Looking Back – Fall 2018

LOOKING BACK:

Dear Parent / Guardian –

I hope you and your family had a wonderful winter break. As we return to school and kick off 2019, I wanted to provide an update on one of the changes we’ve made this year to support our vision to provide an innovative, seamless, and quality education for high potential, motivated students, grades 9-12, and graduates them from high school while successfully completing an Associate Degree..

This school year, with the support of our teachers and district leaders, Pathways Middle College adopted a research-backed, personalized approach to teaching and learning where:

• Students are engaged in rigorous projects that reflect the world around them, giving them practice with skills that will help throughout their life—like collaborating with a team, interpreting data, and presenting a persuasive argument.
• Students are having regularly one-on-one meetings with a dedicated mentor, who is getting to know them deeply and supports them in setting and achieving their personal goals.
• Students are developing “self-direction” — an invaluable skill that can be applied to any task in the adult world. They’re learning how to set goals, make plans, and reflect on their learning.

Successfully rolling out any change at school can be challenging, but I’m incredibly thankful for the dedication of our teachers who are putting in the hard work. This school year we work tirelessly to make this transition as smooth as possible for your students. Changes such as this are required to better prepare your students for college, and we believe that your students are more prepared now than ever before.

 
We’re already seeing the positive impact on our school community; for example, we test every student in Reading, Mathematics and Language Usage.  Our Fall to Winter test results are nothing short of amazing.  Our student test growth results are:

 .                                               9^th                    10th

Reading:                                218.2%           200.0%

Mathematics:                      222.2%           134.5%

Language Usage:                304.1%           442.9%

These results are saying that our students are learning more than what is projected for them to learn.  This is incredible.

 
We’re committed to building on this progress in 2019. As we do so, we want to hear your feedback! Please reach out to me if you have questions or comments on the changes and improvements this year, or anything else happening in our school.

Best wishes,

Christopher D. McAdoo M.Ed.L.

Principal of Pathways Middle College