Mojave High School

Mojave Unified
Kern County
2001 API Base Report

Project Name
Mojave High School Flagship Project: Setting a New Course for English and Math.

Project Partners
California City Middle School
Joshua Middle School
CSU, Bakersfield
Cerro Coso Community College

Project Director and Contact Person
Jim Walsh
Mojave High School
15732 O Street
Mojave, CA 93501
Tel: (805) 824-4516
Fax: (805) 824-3406
Email: jimwalsh@mojave.k12.ca.us

Jon Tittle
Cerro Cosco Community College
3000 College Heights Blvd.
Ridgecrest, CA 93555

Vision Statement

Mojave High School with the help of its two feeder schools: the Joshua School (grades 4-8) in Mojave and the California City Middle School (grades 6-8) in California City, and its partners have set four goals to help strengthen the English and mathematics curricula at the middle schools and the high school. These goals include the implementation of a process of communication with our feeder schools for a system of articulation of secondary and post-secondary academic expectations, a strengthening of staff development in the areas of writing and problem-solving across the curriculum, and to provide an academic support system for middle school and high school students. To support these goals we propose to implement college preparatory classes and electives which require writing and problem-solving activities, staff development to incorporate these activities into all the classes, AVID classes with a teaching team, and two homework centers.

Activities that have been planned to reach our goals include:

1. development of rigorous math and English related electives at the middle schools and at high school including, but not limited to, Advanced Placement classes.
2. Teacher workshops which train all teachers to incorporate writing and problem solving into their lessons.
3. Administrative mandates and implementation of meetings and process for assessment, evaluation, and revision
4. Implementation of counseling, administrative and student presentations to middle school staff and students (college/university expectations).
5. Implementations of mentorships and tutorials for middle school students by high school students through homework centers and other feasible means (for instance, a homework club, math club or poetry club-based on survey assessment of middle school students).
6. implementation of academic clubs, associations, and competitions at each middle school with high school students as advisors, tutors, and mentors.
7. Expansion of “Information Night” for parents of incoming freshman to include a two college curriculum planning workshops: one for fall, one for spring.
8. Implementation of counseling newsletter and other information to middle school parents
9. School/college/university visitations
10. Implementation of SAT preparation classes

Current Highlights include:

1. The homework center is functioning very well.
2. Students are writing across the curriculum including in all of their elective classes.
3. More students are taking the SAT and scores are going up.
4. The project has strong Community College support along with support from CSUB.
5. The high school is taking a leadership role in working with the two feeder schools.