During a November 4 site visit to Carver High School in Aldine ISD, the 18 aspiring principals in Houston A+ Challenge's Regional Principal Leadership Academy witnessed a new Carver tradition being carried on between cohorts of A+ Principal Interns.
Last year as an Intern, Alfred James focused his Action Research Project on improving student attendance at Carver. James -- now Principal of Aldine's Caraway Intermediate School -- created "Panther Presence," a bulletin board spotlighting each class' weekly first-period attendance and rewarding classes that maintain a 100% average.
This year, Carver's new Principal Intern, Roslyn Sweat, has continued and expanded the program by providing incentives to celebrate student and staff attendance. All students and staff who have perfect attendance for six weeks qualify for drawings. Sweat has worked with community partners to secure donated prizes from the Houston Texans, the Houston Aeros, Best Buy, It'Z, and Barnes and Noble. She also worked with Starbucks to donate coffee for the entire staff to celebrate their hard work for the first six weeks of the semester.
Beyond this, Sweat's is focusing her Action Research Project on improving academic outcomes for 9th grade students enrolled in Algebra 1. Carver's math department uses the Algebra Institute Curriculum and provides common assessments to their students. Teachers have identified their "Top Ten" at-risk students, and are designing interventions to ensure their success. A daily progress tracking spreadsheet has been created, and after each assessment teachers disaggregate data and adjust their instructional interventions, including re-teaching and reassessment, accordingly.
Principal Thomas Colwell has stated that the student tracking and assessment system will be a continued teaching and learning tool at Carver after Rosalyn leaves. The legacy of A+ continues!
