Medfield High School Academic Year in Review: Curriculum

Editor's Note: Medfield Patch will take an individual look at each theme in Judy Noble’s end of year report at the high school and will also take an in-depth look at goals for the 2011-12 academic year, new curriculum being offered in the fall, an advisor-advisee pilot program taking place, student life and community involvement and the transition from Noble to Robert Parga as Medfield High School principal. This is part two of our 11-part Medfield High School series.

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: 

While there were plenty of highlights in terms of curriculum and instruction throughout the year, Noble said in terms of assessment, one of the high school's goals was not met in 2010-11 and will be maintained as a goal under Parga this coming year. 

"One major goal we had this year that did not get met was to create data sources for our civic and social expectations that are part of our learner outcomes," Noble said. "As we started to do this, we determined that before we could actually go ahead and look at collecting data, we needed to make the expectations more measurable, so we started throughout the year to take a look at recrafting the statements themselves and this summer there is actually a [committee] of five people who are going to refine that and make the statements into measurable, quantitative descriptors and then those will be presented to the faculty in September and at that point, the process of actually determining what data will be collected to measure those will take place. So that has remained as a goal for next year. We are further along now then we were at the beginning of the year.”

Year Highlights:

• Students participated in a great number of community service projects through school and other organizations. Some examples include: students working at the town library, the senior center or helping specific teachers in the high school and other schools.

"This year, we decided to add another opportunity for some of our seniors," Noble said. "The last two class days for seniors were designated as community service days. During this time, seniors participated in a number of activities around town."

• Two Monday afternoons per month were designated for teachers to collaborate within and across disciplines for the purpose of elevating the caliber of student work. 
• The faculty reviewed and continues to review and refine curriculum and instructional methodologies at all levels.

The faculty and administrative team worked together this past year to develop three new courses for 2011-2012 academic year at the high school: Ballroom Dance, the Holocaust and Athletic Training. There will also be a new course offered at the AP level - AP Government will replace Richard DeSorgher's political science course. DeSorgher retired in June after 35 years with the district. As part of our series, we will take a closer look at the new courses being offered under: "Medfield High School Academic Year in Review: New Curriculum."

To read part one of this series,