High School Prepares for New Year
By Tatiana Pina; Journal Staff Writer
Teachers and URI professors meet to discuss focus, and students take a leadership course.
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CENTRAL FALLS – School begins Aug. 30, and at Central Falls High School there has been a furious pace to get everything ready.
In less than two weeks, the high school will open its doors not as a singular entity but as a partner with the University of Rhode Island as part of a state mandate to reorganize after four years of low performance.
Teachers met with professors from URI three weeks ago to discuss critical facets of the high school that must be focused on, such as student development, technology, curriculum, facilities and community outreach.
One important question for them was how to get students to be leaders and lifelong learners. “If you get students involved, you build ownership, you build capacity. URI has people who can help us do that. They have the expertise in student development,” says Central Falls High School principal Mario Andrade.
The school has selected between 12 and 15 current and former students who will spend two days at Alton Jones campus in a student- development leadership program. They will come back ready to train others in how to be leaders, how to mediate, how to build teams and how to be successful students. The first two days of school will focus on leadership, says Andrade. He throws out words that students will be hearing a lot such as respect, dignity, perseverance and setting goals.
The next week, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the ninth graders, 80 at a time, will go to Alton Jones to participate in leadership workshops. Students will also go to the URI Providence Campus to hear a motivational speaker talk about the importance of an education.
Student advisories, where a teacher meets with 15 students daily and for an extended period once a week, will be critical because that is where the students will learn what is expected of them. They will work around academic, social and career goals and review their individual learning plans and any short-term goals and where they stand in their graduation portfolio.
The school will focus more on positive reinforcement, Andrade said. “Instead of being in a punitive frame of mind, when they see students do something good they will be recognized,” he said. The school is working with community and business people to offer a weekly raffle so that students can get a gift certificate to a restaurant. “So they get recognized for their good deeds instead of always being chastised,” Andrade said.
On Sept. 7, Andrade is inviting parents to come to the school cafeteria for lunch. He will talk with them about graduation requirements, school rules and expectations for their sons and daughters. At the end of the day, URI is donating 1,500 T-shirts for Central Falls faculty, staff and students. The school will attempt to take a picture of the students and teachers and staff spelling Central Falls and URI. Parents at the luncheon will also be able to take part in the picture.
Andrade said it’s important for all students to understand from the beginning what is expected of them. That is why, by Sept. 26, teachers will provide their students with a written syllabus that explains what is expected of them, the priorities of the class and how they are going to be assessed. In the past, some teachers have provided a syllabus but others have not, Andrade said.
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