LANGLEY — Susan Koffkin stood in front a room full of South Whidbey High School juniors during Homecoming week and broached a subject far from most of their minds: life after graduation.
“Who knows exactly where you’re going and what you’re going to do?” the guidance counselor asked.
A half-dozen blue-and-white-clad teens raised their hands.
“OK, good,” she replied. “But that leaves a lot of you not knowing what you’re going to do.”
That’s why she was there.
Her lesson in the world of jobs, college, technical schools and apprenticeships is one of several “Falcon Tutorials” that students are required to attend during the year. It’s part of the school’s nationally-recognized plan to prepare students not only for graduation, but for the world beyond it.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings honored South Whidbey High School as a 2007 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School. Madison Elementary in Spokane was the only other school in Washington to receive the award. Nationwide, 287 schools were honored.
The award recognizes schools that are deemed either “academically superior” or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement. South Whidbey was selected, in part, because its 10th-graders have scored higher than the average student on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test for several years in a row.
“We have done amazing things because we have amazing people,” said the school’s former principal Mike Johnson, who is now the South Whidbey School District’s executive director of teaching and learning. “We have just an excellent staff. They’re creative and build relationships with kids and inspire kids to do their very best. They’re interested in the whole child. They just don’t roll the ball out in PE. They don’t just put the wheel out in art.”
As part of the school’s improvement plan, teachers have incorporated journal-writing and real-life math problems in classes such as art and shop.
Staff and administrators developed the plan six years ago after studying other schools with similar demographics and surveying parents, students and teachers about their perceptions of the school.
The plan called for a series of reforms. Additional English and math classes were established for students struggling to pass the WASL in those areas. Pre-algebra was eliminated in favor of more comprehensive math classes.
Falcon Tutorials were established. Every year, students attend several of the tutorials, which deal with topics such as focusing on their passions to understand how the WASL was created.
“I’m really not that organized, and they make me be organized and study my goals,” said freshman Jasmyne Streitler.
The percentage of South Whidbey High 10th-graders passing the math portion of the WASL jumped by 20 percent from the 2001-2002 school year to the 2005-2006 year. The percentage of 10th-graders passing the writing portion climbed 24 percent, and the percentage passing the reading portion rose by 17 percent.
Senior Steven Gabelein said he sometimes feels like a guinea pig, as his teachers try to execute the plan and experiment with new techniques. At times, the school’s new requirements, like planning a big senior project and finding a mentor outside the school, have seemed like “just another thing to worry about,” he said.
However, Gabelein acknowledges that there have been improvements at his school and he’s excited about the award.
“It definitely shows what we are made of and what our potential is when we go into the work force,” he said. “Hopefully this will not just be a one-time award.”
Johnson and math teacher David Nelson plan to fly to Washington, D.C., to receive the award on Nov. 10.
Learn more
For more information on the Blue Ribbon program, go to www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs.
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