Chesnee High School is dedicated to ensuring all students develop the world class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by placing an emphasis on innovative instructional practices to address our state standards through Professional Learning Communities that we call Teacher Learning Teams (TLTs) and through opportunities in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. First and foremost, all instruction in our school is data-driven and guided by our rigorous state standards to ensure that our students are developing needed skills. Our professional learning opportunities provide teachers with effective instructional strategies and practices that enable them to prepare our students to be college and career ready and to fit the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our instruction has become even more personalized as we analyze data and plan instruction in our TLTs for those students that did not meet standards assessed, exceeded them or met them. This year, more than ever, we relied on what our data was telling us to personalize learning and minimize instructional loss. We also built in academic recovery time during our hour long lunch, SLT and on Saturdays for our students that demonstrated a need for more time on particular units.
Our STEAM Academy includes two classes each of English, math, science, and social studies as well as a Paxton-Patterson lab. Here, students discover the relationships among science, technology, engineering, arts and math through PBL experiences and collaborative learning. Through our increased Dual Credit offerings and Advanced Placement courses, students 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 and Life and Career Characteristics include Swofford Career Center, Jobs for America’s Graduates, JROTC, Work Based Learning, Senior Project, job shadowing and LiBros and Page Turners, our boys and girls book clubs. Although book clubs presented more of a challenge this year, we were able to host some virtually thanks to the creativeness of our media center specialist and local public library. 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.
We continued our Early Release Wednesday program this year, which allowed for teacher collaboration using a disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach. Over the past several years, teachers have worked through the High Impact Process, unpacking standards, which has provided even more teacher clarity of essential standards. This process has also encouraged teachers to develop success criteria for our students and collaborate to form common assessments which enable them to drill down to the very essence of the skills each student needs to be successful.
The efforts of CHS teachers and students have produced positive results in the 2023-2024 school year. We graduated 180 individuals that we believe to be college and career ready. This group was able to amass over 10 million dollars in scholarship monies. This year’s senior class consisted of those ready to move to the next level in college, several that were joining our military forces and many that were ready to accept job opportunities. Because of the efforts of CHS, all are ready to move to this next level. Truly we are on the right track in ensuring that our students possess the world class knowledge and skills as well as the life and career characteristics of a South Carolina graduate.
Erik Gerstenacker, Principal
Holly Barrett, SIC chairperson
