| Area schools look to a new year | ||
| By Maurice Emery
LITTLETON – The teachers and staffs at Halifax and Warren county schools have been working hard to make everything ready for the opening of local schools this Friday. The times continue to change for teachers and students. Not only do teachers have to prepare the students for yearly testing, they must also help them become part of the wired generation. Schools in both counties are faced with the responsibility of doing all they can to improve on last years Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) efforts. Only three schools in our area met last years goals for AYP. Hollister Elementary School is the only school in Halifax and Warren County that achieved the status of an Honor School of Excellence last year. Only two other local schools in our area (limited to the public schools where students from the 27850 zip code attend school) met the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2005-06 reporting period they are Northside and Vaughan Elementary in Warren County. AYP is part of the ABC criteria. AYP requires schools to focus on the proficiency of groups of students within each school with a goal of closing achievement gaps and bringing proficiency rates to 100 percent for every student group by 2013-2014. Teachers and educators are faced with more than just their AYP growth. They are also faced with the responsibility of preparing the students for the annual ABC testing. The ABCs model Educators are also faced with insuring that students at all levels are Internet savvy. It is commonly known as being wired. When they refer to wired in these times it is in a good sense. Some people refer to it as being connected. It makes no difference what you know it by, it is the future in keeping up with everything. What it really means is that in order to be part of the future, even in a minimal way, they must be able to use computers and the Internet as easily as talking on the phone. All the schools in our area are 100% connected to the Internet. We thought with this years update of the schools in our area we would also grade their Web sites. Much to our surprise Schools and Halifax and Warren County have what I would call a cookie cutter approach. The county education departments provide the basic layout and design and then the schools can make it more personal to each school. We may be a little unfair by rating the sites the week before school starts, but our goal was to see what a parent could find out about the school(s) their kids will be attending. What we found out was that these sites are as varied as the schools they represent. The grade we assigned is based on ease of use; updated information; depth of information and links to other sites and the individuality of the schools site. Our thinking was, if we are expecting our kids be Internet savvy then the schools should be up-to-date on the net. We plan to revisit these sites throughout the school year and see what changes have been made. You should take a minute and visit the web site for each school hour child attends. Visit every link you can find on the site. We have been told that sites that require a user name and password are not designed for student or parental visits. Keep in mind that each schools use of the web varies. Some schools keep your child up-to-date on homework and assignments over the web, while others keep only the minimum amount of information on their site. |
Halifax County Schools Everettes Elementary- Hollister Elementary- McIver Elementary- Middle school: Eastman Middle – High School: Halifax County Private Schools
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Warren County Schools District office: Elementary Schools: Vaughan Elementary School
Norlina Christian School (NCS) |
