SASS Program Begins October 1st

Students Assisting Student Success

Need math help?  SASS (Students Assisting Student Success) is now available to support students.  This is a student-led math tutoring program created through the joint efforts of the Math Department, the AHS Counseling Staff and the National Honor Society, which begins Tuesday, October 1st.  See the flyer below for more details.

Career Opportunities: October is Manufacturing Month

Waukesha Business and Manufacturing Alliance Announce Manufacturing Day & Month Opportunities

October is Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin and October 4 is National Manufacturing Day.  Mary Baer, Director of Membership Development, for the Waukesha County Business Alliance, Inc. has asked that we share the following information with students and parents regarding events that are happening during the month to focus on Manufacturing Careers. 

·        October 4 National Manufacturing Day

Multiple Manufacturers are opening their doors for tours.  (Info attached.)  Also check out the www.mfgday.com website for a Manufacturing Day Educator Tool Kit.

·        October 16 Discover Manufacturing

Discover Manufacturing at WCTC

Targeted toward: High School Students and parents to discover what manufacturing looks like in the 21st century and how it can provide a solid career opportunity.  Meet cutting-edge manufacturers in our community and see the types of products they produce. Learn about high-paying and high-demand industry careers.

Parent Strong Network

Lake Country Area Parent Strong Network 

(Sponsored by Arrowhead Union High School)

Kids today live in a society with many pressures and some high stake consequences.  Do you as a parent ever wonder?

• How do I know that my child is making positive and healthy decisions with friends and choices?
• What can I do to understand what might be “out there” that can harm my child?  (ie. experimenting with drugs, sharing information on the internet, etc.
• Do I parent teenagers differently?

Kids’ brains tend to compartmentalize the different aspects of their lives into separate sections – Family, Friends, School, and Activities. As parents, it would be nice to have a group of people in which you can connect with to discuss our kids. The Parent Strong Network is an opportunity to net work with other Lake Country area parents as we share our knowledge and experiences about various parenting topics which include but not limited to:

• Insights into why teens think and behave the way they do
• How substances impact normal brain development during the teen years
• Giving parents the tools to help raise healthy, responsible, and positively engaged children.

How to join Parent Strong:

Email Barb Whyte at : Whyte@arrowheadschools.org

Come join the group for a “Coffee Talk” at The Great Coffee Place (365 Cottonwood Avenue, Hartland) on Wednesday October 16th at 6:30pm – 7:30pm.

AHS Shout Outs

Arrowhead High School

Shout Outs to the Girls Volleyball Team

& Boys Soccer Coach Staus

A Shout Out to the Girls Volleyball team, coaches and players, for your support of the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure.  The Girls Volleyball team raised over $2,100 for breast cancer while participating in the Race for the Cure event held Sunday, September 22nd.

The photo to the right is of the team members at the finish line of the Race for the Cure.  The players gathered at the finish line to cheer on everyone as they finished the race.  Note that you can see in the picture that even the Milwaukee Fire Fighters were drawn to the energy and enthusiasm of our team.  Way to go girls, coaches and parents.  

Another Shout Out to Boys Soccer Coach, Jeff Staus, for winning his 200th game on Saturday, September 14th during the AHS Quad Soccer meet.  On Saturday, September 21st the parents and players honored Coach Staus before the game against New Berlin Eisenhower.

DPI Releases State Report Cards

Department of Public Instruction

Releases State Report Cards

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in a News Release announced that the State Report Cards for individual schools and districts are now available to the public.  Districts and schools are “evaluated on four priority areas”:

• student achievement on a state assessment;
• year-to-year student growth in reading and mathematics;
• success in closing gaps between specific groups of students; and
• predictors of high school graduation and postsecondary readiness.

The overall accountability score rates schools on a scale of 0 to 100 and places them in one of five categories:

• significantly exceeds expectations (83-100),
• exceeds expectations (73-82.9),
• meets expectations (63-72.9), 
• meets few expectations (53-62.9,
• and fails to meet expectations (52.9 and below). 

Arrowhead High School was rated as “exceeds expectations.”  When breaking down the overall accountability scores, Arrowhead scored highest in the areas of “student achievement” and “on-track for graduation/postsecondary readiness.”  For the past several years, the Arrowhead staff has developed programs, supports, and action plans focused on offering rigorous and relevant curriculum, innovative and experiential learning opportunities, quality assessment practices, as well as focusing on achievement gaps among student “supergroups” (e.g. students with disabilities; economically disadvantaged).   Although we are very proud of our students’ achievements and the work of our staff, we continue to look at areas to improve the quality of learning for our students.

The State Report Card provides a limited view of how a school or district performs.  The information provided in this reporting system is viewed as a piece of information in a much more complex and comprehensive review of our students, staff and schools performance.  The following is a comparative summary of some of the areas Arrowhead has done well based on the state’s accountability system:

Rating Area	Score	State Rank (out of approximately 500 public HS)
Overall Accountability Score and Rating	81.1 - Exceeds Expectations	22nd
Student Achievement Score	90.7	3rd
Reading Achievement	42.8	4th
Math Achievement	47.9	2nd
ACT Participation	77.7	5th

The area that we continue to focus on, as a district, are the achievement gaps for “supergroups” reported on the State Report Card.  Specifically, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students when compared to students without disabilities and those not economically disadvantaged.  As a district when we compare these “supergroups” with how the same student groups in schools of similar demographics perform, we find that our students in these groups perform at or near the top on the state tests.  We also know that when comparing the performance of the “supergroups” to non-supergroup students and then comparing to other schools that in many cases a larger gap exists.  Simply stated, Arrowhead students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students perform at or near the top when compared to the same groups from other districts.  Where a distinction is made is when comparing these students to the remainder of students, a larger gap exists compared to some other schools.  This is an area we will need to study further to better understand how the state calculates this score and how it might assist us in continuing our efforts to support all students learning needs.

Hopefully this information has been helpful in trying to understand a complex measurement system of one aspect in understanding how our students perform on the State’s measurement tool.

NOTES: To view individual district and school report cards, visit http://reportcards.dpi.wi.gov/ and click on the button for District and School Report Cards. The “What’s New” document on that website contains more information about changes to School Report Card calculations between 2011-12 and 2012-13. This news release is available electronically at: http://news.dpi.wi.gov/files/eis/pdf/dpinr2013_107.pdf. 

Arrowhead High School

State Report Card

The Arrowhead Award

The "ARROWHEAD" Award

The "Arrowhead" Award is a staff recognition presented on behalf of the School Board to recognize Arrowhead staff members based on their dedication and loyalty to Arrowhead and their passion for their profession and school, and for their impact on the school and/or program(s) throughout their career.  

Candidates are considered based on the following criteria:

·         Passion for their job and for Arrowhead

·         Loyalty to their job and to Arrowhead

·         Positively impact the image of Arrowhead

·         Face of Arrowhead-based upon their beliefs, standards and high expectations

·         Pride of being an Arrowhead employee

·         Positive attitude

·         Open to challenge and embraces opportunities to serve

·         Can do attitude

·         Continue to shape and grow

·         Creative and innovative

·         Excellence in work performance

·         Demonstrates high motivation, initiative, integrity, leadership skills, commitment and      exceptional judgment

·         Significantly impacts lives of students

·         Commitment to creating a climate of caring and respect conducive to creating a positive    learning environment

·         Participates above and beyond the regular school activities.

The following staff members were recognized as The "Arrowhead" Award recipients for 2013 by the Board of Education at the August 28th opening session:

Tom Fetkenhauer                          Denise Kostka

Amy Finn                                        Rose Lammert

Lynn Goeden-Hough                    Geoff Steinbach

John Hough                                   Sue Wipijewski

Nancy Jorgensen                          Al Zietlow