Estill High School (EHS) is helping all students develop the world-class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by empowering 21st-century learners with challenging coursework that prepares them to be college, careers, and citizen ready. EHS made modified both instructional practices and the curriculum. During the 2017-18 school year, Estill High School adopted a new mantra that was used to guide our school through the school’s year. That mantra continues to promote our change theory for student achievement. We know that for our school to be a “world-class rural school,” we have to be holistically dedicated to a consistent process of managed instruction and performance. This commitment involved the implementation of an aligned management system for continuous improvement coupled with differentiated compensation and recognition based on demonstrated effectiveness for student growth and achievement.
Estill High School has implemented improvements various programs and initiatives that focused on the development of our students in all areas. This year has been a Norming year for project-based learning and personalized learning (1:1). Our goal has been and will continue to be promoting academic excellence and cultural awareness through increased student engagement. By achieving these goals, students received a more individualized education, which provided them, with academic knowledge and assisted them in socio-academic development. Our teachers are using the school’s e-mail capabilities from any computer connected to the Internet. With our current push to infuse technology, staff and students interact using the Office 365 platform using programs ranging from One Note to Yammer. We continue to embrace the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program to assist in collaborative and intentional motivation of students. This program rewards our students for displaying positive behaviors both inside and outside of the classroom. It is our desire to foster the complete development of each child, each day, in each classroom-school wide.
Our efforts are coordinated through departmental teams and interdisciplinary teacher collaboration. Through consistent professional development, these active staff members have an understanding of the high school student and have been charged with implementing many programs and initiatives. We challenged teachers to seek new and innovative strategies to promote student engagement in the classroom. The use of Accelerated Reader, USA Test Prep, A+ Learning Intervention resources, and Gizmo are technological programs infused into various subject areas. We are striving for academic prowess in all content areas. By implementing the use of a station rotation model in all classrooms, academicians addressed the different learning styles of our students and tailored learning pathways to meet students at their individual needs.
Johnnie Miller Jr, EHS Principal
