New Initiatives Help to Kick Off the New School Year at Rose Tree Media on September 6

New Initiatives Help to Kick Off the New School Year at Rose Tree Media on September 6

Media, PA...It has been a busy summer for the faculty, staff and administration of the Rose Tree Media School District. As a result, when classes for the 2016-2017 School Year begin on Sept. 6, students will experience some new and ongoing initiatives designed to enhance their learning experiences.

The Class of 2017 will benefit from the elimination of the calculation and reporting of class rank. This change became effective following a collaborative effort between District parents and Administrators in which a comprehensive review of the District’s previous practice was conducted. Moving forward, the District will continue to compute and report unweighted and weighted GPAs on official transcripts.

“We’re always looking to do what is best for students,” said Mr. Ralph Harrison, Penncrest High School Principal. “We started looking at different processes. We looked at colleges where our students were being accepted, and investigated more deeply what we could do to increase the number of students being accepted into quality institutions.”

What they discovered, said Mr. Harrison, is that the majority of top-ranked high schools in the state were no longer assigning class rank to their students. “The reputation of our high school stands for itself, so we decided to eliminate the practice as well.”

Parents, guidance counselor and administrators spent several months conducting research before the decision to abandon class rank was reached, presented to, and accepted by the Board of School Directors. “It was a great collaborative effort,” added Mr. Harrison.

Another positive change students and parents will encounter in 2016-2017 involves the comprehensive guidance services plan. The Pennsylvania Department of Education requires all public school districts to have in place a school counseling plan as part of Chapter 339. The plans must include information about school counselors and their assignments; the school counseling department’s mission statement; program goals; stakeholder information; the role of a school counselor; the establishment of an advisory council; a program calendar; a program delivery system; a curriculum action plan; and career/post-secondary education resources.

During the 2015-2016 school year, the guidance counselors and Director of Pupil Services worked throughout the year on developing and writing a detailed plan. In addition, the District assembled a 35-member advisory council consisting of administrators, post-secondary representatives and the vocational-technical schools, parents, students and business owners to review the plan and to identify areas of continued growth.

The council identified four areas of growth and developed action steps in each area. They include:

· Establishing a clear college transition for students, starting in middle school;

· Communicating and informing the school community;

· Providing parent education opportunities; and

· Maximizing students’ first choices for post-secondary plans.

The 2016-2017 school year will bring continued work on following these actions plans to enhance and further strengthen the District’s guidance program.

“While the state required us to have a plan in place, the District decided to take it one step further and devoted resources to developing a comprehensive plan that is above and beyond those requirements,” said Superintendent Mr. James Wigo. “Research has shown that the services of school counseling programs have a positive effect on students, so we see this as a growth opportunity for us, not just another mandate from the state.”

The District also will continue in its efforts to meet and exceed the requirements of the Pennsylvania Common Core by:

· Continuing to focus on its successful implementation of Reader’s Workshop, at the elementary level, which offer mini lessons on an aspect of literature or reading strategy, provide independent reading time and a sharing time where students can discuss their journal entries with a peer;

· Continuing the use of EnVision 2.0 and Big Ideas Math curriculum resources in grades K-8;

· Continuing the successful 1:1 electronic device initiative that has helped students leverage the educational benefits of having an iPad in class;

· Placing emphasis on the expansion of the Life Skills program to build on its inclusion efforts.

“We are excited for the start of the new school year, and another opportunity to foster the kind of engaging, rigorous learning environment in which our students thrive,” said Mr. Wigo.