Standards Based Education at Hall-Dale

Intervention and Advancement:

What happens when students fall behind and need more assistance in a subject or standard? Or What happens when a student is learning so quickly that he/she is ahead of the class? These two problems were never really addressed in the traditional system, but in Hall-Dale's Standards Based Educational system they are addressed through structured intervention and Advancement.

What is the role of interventions in this system?
It cannot be stressed enough that the best “intervention” a teacher can offer is to take personal responsibility for each student at the classroom level. Monitoring progress and helping on a daily basis, anticipating and meeting learning needs, establishing relationships with both students and their parents, making parental contact by phone and email, updating Infinite Campus, and showing that we care for and expect the best from each of our students is the first and best stage of intervention. Because it is the standard that matters as the learning objective, and not the individual assignment or assessment, and because our mission is to see that every student achieves proficiency in every standard, a thorough and aggressive set of interventions is vital to the success of our system. At the HDHS we have a number of scheduled intervention opportunities that continue to evolve. Current interventions in place include:

As important as scheduling the time, though, is the structure of the intervention. In some cases, it may be the best use of that time for a student to work on overdue class work or assessments. More often, the student would be directed to do work that reinforces or reassesses the standards. For example, for a day of vacation school, a student might not spend time making up all the assignments they’ve missed regarding geometry. Instead, the instructor may decide to construct a full day of instruction and
assessment that focuses on the geometry standard. One of the guiding thoughts of intervention is the idea, “if what you’re doing doesn’t work, try something else.” Intervention is a way to get at the standard by trying something else.

Intervention notes:

As a Parent you may see a grade or assessment that you question. You are encouraged to make contact with the teacher of your child and in the course of that conversation you may also request your child be called to a Daily Intervention Lab for extra help and support.

It is important to note that the Daily Intervention Lab is available to all students regardless of their success or struggle in a class. Students are strongly encouraged to use this lab to move into the proficient and proficient with distinction columns for their rubrics and class grades. All teachers also have office hours before and after school or by appointment during the day. These are posted outside their classroom doors.

Here is the Intervention Plan Form, this is what we use to document and verify that our interventions are actually effective.