Accredited with Distinction

P A R K W A Y

News and information for residents of Parkway School District

Fall 2011

Superintendent Keith Marty with Sorrento Springs kindergartners

Parkway Today • Fall 2011

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arkway School District has enjoyed a reputation of excellencefor 55 years. So why did 400 volunteers involved inParkway’s strategic planning process called Project Parkwaydevelop a new mission statement? The new mission state-ment sets the standards even higher for Parkway.

Because they realized our world is becoming moreP

All students arecapable learnerswho transfer theirprior learning to newdemands, in and outof school.

All students arecurious learners whounderstand andrespond to the chal-lenges of an ever-changing world.

PARKWAY LEARNING GOALS

All students areconfident learnerswho are increas-ingly self-directed,skilled and persis-tent as learners.

Ensure profes-sional learningopportunities areavailable to all staffmembers pavingthe way for moreeffective classroominstruction.

Hire, retain and investin an exceptional staffthat represents theunique diversity withinthe district.

We will be accountablefor responsibly andefficiently using alldistrict resources.

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“To ensure all students are capable, curious and confident learners who understandand respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.”

of Parkway’sMOREstrategic plan is online.Visitwww.parkwayschools.net/csip.

complex every day, and that in order to be successful, a school district mustmeet the educational needs of all students.

That meant reexamining how Parkway delivers education.• It meant focusing on student-centered learning.• It meant deciding first what students need to succeed in an ever-changing world, and then designing curriculum around that end goal.• Ultimately, it meant developing a new mission to guide every aspect ofParkway’s curriculum and learning goals, which appear below.

Parkway’s mission is to ensure all students are capable, curious andconfident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of anever-changing world.

This mission is more than just words on a piece of paper. To see it alivein Parkway classrooms, go to “mission possible” profiles on pages 5 and 11.You can also visit the Parkway website, www.parkwayschools.net.

COLLEGE. SEE STORY, PAGE 5.

AS PART OF ITS MISSION, PARKWAY GIVES THE ACT

COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM TO ALL JUNIORS.

SIDNEY MONACHELLO, SOUTH HIGH, TOOK THE EXAM

AND SCORED 25. NOW SHE WILL ATTEND A FOUR-YEAR

Parkway’s New Mission:

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Shooting Stars

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SuperintendentKeith Marty

Dear Parkway Community:

About the Cover

“The kindergartners

demonstrated the learning and

character traits we want to see in

our students — the confidence,

capability and curiosity stressed in

Parkway’s new mission.”

Sincerely,

Keith Marty

Superintendent Keith Marty, right, appears withkindergarten students Jamorah Triplett and JoshuaVan Deman at Sorrento Springs.

Teacher Catherine Pecher, far right, offered herclassroom for the photo shoot. Highly respected in thedistrict, Catherine suggested engaging Jamorah andJoshua with puppets for their first meeting with Dr.Marty. Both puppeteers hit it off instantly with thesuperintendent.

Special thanks to the parents of Jamorah and Joshuafor allowing them to be photographed.

Parkway’s free, full-day kindergarten became awelcome reality for families in Parkway this fall. Otherfirsts this year include new superintendent Keith Martyand a new Parkway mission and vision.

superintendent’s

Superintendent KeithMarty with Joshua VanDeman and JamorahTriplett.

Catherine Pecher, kindergartenteacher at Sorrento Springs,offered her classroom andpuppets for the photo.

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I recently hadthe pleasure ofposing with twoSorrento Springskindergartnersfor the cover ofthis publication.

I hadn’t metthe students,Jamorah Triplettand Joshua Van Deman, before, andI was struck by their confidence andcuriosity. They walked right up tome and immediately introduced meto their puppets. They asked mequestions. They shared their day’slesson from their highly respectedteacher Catherine Pecher. Through-out the photo shoot, they stoodright by me, smiling for thephotographer.

After the photo shoot, I thankedtheir teacher, and I wrote thank-younotes to their parents for allowingthem to be photographed. That’show impressed I was with them.

Even at their young ages, my photo-graphic pals or “shooting stars,” as I liketo call them, demonstrated the learningand character traits we want to see inour students–the confidence, capabilityand curiosity stressed in Parkway’s newmission (see story on pages 1, 5 and 11).

As a school district, our mission is tobuild on these traits and to ensure ourstudents can apply them to an ever-changing world when they graduate.

Please hold all of us at Parkway tothis higher standard. We want andexpect brighter futures for all ourstudents.

I would like to repeat my thanks tothe Project Parkway strategic planningcommittee for developing our newmission and vision.

Elsewhere in this edition, you willfind the latest information on boundarychanges in the north area and adjustedschool schedules. I know these havebeen challenging issues for all of us.Please allow me to thank you in ad-vance for your patience and under-standing as we continue to worktogether as a community to solve theseissues.

Most of you know by now that this is myfirst year as superintendent of Parkway. Icontinue to be impressed by the character ofour community.

Thank you for your support.

Fall 2011Parkway Today

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Adjusted School Schedulestart and dismissal times for Parkwayschools were adjusted by 5 to 10 minutesin October. Superintendent Keith Martysaid the time changes were necessarybecause 35 percent of Parkway students

To eliminate the squeeze, some residents

were arriving late to school.

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Bellerive Elementary students arrive at school.

Late Buses a Problem

Two-Tiered System Too Costly

The late bus issue was caused by previousschedule changes at the beginning of the year.After significant research by Project Parkwaymembers showed middle schoolers do bettersocially and academically with later start times, theschool board pushed back the middle school starttimes by about an hour and also lengthened theelementary school day by 20 minutes.

These initial time changes were a step in theright direction for students, but they put a substan-tial strain on Parkway’s transportation system.“Our transportation department made a supremeeffort to make the previous schedule work forstudents, but it simply did not,” said Marty.

In community meetings about the tardinessproblem, some residents had suggested addingmore buses and drivers to make sure studentsarrived at school on time.

Parkway’s transportation department currentlyoperates on a three-tiered system, which meanseach bus transports students to and from threeschools each morning and afternoon.

A bus driver generally needs 45 minutes to getfrom one school to the next.

With the previous schedule, some bus driverswere getting squeezed, trying to go from oneschool to the next in 30 to 40 minutes.

suggested moving to a two-tiered system,which means drivers would only go to twoschools in the morning and afternoon.

But this two-tiered approach would haverequired adding 50 more buses and drivers atan annual cost of $3 to $4 million.

Following is the time change for all schools,depending on the school’s tier. All Parkwayschools fit into one of three tiers. Go towww.parkwayschools.net/schools/schoolHoursNew.cfm to view all individualschool times.

Time Changes

Tier I SchoolsMoved from: 7:45 a.m. - 2:40 p.m.Moved to: 7:35 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Tier II SchoolsMoved from: 8:15 a.m. - 3:10 p.m.Moved to: 8:20 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Tier III SchoolsMoved from: 8:55 a.m. - 3:50 p.m.Moved to: 9:05 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Parkway Strong inNumber of NationalMerit Semifinalists

Fifty-one Parkway students were namedNational Merit Semifinalists or Com-mended in the 2011 National Meritprogram. Some 16,000 students, repre-senting less than one percent of U.S. highschool seniors, qualify as National MeritSemifinalists. These students now havethe opportunity to continue in theprogram to further qualify for MeritScholarship awards that will be offerednext spring.

National Merit Semifinalists

The students are:Central High: Dylan J. Adams,Thomas L. Hack, Shawn Z. He,David Huang, Katherine S. IhnatMeagan A. McKinstry, Joshua H. Mo,Lee Remi, Carl A. Wallach,Dennis X. ZhuNorth High: Manali P. Gokhale,Adrienne M. Hunt, Timothy R. TaiSouth High: Dushyant Bhatnagar,Stefanie T. Shahan, Connie X. Shen,Heather D. Wilson, Jeffrey ZhaoWest High: Keerthi Bandi, Will S. Gant,Andrew D. Kuehnle, Kimberly L. Lister,Adam B. Manders, James Wang

Commended Students

The commended students are:Central High: Keith Coulson,Joseph Esstman, Madeleine Gibson,Bradley Lai, Althea Anne Perez,Mathew Rasmussen, Jacob Rosenstock,Carol Wallach, Diana WangNorth High: Alexander Chan, SharonHan, Scott Hodnefield, Adam Lawrence,Benjamin Shanker, Taylor VoelkerSouth High: Mandi Brehm, Emily Cheng,Hannah Clift, Kyle Gunby, AnthonyMiano, Daniel Myers, Lauren VotavaWest High: Alexandra Bierman, Kristen Gabriel, Michael Kammeyer, Luke Schlueter, Benjamin Wheeler

National AchievementSemifinalists

Central High’s Ahmed Eltahir andNorth High’s Paa Imbeah were alsoamong 1,600 scholastically talentedAfrican American high school seniorsacross the country to qualify as NationalAchievement Semifinalists.

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Board Approves Boundary Changesfter years of increasing enrollment in the northernpart of Parkway, the Parkway Board of Educationrecently approved boundary changes to stemovercrowding. In the last decade, the north atten-dance area has increased by nearly 500 students,

Aand some north area elementary schools have exceeded theirenrollment capacity. McKelvey Elementary, for instance, hasroughly 610 students.

Meanwhile, other nearby elementary schools have excesscapacity. With just 230 students, River Bend Elementary, in thecentral area, has room for more students.

With the boundary changes, some north area students willmove into central area schools for the 2012-13 school year. In all,about 475 students will move to a different school.

NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGES

Students who currently attend Northeast Middle orNorth High and are reassigned to central area schoolswill be allowed to remain enrolled in their north areaschool if they wish. Likewise, fifth-graders will bepermitted a one-year special assignment to remain attheir current school if desired.

Parkway administrators developed the boundary planwith a 33-member volunteer task force and input from nearly1,400 north area families, who responded to a survey in May.

“The north area enrollment increase may be the result ofexpanding apartment complexes in the Bennington PlaceCorridor in Maryland Heights,” says Desi Kirchhofer, assistantsuperintendent of secondary education in Parkway. “We alsosuspect the area is an affordable place to live in Parkway andfamilies continue moving there because of the quality ofeducation Parkway schools provide.”

For more details on the boundary changes, visitwww.parkwayschools.net/boundaries.

OPTIONS FOR STUDENTS

Current Elementary Attendance Boundaries2011-12 School Year

New Elementary Attendance Boundaries2012-13 School Year

RiverBend

McKelvey

RossCraig

The North area schools involved are:

• Craig Elementary• McKelvey Elementary• Ross Elementary• Northeast Middle• North High

Some of these north area students will be reassigned toRiver Bend Elementary, Central Middle and Central High.

WHICH NORTH AREA SCHOOLS?

RiverBend

McKelvey

RossCraig

The changes will affect specific neighborhoods below:

Moving from Ross Elementary to River Bend Elementaryand from Northeast Middle/North High to Central Middle/Central High:

• Old Farm Estates (and the adjacent homes on the northwest side of Amiot)

• Woodland Pointe

Moving from McKelvey Elementary to River BendElementary and from Northeast Middle/North High toCentral Middle/Central High:

• Pheasant Run Apartment Complex• Royal Pines Condominiums

Moving from Craig Elementary to Ross Elementary(No change to middle or high schools):

• Driftwood Place• Pavilion (only the area west of Bennington)• West Pointe (only the area west of Bennington)

Fall 2011Parkway Today

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ACT Test Offered to All JuniorsAs part of its new mission, Parkway provides ACT testing to all juniors—with outstanding results.

Sidney Monachello, South High,never thought of herself ascapable of attending a four-year college before taking theACT and scoring a 25. As part ofits new mission to reach allstudents, Parkway provides ACTtesting to all juniors.

SidneyMonachellorecalls theday her dadopened herACT testresults.

“You are smart,” he said.“No, I am not.”“Yes, you are. Look at your

scores.”Sidney, a South High senior,

looked at her overall score of25, which was slightly abovethe requirement for acceptanceto most universities.

“Hey, nice!” Sidney shoutedto her dad.

Sidney took the collegeentrance test as part of a newdirection in Parkway that givesall students–not just those onthe college track–the option totake the college entrance examfor free during school hours.

“It made me realize I couldgo to a four-year universityinstead of a community col-lege,” says Sidney. “I neverthought I’d be able to do that. Imessed around my freshmanand sophomore years and gotpoor grades. It was such a goodfeeling to know that I finallyhad an alternative to my G.P.A.,a test that showed I wascapable.”

Unleashing that kind ofconfidence in students likeSidney is a main component ofParkway’s new mission: todevelop confident, capable,curious learners.

Parkway principals helpeddevelop the new mission aspart of long-range planning,and they relied on the newmission to guide them whenthey pushed to give the ACT toall juniors.

Two years ago, Park-way began giving the ACTtest to all juniors. Currently,Parkway has the highestpercentage of studentstaking the test–98.9 percent,according to recentACT results for 2011Missouri graduates.

As is typical whenschool districts beginoffering the ACT to alljuniors, test scores initiallyfall. Parkway’s compositescore dropped to 22.9 from24.1, according to recentfigures.

But Parkway officialssay the falling test scoresare worth the benefit ofgiving all students access tothe exam and the path tocollege. Parkway’s newmission, they say, calls forcreating confidence andcapability in all students,not just some students, ormost students.

“We knew we weretaking a risk,” says DesiKirchhofer, assistantsuperintendent of second-ary schools, “becausepeople often look at ACTscores to compare schooldistricts.”

He and other Parkwayadministrators have set agoal to reach a compositescore of 25 by the year 2016.

As for SidneyMonachello, the SouthHigh senior, she plans toattend the University ofMissouri-Columbia tostudy journalism next year.She now thinks of herself as“somewhat smart.“

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MISSION POSSIBLE

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class actsclass acts

TARS ResearchWinnersFive aspiring Parkwayscientists have won theLMI Aerospace Inc./D3Technologies Award forExcellence in Research.All five distinguishedthemselves in theUniversity of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) Stu-dents and Teachers asResearch Scientists

(STARS) program. TheSTARS program pairsstudents and teachers withresearch mentors fromuniversities and well-knownscience facilities. The fivewinners are:Central High: Chris Wang,North High: ManaliGokhaleSouth High: Connie ShenWest High: RaveenaBoodram, Shalini Subbarao

Publishing SuccessEmily Wilson, Central

High, is one of severalauthors of two sciencepapers published in theJournal of Herpetology andTennessee Journal of Science.

Emily did research forthe papers when sheparticipated in the 2010STARS program. HerSTARS mentors are coau-thors of the papers.

Young ScientistsJoel Sher, Central High

senior, was one of four St.Louis County students se-lected for the WashingtonUniversity Young ScientistProgram. He did research tomonitor acute lung injury.

Mrigank Gupta, WestHigh, received the 2011 HighSchool Water Quality ResearchAward from Missouri Ameri-can Water. His research

Toy Story“Toys have souls,” says West Middle student

Naomi Kodama, 13. “They need to live happylives with children who love them.”

She has traveled to Africa with her parents tomake toy donations. “People tend to concentrateon food and shelter for aid, but toys can bring somuch happiness,” she says.

Naomi also raises money to fight malaria andinspires her friends to do the same. For herefforts, Naomi was recently named the 25thChampion of the United Nations Foundation’s“Nothing But Nets,” a global campaign tocombat malaria. Nothing But Nets provides bednetting to children in Africa to protect themagainst mosquitoes carrying malaria. Naomi,who has also traveled to Germany and Africa topromote Nothing But Nets, should be featuredon KSDK Channel 5 this month. She has receivedthank-you letters from Ted Turner and RayChambers, the United Nations secretarygeneral’s special envoy for malaria.

Help for JoplinParkway students continue to hold fundraisersto help their counterparts in tornado-ravagedJoplin. In June, they presented a check for $7,500to Joplin School District.

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Fall 2011Parkway Today

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Chess ChampKevin Cao, Central High, won a $5,500cash prize in the Kings vs. Queens chessevent at the Chess Club and ScholasticCenter in St. Louis. His female opponentsincluded a four-time U.S. champion anda world female champion.

The North High football program celebrated its 40th anniversary athomecoming in October, playing against Central High, its first oppo-nent in 1971.

Silver and Bronze Awards forMason Ridge and Shenandoah ValleyState education officials recently recog-nized Mason Ridge Elementary andShenandoah Valley Elementary forimplementing successful strategies toimprove student behavior and academicperformance. Mason Ridge earned asilver award while Shenandoah Valleytook home a bronze award.

Haleigh Balentine, North High, isspending her senior year in Germanyon scholarship. She is one of seven St.Louis students to receive a fullscholarship award from the Youth forUnderstanding. “My biggest hope is that no awkwardthings happen,” she says. “I tend to be an awkwardmagnet.” Haleigh attends a combination elementaryand high school, and all her classes are in German.

Academic Excellence

Awards & Scholarships

Perfect ACT and SAT Scorers

ManaliGokhaleNorth High

Thomas HackCentral High

Timothy TaiNorth High

KeerthiBandiWest High

AndrewKuehnleWest High

Four students earn perfect ACT scores, while Manali Gokhale achievesSAT perfection.

MILESTONE

focused on creatingrenewable energyfrom wastewater.

The West HighHistory Club wasrecently selected asone of the 10outstanding historyclubs for 2011.

HistoryHighlight

Haran Kumar,West Middle, wasnamed a semifinal-ist in the 2011Missouri Geo-graphic Bee,sponsored by theNational Geo-graphic Society. “Iam really intogeography,” saysHaran. “At onepoint, I was study-ing 3 hours a day.”

GeographySuccess

WritingExcellence

Eleven CentralMiddle studentshad their storiespublished in theGrannie Annie,Vol. 6 anthology,which featuresfamily stories andyoung authors.

The authorsare: Travis Black;Shannon Flynn;CaitlinMagruder; MollyNewport;Kaytlyn Sneed;Keyonnia

Austell; AmandaDiamond; JeffDicker; AbbyUrnes; ShirleyYu; andJinghang Zhang.

AthleticAchievement

NickMatteucci, SouthMiddle, finished

first in the 12-14division in the St.Louis Rock andRoll Half Marathonin October. Thevictory was espe-cially sweet be-cause Nick, 13, hadwanted to playfootball, and hisparents urged himto try a marathoninstead. He foughtseasonal allergiesand asthma whiletraining and wasn’tsure what to expecton race day.

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outh High stu-dents are alreadyenjoying theschool’s state-of-

opposite page for moredetails).

At South High, eachscience lab is equippedwith 12 computers, aSMART Board, a travel-ing media cart andsafety features thatinclude showers, eyewashes and chemicaland acid storage closets.

Science classroomsalso have measurementsystems embedded in

the floor. The physicsclass, in the above rightphoto, for instance,features alternating darkand white tiles, simulat-ing a metric scale, elimi-nating the need for rulers.

South High is thesecond Parkway highschool to undergo majorrenovations to its agingscience facilities.

Central High’s newscience addition, com-

the-art science class-rooms, above. For the firsttime this fall, theystepped into South High’snew science building.

Strong communitysupport for the 2008 bondissue made this facilityand a number of otherrenovations possible (see

pleted in the fall of 2010,was the first.

Next in line is WestHigh. Its science areas willundergo extensive renova-tion to mirror the newclassrooms at Central andSouth High.

The North High sciencewing had an upgrade sevenyears back, so it is not inline for more renovations.But new equipment isslated for the school.

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New Science Buildingat South High

2008 Bond Issue at Work

Fall 2011Parkway Today

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FixingOur Schools

Before & After

An aging roof atWest High

BEFO

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Cracked play-ground pavementat Green TrailsElementary

Green Trailsplaygroundpavement afterrenovation

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Four high school athletic field turfs, including thisone at Central High, were installed this summer.

enerous community support for the 2008 bond issue allowedParkway to complete a record amount–$27 million–of construc-tion projects this year. These ranged from roof replacements totechnology upgrades. As a result, nearly 80 percent of the con-struction projects from the 2008 bond issue are now completed.Thank you, Parkway voters, for your support.

A battered HVACunit at NortheastMiddleBE

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Sorrento Springs Elementary, above, was equipped with 70 newlaptops and 40 computer work stations this summer. By the end ofDecember, all Parkway elementary schools will have new laptops andcomputer work stations.

Here are some of the larger projects:• South High science renovations (opposite page)• Northeast Middle heating and air conditioning improvements• Classroom renovations at Barretts, Hanna Woods, Henry and Sorrento

Springs elementary schools• Roofing and/or HVAC work at McKelvey and Ross elementary schools,

South Middle, Central High, South High and West High• Installation of new turf fields at four high schools• Pavement and curb replacements at South High• Pavement, curbs and storm water drainage work at Green TrailsThis was the third summer in a five-year construction plan to complete all of the

2008 bond issue projects.To view a complete list of bond issue projects and photos for each school, visit

Parkway’s bond issue progress website at: www.parkwayschools.net/bondprogress/index.cfm.

G A new HVAC unit atNortheast Middle

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Percentage of certified staff withmaster’s degree or above:Parkway: 68.1%Missouri: 53.9%

ACHIEVEMENTNationalMerit Scholars = 51Semifinalists: 24Commended: 27

ACT CompositeTest ScoreParkway: 22.9Missouri: 21.6USA: 21.1

SAT CombinedTest ScoreParkway: 1815Missouri: 1779USA: 1509

“Accredited with Distinction”by the Missouri Departmentof Elementary and SecondaryEducation (DESE)

Recognized for “Distinction inPerformance” by DESEfor 11 consecutive years

14 U.S. Department ofEducation Blue RibbonAwards

ENROLLMENTEnrollment: 17,48118 elementary schoolsFive middle schoolsFour high schoolsOne non-traditional high schoolOne early childhood center

FINANCES2011 Residential Tax Rate:$3.34 per $100 of assessedvalue

EMPLOYEESTeacher Salaries:$54,731 (Parkway Average)$44,249 (Missouri Average)

at a glance

2011-12 Operating Expenditures:$210.46 million

School Support

Business Services

TransportationFood Service

Executive Administration

2011-12 Operating Revenue:$205.49 million

Local

Desegregation

State

CountyFederal

Facilities & Grounds

This is Parkway...

$23.89

$20.99

$11.37

$8.87$6.10

$2.71

$5.09 $3.05

$10.41

$8.95

$175.77

$2.22Other

To view the 2010-11 budget, visit the Parkwaywebsite: www.parkwayschools.net/finance/index.cfm.

$136.53Instruction

arkway once again earned a perfect score onits Annual Performance Report (APR) fromthe Missouri Department of Elementary andSecondary Education (DESE).

Perfect Score for Parkway

P arkway received the highest possible rating on a recentComprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for

Parkway Receives Top Rating onFinancial Report

Parkway met all 14 performance standards mea-sured by the state, and once again qualified for thestate’s annual “Distinction in Performance Award.”Parkway has received this prestigious distinction eachyear since the award’s inception – 11 consecutive years.

The Annual PerformanceReport is based on multiplemeasures of student achieve-ment—MAP scores, the ACTcollege entrance exam, thepercentage of graduates goingon to college, etc.

For more informationabout the APR, visit the DESEwebsite at http://dese.mo.gov.

PA Clean Billof FinancialHealth

the fiscal year ending June30, 2011. Once again, Parkwayreceived an “unqualified opin-ion,” which is the highest distinc-tion available in the auditingprofession. An unqualifiedopinion essentially meansParkway’s financial reporting andinternal control systems, as wellas the financial condition of thedistrict, were given a clean bill of health.

Each year, Parkway undergoes a comprehensive, external reviewof the district’s financial records. The 2011 audit was conducted byKerber, Eck and Braeckel LLP Certified Public Accountants.

Fall 2011Parkway Today

YourSchool BoardPutting faces with names

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The board meets at7:30 p.m. on designatedWednesdays at CentralMiddle. For moreinformation on boardpolicies or meetings, whichare also streamed live,please visit our website at:www.parkwayschools.net/boe/boe.cfm.

Helen Casteel

Sam Sciortino

Dee Mogerman

Tom Appelbaum

Bruce Major

PresidentChris Jacob

Beth FeldmanVice President

MISSION POSSIBLE

hen Izzy Muren walked into Kim Carr’smultimedia class at Central High, she wasalready an accomplished animator with 470followers on YouTube. Kim learned aboutIzzy’s experience through pre-assessments.

WAnother benefit: “Students try harder and

become more capable with a larger audience.”Through assessments, Kim also learned that

another student had limited experience beyondPowerPoint. Kim steered Izzy and the rest of theclass to Adobe Premiere, a software program new toall of them, so Izzy and others wouldn’t get bored.They also learned the creative steps involved infilmmaking, which pushed all of them beyondsimply acquiring technology skills.

Using Google forms, Kim has students evaluate theirown capabilities at the beginning of class. She then asksthem to create a presentation about themselves using anymultimedia tool they feel comfortable with.

After the presentations, Kim asks students to reflect onthe quality of their presentation, overall creativity, effort,strengths and improvements.

“Students are able to access their peers’ work, so theycan ask themselves, “What do I know, what don’t I know,how could I improve? This creates capability,” Kim says.

She began the student assessments this year as part ofParkway’s new mission. Jennifer Stanfill, coordinator ofcareer and technical education in Parkway, is coachingmore teachers to do the same.

‘Follow Me’ on You Tube

Kim Carr’s push for pre-assessment, a part of Parkway’s new mission,came in handy this year. The multimedia teacher, above, learned thatone of her students, right, was already an experienced animator with470 followers on YouTube. A change in instruction was necessary.

Peer Assessment Creates Capability

Throughout class, Kim also has students from otherParkway high schools evaluate her students’ websites.“It keeps the feedback more honest,” says JenniferStanfill, “because the students from North High don’tknow those at Central High, and they don’t worry abouthurting a friend’s feelings when doing a critique.”

“The students as designers begin to see their workthrough others’ eyes,” says Kim.

Beginning this year, students also designwebsites for actual businesses so they can transfertheir learning from class to the real world, aprimary goal of Parkway’s new mission.

Kim seeks to move beyond the teacher as soleevaluator. After she gives students grades forwebsite designs, she plans to have professional webdesigners from, say, Ameren UE, evaluate studentwebsites, so students can continue to make im-provements and learn.

Classes are no longer just skill-based. In an ever-changing world, software programs like Dream-weaver can be dead and gone within the next fewyears. “We still teach how to use the functions of theprogram, but we focus more on teaching effectivecommunications using digital tools, which pro-motes thinking and problem solving. That’s thetransfer of learning,” says Kim.

Transferring Learning to the Real World

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455 N. Woods Mill Rd.Chesterfield, MO 63017www.parkwayschools.net

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Please Note: Because Parkwaymails this publication by carrierroute to save postage costs, someindividuals who do not live inParkway may receive this mailing.

Parkway Today is published twiceannually by the CommunicationsDepartment.

Parkway School District does notdiscriminate on the basis of race,color, religion, national origin,gender, or disability in admissionor access to, or treatment oremployment in, its programs oractivities. If an otherwise qualifiedindividual with a disability needsaccommodations to attend orparticipate in a school or districtactivity, please contact the staffmember responsible for that eventat least four (4) business days inadvance. Questions, concerns, orrequests for information/assistancecan also be directed to thedesignated district coordinator foreach applicable federal law or bycalling (314) 415-8100.

Nov. 23-25Thanksgiving holidayNo school

December 23-Jan. 4Winter break/professionaldevelopmentNo school

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Since Parkway beganposting school closings andlate-breaking news onFacebook and Twitter inAugust 2010, we have keptcount of our fans and follow-ers. The numbers climbeach week.

As of late October, Parkwayhad more than 4,000 Facebookfans and 866 Twitter followers.

So it‘s our turn to thank ourgrowing numbers of fans andfollowers. Each one of you isresponsible for uniting theParkway community!

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