Board Updated on Freshman Program

The first year of the freshman program at Salem High School reached several goals in 2010-2011 but administrators plan on making some tweaks to more goals next year.

Salem High Principal Maura Palmer and Assistant Principal and Freshmen Dean Tracy Collyer presented data and other findings to the School Board Tuesday night, highlighting the successes and discussing the difficulties presented in the first year of the program.

"We have so much information that we can now move forward and make the right decisions," Collyer said.

SAU 57 Superintendent Michael Delahanty said the program was implemented because of the noted "failure rate" of students transitioning from Woodbury Middle School to the high school.

"We wanted to give kids the kind of confidence they need, found in freshman program, to bring to their other years of high school," Delahanty said.

Groups of freshman were broken down into several teams that were manned by specific teachers. Freshman were also on the same daily schedule as all other freshmen.

Collyer said a goal of the program was for all students to be proficient in the four core classes of English, math, science and social studies. While this goal was not met, Collyer said the number of freshmen students failing one of those classes decreased from the year before.

Another goal of the program was for each student to have a 95 percent attendance rating. As a class, freshmen had a 95.25 percent attendance rating for the year but not every student attended 95 percent of school days.

The following table represents the percentage of SHS freshman with five or more absences the last two school years by quarter:

Collyer said school staff was "very involved" with parents this year and noted more parent meetings during the year than any she could remember.

"This is a good thing," Collyer said.

Students were asked to write out their goals and revisit them several times during the school year. Collyer said most freshman took the task seriously and she read some to the School Board, including one student whose goal was to become better in Spanish while another succeeded in becoming more outgoing both socially and in class by asking questions.

Next year Collyer said the freshman program will be tweaked slightly, including allowing two different schedules for the freshman so they aren't together all the time. She noted some students felt "isolated" by the previous practice.

"Working with high school students, we know nothing is always perfect," Palmer said. "There's been a lot of learning along the way."

Board member Patricia Corbett said she'd received positive feedback on the program from parents. She said they were happy with the remediation time built into the freshman schedule so students have the chance to work things out with their teachers.

"I've also heard from parents of children entering the program and they're feeling very comfortable," Corbett said. "They're very impressed with the level of communication."