WEBVTT

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>> I'm Stephanie Harden Morton.

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I'm the Principal of Western Hills University High School,

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ninth through twelfth grade, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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We are part of Cincinnati Public School District.

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The mission of Western Hills University High School is to prepare our students upon graduating

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to attend the college of their choice or to enter the world of work.

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Western Hills has a mantra that guides our students in a direction that we want them to be in.

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It tells them about what our expectations are for them, that we want them to be on time,

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to be prepared for their classes, to just be successful all-around students.

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And the mantra is up around the building just to remind the students

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of what our expectations are for them.

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The small school concept came about for Cincinnati Public Schools about seven years ago.

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Western Hills University High School became a small high school

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with a grant that the district achieved.

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On our campus, we have three small high schools, we have Western Hills University High School,

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on the other side of the building is Western Hills Design and Technology High School,

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and the very back of the campus is Dater High School.

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A number of high schools in our district had the same concept,

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but I think that Western Hills University High School is one of the high schools

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that really embraces the team concept.

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The small high school helps us to be able to really get to know our students,

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to focus on what their strengths and weaknesses are,

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and to be able to help them to be successful high school students.

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>> Team Meeting, Teacher: Most of the students who need help are going

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to need it in more than one subject.

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>> Team Meeting, Teacher: Absolutely.

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>> Morton: In the team-based high school, we have a team for each grade level,

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and on that team is your four academic core teachers; we have English,

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science, social studies and math.

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And those core teachers work with their team of students

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to help them learn whatever their particular academic focus is, to get to know them.

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They have team meetings on a weekly basis.

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They also bring students in for team meetings.

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Like if they see a student whose grades have drastically dropped, they bring that student in

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and talk to them to try and find out what it is that has gone wrong

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or what that team can do to work with that student.

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The teams also have the opportunity to have a flex block schedule.

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They can have a longer bell period depending on what type of activity they are doing,

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they can have a shorter bell period,

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or they can have an academic period where they work on credit recovery.

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They have "Help Nights" on a daily basis.

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Mondays are set aside for staff meetings.

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Tuesdays through Fridays are Help Nights.

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Each team has a specific night or day of the week that a teacher stays to work with students,

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but a lot of the teams, the teachers stay more than one night,

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so they can go from teacher to teacher to get assistance as they need it.

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>> Teacher to students: ...

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mantle, and it lies right over this round hole.

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See it kind of stuck in the shell?...

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>> Morton: Cincinnati Public School has what is called "Schools of Choice."

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And Western Hills University is a school of choice,

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which means when students leave the eighth grade,

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they have an opportunity to select the high school of their choice to attend.

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I think that students select Western Hills University High School to attend

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because they know about our reputation of teaming.

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They know that we work very closely with the students and the parents.

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They know that we're very structured and consistent.

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Some may say, we're strict.

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I think we are more structured than other high schools, and I think that helps students.

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I think they also select us because they know that we try to keep students in school.

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We have activities and things here on campus that makes students want to be here

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like the Key Club, our choir, our Help Nights.

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We also have an Ohio Graduation Test Help Night that goes on from January through March

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for any eleventh or twelfth grader that has not passed any sections of the Ohio Graduation Test.

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I think that over 50 percent of the students, when they come to Western Hills University High School,

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have no idea that they're going to attend college.

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A lot of them they just think, "Oh I can just go to high school, and I'll get a job,

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and I don't have to worry about anything else."

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And a lot of them think that they won't have the grades, they won't have the money,

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that they are not just college material.

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A number of our students that do attend college are first time high school graduates,

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first time college students.

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So, we encourage them.

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We let them know right off that our goal is for them to graduate,

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attend college or get some type of training to enter the world of work.

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We want them to be successful independent citizens and to be able to take care

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of themselves and their families.

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>> Student: And then you're going to do the same thing for this one.

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>> Morton: Whenever a student is transferring out of our school,

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they have to fill out a withdrawal slip.

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We look at the reasons for them leaving our school,

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and if we can try to talk a parent into staying, we do.

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And if we have a parents or students that come in and they want to drop out,

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we try to counsel them not to drop out.

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I have not had any students this year drop out of school.

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I've had students who transferred to other schools but not drop out.

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So we really, the staff tries to help them.

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The support organizations that work within our building try to assist them.

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Our whole goal is to make sure that they just don't stop in the beginning, that they stay here,

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and if they can't stay here at least go to another school, but don't drop out.