Welcome back Chieftains! It is with a great deal of excitement that we begin the 2015-16 school year. The 2014-15 school year ended with some incredible accolades for Utica High School. Our students left to colleges in Michigan, the Midwest, and around the nation with over $9 million in scholarships behind them. Utica students exceeded the state average on the ACT in English Composition, Social Science, College Biology and in the number of students who met all 4 ACT benchmarks. We not only exceed state standards, but national and global averages as well! Utica High School continues to outpace the state and the global average of the number of students taking and passing AP Tests. In 2015, 68% of Utica High School students passed their AP exams with a 3 or higher. These trends continue to show growth and demonstrates the skill and determination of our students and of the instructional staff guiding them.
The 2015-16 school year ushers in a number of exciting opportunities at Utica High School. This fall, we will be one of only a handful of districts in the nation to offer a pilot curriculum in English 11 that is designed by the College Board to help students increase their successful matriculation to college or university level English. At the same time, Utica High was selected to be one of roughly 50 school nationwide to offer the AP Capstone Course. This two year course that starts with AP Seminar and offers an optional AP Research class in year 2 affords Utica High School students the opportunity to earn the AP International Diploma. More importantly, it will help the some 70 students enrolled in this first year of the class to develop skills that will help them across the plethora of courses they will take at the university level. Utica will continue to take part in the Michigan Department of Education’s African American Young Men of Promise Initiative that began two years ago. We will continue to look at meaningful practice and how in encourages all of our students to find and achieve greatness in their studies.
At the same time, Utica High continues to do what we do best, help all of its students develop into great learners and members of our shared community. Two years ago, Utica began its AVID initiative. AVID literally means Advancement Via Individual Determination. This program which is expanding into its second year of direct instruction of students, Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading strategies to help students that would typically not be on a path to be successful in AP or college bound courses develop the skill necessary to become successful. Those five strategies are the heart and soul of the Utica High School Improvement Plan. Why? Because they are proven to work! We talk a great deal about how taking an AP course increases the likelihood of a student going to and completing a college degree. Research demonstrates that AVID has the same, and in many ways, greater capacity to help students find success after Utica High School. At Utica High, our goal is to assure that every student has the opportunity to meet and exceed their academic expectations. That starts and ends with the student.
Parents, family, and friends are a critical part of that starting point. Educational researchers suggest that parents and the home plays an incredible part in student success. Your investment in your student’s success starts with your interest in what your student is doing, and how well they are doing it. Utica Community Schools offers access to PowerSchool for all parents. Our teachers regularly use and update their PowerSchool gradebooks making progress reports and reports almost outmoded. We have now added to that the Naviance system. This program will allow parents to shepherd the College Application and Scholarship Application process. This is not just a task for junior parents, but one that must begin in 9th grade and continue through senior year. Naviance allows parents and students to sort colleges, to determine best choices for students, and see what scholarships might be available. If used to its fullest, it provides UHS students with unprecedented access to college readiness. Embedded in the program are opportunities for parents and family to explore college funding application tutorials, stories from real people who run the gamut from leaders of industry to artists, and a variety of perspective-giving information that will help your family make appropriate decisions on post-secondary education and/or career training. In addition, it provides test prep opportunities for our students, including a newly redesigned prep for the SAT. Parent access can be found at https:// bit.ly/UHSNavianceFamily
Last but not least, we’re excited for 2015-16 because it is the first year that will see all Michigan students taking the redesigned SAT. Utica High teachers were provided with exclusive training by the College Board on the revised SAT and have already begun working to assure your students will have the best opportunity to succeed. This year, our 11th grade students will ALL take the PSAT in October. That PSAT is redesigned to align with the revised SAT. Students will be able to take score data and plug it into Khan Academy and receive individualized tutorials and test prep to help them become even more successful on the SAT which will be administered in April. That administration marks a significant change from the state of Michigan. The SAT will now replace the MEAP to evaluate student proficiency in English Language Arts and Mathematics. That means a reduction of nearly 8 hours in testing in 2016 versus 2015. That is great news. And, to put worries to rest, the transition to the SAT will not impact your child’s efforts to apply for college. Universities and colleges across the country accept and have accepted SAT. Conversion charts are easily accessible online and scholarship and entrance criteria documents are already being rewritten to reflect the change.
As we get into the fall we begin an exciting process of working on the Utica High School Mission and Vision, but that will wait until later in the fall. For now, we look forward to an exciting start to school. The second week of school will be Utica High School’s Homecoming. That means, the first Monday of the school year is our competition assembly. That assembly will occur during the first two hours of the school day. It is a lot of fun. Students show pride by wearing their colors and it is a fun day. It is important that it is not the end of our day. Last year, over 600 students left school following the assembly. Their parents called them in. Not only did that create an incredible strain on our office staff, but it meant that hours of planning by teachers was disregarded, and learning stopped. This year’s students have a challenge. If we want the assembly to remain, school must go on! Friday, September 18 will be the homecoming parade and game, and Saturday will be the Homecoming Dance at Utica High School.
There are a number of new faces at Utica High this fall. I look forward to the Utica Arrow’s coverage on new staff. Briefly, our Social Studies department welcomes two new staff members, Mr. Steve Shaefer in Economics and Mr. Ed Wessell in History. Our Special Education department welcomes Mrs. Holly Bommarito who will be teaching in a variety of co-taught classes. And, our EL department welcomes Mr. Randall Hart who will be our new English Content teacher. We’re incredibly fortunate to continue to have an incredible team of teachers at Utica High School.
It’s September, and we’re ready to go! We’re excited to have your students back in the halls of Utica High School, we’re eager to meet the new students joining us in the class of 2018, and eager to begin learning. Welcome back Chieftains, we look forward to another great year!
Sincerely,
Tom Lietz
Principal
