Search This Blog

Thursday, January 25, 2018

January 2018 Guest Post


January 2018 Guest Post: Jake Nipper, Sage Creek High School

Each month, a student from one of our high schools will write a guest post for the Superintendent Blog. The students will be asked to reflect on one of the characteristics described in our Graduate Profile. This month, for the inaugural post, Sage Creek High School student Jake Nipper reflects on the characteristic of “Effective Communicator and Collaborator.”

Carlsbad Unified Graduate Profile: Effective Communicator and Collaborator
“Graduates convey their thoughts and responses clearly. They interact productively to achieve common goals.”



Let’s take a look at a hypothetical student named Billy. Billy is a senior in high school, and his favorite subject is physics. He is working on his application to his top college choice, and finally gets to the point he’s been dreading: personal essays. He despises writing. Billy thinks he shouldn’t have to demonstrate proficiency in writing to get into a physics program.


He’s wrong.


There’s a reason personal essays are included in all college applications. They demonstrate a ubiquitous skill that is necessary for success in any and all career paths: communication.


Effective communication is a vital part of working with others and sharing information. There’s not a single industry or profession that doesn’t require it. It’s not just an academic skill, either. It is a part of life. Effective communication can be the difference between getting a raise or getting fired for insubordination at work. It can be the difference between getting a call back or getting ignored after a first date. It can be the difference between someone doing a job the way you wanted or getting everything wrong, based on the way you instructed them. If anything has to do with interacting with other people, communication is key.


Teaching any subject without embedding effective communication skills in a curriculum is one of the biggest disservices a teacher can do for their students. Fortunately for the students at Sage Creek, our teachers and faculty are extremely aware of this fact, and give students opportunities to grow in the skill of communication inside and outside of the classroom. Through group assignments, on-demand essays, presentations, speeches, Socratic seminars, electives, extracurriculars, and the Genius Project, students naturally develop communication and social skills as they learn academic subjects.


All Sage Creek students have had the chance to participate in a Socratic seminar on at least one occasion, and anyone that has knows how vital communication skills are to creating a good seminar. In a Socratic seminar, students gather in a group and participate in a free-form discussion on a topic with little to no teacher influence. Students must convey their ideas to one another impromptu-style and effectively if they want their idea or topic to be explored further by the group. It requires both quick thinking and excellent verbal skills to do so in such an environment, especially when an entire classroom is listening to your every word. And with plenty of Socratic seminars in our English curriculum, it helps to foster both of the aforementioned attributes.


Personally, one of the activities that has grown my communication skills the most is the podcast my friend Darius and I started this year, SagePOL. It’s an ongoing project for my multimedia journalism class, and began as an outlet for me to explore political, social, and economic issues from different perspectives. It has since evolved into my Genius Project. Working with another person that thinks differently than I do and trying to create a structured, organized podcast can be difficult, but through the script writing, planning, recording, and retakes, Darius and I have both become better orators between ourselves and in front of an audience.


Not only is effective communication an essential skill in the workplace, it is an essential skill in life. To function in society, one must have a mastery of their ability to convey thoughts to others. And I believe that Sage Creek High School prepares its students for exactly that.

---

"Jake Nipper is a senior at Sage Creek High School. Next year, he plans to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to study business and pre-medicine. He’s a car enthusiast and an outspoken political voice on campus. He co-hosts a politics podcast online."

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

January 2018 Message from the Superintendent


AP District Honor Roll


Carlsbad Unified started off the New Year with the notification that we were again named to the annual AP (Advanced Placement) Honor Roll, the third time we were awarded that designation in the last five years. Only 447 school districts in the nation, and 34 in California, received this honor, and we were the only district in San Diego County selected for it.

The AP District Honor Roll “recognizes school districts committed to increasing access to AP for underrepresented students while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher. AP District Honor Roll recipients are committed to expanding the availability of AP courses among prepared and motivated students of all backgrounds.” (AP Central, The College Board)*

We are proud to have been selected. The award reflects the commitment of our Board, administrators, teachers, counselors, and students to academic excellence for all. Carlsbad Unified has continued to expand its Advanced Placement program because we believe that all students will achieve.

One of our primary LCAP (Local Control Accountability Plan) goals is “to ensure that students demonstrate academic growth and proficiencies so they leave K-12 ready for college/career”; and one of CUSD’s key success indicators is “to increase the number of high school students enrolled in at least one Honors, Advanced Placement, or Community College class by 2%.” In 2016-17, an impressive 63% of Carlsbad Unified high school students were enrolled in at least one of these challenging classes

Students at Carlsbad and Sage Creek High Schools currently can select from a full array of Advanced Placement classes, including Advanced Placement Biology, Calculus, English Composition, and United States History. Over 83% of students in 2016-17 who took an AP Exam scored 3 or higher. (The statewide average is 62%.) And, while our pass rates remain high, we continue to increase the number of students who take at least one Advanced Placement Course—930 students took AP exams in 2016-17 compared to 827 in 2015-16, an increase of 103 students. Students work hard in these college-level classes, while acquiring the skills they need to be successful in college and their careers. Besides exposing students to a rigorous curriculum, AP classes can improve students’ chances of getting into their dream colleges; satisfy college prerequisites so they can take more interesting classes; and possibly even save thousands of dollars in tuition.

We congratulate our outstanding AP students and their talented teachers and administrators whose efforts earned CUSD the AP Honor Roll designation.

On behalf of our School Board and the administrators, teachers, and staff at Carlsbad Unified, we wish you an exciting, successful, and healthy New Year!
*Inclusion on the 8th Annual AP District Honor Roll is based on the examination of three years of AP data, from 2015 to 2017, for the following criteria: • Increased participation/access to AP by at least 4% in large districts, at least 6% in medium districts, and at least 11% in small districts. • Increased or maintained percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students taking exams and increased or maintained the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students scoring 3+ on at least one AP Exam; and • Improved performance levels when comparing the percentage of students in 2017 scoring a 3 or higher than those in 2015, unless the district has already attained a performance level at which more than 70% of its AP students are scoring a 3 or higher.When these outcomes have been achieved among an AP student population in which 30% or more are underrepresented minority students (American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander) and/or 30% or more are low-income students (students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch), a symbol has been affixed to the district name to highlight this work.