sequence. After taking a placement test the students are placed at the appropriate level to receive instruction in their deficit area. As they master skills they advance to the next level which includes a wider range of more complex reading skills.
Corrective Reading can be used effectively with student’s grades 3-12.
DIBELS: The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills is an assessment system designed to assess all students’ progress on the big ideas of literacy development in a standardized, time efficient manner. Assessments are recommended to occur at three times during the instructional year, (beginning, middle and end), to determine a child’s progress and possible need for intervention. The skills assessed are Phonological Awareness, Alphabetic Principle and Fluency with Connected Text. This program is used grades K-6.
Dual Enrollment: This program allows high schools to partner with willing colleges and universities to provide college level courses to eligible students. Whereas the Post Secondary Option allows students to attend locally approved universities, Dual Enrollment allows high school teachers to teach college approved courses for high school and college credit on-site. Currently, Triad High School has partnered with the University of Findlay and is offering three courses for the 2008-2008 school year.
Everyday Math: A program that is used in grades K-5 that emphasizes the following content strands: numeration, operations and computation, data and chance, geometry, measurement and reference frames, pattern, and finally, functions and algebra. Everyday Math utilizes a problem-solving approach based on everyday situations that develops critical thinking; mathematical communication, including understanding and evaluating the mathematical thinking and strategies of others; frequent practice of basic skills through ongoing program routines and mathematical games; an instructional approach that revisits topics regularly to ensure full concept development, (spiraling); and finally, activities that explore a wide variety of mathematical content and offer opportunities for students to apply their knowledge.
Freshman Transition: A trend began to develop that showed some students were unprepared for high school level work when they transitioned from the Middle School to the High School, which resulted in an ever growing number of second year freshmen. During the 2007-2008 school year, twelve freshmen participated in the program on a voluntary basis. Combined, these twelve students had 19 “D’s” 8 “F’s” in core classes at the end of their 8th grade year, (2006-2007). At the end of their freshman year, these students had a combined total of 10 “D’s” on their grade cards. None of these students failed a core class!
The program is designed to consist of two class periods. The first period is used by the transition instructor to review the student agenda, time management skills, organizational skills, career exploration, etc. The second class period is a teacher led study hall, where the teacher can assist students on homework assignments and help to prepare them for quizzes and tests. There is a math teacher assigned during the study hall period so that they can provide assistance in that subject area.
Students are eligible to receive one credit.
INFOhio: INFOhio is a virtual K-12 library. It provides resources free to all Ohio K-12 students and educators for the 2008-2009 school year. It includes a variety of electronic databases such as Ebscohost, World Book, Newsbank Newspapers, and Science Online. It also has a link to School Rooms Plus and various websites. A username and password are required for home access. The username is “think” and the password is “infohio”. These cannot be published anywhere the general public can access them.
Kamico: KAMICO’s methodology is based on a three-step cycle: (1) assessing student knowledge, (2) disaggregating data to identify academic skills that have been mastered and those that need additional reinforcement and development, and (3) customizing instruction for individual students, small groups of students, and entire classes of students. Kamico allows a teacher to print answer sheets on plain paper; administer the assessment; scan the answer sheets; generate reports and analyze data and customize instruction to remediate and enrich. Kamico can be assessed through the shared drive on the network. There are only 100 student licenses available. (High School only)
Learning Literature: This database delivers more than 180,000 searchable works of literature from medieval times to the present. Students can find author biographies, contemporary criticism, reviews, and multimedia resources organized into more than 3,000 Author pages.
It also features 100+ searchable full-text literary journals and magazines for the latest in literary criticism. The username is 45-74481 and the password is bigchalk. These cannot be published for the general public.
(High School only)
Learning Express Advantage and Efolio: Learning Express Advantage provides a completely interactive online learning platform of practice tests and tutorial course series designed to help students and adult learners succeed on the academic or licensing tests they must pass. You’ll get immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individual analysis of your results.
Learning Express Efolio is an innovative web-based resource developed for teachers, administrators, and students to find a reliable, effective, and simple way to evaluate writing strengths and weaknesses. Utilizing an efficient method to diagnose instructional writing needs, Efolio helps students become better writers and allows teachers and administrators to monitor student progress in writing. Instant diagnostic reporting provides district and school level administrators with the ability to monitor and evaluate student performance, and make key decisions concerning their writing curriculum. For students, work is entered online and can be assessed instantly on either five or six diagnostic writing traits. The program facilitates data driven instruction by enabling teachers to quickly and accurately pinpoint students’ writing skill deficiencies.
Students’ and teachers’ usernames are assigned. (High School only)
Lexia: This software reinforces the Houghton Mifflin Core Reading Program with relation to phonics and phonemic awareness. It offers differentiated practice that automatically sends students to the next level once a skill is mastered. Basic phonics instruction has six layers of depth. This program is used K-6.
LifeTrack: The LifeTrack Company provides a purchased service to Triad High School. They administer three surveys to each senior class, one at the end of the senior year, a second survey is administered two years after graduation and the third survey is administered five years after graduation. The class of 2006 was the first senior class to participate in this program and 66% participated in the second survey! This company provides critical data regarding how successful our seniors are in college after high school.
Mastering Math: An elementary program that is structured to provide sequential practice of all operations. It consists of oral practice as well as written, independent practice and timed practice. Students monitor their own progress by graphing.
OCIS: The Ohio Career Information System (OCIS) is an internet –based delivery system for accurate, comprehensive, current, and relevant occupational, post-secondary school and financial aid information. OCIS contains the latest national, Ohio and local labor market data and projections.
OCIS also includes information on job interview preparation, resume and cover letter creation, how to keep a job, self-employment and military occupations.
OCIS is designed to support lifelong career exploration, and career planning and decision-making through easy to use, straightforward search and sorting utilities, and an online portfolio for saving information from all system components. The username and password for OCIS is triadhs and ohiocis03.
Ohio Core: The Ohio Core establishes the standard expectation for all students graduating from high school. Beginning with students who enter the ninth grade for the first time on or after July 1, 2010, the requirements for graduation from every public and chartered non-public high school shall include twenty units that are designed to prepare students for college and the work force. The units shall be distributed as follows: English – 4 units; Health – ½ unit; Mathematics – 4 units, (including Algebra II); Physical Education – ½ unit; Science – 3 units, (units must have an inquiry-based laboratory experience that engages students in asking valid scientific questions and gathering and analyzing information, which shall include the following: Physical Science – 1 unit, Biology – 1 unit, 1 unit in Chemistry, Advanced Biology, Physics or other advanced science class); Social Studies – 3 units, (including American History, American Government and Economic/Financial Literacy); and one sequence or any combination of foreign language, fine arts, business, career-technical education, family and consumer sciences, technology, agricultural education, or more elective classes not otherwise required, (total of 5 units).
In addition, the State Board of Education must select one or more methods of measuring high school graduates’ preparedness for higher education and the work force. The measures may include, but need not be limited to: student performance on the readiness assessments; the percentage of students who earn credit towards a degree from an institution of higher education while enrolled in high school; and/or the percentage of students who take remedial coursework upon enrollment in an institution of higher education. The state board must have a decision made by June 30, 2012 and could have further implications on Triad High School’s building report card.
OISM: The Ohio Integrated Systems Model for Academic and Behavior Supports is a program that was grant funded and provided a framework for the district to use when: defining a problem; analyzing a problem; and finally, setting goals to address the problem.
Olweus Anti-Bullying Program: The state of Ohio requires each school district to have an anti-bullying program in place. Triad Local Schools adopted the Olweus Anti-Bullying program for use in all three buildings. The program is based on prevention and is universal (school-wide), systems-oriented and individual-oriented, preventive and problem-solving, focused on changing norms and behavior, research-based, not time limited – it requires systematic efforts over time. The program is not a curriculum, a conflict resolution approach, a peer mediation program, nor is it an anger management program.
One Call: One Call is a system that allows the district, building or other designated sub-group to send telephone messages to everyone on a specified roster. For example, if school is being delayed, the superintendent can send a message to the entire staff with one phone call, instead of staff members using a phone tree to communicate with everyone in the district.
PBIS: The Positive Behavior Intervention System is an initiative that is designed to reinforce positive behavior among staff and students in the three broad areas of respecting self, others and property. This is a district wide initiative.
Post-Secondary Option: As part of Senate Bill 140, the State of Ohio has created the Post Secondary Enrollment Option Program. This program is designed to allow students to take courses at any of the colleges and universities on the State approved list during high school. The credit for these courses can be counted for college credit and high school credit. Under Option B of this program, the costs of these classes are paid for through the state. Students must meet the requirements for this program, including a 3.0 G.P.A.
Progress Book: An internet based program that is used to record student grades and attendance.
Pro-Ohio: The Pro-Ohio program consists of two tests, an “A” and a “B” test. At the high school, the “A” test is administered to the freshmen during the week of the Ohio Graduation Test. The “B” test is administered to the sophomores in the fall of their 10th grade year. The test is based on the Ohio Academic Content Standards and is a multiple choice test that covers reading, math, science and social studies. Data shows that this test has a high correlation to how the students actually perform on the OGT.
The teachers will have access to the data within a week of the tests being mailed back to the company for scoring. The data can be viewed for individual students or as a class overall.
Reading Intervention Notebook: This program is comprised of 27 research-based interventions that teachers may use to improve student reading skills. Interventions are grouped according to the five areas of reading instruction identified in the Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. These five areas include: phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary instruction and text comprehension. Detailed information regarding time required to implement, materials needed, specific procedures and possible student evaluation tools are included. Integrity checklists for teachers are also provided. This intervention is available for grades K-12.
School Dude: An internet based program that allows staff members to place maintenance work orders. The work orders are routed to the building principal for approval. Once they are approved, the work orders are transmitted to the maintenance supervisor.
Short Cycle Assessments: This initiative was implemented during the 2004-2005 school year. A Short Cycle Assessment, (SCA), is designed by teachers to contain an example of each style of question, (multiple choice, short answer, extended response), that students will be required to answer on the state tests. An SCA usually contains three multiple choice questions, one short answer and one extended response. This tool is used to expose students to not only the style of questions and content, but also how to successfully answer those styles of questions.
SIMS Strategies: Strategic Instructional Model Strategies are a series of decoding, reading, and linking strategies for at-risk readers. This was introduced into the middle and high schools in 2005 through trainers from the University of Kansas. Each strategy has a complete manual and lesson materials for intensive intervention. Currently, the middle school is focusing on DISSECT (word attack), LINCING (a vocabulary strategy), Self-Questioning (active reading strategy), and Concept Mastery.
Soar to Success: This is a Houghton Mifflin reading intervention program for grades 3-8. It targets students who are 1-2 years below grade level, and who have a fairly good mastery of phonics. Each grade level has 18 books, and students focus on predicting, clarifying words and ideas, questioning skills, and summarizing. This is taught as a separate class, and students work in small groups with instructors.
Study Island: This is a web based interactive program that students can access at school or at home. The program is organized into topics covering all of the Academic Content Standards that are tested on the state-mandated Ohio Achievement Test and the Ohio Graduation Test. For each subject, (reading, math, writing, science and social studies), the students must take a pre-test, complete all content groups and pass a post-test before they can move on to the next level. This program is used at the high school as an intervention strategy for juniors and seniors who need to pass parts of the OGT and for independent use by sophomores. (The middle school currently uses this in its daily intervention program for students in grades 5-8 who did not pass the OAT math and/or reading tests.)
SWIS: The School Wide Information System, (SWIS), is a computer program that organizes discipline data that is provided by office referrals, into graphs and various reports. The data can be used to specify types of student behavior that are prevalent, locations of student behavior as well as time of the day where most behavior incidents are happening. The program can also provide individual data on students.
Turnitin Educational Suite: Turnitin instantly identifies papers containing unoriginal material and acts as a powerful deterrent to stop student plagiarism before it starts. Each student and teacher creates their own account.
Peer Review is a system that gives students the tools to review and respond to their classmates’ work online using questions that are customized or created by the instructor.