Feinstein High SchoolFeinstein High School

544 Elmwood Avenue

Redesign and rebirthRedesign and rebirth In the spring of 2001, Superintendent Diana In the spring of 2001, Superintendent Diana

Lam announced that Feinstein High School Lam announced that Feinstein High School would be closed and reopened as a new would be closed and reopened as a new model high school.model high school.

A team of teachers and administrators worked A team of teachers and administrators worked through the spring to create a new design for through the spring to create a new design for the school. the school.

A new staff was hired. They worked through A new staff was hired. They worked through the summer to prepare the opening of the the summer to prepare the opening of the "new" Feinstein in September."new" Feinstein in September.

School AdministrationSchool AdministrationPrincipal: Nancy OwenMs. Owen comes to Feinstein from the Charles Fortes Magnet Academy.

She has been recognized locally and nationally for her leadership in creating at Fortes a community dedicated to powerful and engaging learning. Fortes has also been a leader in adoping laptop computers for the classroom.

Dean of Teaching and Learning:K.C. Perry

Guiding PrinciplesGuiding Principles

Unity of Purpose

Our school has a unified philosophy of teaching and learning. Each member of our staff has made a commitment to these principles.

Guiding PrinciplesGuiding Principles

Empowerment and Responsibility

At Feinstein, students and teachers are responsible for achieving a clear set of standards. We are empowered to make decisions that affect our efforts.

Guiding PrinciplesGuiding Principles

Building on Strengths

One of Donetta Gomes' strengths is photography. She took many of the

pictures in this presentation.

We see potential in each other, our students, families and community. We search out strengths and build on the individual.

Principles of LearningPrinciples of LearningOrganizing for Effort

Clear Expectations

Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum

Accountable Talk

Fair and Credible Evaluations

Learning as Apprenticeship

School GovernanceSchool Governance

Site-Based Management Plan(with union and school department)

Cadre

Steering Committee

School as a Whole

Cadre Cadre

School One and School TwoSchool One and School TwoSchool OneSchool One Working toward Working toward

standards standards Developing Developing

independent independent learning skillslearning skills

Ends with a Ends with a Certificate of Initial Certificate of Initial MasteryMastery

School TwoSchool Two Increasing level of Increasing level of

achievement on achievement on standardsstandards

Building on strengthsBuilding on strengths Independent learning Independent learning

opportunitiesopportunities InternshipsInternships College classesCollege classes Distance LearningDistance Learning Advanced placementAdvanced placement

Ends with full Ends with full diplomadiploma

School One StandardsSchool One Standards

National Center for Education and the National Center for Education and the Economy—New StandardsEconomy—New Standards EnglishEnglish MathematicsMathematics Science Science Applied LearningApplied Learning

National Council for the Social Studies National Council for the Social Studies StandardsStandards

Rhode Island Health StandardsRhode Island Health Standards

Name: GRADE 12 Student A Team: 4______ Attendance: Absent Project/ Benchmark Standard Score Comments

E2b—Response to literature

3

E5a—Interprets fiction 3

Reading Journal on Gender-Based Novel

E1a—1 of 25 books read

3

E3c—Individual presentation

5

E5a—Interpret drama 4

Performance of Othello

E3b—Groupwork 6 E2f—Reflective essay 4 Essay on Racism E5a—Criticize and evaluate fiction and non-fiction

4

E2c—Narrative account

6

E4b—Revision 4

Short Story on Gender Issues

E4a—Conventions, grammar, and usage

3

A’s journal was not up to the standards of an extremely intelligent senior such as herself. She neglected to explain quotes fully, did not follow through on proving points in a few of her essays with evidence, and did not complete many sections of the journal, period. One essay in particular exceeded standards, so A does know how to use reading strategies and how to interpret, but that makes the overall performance on the journal even more disappointing. A, you should never be satisfied with handing in anything less than your best work! You’re too smart for that! Wow—what great work A did with Othello! She led any group she was in and made every single student in that group feel comfortable and safe as they took the risks that acting involves. Her ability to read Shakespeare aloud with expression shows that she does understand the language, but she did not complete many of the paraphrases into modern language—always a good strategy to use with difficult text! A’s essay was generally good. What kept it from being great was the lack of sophisticated diction. She does not use precise and rich vocabulary to articulate her ideas, so that they don’t come across with the same strength and conviction they otherwise would. In the short story, detailed and vivid language was not a problem. What a fabulous story! A needs to learn to take some of her beautiful poetry into the realm of academic essay writing to improve the diction issues mentioned above. In terms of conventions, she must use consistent verb tense and punctuate dialogue correctly!

Scoring Rubric: 6 – Exceeds standard with distinction.

5 – Exceeds the standard 4 – Meets the standard 3 – Nearly achieves the standard 2 – Progressing toward the standard

Name: GRADE 9 Student B Team: 4______ Attendance: Absent Project/ Benchmark Standard Score Comments

E2b—Response to literature

3

E5a—Interprets fiction 3

Reading Journal on Gender-Based Novel

E1a—1 of 25 books read

4

E3c—Individual presentation

4

E5a—Interpret drama 2

Performance of Othello

E3b—Groupwork 3 E2f—Reflective essay 2 Essay on Racism E5a—Criticize and evaluate fiction and non-fiction

2

E2c—Narrative account

1

E4b—Revision 2

Short Story on Gender Issues

E4a—Conventions, grammar, and usage

1

B’s ability to interpret as she reads in quite impressive for a freshman. She is talented at picking out essential quotes but needs to more consistently explain their significance and not just re-tell what they say. Her responses to essay prompts sometimes veered off-topic; she must focus her ideas and use quotes from the book to support her ideas. B has been becoming a more and more vocal member of our community as the semester has progressed, which is excellent since she has such insightful ideas! She was a wonderful, though quiet, group member in Othello. She needs to be a more active reader when dealing with a difficult author like Shakespeare: use Post-It notes, paraphrase into modern language, read aloud with peers. B shows potential to be a strong academic writer. Again, she must use quotes and examples from text to add depth and persuasiveness to her arguments. She also needs to think about structuring her papers to make sure that there is a clear beginning, middle, and end. B had a lot of trouble writing this short story. There’s no real plot or conflict and she rushes through all the interesting meat of the story, so the reader misses out on vivid characterization, description, and relationships of characters. Though she did seek suggestions to revise and improve her story, she didn’t follow through on the research she needed to do to make actual improvements in the content of the story. She also had severe formatting and convention issues; she didn’t proof-read, spell-check, paragraph correctly, or use consistent verb tense. There’s no excuse for the lack of spell-checking when typing, but B should seek help with the other convention issues until the correct usage becomes habitual for her.

Scoring Rubric: 6 – Exceeds standard with distinction.

5 – Exceeds the standard

Keeping Track of All This Keeping Track of All This StuffStuff

The success of our The success of our assessment assessment system is system is dependent on dependent on the development the development of an information of an information technology technology infrastructure to infrastructure to store, process store, process and analyze and analyze student work and student work and progress toward progress toward standards.standards.

Information Infrastructure Information Infrastructure ProjectProject

We have begun a project to develop a new student information system in collaboration with the Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Our current prototypes have been built using Zope, a free web application platform.