Internship Report #2

Northside High School has approximately 110 teachers. The school is separated into two campuses. Although it is not completely isolated from the main campus, there is a 9th grade academy which houses all of the 9th grade academic classes, its own cafeteria and gym, and a dedicated assistant principal. The entire school is organized by departments, and each department has their own meetings, and even within each department, all of the teachers who teach the same course have course team meetings. There is one principal of the entire school, and five assistant principals, one of whom is over the 9th grade academy. Each department has a chairperson, and each course team has a head teacher.

The school has a graduation coach to target and support at-risk students. Northside is also the only high school in our county that has a special education sub-population. There are five guidance counselors at the school, one of whom is housed full-time at the 9th grade academy. Our school has a phenomenal drama program that is known throughout the state as well as a football team that won the state championship last year.

We have two middle schools that feed into our high school -- Thomson Middle School and Northside Middle School. Our school's mission statement is "to produce high school graduates who are college/workforce ready." Our vision statement is "to make every person in our school successful." Our school's objective is to make AYP this year. This mission, vision, and objective greatly impact the school library media center. First of all, as the hub of information at the school, everything must be geared to student learning. Also, in accordance with the vision statement, the media center must do all it can do to ensure the success of every person in the school, from the students to the teachers and administrators.

Because we are not in Florida, we do not have FCAT scores; however, our AYP scores are based on the Georgia High School Graduation Tests. We have not made AYP two years in a row, and thus are on the Needs Improvement list. We have become a school of choice this year due to that fact, but thankfully, we lost very few students. Of students already attending our school, only 6 (at a school of nearly 2000) chose to go to a different high school. I believe that speaks very highly of our school as a whole -- much more than one test score can give.