Posted on Sep 29th, 2009 by IUSD.net
Major Achievements
• Our Academic Performance Index (API) rose 71 points in the 2006–2007 school year and 53 points in the 2007–2008 school year. This shows that all of our students are making progress toward becoming proficient in English/language arts and mathematics.
• Our Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) also shows that our students have reached the federal targets of proficiency. We honor all of our students that have reached proficiency in the California Standards Tests.
• Our students are encouraged to participate in a poster, speech, and essay contest. Our students have received recognition for their participation in community activities such as Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and the West Basin Water District Program contest.
• Our Highland Huskie basketball team won first and second place in the elementary division with the principal as a coach in the 2006–2007 and the 2007–2008 school years.
• All of our grades display classroom assignments and standards posted on bulletin boards in the classrooms and in the hallways. These displays show how much our students are learning in language arts and math.
• Our afterschool program provides students with homework support, tutoring, and lessons on the California Content Standards. Our childcare program supports students before and after school in collaborative group activities and homework support.
Focus for Improvement
• Highland teachers continue to focus on research-based strategies in specific areas such as reading comprehension, writing, and learning. Workshops by administrative staff and district personnel concentrated on student engagement in learning. Teachers are collaborating on strategies to help all students learn the
required content. The data team and administrative team observe classrooms to identify strategies and improve progress for all students.
• Teachers collaborate and demonstrate lessons at staff workshops on writing and reading comprehension strategies to be used in the classroom. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) will be developed to ensure that all teachers have a heightened awareness of the focus of all students.
• In the 2008–2009 school year, we are focusing on improving strategies in the classroom to include all students and providing additional collaboration of teachers in the sharing of strategies used to accommodate all students. We will also visit other schools to improve our level of instruction.
