Ann Arbor school board hears positive report about Skyline's first two years
Ann Arbor school board Trustee Irene Patalan began reminiscing Wednesday night as she listened to teachers and administrators from Skyline High School give a two-hour report on their first two years in existence.
She thought about the long discussions on whether to ask voters to approve building a new high school, long meetings dealing with construction delays and budget overruns, groundbreaking ceremonies and planning meetings promising innovate programming.
“My oh my, haven’t we come a long way?” she said.
The Skyline staff spent time in front of the board Wednesday night extolling the virtues of the school's programs.
Skyline High School opened two years ago.
File photo
They told of students engaged in mastery learning and about how their Skytime advising hours are creating positive relationships between teachers and students. They showcased data from surveys, where a majority of students said they felt like at least one adult in the building cared about them.
They talked about students going out into the real world to do projects - from creating oral histories of Ann Arbor senior citizens to working with doctors. They talked about students playing varsity sports and creating more opportunities for involvement in extra-curricular activities.
And all agreed the school is working, just as they planned.
Skyline opened two years ago with freshmen only and is finishing its second school year now.
This was the first year students had in the magnet programs - four specialty-focus schools inside Skyline. Thirty students a year have the opportunity to join each magnet, which focus on topics such as health, business and public policy. Students choose whether to be in a magnet at the end of the freshman year, and a lottery is in place for the seats.
Teachers said students are really into their learning.
“They are very focused, very grown up,” said Jeff Bradley, the lead teacher of the health and medicine magnet.
Principal Sulura Jackson said the success of the school is rooted in those relationships between teachers and students.
“We work on the relationships so the kids know we support them in the rigor” we require, she said.
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
KeepingItReal
Sat, Jun 12, 2010 : 12:26 p.m.
If the Mastery Learning instructional approach is working so well at Skyline, why isn't this approach being used to address the achievement gap. If one of the jeys to Skyline success is student/teacher relationship, why not implement that approach to address the achievement gap. If engaging student in "real world" projects, is such a vital part of Skyline's approach and it having such success in academically preparing he students. why not use the real world approach in addressing the achievement gap. It seems to me that since there is so much concern about singling out one group of students for special instructional activities why not use what seems to work for a good number of students.
pfrance
Sat, Jun 12, 2010 : 12:52 a.m.
@PhillyCheeseSteak, concerning the re-takes. A student that re-takes a test can only earn a maximum of 80%. So for example, if the second time around a student earns an 87%, the score recorded would be 80%. I hope this helps.
jkselberg
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 6:23 p.m.
aataxpayer, I don't see anything in this story about closing Skyline.
Betty
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 6:11 p.m.
@Philly The "Fairness" discussion is silly. The "Mastery Learning" is a bright spot at Skyline. So many things there that are wrong-"mastery" is not one of them. Skyline doesn't have a full ciriculum, which means choices are limited. Like this year you had to choose between Music or Foreign Language. This is b/c there aren't enough students. @Erich I agree with you. AAPS doesn't understand that not getting the maximum usage from a capital expense losing money!! We can't afford it. FILL THE SCHOOL NOW. I give Skyline a "B". Slightly above average. The differences between Sky Hi and Huron & Pioneer are plentiful, but even trade off's. Not worse, Not better just different.
Erich Jensen
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 4:08 p.m.
Enabling Ann Arbor....one more time...why does it take four years to fill this expensive school? In these economic times, we keep spending on luxuries (e.g., staging entry into a gourmet high school).
PhillyCheeseSteak
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 9:06 p.m.
It seems to me very odd, and profoundly unfair, that one (Skyline) of Ann Arbor's comprehensive high schools can use a completely different grading system, with their "mastery learning". I appreciate that Skyline is trying something new and different but shouldn't there be equity amongst the high schools in grading? Skyline's "mastery learning" (their term) philosophy allows students to re-take tests that a student fails or scores less than 80%. For me, this raises several questions, regarding fairness and equity. For example: - if a student gets a result of 81%, and so that grade holds; another student might get 78% and re-take the test and get 88%. Which student gets the better grade? What is fair? - could a student "work the system" and on purpose do poorly on a test, using it as a "practice" test, then re-take the test and get a high score? - how many times can a student re-take a test? What is the time frame/schedule that a student has to get their grade up to 80%? Most importantly: - what does this say about the fairness to the students at Pioneer and Huron, who, should they fail enough tests, will ultimately have to repeat the course (because of high school graduation requirements)? For example, at Pioneer my son failed first semester Geometry AC and so had the choice of either taking summer school, which costs HUNDREDS of dollars, or take another semester of that class the following year (because he needed the math credits to graduate). So the following school year he took Geometry AND algebra II for the first semester. For him this worked okay, but he had to use one of his "rare" electives to do that. I tried to bring up this subject with Joyce Hunter, Ann Arbor Public School's Administrator for Middle and High Schools/Career & Technical Education way back in January (emails and phone calls to her). In March she said she would get back to me but she never did.