Student tutors help fellow classmates with their writing skills during a lunch writing center session. Janice Jewell
Herndon High School did it.
The school made the biggest gains in their Scholastic Assessment Test - more commonly known as SAT - scores among all other high schools in the county.
“I was ecstatic,” said Principal William Bates. “I immediately notified our staff and the Herndon pyramid, because it’s a collaborative effort. When we have those ninth graders come in from the middle school, we can have a better transition that way.”
He said critical reading scores went up by 21 points, math by 22 points and writing by 19 points.
“We believe all children are capable of success,” he said. “We’ve also been pushing a serious attitude that we take our academics seriously.”
He said that all students are taught so they are ready for college, a two year school or the workforce following graduation.
He also credits the writing center, which he said is a model among Fairfax County Public Schools, for the test score boost.
“We can’t simply demand high quality writing in our writing classes,” he said. “We demand high quality writing in all of our classes.”
English teacher Janice Jewell, one of the co-directors of the writing center, agrees with the importance of it as a tool. “This is the fourth year we’ve had the writing center open during lunches,” she said.
She said that students had more than 850 tutoring sessions last year. In the few weeks school has been open, the center has already hit that number.
“We hear a lot more students talking about the writing center,” she said.
The school also started a SAT prep course four years ago.
“Over the last four years, our school has gotten more diverse,” said assessment coach Lindsay Gadd. “The test coordinator who I’ve spoken to told us how well prepared our students are when they go into the testing site.”
Other teachers agreed that the SAT prep courses have made students feel at ease about the process so they could focus on answering the questions.
“We also do SAT prep with them so they understand what the test is like,” said Curriculum Support Specialist Emily Alwood. “It is a completely different way of testing, especially in math.”
The school has strived to make special courses like Advanced Placement and dual enrollment available to anyone who has taken the prerequisite classes and has made it an objective to teach to individual student gaps so no one feels left behind and overwhelmed.
“So many of us have taught the juniors, so we’re proud of them,” said Curriculum Support Specialist Stephanie Bickley. “It’s a good feeling to know that our strategies and focus have paid off, but it’s about them at the end of the day.”