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I’m looking forward to visiting the Adlai E. Stevenson High School with District teachers this May. Approximately 40 District teachers and staff already visited the school located just outside of Chicago earlier this month and reported a positive and enlightening experience. In addition, the Superintendent of the school Dr. Tim Kanold has been working with Grossmont District teachers for almost two years, assisting our District with implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s). Adlai Stevenson is one of only three high schools in the nation to earn four blue ribbon awards (1987, 1991, 1998, and 2002) for excellence from the U. S. Department of Education and PLC’s are the basis for that success. Adlai Stevenson High School received a new American High School Award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1998 for innovation and successfully implementing school improvement reforms. In 2005, Newsweek ranked Adlai Stevenson High School among the top 100 high schools in America, the fourth time the magazine has recognized the school. U.S. News and World Report has also ranked Adlai Stevenson High School as among the top 100 schools in the country. Adlai Stevenson’s curriculum and academic philosophy has been highlighted in the publications of Business Week, The New Yorker, U.S.A. Today, and The New Republic. In 2005, Adlai Stevenson’s advanced program gave 3,029 AP exams, more than anywhere in the world. Enrollment at Adlai Stevenson has nearly doubled in the past seven years, from 723 to 1,314 students; at the same time, the number of exams administered has jumped from 1,611 to 3,029. Their results remain consistently high. The average score in 2005 was 3.9. Adlai Stevenson’s performance on the ACT is contrary to natural trends of flat scores. While 99 percent of the students take the exam, for the past decade Adlai Stevenson’s average composite score was 25.1 increasing from 20.6. Adlai Stevenson High School has been written and highlighted by such renown educators as Thomas Sergiovanni’s, Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together, Jossey-Bass, 2004; Michael Schmokers, The Results Field Book: Practice Strategies From Dramatically Improved Schools (Acts of 2001); Inside Out: Learning From the Positive Deviance in Your Organization, by Joan Richardson NCDC (2004). In 1995, Illinois State Board of Education officials selected Adlai Stevenson High School’s District as the first district in the state to receive its highest honor, Those Who Excel Learning Communities Awards of Excellence. It is with great anticipation that we not only visit Adlai Stevenson High School, but that we bring those practices and characteristics back to the Grossmont Union High School District and our own Professional Learning Communities. |
