Teachers dig into new data system over break 
Over 50 teachers from varying grade levels, schools, and departments gathered over the break to practice using the new Illuminate data system to create Common Core and California Standards based-assessments with the expert support of Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment staff. The work focused on custom reporting that teachers can easily use to measure their students' achievement towards standards, and how information provided in these reports can be used to target interventions for closing the achievement gap. Longfellow 6th Grade Math Teacher Sean Poremba is pleased with the progress, noting that "the new Smarter Balanced Assessment State Test in 2014-2015 is going to be online. With the online testing component of Illuminate, I am excited to be able to create a standards-linked assessment, have the students take it online and have the results immediately by the end of class." |
Office of Family Engagement and Equity takes shape
 | | Parent liaisons and new site coordinators share strategies. |
During the 2011-12 school year, the work of the central parent outreach office was re-envisioned to offer school-based support to engage and advocate on behalf of families. This past Fall, Charity DaMarto came from LeConte's LEARNS program to lead the outreach effort and to provide direct service to families, with the support of three parent advocates working half-time in each of the six pilot schools. Families at John Muir, Malcolm X, Emerson, and Berkeley Arts Magnet are already benefiting from the newly hired site coordinators. Thousand Oaks and LeConte will soon have a Spanish bilingual site coordinator. Services to over 80 families so far have included providing resources for health care and being advocates at Student Attendance Review Team (SART) and Student Study Team (SST) meetings.
|
Classroom and Athletic Building Rises  The simultaneous demolition of Berkeley High School's wooden stadium, that for years lined Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and the new metal framing of the classroom and athletic building starting to take shape, signify for some the end of one era and the beginning of another. As he watched the stadium go down, physical education teacher Bill Gabler grew nostalgic, "Just watching this brings back many fond memories." The new building that replaces the Old Gym on Milvia Street will create much needed space including 15 classrooms, a soft gym for wrestling and other indoor sports, and a 4,000 sq. ft. fitness center scheduled for completion in 2014. This new building will allow for the eventual removal of the portables and the return of the softball field on the southeast corner of campus.
|
|
All-State Orchestra welcomes BHS Student
Berkeley High School Orchestra cellist Will Cayanan was accepted into the 2013 California All-State Orchestra. The music for the ensembles is extremely demanding, and it is a great honor for Will to be chosen to perform with the Orchestra for four days in Fresno, February 21-24. Orchestra teacher Karen Wells noted that Will is the first BHS student in recent memory to be accepted to a high school music honor group.
Experience Will's extraordinary talent in this video of the Berkeley High School Band and Orchestra Winter Concert 2012 performing composer Michael Senturia's Recitative and Elegy for Cello and Strings.
|
