“What do I want to be when I grow up?” 

At some point, all students ask themselves that question during their time in high school. At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Perry Township Schools announced its partnership with Naviance to help high schoolers discover the answer to that question. 

Naviance is a college and career readiness platform that helps students connect what they are learning in school to what they want to do in life. The online resource is an important tool for student self-discovery. 

Naviance has features that allows students to understand their unique strengths, connect their interests to careers and set goals. It allows students to map out their entire high school career and choose the diploma track that is right for them (e.g., Core 40, Core 40 with academic honors, etc.) so they can make a plan for the future.

After high school, some students aspire to go to college. Others desire to go straight into the workforce. Naviance has features to help each of these groups plan appropriately, allowing students to gauge what they need to do in high school to achieve their goals after graduation.

The platform has a strengths explorer feature that allows students to assess their abilities to determine what they are good at. Some researchers believe that students succeed when they focus on what they do best rather than trying to improve on weaknesses. These tools are an important part of our strategy to keep students involved in their education. We believe Naviance can improve student outcomes by helping them connect their strengths and interests to long-term goals.

Students can also use Naviance for resume writing. It allows them to collect and organize information about extracurricular activities, awards and jobs.

In addition to helping students plan, Naviance has useful features for staff. 

Guidance counselors have the ability to monitor student progress so they can identify which students need help. Acquiring Naviance aligns with our mission “to provide educational opportunities that create a desire for lifelong learning that inspires all students to maximize their academic success.” 
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We want our diverse population of 16,200-plus students to excel in whatever their postsecondary dreams may be. Last year 95.2 percent of our students graduated, and we hope that services like Naviance can help us improve upon that rate.

Just as we love to watch our students grow academically, we also love to watch educators grow!

It is with pride that we congratulate Abraham Lincoln Elementary School on being named one of the five finalists for the 2018 TAP Founder’s Award by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. 

Created Lowell Milken, the institute’s chairman and TAP founder,  the award is given annually to one school for exceptional efforts to implement and represent the principles of the TAP System for Teacher and Student Advancement – resulting in improvements to educator effectiveness and student achievement growth.

The honor comes with a $50,000 cash prize, funded by the Lowell Milken Family Foundation, to be used toward school improvement efforts. The winner will be named Friday, March 23, during the 18th annual TAP Conference in Washington, D.C., before 1,000 educators, policymakers, researchers and other influential leaders. 

The award is especially thrilling for our district because Southport Elementary earned the recognition in 2016.

With a diverse student population, Lincoln Elemenatary has maintained a state-designated A rating because of its focus on developing teacher talent and meeting the needs of students.

Through the TAP System our staff has been able to address educational challenges, including a large student population, a language learning curve, a 20 to 30 percent student mobility rate and Title I status – a designation that supports students from low-income families. TAP’s targeted, daily professional learning and constant attention to data led staff to form a coherent vision of student success.

According to Principal Whitney Wilkowski, the biggest shift has been in identifying and tracking what the school needs to do to move every student. Differentiating instruction is particularly essential for Lincoln’s teachers. New educators receive wraparound support through personalized coaching by expert school-based teachers trained in the TAP System.

The system allows teachers to merge their core teaching knowledge with understanding factors such as poverty and mobility. Understanding those influences are necessary for establishing a growth-oriented classroom environment and designing and planning instruction that respects students’ differences.

Students respond positively to this approach. Because all students come from different starting points, they rely on data from teachers to see how they are progressing. Allowing the students to see their growth gets them excited about the improvement they achieve. “I grew by XX percent” is commonly used by students to characterize their progress.

The students’ success has also become a community affair at Lincoln. Families participate in math family night to understand what and how their children are learning. Students, themselves, drive these conversations. Teachers host visits for other Indiana schools that want to come and observe Lincoln’s success. Also, faculty members have met with state legislators as well as engaged in greater state policy discussions. 

The implementation of TAP at Lincoln and Southport elementaries has inspired us to implement TAP best practices districtwide.

Literacy is the foundation for lifelong learning, and Perry Township Schools is committed to teaching students the building blocks of success at every grade level. 

On March 2, the birthday of renowned author Dr. Seuss, we were honored to celebrate Read Across America Day.

We applaud our teachers and administrators who look for interesting ways to make reading exciting for our students. In the week leading up to Read Across America Day, many of our schools participated in theme days. Stepping into the hallways, we spotted funny pajamas or wacky socks. The dress-up days are just one strategy to inject a little more fun into our literacy efforts.

In addition, students enjoyed their favorite books read by a few special guests. At Homecroft Kindergarten Academy, Indianapolis first lady Stephanie Hogsett read to three classes of kindergartners. She read “Llama Llama Home with Mama,” a story that unfolds when Llama spends a day sick at home with his mom. 

She also read the tongue twister and Seuss classic “Fox in Socks,” which was a fitting choice since the students were wearing their crazy socks. Teachers got into the spirit, as well, wearing their colorful Seuss getup.

At the Early Childhood Academy, preschoolers were treated to a series of books by administrators and staff members. Among the readers was Superintendent Pat Mapes, who narrated “It Looked Like Spilled Milk,” while students were clad in their PJs for pajama day.

At Jeremiah Gray Kindergarten Academy, several administrators stopped by to read their favorite books. Associate Superintendent Vickie Carpenter and Jane Pollard, director of English learning and staff development director, wore blue wigs to bring their stories to life.

It is vital to find creative ways to make reading fun, especially for young students who are starting to form their impressions about school. Encouraging literacy should not just happen in the classroom. Parents can also encourage reading at home. Although wearing costumes can be fun, there are other simple strategies to engage students:

• Read every day: The more children are exposed to books, the more likely it is that reading will become part of their daily routines.
• Make suggestions: Recommend books that match your child’s interest but refrain from reacting judgmental if they prefer a genre or title that doesn’t excite you.
• Give rewards: Consider buying your child a new book or making an extra trip to the library in exchange for earning good grades or assisting with chores.
• Surround your children with books and magazines: Children who have access to grade-appropriate reading resources at home tend to perform better on standardized tests.

Many experts recommended that beginning readers spend 15 or 20 minutes reading each day, in addition to the reading they do at school.