November 2, 2007

We’ve made it to Friday again! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I occurred to me as I was getting ready to come to work today that we’ve been extremely fortunate not to have fog issues this fall. I know—some of you may be missing those delays! But I don’t miss making all those phone calls! We’ve really had some beautiful fall weekend weather, and it looks like this weekend will be no exception.

Monday I visited the Construction Trades Academy project house in Huntsville and really enjoyed watching all the students in action. They had just finished setting trusses and were starting on the plywood for the roof. It’s amazing what these students can accomplish in just 10 weeks of school! They were obviously proud of their work (as they should be) and seemed to be anxious to tell me all about it. There was certainly a lot of teamwork and cooperative learning going on, and they looked like little “worker bees” all over the place! Thanks to Mr. Hedges, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Limes, and Mr. Marsteller for guiding our students through this major undertaking! We’ll look forward to seeing the finished product in the spring.

As we work to become a more data-driven district, we’ve made efforts in many areas to collect and analyze more data. Shane Haggerty, Communications Coordinator, shared with me some data from a recent student survey he conducted to determine the effectiveness of various marketing strategies. He had 148 students respond, and there were some interesting results:
· They most prefer to receive communication via their cell phones (as opposed to e-mail), and 84 percent have a cell phone.
· They spend far more time on the Internet than watching TV, listening to radio, or reading.
· 40 percent visit our website more than 5 times a week, and 88 percent visit at least once a week.
· They want to see video, podcasts, and blogs on our website.
· The biggest factor in their deciding to attend OHP (37 percent) was Career Days and other visits!

I know we have Career Days coming up soon, and this data underscores the importance of your hard work in getting ready for those student visitors. I know they’ll experience the “WOW” factor, just as our new students did this fall!

Darlene Roll, Intervention and Testing Aide, shared some data related to our recent OGT testing:
· Total tests proctored – 576
· Total staff members (and subs) who at one point or another helped with OGT during the first week – 41.
· We needed to employ a Russian translator for the first time!

This testing is a huge effort on the part of many, and we’re faced with higher numbers of students needing to pass the OGT when they come to us each year. But I know you’re all committed to helping them be successful, and I thank you for your tremendous effort!

While I’m on a “data kick,” I wanted to share that the statewide 2006/2007 Secondary CTE performance data was recently released. Two measures we can be very proud of are the number of students we reach for follow-up (Status Known), and OCTCA test results (Technical Skill Attainment)—we are above the state average on both and also made significant gains over the previous year. We still have some work to do in other areas, but the data shows we’re moving in the right direction. We haven’t received the Adult Workforce Education performance measures yet, but we’ll be sharing those as we get them. Nila Marquard, Darlene Chiles, Julia Barton, Lisa McCullough and I have recently attended Ohio Department of Education updates on the new Perkins IV legislation and requirements, and one thing is certain—we will be seeing significant changes in the performance measures themselves and the way they are calculated. As the new requirements are finalized, we will share the information with you and begin to formulate our strategy for helping our students be successful. I’m confident we can meet the challenge!

I hope you all have a great weekend!