Principal Matters

It’s a new year and we are moving from good to great at Capuchino High School! We are proud to know that we offer an experience that prepares students for college and career. As the only IB World School in the San Mateo Union High School District, these guiding principles allow us to create courses that give students the essential skills to be successful in both high school and beyond. Our courses are rigorous and students learn by doing. They also learn how to research, write, critically think and demonstrate their knowledge of subject content.

We are extremely aware of the necessity to attain a college education and/or post-secondary training and this knowledge has shifted how we educate our students.
 

Moving into 2nd semester, students are one step closer to attaining a greater degree of knowledge and skills. With your continued support at home, we form the perfect partnership to see students meet their goals. As we shift from the holiday season, I encourage you to make sure your children continue to establish healthy study habits and form open lines of communication with their teachers. Most students have learned the ropes by now and should be off to a strong start in this new year. If you have any concerns about your child’s academic or social progress at school, please inform their teacher, counselor or administrator.

Citizenship Talks: 2nd Semester

Starting the 2nd week of the second semester the dean and administration will be going into class-rooms to remind students of our behavioral and academic expectations. We will review the following:

• Academic Integrity/Violations
• Bullying
• Dress Code
• New Facilities
• Pride of Ownership

These topics are timely and relevant and our goal is to ensure that our students continue to demonstrate respectable behavior as we get one step closer to the end of the academic school year.

CAHSEE News

Second semester is off and running and with it comes the testing season. The first big test is the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) on February 7th and 8th. All 10th graders will take the test, as will all 12th graders who still need to pass the test for graduation. In addition to being a graduation requirement for students, this is the test that is primarily used to determine the school's program improvement status. For Capuchino to continue to increase our API scores, it is important that all 10th graders take the test and do their best. Both the CAHSEE scores and the STAR scores are combined to help inform our API scores. Remember, our school jumped 39 points this last year and much of that jump is due to a stronger performance on the CAHSEE exam.

We know that this test is one measure of what students know, but Teachers and students continue to work hard to prepare students for the test. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call.

-Mr. Montgomery

School Action Plan: WASC Wrapping Up

After months of parents, students, staff and faculty participating in the school self-study as outlined in the WASC process, several categories emerged for us to continue to work on as a school. Below is a general overview of the areas and action items to put into motion:

• Examine department/school-wide grading practices to ensure equity and accurate measures of student knowledge.
• Provide additional staffing to help properly place students in academic interventions.
• Tweak bell schedule to include academic support time within the school day.
• Expand freshman teams and pilot 10th grade team.
• Train co-teachers to assist special education students in mainstream classes.
• Continue to backwards map to the IB curriculum and assessments.
• Infuse academic literacy strategies across the curriculum.
• Identify common practices as a school.
• Continue outreach efforts to families.
• Continue to examine data related to college eligibility and retention rates.

The months of January and February will be used to finalize the WASC document in preparation for the committee visit March 5-7.