The Senior Student High School Rating Scale (Shrs)

In democracy the principal of high school is expected to be servant of the individuals he/she serves, and not their master. In the case of the high schools across America, this means the high school students. Where there is middle school, this means four years with the sole purposes of building bridge to the work place for the young citizens of our country. Typically, then, our high school seniors have spent four years in relation to their learning and development, and as the sole receivers of the high school program. It is therefore fitting and proper and in democracy it is indeed imperative that the high school seniors each and every graduating year provide the principal with an evaluation or rating of the program they have been the recipients of, and particularly from their own personal vantage; not that of the parent, or the church pastor, or some other related adult in the community. Here, then, for the first time, they are to be recognized as independent citizens and to be able to say their peace in relation to the society of which they are expected to be an independent thinking and productive member. A Nation At Risk In 1983, the Secretary of Education T.H. Bell made final report on rather comprehensive study of our nations schools, and where the focus was on the beginning students who would be expected to gradate from high school in the year 2000. Two things stand out in that report that have not been challenged, and which are basic to the problems in our high schools: (1) Research indicates that those students with clearly defined goals and sense of 'direction' are more likely to persist and attain college degree (p 42), and (2) Even with your parents best example and your teachers' best efforts, in the end it is your work (student) that determines how much and how well you learn (p 83). In comparison to every other industrial nation in the study students from our high schools did less well, and for the most part were near the bottom of the list in school achievement. The report insisted that the United States was a nation at risk because of failing schools, and serves to point up the importance of our schools in relation to the success of our nation in the world for the 21st century, and need for urgent change in those schools. Accountability and High School Principal The research is abundantly clear in relation to individuals evaluating programs for which they have been the responsible implementing agency, and their inability to be objective in such assessments. Individuals are simply not able to perceive the errors of their own ways in terms of accountability studies. This simply means that high school principal can not be expected to perceive mistakes being made in the schools for which he/she is the responsible manager and administrator. In similar manner the Board of Education responsible for establishing policies in high school can not be expected to be objective in evaluating selves, because the schools are always direct product of the policies they have implemented. The seniors in our high schools have been the recipients of the education and learning programs of our high schools and are ready to go out into the world of work, or to college for further preparation of even higher and more responsible positions in our society. They alone, for four years, have been the personal recipients of the high school program, and it is high time they be asked to serve in determining accountability of the program for which they have been an integral part. How could it be different in democracy? High School Problems For one who has been licensed school psychologist for 60 years, boarded for 30 of those years (holds diplomate in school psychology), and holds superintendent's credential for more tan 30 years, the following seem to be real weakness in our high schools. Diplomate in School Psychology The two major problems always in any high school have to do with: (1) problems related to the psychology of learning, and (2) problems that have to do with the psychology of student behavior. …