Since the “Transformation” of Alexandria’s only public high school began, gallons of ink have been spilled by administrators, parents and school board members in an attempt to pin down what is wrong, why and how to fix it. When the ruckus has calmed and all the surveys, memos and packets have been written, schooling at T.C. comes down to an equation both complex and simple: teachers plus students equals education.

IAPs

A recent article in the Washington Post’s “Local Living” section states that ACPS “boasts a math center and [is] the only district in Virginia to have individual achievement plans for each student.”

According to Superintendent Morton Sherman, one key part of the path forward will be the IAPs which are being developed for current and future T.C. students. Currently, the majority of high school students have yet to create one of the plans and even when they do, do not know how much of a difference they will make.

Junior Mollie Timmons is not sure how effective it would be since she will be graduating next year and Anna Minuth, a special education teacher who is settling into her first year at T.C., also has doubts. She worries there is “not enough time or people” to carry out the plans. Sarah Kiyak, who is the English department chair, is concerned about the IAPs becoming “just pieces of paper.”

English teacher Erin Fitch has deeper worries about how IAPs are formulated. She said that in pre-IAP conferences, students usually just go along with what is being recommended by the counselor and teachers and do not write down their personal goals.

Still, most teachers say it is too early to know for sure how effective the plans will be. Learning Community 11 counselor Tracie Jackson “guesstimates” that only 30 percent of juniors have received an IAP and Director of Guidance Greg Forbes confirms those numbers.

According to Forbes, 690 IAPs for ninth through eleventh graders have been completed, and about 60 percent of students scheduled to receive IAPs have had “pre-IAP conferences.” If there is anything to be certain of, it is that the plans’ impact will be yet another measure of the transformation’s progress.

“Trying to do a lot at once”

In the shifting world of education, it is the teachers who are often said to be on the “front lines” of education policy battles. Teachers are on the receiving end of guidance from many administrative sources and they are expected to convert that guidance into tangible results. The legwork is time-consuming and teachers say it has certainly increased since the transformation began. “We’re trying to do a lot at once,” said eleventh grade English teacher Jami Ferreira.

Data collection, department meetings and all-day training sessions such as “Skillful Teacher” are taking up more time, leaving less for classroom duties. Not having the necessary time for organization is stressful. Indeed, Kiyak believes teacher frustration levels are at their highest point since the beginning of her career at T.C.

To compensate for lost time, math and English teachers have an extra planning period this year, lessening their class total to four. Still, “I’ve had one full planning session in the past week,” said tenth grade English teacher Jill Divan. Most of the additional time has been dedicated to SOL remediation and completing IAPs for students. This is because SOL scores will be the most scrutinized datum in determining whether T.C.’s PLA status can be rescinded. Hard-pressed for time and results, teachers must balance a focus on state standards with what they believe is important in their subject area.

Sophomore Frida Cruz suggests that students need more time to study for SOLs. However, teachers struggle with poorly attended SOL remediation periods, which are scheduled during students’ elective classes.

Apathy and Attendance

IAPs are an attempt to connect students with their education in a concrete way. This is because educators have long known that student apathy has a huge impact on student achievement, and T.C. is no exception. Teachers here say that apathy often manifests itself as attendance problems. In other words, those who do not care are not there.

“Attendance is a huge missing piece of the puzzle,” said math teacher Jeffrey Johnson. “I can’t teach [students] who I can’t see,” agrees Gary Thomas, another math teacher who has a decade of experience.

Stricter adherence to school regulations has set some students aflame. “The rules were there last year,” said senior Lester Schonberger. “They just were not enforced.” Whether or not the amplification of discipline is an attempt to rid T.C. of its PLA status is up for debate. “The reason people do badly is not because they wear hats in school, it’s because they don’t show up in the first place,” said senior Eleanor Kenimer.

Divan said this is because there “is no intrinsic motivation right now,” and that teachers must “find ways to make education meaningful.” This is much more easily said than done, but Fitch has some suggestions. “We need to celebrate intellectual achievement” instead of focusing students’ attention solely on standardized tests and start rewarding high achievers instead of creating incentives for minimum achievement, she said.

Teachers can only do so much to motivate students during the school day. History teacher Phil Engle said parents and the community play a large role in shaping a student’s attitude about school. “If the community at large isn’t on top of what kids do, both in and out of school, then we can’t do much” to improve attendance, he said.

From a student’s perspective, “the administration needs to care about teachers, teachers need to care about students and students need to care about their future,” said senior Emma Kemler.

The Transformation may have had a bumpy beginning, but it is a beginning. It is simply “too early to tell” what the impacts will be, according to teachers. And no matter what direction teachers receive next, most agree that there is no formula for better education. In the classroom, it is mostly a mixture of a teacher’s charisma, knowledge, and dedication with students’ enthusiasm and willingness to work that leads to successful education. Unfortunately, no test can measure that academic elixir, and T.C. will continue to be judged based on SOL scores.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan could have been speaking about T.C. in a 2009 interview; “I know there are schools that are beating the odds, where students are getting better every year, and they are labeled failures, and that can be discouraging and demoralizing.” T.C. might be in the “discouraged and demoralized” stage now, but it can only move forward in its efforts to shake the stigma of being labeled Persistently Lowest Achieving.

Iva Quint, Lora Strum, Thomas Conner, Ian Daughtrey, Sarah Carroll, and Emma Beall also contributed to this article.

The point leaders for the 2011 March Madness bracket challenge going in to the Final Four are:

1. Berry Aberdene 75 points

2. William Alvarenga 72 points

3. Amy Cooper and Lester Schonberger 70 points

4. Mr. Lott 69 points

5. David Mason 67 points

Students in Ms. Kiyak's class do a warm up to prepare for the SOL. Photo by Michelle Avila

“How am I not involved?” said chair of T.C.’s English department Sarah Kiyak about her role in helping students improve their Standard of Learning (SOL) scores.

To achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), one thing that needs to improve is student SOL scores.

A seven step action plan has been initiated “to provide extended learning time to ensure that all students taking a Math or English SOL are equipped with the tools necessary to pass the End-of-Course test,” according to the Making AYP at T.C. strategic plan. The people in charge of the SOL enrichment are Kiyak and the head of the Math Department, Susan Kaput.

Starting on February 22, students started being pulled out of one of their electives for 90 minutes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to develop test taking strategies.

Kaput described this “pull-out period” as a version of Titan Up to be called “Titan SOL Time.” Students were chosen based on their past SOL performances in math and English.

To help students prepare for the Math SOL, teachers will walk students through practice questions that are similar to SOL questions. “Every math class will also have warm-ups with targeted SOL practice,” said Kaput.

To help those students prepare for the English SOL, teachers will help students learn helpful tactics to use on the test. “Teachers will go over really important skills needed to pass the SOL,” said Kiyak. “Questions on point of view, reading for a purpose, [those] are some things that will be covered.” All English 11 classes are also doing daily warm-ups to help students prepare for the SOL.

Attendance is another factor that determined which students would be a part of the SOL pull out period. “Part of being successful is showing up,” said Executive Associate Principal for Curriculum and Instruction Peter Balas. “A hotlist of students with poor attendance was created. [The administration will] take a look at them and identify why they are missing school and hold an intervention.

”These students will be required to report to their pull-out period to receive extra help. “We [looked for] all the math and English teachers with extra planning periods,” said Balas. “They will be helping hold these pull out periods. [This means] students may not be getting extra help from their regular [math or English] teacher.”

Students who do not show up to their “Titan SOL Time” period will be pulled out of class by hall monitors.

Sophomore Kadeem Morris is one of the students who was pulled out of class for Titan SOL Time. “I think it wasn’t taken seriously because apparently there were supposed to be 20 people [in the class] but only four showed up,” said Morris.

According to Balas, it will be difficult accounting for all the students who are supposed to report to the pull-out period. “The hard part is going to be the follow up, making sure students go [to the pull out period.]” said Balas. “People [in the administration] will actually go and [find] the kids if they don’t show up.”

Since the start of the “pull-out period,” student attendance has continued to be a big issue. According to Kaput, students who have been attending have said that the program is helpful. “Students and teachers have good feedback about the program,” said Kaput. “There is still room to improve, but it has the potential to be [helpful].”

SOL enrichment is only a part of the plan that has been created to help T.C. meet AYP. “The AYP board meets weekly to do progress monitoring,” said Balas. “[SOL] tests are the minimum standards of what we should be achieving. We are capable of a lot more than passing SOLs.”

Since the “Transformation” of Alexandria’s only public high school began, gallons of ink have been spilled by administrators, parents and school board members in an attempt to pin down what is wrong, why and how to fix it. Yet when the ruckus has calmed and all the surveys, memos and packets have been written, schooling at T.C. comes down to an equation both complex and simple: teachers plus students equals education.

IAPs

A recent article in the Washington Post’s “Local Living” section states that ACPS “boasts a math center and [is] the only district in Virginia to have individual achievement plans for each student.” According to Superintendent Morton Sherman, one key part of the path forward will be the IAPs which are being developed for current and future T.C. students. Currently, the majority of high school students have yet to create one of the plans and even when they do, do not know how much of a difference they will make. Junior Mollie Timmons is not sure how effective it would be since she will be graduating next year and Anna Minuth, a special education teacher who is settling into her first year at T.C., also has doubts. She worries there is “not enough time or people” to carry out the plans. Sarah Kiyak, who is the English department chair, is concerned about the IAPs becoming “just pieces of paper.”

English teacher Erin Fitch has deeper worries about how IAPs are formulated. She said that in pre-IAP conferences, students usually just go along with what is being recommended by the counselor and teachers and do not write down any of their personal goals.

Still, most teachers say it is too early to know for sure how effective the plans will be. Learning Community 11 counselor Tracie Jackson “guesstimates” that only 30 percent of juniors have received an IAP and Director of Guidance Greg Forbes confirms those numbers. According to Forbes, 690 IAPs for ninth through eleventh graders have been completed, and about 60 percent of students scheduled to receive IAPs have had “pre-IAP conferences.” If there is anything to be certain of, it is that the plans’ impact will be yet another measure of the transformation’s progress.

“Trying to do a lot at once”

In the shifting world of education, it is the teachers who are often said to be on the “front lines” of education policy battles. Teachers are on the receiving end of guidance from many administrative sources and they are expected to convert that guidance into tangible results. The legwork is time-consuming and teachers say it has certainly increased since the transformation began. “We’re trying to do a lot at once,” said eleventh grade English teacher Jami Ferreira.

Data collection, department meetings and all-day training sessions such as “Skillful Teacher” are taking up more time, leaving less for classroom duties. Not having the necessary time for organization is stressful. Indeed, Kiyak believes teacher frustration levels are at their highest point since the beginning of her career at T.C. To compensate for lost time, teachers have an extra planning period this year, lessening their class total to four. Still, “I’ve had one full planning session in the past week,” said tenth grade English teacher Jill Divan. Most of the additional time has been dedicated to SOL remediation and completing IAPs for students. This is because SOL scores will be the most scrutinized datum in determining whether T.C.’s PLA status can be rescinded.             Hard-pressed for time and results, teachers must balance a focus on state standards with what they believe is important in their subject area.             Sophomore Frita Cruz suggests that students need more time to study for SOLs. However, teachers struggle with poorly attended SOL remediation periods, which are often scheduled during students’ elective classes.

Apathy and Attendance

IAPs are an attempt to connect students with their education in a concrete way. This is because educators have long known that student apathy has a huge impact on student achievement, and T.C. is no exception. Teachers here say that apathy often manifests itself as attendance problems. In other words, those who don’t care are not there. “Attendance is a huge missing piece of the puzzle,” said math teacher Jeffrey Johnson. “I can’t teach [students] who I can’t see,” agrees Gary Thomas, another math teacher who has a decade of experience in education.

Stricter coherence to school regulations has set some students aflame. “The rules were there last year,” said senior Lester Schonberger. “They just were not enforced.” Whether or not the amplification of discipline is an attempt to rid T.C. of its PLA status is up for debate. “The reason people do badly is not because they wear hats in school, it’s because they don’t show up in the first place,” said senior Eleanor Kenimer.

Divan said this is because there “is no intrinsic motivation right now,” and that teachers must “find ways to make education meaningful.” This is much more easily said than done, but Fitch has some suggestions. “We need to celebrate intellectual achievement” instead of focusing students’ attention solely on standardized tests and start rewarding high achievers instead of creating incentives for minimum achievement, she said.Teachers can only do so much to motivate students during the school day. History teacher Phil Engle said parents and the community play a large role in shaping a student’s attitude about school. “If the community at large isn’t on top of what kids do, both in and out of school, then we can’t do much” to improve attendance, he said. From a student’s perspective, “the administration needs to care about teachers, teachers need to care about students and students need to care about their future,” said senior Emma Kemler.

The Transformation may have had a bumpy beginning, but it is a beginning. It is simply “too early to tell” what the impacts will be, according to teachers. And no matter what direction teachers receive next, most agree that there is no formula for better education. In the classroom, it is mostly a mixture of a teacher’s charisma, knowledge, and dedication with students’ enthusiasm and willingness to work that leads to successful education. Unfortunately, no test can measure that academic elixir, and T.C. will continue to be judged based on about 3000 SOL scores. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan could have been speaking about T.C. in a 2009 interview; “I know there are schools that are beating the odds, where students are getting better every year, and they are labeled failures, and that can be discouraging and demoralizing.” T.C. might be in the “discouraged and demoralized” stage now, but it can only move forward in its efforts to shake the stigma of being labeled Persistently Lowest Achieving.

Correction: In the March 24 issue of Theogony, we reported that all teachers had a reduced courseload. Only English and Math teachers have a reduced courseload. Theogony apologizes for the mistake.

The Advanced Placement curricula and exams for several subjects will undergo drastic changes in upcoming years. “[College Board has] reduced the content [in AP Biology] so that teachers can go into more depth in certain topics and concepts to increase understanding,” said Science Department Head David Keener, who has been teaching AP Biology at T.C. for 21 years.

The new curriculum, which will focus on four major themes, will be implemented in the 2012-2013 school year and will include more analysis and less memorization. “Colleges are asking that students be able to explain the processes and concepts and not worry as much about the facts,” said Keener. Labs will also be different. Students will be asked to design their own experiments, rather than follow a specific procedure. “[The experiments] are going to be more open-ended,” said Keener. “At times [they] may not work out the way you [expect] but that’s what real science is all about.”

The AP exam, administered every May after a year of study, will also change. “[College Board is] reducing the number of multiple choice questions from 100 to 55 and increasing the number of free response questions from four to nine,” said Keener. “The questions are going to ask students to do more data analysis and application.”

According to Keener, the changes were motivated by requests from high school teachers and college professors. “[AP Biology teachers] are expected to cover more than is covered in a regular college introductory biology course,” said Keener. “There has always been the problem of not having enough time to cover what [is expected].”

The College Board has also acknowledged requests from college professors, who want biology students to think scientifically and be familiar with certain concepts.

Keener is optimistic about the changes. “I think the new curriculum is definitely a major improvement,” he said. “Science is inquiry…the change in the labs [will] give students a firsthand experience of what science truly is.”

The changes are not limited to AP Biology. In the 2011-2012 school year, the curricula and exams for AP French and German will become more comprehensive. “Testing for grammar control is out,” said AP French teacher Alison Fields. “Testing for communication is in.” Instead of asking minute grammar questions, the new AP French exam will better assess students’ abilities to understand, speak, read and write French. Students will be required to read passages, answer multiple choice questions, and respond to spoken prompts.

“It is a much more global approach,” said Fields. “It will be important for schools to…look at their entire sequence of World Language courses to make sure they are consistent.”

AP German will face similar changes. Although the content of the curriculum will not change, the exam will. “The exam will be an integration of the four core skills [understanding, speaking, reading and writing] rather than discrete item testing,” said World Languages Department Head Adam Levine, who teaches AP German. “There will also be a context or theme that connects each section.” According to Levine, the changes were motivated by competition with the International Baccalaureate program.

Both language teachers support the changes. “I think we need them,” said Levine. “The old exam was becoming too predictable.”

“Students do not enroll in French so they can conjugate verbs or express fear in the subjunctive mood,” said Fields. “They enroll in French so they can learn to speak the language. The new [exam] will certainly test their strengths and weaknesses in that regard.”

Also in the 2011-2012 school year, the AP World History curriculum and exam will change, though less drastically. “The biggest change to the course is that [the College Board] is breaking up our first unit into two,” said AP World History teacher Molly Freitag. The curriculum will consist of six units instead of five. Although there will still be 70 multiple choice questions and three essays on the exam, the College Board is reducing the number of options for each multiple choice question from five to four. “The questions are still going to be analytical and students will have to draw conclusions and [make comparisons],” said Freitag. “It’s still going to [involve] higher level thinking.”