News Letter October 5th

News and Notes
The IPR that our staff participated in last week went well! It was great to be a part of the collaboration that took place between the Sem Yeto and Sem Yeto Satellite campuses. The IPR data was focused on Attendance/Suspension, and Graduation/Credits. Some of the takeaways from the discussion were as follows:
Attendance and Suspension
Attendance goals for both campuses were achieved for the first month of school. However, over the past three years; on average, both campus were around the 80-85% range for overall attendance. These percentages are really low, and need to be improved.
Suspensions are up from last year over the same period of time on both campus. However, collaborative groups determined that more information is needed to determine possible solutions and intervention strategies to effectively be able to address the problem such as: how many students are accounting for the increase in the number of days of suspension, what type of offences were students suspended for, and were there any types of interventions attempted with students before suspending them?

Graduation/Credits
Currently, there are 279 seniors enrolled on Yeto campuses. Out of the 279 students enrolled, 177 of those students need more than 100 credits to graduate which represents 63% of all seniors. Over the past two years, both campus have maintained an approximately 80% graduation rate.
The collaborative IPR groups determined that it would be helpful if there was data identifying students credit situations upon beginning at a Yeto campus, and reviewing those students after being enrolled for a full year and beyond. It was also suggested by groups that data be gathered on the effect that holidays, midyear graduating students and new students who start at both sites mid year effect this data.

Where Do We Go From Here
During the IPR group discussions, some of the solutions (next steps) that the groups suggested were:
Identifying/Determining what the definition/identity of our alternative programs should be, identifying collaborative community opportunities to establish mentoring and work experience programs centered on the interest and needs of our specific students, and looking at ways to effectively engage students in learning in the classroom environment.

In the Tool Box
Here is an article that focuses on creating an effective student engagement environment in the classroom, and brings out the importance of planning for student engagement in the classroom. The article  provides a framework for getting started in the process; it speaks about 6 strategies that can be utilized when developing a course outline for the year: Authentic Learning, Inquiry, Collaboration, Integrating the Arts, Presentation and Performance, and Integrating Technology. Please enjoy and have a great week!

Planning for Student Engagement