pfc newsletter O A K
P A R K
H I G H
January/February 2014
The Principal’s Message In October of 2013, I, along with a team comprised of OPHS teachers, administrators, counselors, students, and parents, attended the Challenge Success Fall Conference presented by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. There we participated in a variety of hands-on workshops and presentations focused on academic stress, engagement and student well-being. As a result of our participation in this program, OPHS will be giving all students the Stanford Survey of Adolescent School Experiences, a comprehensive online survey instrument that examines student outcomes related to health, school engagement, and academic integrity. The survey will be conducted during a two-week window, Feb. 10th -21st, and takes approximately 3040 minutes. The survey is anonymous and Stanford’s Challenge Success staff will analyze the data for our school and prepare a comprehensive, user-friendly report that summarizes the findings. Our team can use the data to benchmark progress toward creating a healthier school culture. Your child will be bringing home a consent waiver in the upcoming weeks that allows you to opt your child out of the survey but we encourage you to have him or her participate so we can get as much data as possible to help us chart our course. Challenge Success works with schools, parents and youth to develop and implement customized action plans to improve student well-being and engagement with learning in the belief that the definition of success is different for every child. We hope to be able to use the tools that Challenge Success provides to create a healthier school culture by working to improve school policies and classroom practices on things like academic integrity, homework, extracurricular activities and mental health. Our aim is to help students reduce stress and pressure while increasing their engagement with learning. There are no risks to
S C H O O L www.oakparkusd.org/ophs your child’s involvement in the study, and the benefits may be that results from the study will provide insight into decreasing academic stress, increasing student engagement, and fostering greater student voice in school. Your decision whether or not to have your child participate in this study will not affect your child’s grades in school. The survey asks students about 70 questions related to their academic lives: academic engagement, academic integrity, parent goals and expectations, academic stress and worry, physical health, student perspectives on the amount and type of homework, extra-curriculars and free time, teacher care and support, and some student demographic information.
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International Students Need Host Families Mr. Buchanan is looking for caring Oak Park families to consider hosting an OPHS international exchange student in the Fall of 2014. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in hosting one of these students, please contact Lori DeGrinis for more information at lori.degrinis@sbcglobal.net or 818-427-1692.