Renew Steller

Results from:

Interests, Views and Contact Information Survey

1/31/07

 

Total # in Attendance = 88+

Total # of Surveys = 25 (20 parents + 5 students)

 

Counseling Groups Represented from Surveys:

Bob = 2                                                Ken = 2

Jack = 1                                                Lany = 1

Jean = 3                                               Nina = 1

Jennifer = 1                                         Phillip = 4

Jim = 3                                                 Shannon = 2

                    No CG Listed = 6

 

Interested in Learning More About or Working on:

 

Educational Methods

Jacquier                 Koenig                    Shively                   Blunt

McNulty                 Eggleston (2)          Whealy                   Ban

Grover                   Morris                   Riley                       Jordan

Youree

 

School Organization

Blunt                      McNulty                 Eggleston, M.          Whealy

Grover                   Morris                   Jordan                   OMalley

Cruz

 

Staff & Student Body Development

Lankford                Eggleston, M.          Whealy                   OMalley

Cruz

 

Community

McNulty                 Youree                   Grabman                 Shively

Koenig                    Lankford                OMalley

 

 

Keeping the Vision

Shively                   Grabman                 Niman           Hafferman

Galvin

 

Interested in Working All 5 Areas Simultaneously

Blunt                      Grover                   Morris                   Jordan, J.

 

Comments/Interests:

 

“Take what we have that’s good & make it better.  Find what was lost & still desirable & resurrect it.  Being a part of cohesive/unified dedicated group to work for change.”  “The triad of control (staff, student, parents) seems difficult to manage, too many visionaries.  Distill ideas and align them to the philosophy needs to be done, renewed, redone (never be done b/c life changes).  But some decisions must be made so that work can begin.”   J. Jordan

 

“I’m learning as much as I can about it!” N. Morris

 

“I’d like to understand your reasoning (such as in keeping the vision).” B. Hafferman

 

“Getting more students involved in their own education, the Steller community, and the greater community.”  B. Grabman

 

“Helping to strengthen the school.”  J. Shively

 

“To learn & help Steller grow & learn more about things happening around Steller community.”  M. OMalley

 

“Reaching the students who need Steller.  Open grading and learning options.  Dumping the 2.0 GPA requirements & replacing it w/ a more comprehensive analysis of success (attendance, effort, improvement).”  C. Lankford

 

“Promoting this program to families that may not have information – Title 1 schools, non-optional elementary student.  Expanding seminar programs.”  L. Youree

 

“Greater responsibility & freedom should be delivered w/ accountability.  Grades are important.  No to selective recruitment for Steller.  Fundraising intensive.”  M. McNulty

 

“I’m glad to see this as a process involving the whole Steller community.”  D. Riley

 

“Staff & Student Body Dev:  lottery process should be open (answer to 3.c is “no.”  Diversity is good!  Keeping the Vision:  having older student(s) helping younger (or new to Steller) students is a good idea.  ie:  older student(s) going to lunch w/younger students(s) to blend/fit in better & not be so shy for example.”  V. Petrov

 

“Not sure – it would be nice to have a follow up meeting to reassess where things stand (as far as input & comments tonight) & what’s next.”  A. McFarlane

 

“Not sure exactly where I’ll fit in best, however, I’m glad this renewal has come about.  I do have concerns about counseling groups; some seem more involved than others.  I have a 7th grade son and he’s not a big communicator; so I’m not sure what is going on, emails haven’t been much help.  This weekend I’m spending time w/ Steller alumni and I plan to bring the renewal of Steller to discuss with them.  Thanks.”  M. Janigo

 

“Seminar training to be coach & to be able to substitute in these classes.”  W. Whealy

 

“I’m willing to continue with this productive conversation.  This staff needs support so our students can thrive.  Our morning King Career Center Student was pretty out of touch w/ what has been happening here all Fall b/c CG are always in the mornings.” M. Eggleston

 

“Working seminar practices into more classes.  Using the Service Seminar School as a model for these classes.  More guidance for SDLs.  Keeping letter grades but adding options for student self-assessment.” S. Ban

 

I.  Educational Methods.  I-1d:  develop relationship w/ university.  3 d)  I believe it is a little redundant, good ideas.  Though I lean more towards I–3d.  I-3f ) depth over breadth.  How much so?  What would the measurement be?  Would it be individualized results?  I-4: penalties for failure?  Isn’t “failure” followed w/ learning from a failure?  I-4d) I believe this runs into II School Organization:  II-6b & II-7 (flexible schedule).  III-13 Student recruitment: b & c voiced my disapproval and concern on these issues during meeting.  III-14-b Admissions:  a more preferable avenue then 13b & 14c.  IV Community: 16b) togetherness.  Create a speaker’s bureau..lots of ?s who? What about? Expert?  C) maybe extra curricular not necessarily “extended.”  Explain.  IV -17 Community Involvement 17b a great idea.  Follow through & dedication.  18a) reward individuality isn’t this already integrated into Steller as the norm.  V Strategic Planning 19b) doesn’t this go back to # 13- student recruitment? -- This is a great school & I hope & will try to help its vision doesn’t get clouded.  Keep up the great work.  Thank you.”  A. Blunt

 

“Concerned about making Steller elitist by only allowing open-optional students to attend.  Feel Steller benefits from having such a diverse population who come from all over Anchorage not just a small pocket who all think the same way.  I don’t feel the pass or fail is a good idea.  There are colleges out there that don’t buy into that philosophy and it may hinder a student’s progress to get into certain colleges.  I don’t agree with Wednesday Volunteer Day.  Feel that Steller has so many other things that take away from formal learning that how could we possibly get all the core classes in (Steller Olympics, Orientation, Registration Days); feel volunteerism should be optional or make this Wednesday quarterly.”  L. Cruz

 

“Educational best practices.  Improved communication b/t teachers and parents; follow through on commitments made to contact parents.  Education research findings are very clear on several points regarding best practice w/ respect to testing and student learning: 1) student are best served when test results are made available to them as swiftly as possible after testing dates (& only rarely, under unusual circumstances, any later than one week after the test date); 2) students are best severed when they have ownership of and access to their own test papers, meaning, students keep their own test papers, share their test papers w/ their parents, and use them for further study – rather than teachers keeping students’ test papers; 3) students are best served by being involved & intimately familiar w/ designing and using the rubric used to grade their tests – where possible, by direct involvement in the test evaluation process (as in the 6+1 traits writing rubric scoring process). – Consistent with the Steller philosophy of a humane education, test results would be made available to students in a timely manner after exam dates.  Consistent with the Steller philosophy of students “being responsible for assisting in the continuous evaluation of their performance,” students would be directly involved w/ test scoring, when possible, & always have all their test papers returned for them to keep, share w/ parents & study.” S. Jacquier