Our school is helping all students develop the world class skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by placing an emphasis on innovative instructional practices to address our state standards through our Professional Learning Communities that we call Teacher Learning Teams (TLT) and STEAM opportunities. Our instruction is data-driven and based on our rigorous state standards to ensure that our students develop the skills to be successful. Our professional learning opportunities provide teachers with knowledge of the skills required to fit the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate and practices that enable them to prepare our students to be college and career ready. Through the analysis of data in our TLTs, instruction is more personalized as teachers plan instruction and assessment for those students that meet, exceed, or did not meet the standards assessed. These personalized experiences allow students’ needs to be met in preparation for both testing and real world experiences. Our STEAM Academy gives students opportunities to discover the relationships among science, technology, engineering, arts and math through PBL experiences and collaborative learning. Our seniors complete a Senior Project where they choose a career or societal issue to explore. To complete the Senior Project, students develop and utilize the world class skills of the SC Graduate. Students conduct research, create proposals, conduct interviews, participate in job shadowing, and present their findings to a group of their peers. The experiences they gain and the lessons they learn through the Senior Project process prove invaluable as these students begin the transition to life after high school. We believe the combination of Senior Project, STEAM and planning in TLTs helps equip our graduates with the world-class skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our students also utilize world class skills through our Dual Credit offerings and Advanced Placement courses where they can earn credits and experience college course work prior to graduating from high school. Other CHS programs through which our students may acquire world class skills include Swofford Career Center, Jobs for America’s Graduates, JROTC, Internship, job shadowing and LiBros and Page Turners, our boys and girls book clubs. Participation in our book clubs increased this year to over one half of our student body. Our Response to Intervention program targets struggling students and provides them a mentor teacher who assists them in developing good study habits, monitoring progress in completing projects and assignments, and in preparation for tests. To assist our ESOL students, we provide ESOL professional learning opportunities for all our teachers and an on-site ESOL teacher. We incorporate instructional strategies aimed at ESOL students as well as all struggling students as a routine component of our monthly professional development with all our teachers. The teachers in both our Response to Intervention and ESOL programs help those students develop essential skills that help them develop the world class skill of knowing how they learn and in turn how to apply that knowledge to reach success. Our English and math teachers also use guided instruction and reading and writing workshop which includes conferencing with students. Through conferencing, teachers are able to address specific needs of students as they also employ the world class skill of knowing how to learn as teachers help these students set goals for their learning.
We continued an Early Release program this year allowing our teachers to have one hour of departmental collaborative time every week. Teachers have continued to unpack standards, identify power standards and to analyze student data enabling them to further enhance student learning.
The efforts of CHS teachers and students in the 2018-2019 school year have paid off with the 145 graduates that finished college or career ready and with the $6,928,330 in scholarships earned. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that our students are on the right track and graduate with the world-class skills of a South Carolina graduate. Thomas E. Ezell, Principal; Lindsey Steven, SIC chairperson
