Message from the Principal
Principal Update for November of 2010
To DHS Parents,
As you are aware, DHS is a fully accredited High School. This means that the course credits we award and diplomas we issue are considered the equivalent to any American high school.
The agency responsible for accrediting American-curriculum schools in the Middle East is the Middle Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA) based in Philadelphia. In order to maintain standards of quality, they require schools to renew their accreditation every seven years.
DHS is now at this point in our cycle. In December, MSA will be sending a team of representatives to DHS to ensure that our school is continuing to meet their standards of accreditation. The protocol chosen by DHS is called “Accreditation For Growth”. This is an ambitious project which challenges us not only to prove that we are meeting MSA’s standards, but also to commit ourselves to improving student performance.
Preparations for the visit began in May 2009; we would like to take a moment to update you, our parent community, on what this process has entailed.
The Planning Team
Leading the process is a Planning Team made up of fifteen representatives of DHS’s stakeholders, including parents, students, and members of the Board of Trustees, teachers, support staff and administration. Facilitated by David Butler, the AFG Internal Coordinator, the Planning Team has worked diligently to fulfill MSA’s requirements. Through the process they have attended DHS Faculty Meetings and reviewed data, they have debated and compromised, and they have formed a collective consciousness in their mandate to serve the DHS Community.
Mission Statement, Belief Statement, & Graduate Profile
The first task of the Planning Team was to re-visit our Mission and Belief Statements (to keep them current) and to develop a Graduate Profile:
- Mission Statement – Who we are and what we are striving to become
- Belief Statements – Our school’s fundamental values
- Graduate Profile - The values, achievement, and readiness that our students will manifest upon graduation
All three were developed by the Planning Team in the fall of 2009 and can be found on the DHS website: http://www.dahs.org/html/mission.htm
Standards of Accreditation
The next step was to determine whether or not DHS is still meeting MSA’s standards for accreditation. Specifically, there were twelve distinct Standards that needed to be gauged (for example, “Finances”, “Facilities”, “Health and Safety”, “Student Life”, etc).
One of the chief sources of data were surveys sent out to DHS teachers, parents and students in January 2010. In total, we received responses from 38 teachers, 99 parents and 244 students. The Planning Team analyzed both the statistical results, as well as the comments, in order to score DHS on a 1 – 4 scale on hundreds of different criteria. Based on the data, the Planning Team was unanimous in determining that DHS meets all 12 MSA standards of accreditation.
Objectives
Next, the Planning Team had to select two goals for school improvement. Both goals must be academic, relate to student achievement, and be measurable. After reviewing some of the school’s standardized test results, and conscious that DHS will offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma program in fall 2011, the Planning Team chose the following two objectives:
- Objective 1 - Students at Dhahran High School will improve their critical reading comprehension achievement.
- Objective 2 - Students at Dhahran High School will improve their writing abilities.
The Planning Team then selected a variety of measures for each goal (including internal assessments as well as external standardized tests) and set targets to be achieved during the next seven-year accreditation cycle.
Action Plans
With the goals set, the Planning Team met in fall 2010 to develop and approve a school plan to achieve the two objectives. The plan involves training DHS staff in a variety of critical reading / informational processing strategies as well as the Jane Schaffer Writing Process.
In 2010-11, teachers in the Social Studies and English departments will be trained, develop department strategies to improve student performance, and collaborate to assess their success. In 2011-12, these departments will share their expertise with the Science and Global Language departments, who will in turn develop departmental strategies. In 2012-13, training and participation will be extended to the math, technology and Health departments.
The plan is centered on providing professional development to our teachers to ensure that DHS students are honing and improving their skills as thinkers and writers. These practices are being implanted carefully and methodically in order to ensure that they become an ingrained part of the DHS curriculum rather than a flash-in-the-pan.
The Visit: December 6 – 8, 2010
The final step in the process will be to host a visit of representatives of MSA in December. They will be at school to observe, not disrupt, but they will be conducting a series of interviews with our stakeholders, including students, parents, and teachers.
That DHS is an outstanding high school is not in question and will be apparent upon their arrival. Thanks to the hard work of your representatives of the Planning Team, we also have the necessary paperwork to document this.
Thank you for your continued support of Dhahran High School!
David Dorn & David Butler
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archived Newsletters:
