Dr. Bennett Visits the Valley
By: Kellie Bartoli
Updated: February 21, 2012
A Valley High School is making quite an impact across the state, and it's not going unnoticed.
State Superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett visited Bloomfield High School Tuesday afternoon.
Last year, the school had one of the highest non-waiver graduation rates in the state: 97.2 percent.
Dr. Bennett met with teachers to thank them for their effort and get feedback. He says he wanted to see the incredible performance of the high school firsthand:
"It's obvious when you walk into Bloomfield that the focus is on how do we make sure children are prepared for the 21st century. And I think that bares out in the fact that of all of our high schools in the state of Indiana, this one ranks sixth," said Dr. Bennett. "Our job as a state is to learn from Bloomfield, take the lessons from here, document those and make sure other schools across the state know it can be done."
Over the past two years, Bloomfield's Advanced Placement program has increased 40-percent. It's ranked second in the nation for AP participation and success.
Bloomfield is also one of six schools in the state to pilot a new teacher evaluation program
Dr. Bennett says the school is helping to mold the system that will improve teaching styles.
"Very honest feedback. Not necessarily the feedback we always wanted to hear but really honest feedback about what we needed to do with the model, and frankly some of the very changes we've made to the model have come from Bloomfield High School," said Dr. Bennett.
The new teacher-evaluation model will be in place in all of Indiana's 1,850 schools next year.
State Superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett visited Bloomfield High School Tuesday afternoon.
Last year, the school had one of the highest non-waiver graduation rates in the state: 97.2 percent.
Dr. Bennett met with teachers to thank them for their effort and get feedback. He says he wanted to see the incredible performance of the high school firsthand:
"It's obvious when you walk into Bloomfield that the focus is on how do we make sure children are prepared for the 21st century. And I think that bares out in the fact that of all of our high schools in the state of Indiana, this one ranks sixth," said Dr. Bennett. "Our job as a state is to learn from Bloomfield, take the lessons from here, document those and make sure other schools across the state know it can be done."
Over the past two years, Bloomfield's Advanced Placement program has increased 40-percent. It's ranked second in the nation for AP participation and success.
Bloomfield is also one of six schools in the state to pilot a new teacher evaluation program
Dr. Bennett says the school is helping to mold the system that will improve teaching styles.
"Very honest feedback. Not necessarily the feedback we always wanted to hear but really honest feedback about what we needed to do with the model, and frankly some of the very changes we've made to the model have come from Bloomfield High School," said Dr. Bennett.
The new teacher-evaluation model will be in place in all of Indiana's 1,850 schools next year.
