Medfield High School Improvement Plan: Pilot Program

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 nine of our 11-part Medfield High School series.

Students and staff at Medfield High School will participate in an advisor and advisee pilot program during the 2011-2012 academic year, according to former Medfield High School principal Judy Noble.

“We continue to look at the feasibility of having a formal advisor and advisee program at the high school,” Noble said while presenting her end of the year report and improvement plan to the school committee in June.

Noble said MHS faculty, during professional development, was educated about the advisor-advisee program from staff at a neighboring high school.

“We actually had the principal from Hopkinton High School as well as the teacher who is in charge of the program there come in and do some professional development with us,” Noble said.

The pilot program, according to Noble, will take place for “about 20 minutes” every other week throughout the year. Staff members participating in the program will be responsible for a small group of students.

“Groups will [have] 13 students per staff member,” Noble said. “Staff members will not only be teachers but be administrators, special education aides … the secretaries will be invited to participate if they would like to. It won’t necessarily be assigned to them.”

 Noble said over the summer, two faculty members have been working on a research and development project to develop “approximately 20 curriculum lessons” for the pilot program.

“Each lesson will last about 20 minutes,” Noble said.

It is the hope of the high school administration that the pilot program will create more support for students through more interaction with different staff members.

“We hope this program will allow for the connection of students to another faculty member that they may or may not have in class but in a non-grading situation so that students will be able to form a relationship and have another ally in the building,” Noble said. “We know the kids have pretty good relationships with their guidance counselors but the guidance counselors have a very big student load. To be able to have 13 students, who can identify with a particular teacher and create that relationship with them is a good thing.”

Another aspect of the pilot program is the relationships students form with each other.

“We’ve heard a significant amount when we went out and visited schools was the relationships kids form with each other because they’re not necessarily, it’s a random grouping, so they’re not necessarily with students that they spend their day with,” Noble said. “At other schools, it was reported that those relationships became very deep and students were supporting kids they wouldn’t ordinarily have met or spent time with.”

Noble said the program, which is likely to begin in the fall, is a win-win situation for students, teachers and the school as a whole.

To read part one of this series, 

To read part two of this series,  

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To read part four of this series, click here.

 To read part five of this series, click here.

To read part six of this series, click here.

To read part seven of this series,

To read part eight of this series, click here.