PENDLETON — In an effort to improve its students’ academic achievement, Starpoint High School is starting a new instructional plan to target students who are just getting by.
Principal Gil Licata unveiled the school’s new approach at a Board of Education meeting Monday. Licata showed the members a series of signs that will go up in the school that read, “Mastery equals Starpoint students.” And below that phrase, the signs ask, “What did you do to reach your goals?” He said the goal will be to simply help students do their very best in school.
“Our focus is going to be on student performance,” Licata said. “It’s going to be a teaching tool and it’s going to be reflected in every office. That’s going to be our goal.”
Licata said he will meet with every teacher to discuss individual goals for their classes, followed by a meeting with each of the school’s departments. During the summer, Licata met with all of the content-area specialists, teachers who act as leaders in each subject. Sean Croft, Starpoint’s director of instruction, assessment and staff development, said the group visited some schools in Clarence during one of those meetings. They met afterward to talk about ideas.
“All of the ideas were generated by the teachers, it wasn’t Gil and I saying we need to do this,” Croft said.
Licata said he would meet weekly with student social services, which includes school counselors, a social worker and a psychologist. In those meetings, the goal is to develop monthly and annual plans on how to motivate students to improve.
Part of the high school’s new approach is the academic referral system. Licata said it wasn’t discipline, but rather a way for teachers to find the cause of why a student might may not be doing as well as they can in a class.
“This form goes right to me,” Licata said. “It is then my job to meet with the student, contact a parent or guardian, work with the counselor, do whatever it takes to get this child in the right.”
He added the referral form would also go to the student’s coach or extracurricular activity adviser. Getting them involved could help, because students look up to some of them, Croft said. Croft said students who receive a referral may be scoring in the 80s, for example, but are capable of a 95 average.
High school exams will be aligned with state Regents while mid-term exams will increase in number and look more like Regents exams, Licata said. This will help by allowing the district to find out which students are having difficulty earlier in the year, Croft added.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time this year developing these,” he said. “We’re not just going to make a 500-question, multiple-choice exam. We want to be testing and assessing the skills that they’re going to see at the end of the year.
Quarterly grades of classes will go to all faculty members. Faculty meetings, themselves, will change, involving more discussion on those results, Licata said.
“It’s almost going to be a staff development meeting,” he said.
Licata added the school will eliminate course drops, unless the drop is recommended by a counselor. If kids who are placed in a course that is too challenging, the school will move the student, Licata said. The goal is to help the student who isn’t living up to his or her potential, he said.
“We’ve got to make high expectations,” Licata said.
Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.
Local News
PENDLETON: Starpoint wants to help motivate students
- Local News
-
-
Paying Respect
- Sense of resignation escorts AES tax pact
- Town considering WNYLC's request
-
Palace, Hartland get Greenway funding
The Historic Palace Theatre and the Town of Hartland both were cleared Tuesday to receive Niagara River Greenway funding for improvement projects.
The eight-member Host Communities Standing Committee voted unanimously to approve funding requests of $151,000 for the Palace and $244,000 for Hartland, which is planning a multi-phase town park enhancement project.
-
Erie Canal photo contest underway
The seventh annual Erie Canalway photo contest is under way.
Entries are being accepted now through Sept. 7. Winning photos will be published in the 2013 Erie Canalway calendar.
-
Jobless totals drop slightly
Unemployment in the Lockport area decreased slightly last month, but it wasn't because more people are going back to work.
The New York State Department of Labor reported Tuesday about 1,000 city residents were without a job in April, the fifth straight month with over 1,000 unemployed. That was down from the 1,100 it reported in March, however, the number of employed stayed the same at about 9,700 people.
-
Fishing for 'Ultimate' perks
Olcott teaming up with Ontario town in running for Canadian equivalent.
-
Sprinkler work coming
Piping in high school fire sprinkler system will be addressed in July.
-
Willow Street victim identified
The victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Willow Street on Saturday was identified by Lockport Police as Richard Boye, 46.
-
Cutting the travel time
For the most part, there is a lot of planning that goes into traveling. Some like to handle the details on their own, making arrangements on the phone or using travel websites to book hotels, planes, vehicles and so on.
But lately, working with a travel agent is becoming more popular.
- More Local News Headlines
-






