6 | march 2018
theVoice
A FEW WORDS FROM RPS 205 SUPERINTENDENT
Students receive top rankings in test scores Good news coming from Rockford Public Schools
Cortney Schermerhorn knows what choice looks like in the Rockford Public Schools. More importantly, she knows what choice looks like for her daughter, who is newly engaged in learning. Schermerhorn transferred her daughter, Ella Shoemaker, this fall from a private school to the new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) Academy at Haskell. An 11-year teacher in the district and an instructional coach at Haskell, Schermerhorn knew the school had great teachers. But she is most excited about what STEAM has done for Ella, who is in the first grade. Her daughter can describe the steps of the experiments she does in class and what they teach her. Her Measures of Academic Progress scores from fall to winter show she has nearly twice the expected growth in learning. If her daughter doesn’t understand something, she has strategies to figure it out—strategies she didn’t learn in private education. “The individualized instruction meets kids where they are. It’s a beautiful thing here,” Schermerhorn said. Her story is not unusual. The STEAM Academy -- with its integrated science curriculum and debut of a makerspace this spring-- is just one of the special programs in RPS 205 offering a quality and diversity of education unmatched in the region. These are just some of our special program successes: Four students in the Gifted Academy at Auburn High School received a perfect 36 on their ACT. Junior Ethan Strombeck and seniors Logan Power, Will Snedegar and Lucas Turner received a score only one-tenth of 1 percent of students taking the test receive. It’s not only a reflection on these students’ talent. Because the test reflects mastery of skills and knowledge gained, the perfect scores highlight the rigor of gifted coursework and the hard work and dedication of Gifted Academy staff. It wasn’t the only good news for the gifted program. Fifth through eighth grade students at Thurgood Marshall School had the highest composite score on state standardized tests, measured against fifth through eighth graders at other public schools in Illinois. Marshall Elementary, which is for gifted students in first through fourth grades, was the sixth-highest performing elementary school in Illinois when comparing gradelevel composite scores. But we are not resting on our laurels in the gifted program. We have refined the gifted math sequence and added instruction in Mandarin Chinese.
Dr. Ehren Jarrett Superintendent RPS 205
Maria Montessori at Marsh features teachers who have special certification in this approach, which emphasizes a strong sense of community, personal responsibility and self-directed learning. Students from prekindergarten through eighth grade stay with the same teacher for two or three years. School-wide projects extend the sense of community to the world community. Montessori students, for instance, have raised more than $1,000 for the organization Water for South Sudan. A special lottery for seats in prekindergarten is held every year. In the Two-Way Language Immersion program at Barbour, students in kindergarten through eighth grade demonstrate an increasing level of proficiency in two languages. In kindergarten and first grade, students receive 90 percent of their daily instruction in Spanish; instructional time in English is increased by 10 percent each subsequent grade. Reading, writing and speaking in two languages opens doors of opportunity and is a precious asset in the global marketplace. Seats in the program are determined by annual lottery. A language assessment is also required. Our Creative and Performing Arts program for grades 6-12 provides a unique learning experience in dance, instrumental music, theater-tech and media arts, and vocal music and visual arts. Acceptance is by audition; the program is at West Middle School and Auburn High School. The quality of our program can be measured by its alumni— among them Grammy winner Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child and Nathan Alan Davis, a Julliard-trained playwright who wrote the acclaimed “Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea,” which is showing in Chicago this month. If you are interested in these opportunities for your children, family or friends, I encourage you to go to our website at rps205.com and click on “programs” from the tab at the top of the home page. Better yet, make arrangements to tour any of the buildings that house our special programs. When you do, you’ll see Rockford Public Schools offers strong choices that adapt to students’ unique learning styles, preparing them for life and lifelong learning. Dr. Ehren Jarrett is superintendent of Rockford Public Schools. The views expressed are those of Dr. Jarrett’s and do not necessarily represent those of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.