There have been a couple of interesting education articles in the Oregonian this past week. The most recent one, on Friday I believe, was about possibly requiring students to have a "full load" of classes in high school. It is typically the case that 9th and 10th graders will have full schedules. For 11th and 12th grade students that isn't always the case. The state may move to a point where they link the amount of money a school receives to the "load" of classes that they have on their schedule. And so a senior who takes 4 classes (half time) would be funded by the state at half of the full monetary rate (about $7,000). This is something that we will have to be aware of as the talks at the Oregon Department of Education proceed. This could be a significant change for us in many ways.

Students and parents will begin to see a change in how classes at the high school are structured. We are moving to a standards based educational model. Teachers are spending time looking at the Oregon Department of Education web site and identifying the content area standards that they will teach in their classes. Once identified and communicated to students in course syllabi, these become the basis for passing the class. Students will have to "meet" or pass all of the standards in order to receive credit. Tests, quizzes and homework will play a larger role in passing the course. We will continue to provide information about standards based education as the year progresses.

Progress reports will be mailed home this week. This will provide students and parents a first look at how students are doing academically in all classes. While the report looks very official it is still only a progress report. These grades are not a part of a students permanent record. Only semester grades become permanent and those will come in late January. There are still 12-weeks to go in this grading period. A reminder too that both students and parents can gain access to grades at any time through Synergy Parent Vue and Synergy Student Vue. You will need to have your own unique log-in for this and we have those in the main office.

We have a short school week coming up. There is no school for students on both Thursday and Friday (October 9th and 10th). Teachers will be completing progress report grades on Thursday and Friday is a non-paid teacher Inservice day. Parents and students can expect progress reports to arrive home the week of October 13th. This is the first progress report of this semester. There will be another progress report in December and then final Semester grades will come in early February. A reminder that parents can see student grades at any time using the Synergy parent vue access. This also goes for students using student vue access. Please see our front office staff if you do not have the password for your account.