A special thank you to Mr. Glen Worthy, Principal of James Hillhouse High School in New Haven, CT, and his Focused Schools Coach, Brett Bishop for this post. Read on and you will see that leadership matters!
If high school students are to be empowered by their educational experience entering adulthood both college and career ready, many school leaders have been forced to rethink what the learning day must include. At James Hillhouse High School in New Haven, CT, that challenge included finding a way to skillfully integrate reading instruction into every content area to help all students have the literacy skills needed for real world success.
Entering a year that would end in the unprecedented challenges brought on by a worldwide pandemic, principal Glen Worthy felt optimistic about the progress both the students and staff had made.
“There were so many negatively impactful aspects to Covid 19, but one that I was so sad for us about was we were on the edge of a real breakthrough with our learning data. We knew our kids were going to do better than we ever had on the state testing this year.”
– Glen Worthy, Principal
His optimism was supported by the interim data. At the mid-year point of 2019-20, the students had outperformed their progress in the previous full school year.
Distance learning did not allow for the typical preparatory support for students on standardized testing for college entrance, but that challenge did not stop the students from exceeding past performance.
With the undeniable evidence of their hard work paying off, the teachers and students are prepared for opening the school this year with continued momentum whether they are together in their classrooms or learning remotely. With challenges both old and new ahead, they are committed to making the learning happen. Principal Worthy believes they can succeed.
“Our teachers have worked together to make collective commitments to do what is best for our kids. We will make it through this time and prove that our kids can do this.”
– Glen Worthy, Principal
