Parents becoming partners in creating secondary schools of national prominence

A significant amount of attention is being paid across the country to the concept of secondary school reform. What is secondary school reform you might ask? It is the process of challenging our middle and high schools to compete in a global economy. Our district started studying this issue roughly six to eight months ago after a seminar by Dr. Willard Daggett, who is known worldwide for his efforts to move the education system towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. As a result, our School Board set a goal for our secondary schools to achieve national prominence and to graduate all students that are ready for college and work.

While this issue of creating secondary schools of national prominence will be in front of our district for the next three to seven years, one significant advantage Brevard’s secondary schools have is that they are already in great academic shape. All of our middle schools have been an A school in one of the last two years. Of all the high schools in the state, only 65 are A schools and eight of those are in Brevard. No other district has more than six. In addition, our high schools are first in the state in the number of students in dual enrollment, first in the state in drop-out rate, and second in the state in graduation rate. But we can do even better.

Dr. Daggett makes the case that there are three areas where all secondary schools can improve. These areas are increasing the rigor of the coursework, linking the relevance of the subject matter to the real world, and strengthening relationships between teachers and students. Our district will be spending a lot of time engaging in the review of where we are going with our secondary schools and we want parents to be part of the process. The challenge, however, is getting our community to understand we do not need to “fix” the high schools, but rather to answer the question of how we can continue to improve on our success.

Changing our secondary schools is not going to be an easy task; it will be labor intensive. Our schools will need to continue working hard, while preparing new systems and structures for the future. The School Board has already committed to providing more opportunities for students during the school day. Each principal, along with the school community, will be analyzing the best options for the kinds of changes that will need to be made at the school level in order to achieve the national prominence goal.

There are some areas we know we want to strengthen already. Two examples are: creating smaller learning communities and focusing on our incoming ninth graders to ease the transition from middle school to high school. In addition, to offering more educational opportunities, our secondary schools need to increase the rigor and relevance in the classroom. We also need to develop better relationships with our students and increase the professional development opportunities for our secondary teachers.

In order to achieve secondary schools of national prominence, we need to create a culture of change and awareness. This means working together to break down old barriers, and supporting new innovations. We also need to have the trust of our students, parents, teachers and administrators to make it happen. In the end, focusing on the rigor, relevance, and relationships will mean the best for all our students and our schools.

As we begin this journey to secondary schools of national prominence, I encourage you to join our efforts whenever the opportunity arises. We cannot be successful without strong parent and staff involvement in this process. We will continue to inform you of the opportunities as the process develops.

Sincerely,

Dr. Richard DiPatri,

Superintendent