You can imagine, especially for a new teacher, how wonderful that is. Case management is a great way to make sure kids don't fall through the cracks. Teachers don't fall through the cracks either. In addition to the support of team members, new teachers often find themselves team teaching their first year. Additional support, in the form of peer evaluation, occurs annually for teachers' first two years at International and then every third year.
Teachers also write self-evaluations and create professional portfolios.
When the staff saw how powerful portfolios were for their own learning, the teams started to move away from student tests toward having students show their work to each other and discuss it. Monthly staff meetings, as well as team meetings, have focused on how to institute graduation projects or portfolios. This has meant creating and aligning rubrics with the state standards and graduation requirements. It has also meant supporting students in every class so that by the time they are seniors, they're each prepared to create a successful portfolio. Teachers, who personally advise several seniors apiece, acknowledge how much work implementing the portfolio process has been, but also how valuable it is, for teachers as well as students.