Celebrating Student Success...

Principally Speaking is back! I did not intend to "take the summer off." It just happened. But now that school is back in session the motivation has returned and there is no scarcity of subjects on which I can expound. So, in the coming months I expect to have a lot to say about regionalization, bullying legislation, MCAS and national standards, school culture, reporting student progress, and a host of other topics. Be sure to check in frequently and feel free to comment on anything I write. I welcome the feedback.

I just returned from serving as the Assistant Chair of a NEASC visiting team conducting an evaluation of another school. I brought two things back with me; a really bad cold, and a new found appreciation for the benefits of being a small school. While I was at this school I witnessed many examples of how they celebrated student success and the profound impact that has on the culture of the school.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to do some celebrating of our own at CHS. Our current junior class did very well on the 2010 MCAS exam this past spring, however one set of scores stand out. We had 69% of our students score in the Advanced category on the MCAS Biology exam which puts Chatham High School in first place among 340 high schools in the state by 11 percentage points. The state average for the science test was 18%! Being one of the smallest schools in the state makes this a big deal for us so we celebrated the hard work and dedication of the students and the excellent teaching of our two science teachers, Gina Kelly and Luke Simpson, at a lunch time presentation. We also recognized three students who earned perfect scores on their MCAS tests. We were honored to have several guests join us - Representative Sarah Peake and our superintendent Dr. Mary Ann Lanzo, both of whom spoke and congratulated the students and teachers. And we had cake! Celebrations always go better with cake. Unfortunately, other than the Cape Cod Chronicle, no other media outlets seemed interested in recognizing our accomplishment, preferring to report on everything that is "wrong" with schools today which appears to be a popular theme lately. It's sad, but that will not stop us from recognizing and celebrating our successes whenever we can.

To that end, I will be looking to find a way to gather students at least once a month from now on to celebrate student success and recognize student acomplishments. Even if others do not seem interested in our good news, we certainly are and will continue to try to get it out to the public in whatever way we can.