A letter from the Head of School:
Dear Parents:
Welcome to Daylight Savings Time, everyone. As if Mondays aren’t challenging enough… At least we’ve got snow falling, and a long weekend coming up.
Today we are not only celebrating Pi Day (!), but it is the kick-off to Brain Awareness Week. Drew Mikita, Professor of Psychology at CMC, raised all Peak students’ awareness of brain injuries and their impact on one’s life.
Parent conferences.
Many of you have had meetings, conversations, and email exchanges with our teachers in the past weeks. For those of you who have not, and would like to meet with your student’s teachers to get an update on their progress, we have set aside Monday afternoon, March 28 for conferences. Middle School parents will meet with Kathleen and Liz together, from 2:00 – 5:00. Upper School parents will meet with Moni, Laura, and Jeffrey together, from 3:00 – 6:00. You will receive an email tomorrow to sign up for a conference time.
Terra Nova testing.
After a very productive Casual Coffee conversation with a dozen parents, and discussions among the teachers, we’ve decided not to administer the Terra Nova test this spring to all Peak students. The test has just not provided the guidance to us on improving our program that would rationalize devoting the expense and class time to the test. If you would like your student to take the Terra Nova test again this spring, we can arrange to have the test administered at CLC on a weekend. Please call or email Adam (970-368-5601 or adam.brenner@thepeakschool.education) in the next few days to be included in this testing. We’ll inform you of the cost of the testing when we have a clear idea of how many students are signed up.
High School Student Survey of Engagement (HSSSE)
This survey, affectionately called “The Hessie”, was developed by Indiana University, first for colleges and then for high schools, to solicit student input on their experience at school. It has proven to be an effective tool in helping schools improve teaching and learning, and particularly to enhance student engagement. Our Div III students took the Hessie last week. Here are some of the primary results:
- All 23 students who took the survey said they feel good about being at Peak, care about the school, feel safe at Peak, and feel supported by their teachers.
- What students find most engaging at Peak are giving presentations, class discussions and debates, and research projects. Almost all students agree that Peak emphasizes understanding information and ideas, analyzing ideas in depth in class, and has contributed to their development in thinking critically, reading, writing, and speaking effectively, and treating people with respect.
- Two areas that students see as lacking are (a) building positive relationships with students of different backgrounds and learning what life is like for other people in our community outside of school; and (b) understanding why what they learn in school is important for life after Peak, seeing how the work they are doing now will help them after high school.
This is really valuable feedback from our students. The first two bullet points speak to the community we have built in the school, the strength of our approach to teaching and learning, and the skills our students are acquiring. The last bullet point clearly identifies diversity, inclusion, and real-world relevance as areas we need to address as we move forward.
The results of the Hessie will be reviewed in depth at our faculty meeting today and at the Upper School Forum tomorrow. Please join in this conversation with your students at home, and let me know your thoughts as well.
Next week I’ll present the results of the parent survey that many of you took a few weeks ago. We’ll see if there’s alignment between students and parents in assessing what we are doing well and what aspects we need to strengthen.
My best to all,
Steve
All the best,
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