Keystone Heights Junior-Senior High School Principal Laurie Burke briefed the school board on her school’s achievements during the March 7 school board meeting.
Burke told the panel that the administration and faculty’s goal is 100% success for each undergraduate.
“This looks different for each student,” she said.
The principal added that a special team of teachers and instructional assistants called the Together-We-Instill-Excellence Team works throughout the campus to provide specially designed instruction tailored to each student’s individual needs.
“And our literacy team creates school-wide lessons for all of our students that focus on building vocabulary,” she said. “Students learn new words and their definitions twice a week during Tribe Time. We also blast the word of the day on the morning announcements and throughout their classroom lessons.”
Burke said students’ civics scores have increased by 19 points, and eighth-grade English Language Arts and eighth-grade science scores have increased by nine.
“Our biology (scores have) increased four points,” she added.
The principal also said her administration is focusing on recognition this year, rewarding both students and staff for improvements.
“We have our Indian-strong standards, and we have special recognitions each week for them to make them Facebook famous,” Burke said. “We’re not recognizing students who are recognized for great athletic ability or (for having) 4.8 GPAs. We recognize students who make an improvement in growth every day, and when they come down, their faces light up.”
