Overview
My philosophy for improving Weber High School begins with a belief that we need to lean on existing frameworks and structures that have decades of literature and research supporting them. Most of the decisions I make from the principal's office have the systems referenced below in mind.
Becoming a High Reliability School (HRS)
I am very happy to announce, after a long and rigorous application process, we have achieved a distinctive certification through the Marzano Network, one of the most reputable and established educational research organizations in our field. We will join a small number of schools in the state who have achieved this certification which assesses the extent to which our school culture is safe, supportive, and collaborative.
Building a Professional Learning Community (PLC)
Our school is currently in the process of establishing and building a professional learning community. This means that our teachers and the adults who work at our school are continuously engaged in collaborative practices that reflect adult learning and collective inquiry. We are actively pursuing a recognition through Solution Tree called the Promising Practices recognition. This recognition is an external evaluation by this organization that evaluates the extent to which our school has demonstrated a commitment to the PLC at Work process, has implemented the concepts associated with the process for at least one to two years, can demonstrate clear evidence of improved student learning, and can explain the culture, practices, and structures of the school that support the PLC at Work process.
Artifacts:
Implementing Research-Based Behavior Systems (PBIS)
Simply put, schools that implement Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) with high fidelity capitalize on proven behavior principles to optimize student behavior and protect valuable instructional time. At Weber High, we use our core values (pictured to the left) to model all of our student and adult behavior after. We reinforce these behaviors systematically when we see them, and also have defined systems for how to respond when students fall short of meeting these behavior expectations. Schools that implement PBIS with high fidelity show reduced problem behavior in students, more fulfilled teachers, and improved student outcomes in the academic, behavior, and social emotional domains.
