Archbishop Stepinac High School Hosts Open House Oct. 25

Parents and prospective students will have an opportunity to see and learn more about Archbishop Stepinac High School’s personalized blended learning environment and other innovative programs during an Open House from 1 to 4 PM, Sunday, Oct. 25.

The 67-year-old school has an impeccable reputation of preparing students for post secondary success, one that has consistently resulted in a 100 percent college acceptance rate with many graduates accepted into some of the country’s most prestigious colleges and universities.

Recognized as the standard bearer for curriculum innovation by educators across the nation and around the world, the all boys Stepinac—ranked as one of the country’s top 50 Catholic High Schools— provides students with the most advanced learning platform to help assure that they will succeed in college and beyond. It is known as the innovative, personalized learning environment which comprises the first-of-its-kind all digital textbook library.

“Our technological platform, which has caught the attention of educators from across the country and around the world, goes way beyond using a tablet or other device in a classroom,” said Frank Portanova, Vice Principal for Academics & Curriculum and a Stepinac alum (Class of ’93) who played a key in developing and implementing the digital library. “Rather, we are preparing our students with the skills and knowledge for success in an environment that is typically available only at college and which has already been demonstrated to improve measurable learning outcomes.”

In a six-minute YouTube video presentation, https://youtu.be/PKiIk6OSUQQ, which is posted on the school’s website—www.stepinac.org—Portanova explains the rationale, definition and distinguishing features of the personalized blended learning environment.

He explains that the project, entailing significant investments in creating a technological infrastructure, got underway five years ago with two goals in mind: 1) to inspire life-long learning and make intellectual curiosity a mainstay and permanent part of the students’ lives and 2) to give them a strong academic foundation in order to do very well at college.

To achieve those goals, Portanova cited the four components that comprise Stepinac’s approach to learning which he describes as a “conscientious integration of technology.” The first is that all classes are “flipped” whereby students do their homework by taking advantage of the sophisticated tools of the digital library including watching videos and lectures that are pertinent to the topic and either reading the assigned text or, alternatively, having it read to them by taking advantage of the audio feature.

Portanova noted the convenience that all the information is housed in a single location. “The student does not have to wander in cyberspace to find what he needs, study and do the homework.”

The second is that all the courses at Stepinac are “blended,” whereby the students are responsible for completing online, under the guidance of highly trained faculty, a comprehensive array of assessments and activities associated with the courses. “Using a tablet to take notes, often described as 1-to-1 instruction, is not blended learning and will not prepare students for success at college where the courses are often blended,” Portanova explained.

The third component is research. In addition to more than 60 titles that can be used for primary and secondary research, the library comprises a wide array of other research resources as well as essays and lectures.

Portanova describes the fourth component as providing “our students with a great academic profile.” It consists of 20 Advanced Placement Courses starting in the freshman year as well as transferrable college credits from Mercy College and Marist College’s Link programs and a wide choice of other electives designed to meet the student’s individual needs and interests.

Educators who have visited the school, “have marveled at how well Stepinac trained our faculty to use the new technology, the significant investments we have and continue to make and the time we spent in developing and testing the digital library before we launched it,” Portanova added.

Attendees of the Open House will have an opportunity to meet faculty, administrators and students. For more information about the school and the event, call (914) 946-4800, Ext. 263 or send an e-mail to admissions@stepinac.org.

Photo: Frank Portanova. Photo credit: Archbishop Stepinac High School