MA Principal's Blog

We are still gathering information and feedback about the Competency Recovery Day on January 20th and welcome the thoughts of parents and students.

When we ran a report just before Jan. 20th about the number of incompletes that students had, we found that there were a total of 185. There were 81 from first quarter and 104 from second quarter.

We ran an updated report after the grades were in for report cards and found that there were 42 fewer incompletes. Students still have 55 incompletes from first quarter and 88 from second quarter.

Although we were hoping that we might reduce that number further, we did find that almost all of the students who had work to do showed up and that even if they didn’t complete the work they needed to in order to eliminate the incomplete, we have a sense that a lot of remediation work took place. This should put many more students in a position to complete their work in the near future.

As most of you know, Friday (Jan. 20th) is being set aside for students who have a final exam for a first semester class or who have competency incompletes from the first or second quarter. For middle school students Friday will be a regular school day. This day is being set aside in place of the final exam make-up day that usually comes at the end of the school year. It is the opinion of the MA teaching staff that a day now to do needed make-up work would better serve our students than at the end of the year.

As of last week, there were 91 different high school students carrying a total of 173 incomplete grades. This is a high percentage of students as well as a high number of incompletes, in my opinion. All the same, I think it’s important to remember that in the days before competencies, all of these grades would have been either Ds or Fs, both of which are indications that the student had not really learned the material, and those failing grades would have simply been factored into a year-long average and in all likelihood, become a passing grade. Holding students accountable for a minimum of 70% in order to pass their major assessments should over time result in increased academic performance.

Friday’s competency make-up day is new. We are seeing quite a few students in the last two weeks scrambling to get their work done so that they don’t have to come to school on Jan. 20th. We consider that a good trend. Unfortunately, we are also hearing a number of students who need to come to school, say that they are not going to. This will be an unexcused absence, but more importantly it will be a lost opportunity. We hope that number is small. We will be tracking carefully how the day goes and how many of those 173 incompletes are no longer on the books once report cards come out in a week or so.

As always, if you have some feedback for us, or a perspective we have not considered, please respond to this blog if you’d like others to hear your comments, or email me directly.

Follow this link to an interesting story in the NY Times featuring four current MA seniors (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/11/22/how-the-future-looks-from-high-school).  It was written in part by an MA graduate, Susan Ellingwood, now an editor with the NY Times.  Susan recently spoke to the four students to hear about their future plans after high school and they, along with students from 3 other high schools around the country, describe the varied and challenging paths that high school seniors are taking in pursuit of their dreams.  Join in the on-line discussion too if you want.

The PAC (Parent Advisory Council) is an open discussion, more or less informal, meeting of parents and Moultonborough Academy’s principal, Andy Coppinger. We meet about once a month and the meetings are open to any parent of an Academy student who would like to attend. Some parents come once or twice a year and some have been coming to meetings faithfully for years.

My goal for the group is to give parents an avenue for offering input on the programs and policies at the Academy and for the me to answer questions, address concerns, and hear what’s on parent’s minds. The format is somewhat informal, but we try to stick with a few ground rules, such as not discussing specific staff members, respecting the difference of opinions expressed, trying to start and end on time (6:30 – 8:00 pm), and a ban on forming sub committees.

The next meeting of the PAC will be Monday, November 7th from 6:30-8:00 pm in the SAU Conference room at Moultonborough Academy. Items currently on the agenda (email me at acoppinger@sau45.org to add other items) are as follows:

1. a report on SAT prep options
2. a discussion about this year’s climate at MA
3. a review of the dress code as written in the Student Handbook

Moultonborough Academy is just beginning our re-accreditation process in preparation for our visitation in the spring of 2013. Re-accrditation is a voluntary review process we undertake every 10 years as a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Over the next year and a half we will be engaged in a process knows as The Self Study as we look at how MA stacks up as measured by the seven NEASC standards. Staff will be divided into committees that will study each of the seven standards and report on how well we meet the standard. Each committee is expected to include parents, community members, students, staff, and administrators. Any parent interested in serving on a committee should please contact Mr. Coppinger.

The seven standards committees are as follows:

- Core Values, ,Beliefs, and Learning Expectations
- Curriculum
- Instruction
- Assessment of and for Student Learning
- School Culture and Leadership
- School Resources for Learning
- Community Resources for Learning

Moultonborough Academy has been designated a School In Need of Improvement (SINI) by the NH Department of Education due to the fact that our high school math NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) scores did not meet Adequately Yearly Progress for two years in a row. While we are obviously not proud of this designation, we temper our disappointment with the knowledge that 72% of NH schools also did not meet AYP last year. Perhaps more important, though, is that we also have seen a decline in our math ranking relative to other NH High Schools when measured by the NECAP tests. As required by the DOE as part of the No Child Left Behind federal law, we have submitted a School Improvement Plan to address the issue. It takes two years of meeting AYP to remove the SINI status, which will be a daunting task with the standards being raised again this year. However, we are determined to take action to improve our high school student’s math performance as measured by the state tests given in the 11th grade.

The following is a summary of the Action Steps outlined in our SINI Plan. The full Report is available on the Academy home page.

1. Institute a 90-minute full-year Algebra I class with the support of Special Ed. staff for targeted 9th grade students.
2. Incorporate a new unit on Data and Statistics prior to the 11th grade NECAP testing. This is an area not previously addressed in our 9th and 10th grade curriculum that is part of the state tests.
3. Focus on state standards that are tested on the NECAP tests and align classroom assessments more deliberately with the NECAP format, including the use of NECAP released items in a “Problem of the Day” format.
4. Research differentiated instruction models and practices.
5. Implement a remediation program for targeted students.
6. Begin to align our math curriculum with the new Common Core State Standards, which will be the basis for the state tests beginning in 2014.
7. Increase our student’s motivation for doing well on the tests through incentives, small group testing ratios, and creating the best testing environment we can.

We believe that this is a comprehensive plan to address our math scores as measured by the state NECAP tests and that over the next two years we will see an improvement in the performance of MA’s 11th graders.

The start of the 2011-2012 school year is just around the corner and we’re putting the finishing touches on our summer cleaning to get ready to open the doors on August 31st. I hope everyone had a fun-filled and relaxing summer and that all of our students were able to get their summer reading assignments done. We have a lot of learning to pack into a school year and it starts on Day One!

One of the great things about summer break and starting a new school year is that it truly is an opportunity to get a fresh start. I’m very aware of the fact that Moultonborough Academy is an educational institution and that this means that letting our young people learn from their mistakes and move on is part of the educational process. Whatever mistakes our students might have made last year, I encourage them to come back to school with a fresh outlook and renewed determination to have the best year they can have.

To those students who had a good year last year and will be returning to MA ready to hit the ground running once again, I say, “bravo!” Your commitment to excellence in all that you do is what makes MA tick.

As you walk the halls of MA this fall you’ll notice a number of new faces. Please welcome the following new teachers to MA:

Nicole Austin Assistant Principal
Casey Brough Library / Media Specialist
Claudia Provencher French
Jonathan Coker Latin
Len Lavin Spanish (Mrs. Bliznik’s maternity leave)
Christina Touhey Math

When we decided back in March to re-double our efforts to enforce the cell phone rule as part of our determination to improve the school climate, I knew that this wouldn’t be a very popular move in the eyes of some of our students, and quite frankly I expected a fair amount of resistance and opposition from parents as well. At the same time, I was convinced that the social distractions afforded by the constant use of cell phones was sidetracking our students and deteriorating our school climate and therefore any backlash was worth the effort.

I am pleased to report that although the resistance from students turned out to be as expected, the support from parents has been very heartening. I have heard from quite a few parents who have thanked me for enforcing this rule more vigorously, who have expressed their support, and who have reinforced the acceptable and appropriate use of cell phones while at school on the home front. I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of anger directed at the school administration for enforcing this rule and I would like to send out a big thank you to all of our parents who have supported our efforts to re-focus on academics and cut down on the social drama at school. It has made a difference.

The next meeting of the Parent Advisory Council will be held on Tuesday May 3rd at 6:30 in the SAU Conference room. All parents are welcome to attend.

The agenda for this upcoming meeting will be to review proposed National Honor Society chapter by-laws, to discuss the library/media center’s policy for computer usage, to further discuss the concept of student evaluation of teachers, and lastly to get some feedback on MTA’s prom transportation plan. If you can’t make the meeting and wish to weigh in on any of these issues please do so through this blog or email me directly at acoppinger@sau45.org.

A quick synopsis of our last meeting on March 29th is as follows:
1. Questions were asked about how the library determines who can use the laptop computers and when. Information will be brought back at the next meeting.
2. The discussion on School Climate was continued from the February meeting.
3. The need to try to schedule overnight trips and field trips so as to avoid conflicts as much as possible was reinforced by parents.
4. The idea of allowing students to evaluate their teachers was proposed. There are many complications and limitations on how this concept might move forward, but the idea will be further explored. Parents felt very strongly that students should be given the opportunity to provide feedback to their teachers much like they do for their coaches.
5. An update was provided on the 2011-2012 school budget and how the pending state budget might impact it.

At our school assembly last Friday (3/11), I relayed to the student body my perception that concern about the social realm has taken on a disproportionate level of importance in the lives of too many students. Whether its updating your status on Facebook, or texting friends to find out the latest drama, students sometimes seem consumed by keeping track of who is saying what to whom. I think it is having a negative impact on academics as well as on the climate of the school.

I believe that part of this over-emphasis on the social realm is driven by student’s incessant need to text and be texted. I informed the student body that I have asked the staff to be more diligent in enforcing the rule about no cell phone use outside of the dining hall and to expect that phones will be confiscated if the rule is violated. First time offenders will have their phone returned at the end of the day and repeat offenders will have to have their phone picked up by a parent or a guardian. This isn’t a new rule, but it is stricter enforcement of the old rule.

I urge parents to help us out. When caught using their cell phones in the hallways, many students protest and say, “but it’s my mother.” Although some may not be telling the truth, I know that many are. The longest stretch that any student must go without checking their phone is the time between break and lunch, which is two and a half hours. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect our students to focus on their academics and to ease up with the texting and on-line communication while they’re in school.