Peotone High School and Freshmen Transitions

On January 19th, I had the opportunity to speak to Jason Spang, Principal of Peotone High School. Peotone recently finished the 2021-2022 school year with 96.5% of their Freshmen ending the year on track for a four year graduation.

Peotone High School is one that does a lot with the resources they have available in order to make sure all of their students are successful. One part of that system includes them adopting a 20 minute advisory period in the middle of the day titled "Blue Devil Support" or "BDS".  Every teacher in the building has a roster of up to 14 students and special education teachers have a roster comprised of students on their caseload. During this time, students are expected to check in with their BDS teacher and are then encouraged to seek support from teachers in courses they are struggling in. 

As an additional study time for Freshmen in need of extra support, Peotone offers an elective course called "Freshmen Transition" that is an invitation only course that includes extra instruction/support from the Freshmen English Teacher and the Freshmen algebra teacher in a co-taught setting. Students in this course are selected based on teacher recommendations from the 8th grade team and data collection from an Early Warning System that Peotone utilizes to keep an eye on student progress. This EWS includes metrics such as attendance, GPA, Reading and Math MAPs scores, course failures, missing assignments, referrals and even extra curricular engagement. 

In addition to meetings that occur during early release days to discuss this data, Peotone also has a Student Support Team that meets biweekly to support students recommended to the team by staff members via a google form in regards to social emotional needs, behavior concerns and academic progress. This team has a menu of tier 2 and 3 supports available to assist students in need and can give a more well-rounded picture of what a student needs if testing for an Individualized Education Plan is deemed necessary.

For more information on what Peotone High School is doing, reach out to Jason Spang at 

jspang@peotoneschools.org .

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