Corey Tafoya – Woodstock High School – Woodstock, IL

November 3, 2011

Blue Streak Families,

Each morning when the alarm goes off, I consider myself amazingly fortunate to rise with a smile knowing that I get to go to Woodstock High School. I truly love working with our students, staff, and families. I can’t imagine a more rewarding experience than watching an adolescent walk in the door as a clumsy freshman and leave as a confident adult ready for the world. However, I must admit that this letter is something I didn’t look forward to writing that much. In this letter, I must explain to you Woodstock High School’s situation related to the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law.

There are multiple reasons for my frustration. I’m naturally an optimistic and solution-oriented type of person, and a letter such as this makes it challenging to portray those traits. The simple fact is, we did not reach Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), which puts us in the same position as nearly every high school in the state. This legislation has proven to be beneficial to our awareness in many ways but unrealistic in many other ways. So, as I share with you the assessment of our situation, I’ll sprinkle in some methods we’re using to advance as well as some areas that make me optimistic. I’ll try to explain to you our situation without making excuses or whining, while I help you understand our challenge and the plan to continue to improve.

Reality #1—We didn’t have 85% of our students meet or exceed state standards in reading or math. In fact, only 53% were proficient in reading and 60% were in math. Those numbers are simply not acceptable for me or for a single member of our staff. We take no comfort in knowing we’re above the state average of 51% in reading and 51% in math; we want to improve those numbers well beyond where they currently sit.
What are we doing about it?—We have spent a great deal of time in professional learning communities as well as within academic departments to develop reading strategies that will be initiated by all teachers. Reading is more of a concern for us than math at this point, and we have developed a literacy framework used by our teachers to teach their content. No teacher at WHS believes that reading is what someone else teaches. We all teach reading in some way. We all use scientifically-proven strategies with our students. Regardless of the subject, all teachers will teach content using these reading strategies so that students obtain knowledge and become better readers.
Why am I optimistic about it? Although this one-year drop from 61% proficient to 53% proficient is quite concerning, it actually appears to be an outlier in a trend that indicates our reading scores are rising. This is the first year since 06-07 that our reading scores didn’t rise. I’m confident that our reading scores will return to or exceed previous levels due to the efforts of our students and staff. We see that our freshman, sophomore, and junior reading levels on the MAP reading and math assessments show improvement, which means that we are being effective; but that effectiveness must be demonstrated on the Prairie State Achievement Exam by juniors in order to be calculated by NCLB.

Reality #2—We didn’t reach the statistical measure called “Safe Harbor” in any of our measured categories with the exception of “White Math.” Safe Harbor allows a school to be given recognition even though it didn’t meet the 85% proficiency mark for all students. (Remind me again how 85% of students statewide can be above average? Hmmm.) Even though our students were very close to Safe Harbor in some categories and didn’t make the mark needed for this acknowledgement, we are moving in the right direction. We’ve made Safe Harbor in the past in a number of categories or subgroups. You cannot make AYP if you don’t reach Safe Harbor in all of the subgroup areas.
What are we doing about it?—An important part of our staff development over the past two years has been our development of formative assessments. Most of us think of assessments as chapter and semester tests, which are actually considered summative tests done to measure the final amount of knowledge acquired. We are developing better methods to assess on-going progress as students learn the material, rather than waiting until units have been completed and the class moves onto the next topic. We often use a medical analogy: “Would you rather find out the patient is sick at a check-up or perform an autopsy?” Formative assessments used by classroom teachers help us learn where learning gaps are, giving us time to work on filling in any holes before it’s too late. Our staff is developing comprehensive methods to examine the progress of your son or daughter in the classroom, so any lack of understanding is remediated sooner rather than later.
Why am I optimistic about it? I have an amazing amount of confidence in our staff. We certainly have our challenges at Woodstock High School, as any school does, but we have a staff with a drive for excellence. We don’t tolerate complacency and are not ever satisfied with your child getting a “pretty good” education. We want all Blue Streaks to have the best education possible, and we know that requires challenging conversations, research-supported changes, and continued hard work. We’re very fortunate to have the advantage of working within a tremendous school district and a supportive community. You see and appreciate our hard work and know that we’re working every day to make each child’s future as bright as possible.

Comparing the two-day performance of the Classes of 2011 and 2012 as juniors is also a small snapshot of our school. You’ve all experienced the various pockets of excellence at Woodstock High School. Our motto will remain “Expect Excellence.” We will expect it of ourselves and hope that you expect it of us in return. We’re not satisfied with the results we have to share with you, but we’re also not defeated or discouraged. We want to make Woodstock High School known as one of Illinois’ best.

Thanks for your continued support of your child’s education. You are your son’s or daughter’s first teacher, and we’re thankful you loan us your children each day. We appreciate the faith you place in us and aspire to make your child the best, just as you do. If you have any questions about this or any other matter, please feel free to reach me.

Sincerely,

Corey Tafoya

One of our goals this year is to do a better job of letting our community know about all the incredible things going on at our school. We must do a better job communicating all the amazing accomplishments of our students and staff. Humility is a wonderful attribute, but we should also celebrate the accomplishments of our school.

Let me share with you just a few:
• Look at the amazing rise in percentage of Cum Laude Graduates in the last five years!
o Cum Laude Graduation Percentage
 2006-07—10.3%
 2007-08—12.0%
 2008-09—22.5%
 2009-10—28.8%
 2010-11—32.1%
• Our graduation rate rose by 4.9% last year!
• We had three National Merit Finalists last year.
• Kayla Beattie won two gold medals at the Pan-American Games this summer.
• A beautiful house was built by our Building Trades class and is about to be sold very soon.
• For the very first time, WHS had a National AP Scholar. To achieve this level of recognition, a student must receive an average score of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken and score a 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. That’s amazing!
• 40% of WHS seniors took an AP class last year.
• 89.8% of WHS graduates took an AP or Capstone Course during their senior year.
• Our 94.3% attendance was the highest on record.
• WHS is proud to have America’s best men’s a capella group.
• In 2010-11 students demonstrated an overwhelming improvement in the percentage of students exceeding expected growth measure on MAP testing reading and math.

All of that from last year! What will this year bring—I can’t wait to find out.

Notes from Mr. Tafoya

1) Please join us Saturday at the “Fit for the Future” walk at Emricson Park. Michael Ventrella, winner of The Biggest Loser Season #9, will speak at 11:00 a.m. and the walk will begin at 11:45 a.m. Support fitness and the WHS PE Department with your presence and participation.

2) Just recently, I received a nice check from Target due to the kindness and spending patterns of our Blue Streak families. If you have a Target “Red Card” you can dedicate a percentage of your purchases at Target that is returned to us at Woodstock High School. This helped us with three very important projects that we didn’t know how to fund otherwise. If you shop at Target, look into getting a Red Card (not a soccer red card please) and continuing to support the Blue Streaks in this fashion.

3) Today was our first Late-Start Day of the school year. These days are tremendously important to our staff as we examine our school improvement goals and how to make our school a better place for our students. Zero hour classes meet at their regular time and first hour begins at 9:20 a.m. Students who arrive prior to 9:10 a.m. can go to the Commons area to wait for the bell releasing students into the building at 9:05 a.m. Students may also stay in the LRC if they arrive prior to 8:20 a.m. You should receive a Connect Ed reminder phone call on the Tuesday prior to remind you as well.

4) An abundant majority of our students and families use the Home Access connection to check on student grades. In our last student and parent satisfaction survey, we learned that this practice is very popular and how many families check on student academic progress. If you need help discovering your code, please call 815-206-2247 and ask to speak to Mrs. Sindelar who can get you the code so you can stay informed about your son or daughter’s advancement.

5) In light of that information, we’ve decided not to mail home midterm report cards to families. That decision was made knowing that we were spending money to send you information you already knew. This wasn’t a good use of resources, but we’d be happy to print grades for any family if they would like to receive a hard copy. Email Mr. Boland at mboland@d200.mchenry.k12.il.us if you would like a paper copy. We will send these requests home with your child if you can’t utilize Home Access.

6) Friday night’s football game vs. Woodstock North will be a great community event. Just like the last two years, I’m sure there will be a huge crowd and a lot of spirit. Parking is limited at North, so I’d encourage you to carpool and arrive early. Tailgating is also prohibited on North’s campus. I hope to see you there to root on the Blue Streaks!

Go Blue!

Welcome back everyone! It’s a pleasure to have your sons and daughters back to school and in our classrooms learning once again. The summer is, to be certain, enjoyable for all of us. However, for me it doesn’t compare to the excitement of seeing students start the challenge of new classes that build up their abilities and confidence, of watching them meet their new teachers, and of beginning our fall activities and sports events.

This year is our 90th anniversary for WHS at 501 W. South St. We will have some unofficial observances of this event throughout the year. There’s no doubt that the history of our school leaves a tradition and a legacy for us to live up to every day.

I have a number of things to share with you this fall, but I’ll start with a simple message and a hope that communication will continue. I want to share information with you this fall on my blog. There is so much discussion right now about education, and I want you to be a part of the discourse with us. I have data for you about our school, articles about college readiness, discussion on our new Five-Year Goal plan, and ways that we can work closely together to improve our school. I’ll have a new blog entry each month.

So, on this first day of September my message is simple: “Expect Excellence.” This slogan will begin to appear on many materials that you receive from WHS. My most steadfast and non-negotiable belief about educational leadership is that people naturally rise to the expectations set for them. At Woodstock High School, we’re going to be very up front about those expectations—we expect excellence! That goes for all of us. Please expect excellence from me as your principal. I will expect excellence from our staff and our students each and every day as well. Excellence looks differently for each student, but it will never matter to us what your background is because we believe all children have the potential to achieve excellence.

It’s important to note that this slogan isn’t reserved for just one part of our school. We expect excellence in the things we say and do. We will expect excellence in our classrooms, in our hallways, and on our fields or courts. We don’t expect perfection, which is unrealistic, but we will not apologize for having high expectations for this wonderful place in which to learn and to work. High expectations will drive our performance upward. We all agree that our students deserve a wonderful high school experience. Our amazing staff is poised to provide that experience and nurture the excellence from within each child we meet. I encourage you to actively support this expectation and be there for your child along that journey. We know we may have some missteps along the way, because striving for success isn’t easy, but this drive for excellence is something that will keep us very motivated to continually improve.

Ralph Charell said, “Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.” That type of thinking will motivate the Blue Streaks this year. We won’t hope to have a good year, we expect to have an “excellent” year, and we’ll work hard to make this happen.

I hope you’ll be able to join us on Tuesday, September 6, for our Open House at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium. It will be a great chance for you to meet the teachers of your children and hear more about what is happening here on the hill.

Take care,

Corey Tafoya

Dear Blue Streak Families,

I know, as parents, our primary hope is to send our children to school every day hoping they return each afternoon safely, smiling brightly, and looking a little smarter. At WHS, we strive to attain these same goals. To ensure that all parents/guardians are well-informed of our efforts, I would like to share with you some information about our school and our mission of continual improvement.

Indulge me for a moment as I play an imaginary game placing you as the boss of an organization. Pretend you are the CEO of an imaginary business called WHS Industries. At the end of the fiscal year, WHS Industries totaled their pertinent data for the prior year in each of the eight divisions of the company.

Division AR’s production rose 1.9%.

Division AM’s production rose 3.3%.

Division WR’s production rose 6.1%

Division WM’s production rose 5.1%.

Division HR’s production fell 0.7%.

Division HM’s production rose 8.8%.

Division EDR’s production rose 16.1%.

Division EDM’s production rose 23.3%.

Seven of your eight divisions had production gains averaging an 8.8% increase. Your only decrease was a minor drop of less than a single point in a division that had a segment of the group learning a brand new process. You’d feel good about that wouldn’t you, boss? You’d maybe be thinking about some well-deserved pats-on-the-back and feel that you were on the right track, right? Bottom line—that’s a 7.6% increase!

What you are looking at are the results of last year’s Prairie State Achievement Exam for Woodstock High School. Let me break the code for you. The first letter of each division stands for the subgroup achieving that percentage: “A” stands for “All,” “W” stands for “White,” “H” stands for “Hispanic,” and “ED” stands for “Economically Disadvantaged.” The final letter of each Division stands for either Math or Reading, depending on whether it’s an “M” or an “R.” For example, Division HM’s report indicates that Hispanic Math scores rose last year 8.8%.

Most every business you know would call that successful, and so do we at Woodstock High School. In fact, I could share with you hundreds of other points of data that indicate your son or daughter attends a wonderful high school that is clearly improving itself in a dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, the letter of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Law considers us unfavorably since our increases don’t meet the state’s growth numbers for all eight subgroups. Nonetheless, we are proud of our improvements and remain hungry to progress even further this year.

Obviously the success of Woodstock High School is something we’re incredibly proud of for many reasons. We are committed to making our school the best possible location for your child to realize his/her dreams both in and out of the classroom. I look forward to continuing this work with your child during the school year so that we can repeat this letter next year with even more evidence of why our Blue Pride grows stronger every year. We accomplish these goals while working closely with great families like yours. Thanks for the opportunity to work with your child each day.

Sincerely,

Corey Tafoya

The online scheduling program, pickAtime, is now open to schedule conference appointments with teachers.  Letters with instructions on scheduling conferences in pickAtime were sent home to families.  Have the letter and names handy when scheduling your conferences.  Here is the link to begin scheduling.  https://www.pickatime.com/client?ven=11600210

Wow, it’s been too long since my last entry.  I have so much bottled up to tell everyone! 

1. We are bursting with pride because last week we learned that 37 of our students have become AP Scholars.  There are three levels of the AP Scholar program: AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Honor, and AP Scholar with Distinction.  37 students is the highest number of AP Scholars we have ever had at WHS!  19 of those 37 students earned AP Scholar with Distinction, meaning that they received an average of 3.5 on all the AP tests taken and earned a 3 or higher on five or more exams.  This is a fantastic achievement and something our whole staff is celebrating.
2. WHS is developing an alumni association that will be starting this year.  This group will work to unite alumni and provide opportunities to gather, connect, and continue to show their Blue Pride.  A few people have contacted me about a group called AlumniClass.com who are sending out emails to our alumni.  This group is attempting to appear as a club sponsored by WHS and even sells Blue Streak Alumni gear.  We have no association with this group and are working to make sure that Blue Streak Alumni are not misled.  We will share the information on the real alumni group, Friends and Alumni of The Woodstock High School, in the near future.  Look for sign-up cards for information and Alumni buttons at Friday’s parade and Homecoming game.
3. Speaking of Homecoming…it’s here!  I love Homecoming and how it invigorates and unites the school.  The schedule for the week is:  Monday—Class Color Day, Tuesday—Clash Day, Wednesday—Nations Day, Thursday—Superhero Day, and Friday is Blue & White Day.  The Powder Puff football game is on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and the parade is on Friday at 2:45 down South St. to the Square.  The big game is Friday night at 7:30 versus Johnsburg.  The dance ends Homecoming on Saturday at 8:00 where the king and queen will be crowned.  I hope you can join us for this great week of events.

Happy Homecoming!

Good evening! This is Corey Tafoya from Woodstock High School. Believe it or not, it’s time to share with you some very important back to school events. Please take note of these events and mark them on your calendar. You can also find them on our school website.

Book Distribution: Book distribution will occur for all students on August 12th from 1:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. in the LRC. Student can receive their books and put them away into lockers before the first day of school.

Late Registration: Late registration will also be held in the Guidance Office from August 12th from 1:00 until 5:30.

Freshman Parent Night: Each year we invite freshmen and their families for our Freshman Parent Night. Families are provided an overview of WHS as well as time to find classes and lockers prior to Freshman Orientation. This event will be held on August 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the Auditorium.

Freshman Orientation: Freshman Orientation will be held on August 18th from 7:30 a.m. until 11:40 a.m. starting in the Commons. All freshmen are invited to meet their teachers and get an idea of what their schedule looks like.

First Day of School: Our first day of school will be held on August 19th starting at 8:20 a.m.

Hello everyone!  I have been gone far too long from my blog as we have been furiously working on budgeting, staffing, and scheduling classes for next year.  It’s very sensitive work and needing a lot of time to properly assess situations in order to make the best decisions.  So look out blogosphere, I’m back!

Spring is a time of great worry for principals.  Well, we worry a lot anyway, but spring is always worse.  Will Johnny pass English so he can graduate?  Will Sarah’s “seniorititis” be fatal?  So, we worry about our students and our staff who may be transitioning with employment.  But honestly, my biggest worry every weekend is about our students making good decisions.  In my prior school before coming to WHS, in the spring of two school years, sad events spoiled students’ memory of their senior year. 

I have some ideas for parents to think about as we enter this time of the year when the weather is nicer, we spend more time outside, and sometimes students’ ability to use good judgment may become impaired.  As adults, we must speak up to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to monitor the decisions of our students.

So here are some spring ideas for high school parents that may help our Blue Streaks be safer.

1.  Talk openly and directly about your expectations and your concerns.  Students may never admit it, but they need and crave structure and discipline that you provide for them as parents and guardians.  If you tell them that they are not to use alcohol or drugs, it will sink in.  If you verbalize that you’re worried about how spring events like prom and graduation parties sometimes prompt bad decision making, they’ll know that you’re aware and are going to stay on top of things.  They may still make bad decisions, but they’ll think about the consequences a little longer if it has already been discussed.  Talk about the risks associated with these behaviors and the ramifications a bad decision could have on them and their life.

2.  Discuss the fact that you will be checking on them and need to know who the adults are that will be present at the events they attend.  Take the time and use our parent directory to reach the parent hosting any type of get-together.  The old tricks of telling your parents you were unavailable has almost gone away with cell phones.  It’s always a good idea to communicate with parents of your child’s friends to make sure they’re at a location that will be supervised and not at a home where parents are out of town or allowing alchohol.

3.  Trust your instinct if something sounds fishy.  I’ve had many parents tell me they had a feeling something funny was going on after an unfortunate event happened.  If something sounds questionable, or if the facts don’t all add up, trust your gut that someone probably doesn’t want you to know all the details.

4.  Renting hotel rooms for students is a terrible idea.  Equally as bad of an idea is hosting parties involving alcohol and making students stay the night or taking car keys from them.  Hosting a party at your house where alcohol is served is a criminal act.  I’m sure you’ve seen in the news stories of parents who have gone to jail for hosting such parties.  It’s not “cool” or “safer” to host such parties.  You are putting yourself at tremendous risk as well as the safety of any child who comes into this hotel room or to your home. 

5.  Don’t forget prescription drugs when thinking of items to warn your students against.  The abuse and recreational use of prescription drugs is a very real phenomenon in the United States and here in McHenry County.  Medicine prescribed for certain illnesses or medical condition is not distributed over the counter for good reason.  Remember to dispose of prescription drugs after their need has been completed.

I always hate to be the “Downer Dave” of the springtime, but perhaps one of these tips could help save the life of one of our students.  Every single Blue Streak is important to me and I hope to celebrate the joy of springtime and the transition of the season without any sadness.  Parents love their children too much, and we’ve worked hard with students to achieve their goals—we don’t want anything to delay the accomplishment of those dreams.

Wishing you the best this spring!

Corey Tafoya

Parents,
     I ran across an excellent piece in a book I’m reading called Professional Learning Communities at Work by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker. Parents often ask me for advice about dealing with one of nature’s most complex creatures, the adolescent. I have a few ideas to share, of course, but I especially like the passage from this book.  It was written by a group of parents at a school as a list of expectations for parents. I think it’s a wonderful approach to how to help your student in high school.
     Reading this was fortunate timing for me because next year will be the fifth year of our Five-Year Goal Plan, and it will be time for us to re-examine our goals and ambitions.  To help set that new path, we will host a number of parent meetings to discuss the vision for Woodstock High School.  The idea would be to create a mission and vision statement for our school that complements what the district created a year ago.  The timing of this self-examination will be perfect since we finally will be at a lasting enrollment with both high schools housing freshmen through seniors.
     Here is the section on page 94 from the book listed above.  I felt this information would be perfect for my blog.  I look forward to creating a similar framework with Blue Streak parents next year.

                                             Guiding Principles for Parents
We recognize that as our children’s first and most influential teachers, we can promote their success and contribute to an excellent school if we make and fulfill the following commitments:
• We will establish high expectations for our students. We will not accept minimum effort or indifference to quality work.
• We will know what is expected in each of our student’s classes and communicate with teachers when we have a question or concern.
• We will insist on good attendance.
• We will provide a quiet time and place in our home for study.
• We will insist that our students accept responsibility for their learning and conduct.
• We will model the importance of life-long learning.

     These are simple ideas, yet very powerful in knowing how to assist student learning. I’m trying to remember these guidelines in my own role as a parent of both a first and fourth grader. Wish me luck for when they become Blue Streaks!

Take care,

Corey Tafoya