Marshalltown Times Republican

High school reform plan continues forward

The ever-changing plan for improvement at Marshalltown High School was detailed to the Marshalltown School Board Tuesday during a special update meeting.

District and MHS administrators continue to work on what was formerly known as the reform plan and now is called a "Recommitment to Best Practice." The plan was a result of the school's listing as a persistently low-achieving school in the state from standardized test scores.

Among the focus areas of the plan is improving curriculum and it appears struggling students will get more attention this fall. Reading and math intervention classes for those low-testing students will feature smaller class sizes with 15 students to one teacher.

"It's a must," retiring MHS Principal Bonnie Lowry said of these intervention classes. "If we are going to make a difference in student achievement, we have to set the intervention at the classroom level."

With so much attention paid to students who test in lower percentiles, board member Larry Schrum wanted to make sure the high school doesn't ignore the high-achieving students as well.

"In my view you can take our top 100 graduates and match them up with anybody and I don't want to lose that," Schrum said.

Student attendance is another area of focus of the improvement plan and one measure was put into place at the end of last school year - the automated wake up calls for chronically-tardy students.

Lisa Wunn, MHS dean of students, said the calls were working and shaved the tardy numbers for some of these students. She said most of the response from parents on the calls was positive. It's unclear whether the wake up calls will continue this fall.

"We haven't sat down as a team to see if they will continue," Wunn said.

Another measure discussed was the implementation of an Academic Success Center at MHS that students can be sent to for more help in classes they are struggling with. Often times, it will mean they are shifted from a study hall to the center which has certified teachers ready to help.

There are several other measures of the plan being put into place this fall including improving safety, closing the campus for lunch and lengthening class time on Wednesdays.

Lowry said the plan will continue to be modified as the weeks go on.

"We really feel that this is a work in progress and that things could change along the way," she said.

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