Dear PND Families, 

      Greetings from Peoria Notre Dame High School!  I hope this letter finds you in good spirits as we enter into the second half of the first semester.  The purpose of this letter is to inform you of planned enhancements of Peoria Notre Dame that will take place during the next school year beginning in August 2010.   

      As a school community we are always asking ourselves, “How can we improve?  How can we make Peoria Notre Dame High School a better school?”  We know that what we do now works - Peoria Notre Dame’s

• College acceptance rate remains annually above 99%. 
• ACT scores are among the highest in central Illinois, outperforming the state and national averages.
• Students continue to earn a multitude of scholarships, with the Class of 2009 garnering over $7.3 million.
• NCEA ACRE Faith Knowledge Assessment scores continue to outperform the national average.
• Commitment to Catholic identity remains as a pillar of our strength.
• Recent graduates said that over 80% of them feel better prepared than their peers in college.

      With all these accomplishments in mind, Peoria Notre Dame is planning to introduce two core changes for the 2010-2011 school year that will help to refine what we do and improve upon our strong academic reputation.  These changes include the adoption of trimester scheduling and the implementation of a 1:1 laptop program for our students.   

      This letter will seek to explain the core elements of these changes and invite you to share your opinions with us as we continue to plan and refine this vision and its implementation in the fall of 2010.  

Why a trimester? 

      Currently, PND operates in a traditional eight-period day with classes meeting daily for forty-five minutes.  This model, while highly popular in high schools around the country, carries with it certain design flaws that we feel impede the learning process.  In the current model, students take seven courses each semester with the average instructor teaching six periods a day, seeing between 120-150 students daily.   The forty-five minute window makes it difficult to teach with a variety of instructional strategies and often favors lecture-driven instruction.  Because of the high daily student load, assessments (quizzes, tests, etc.) often favor the use of short-term memory over the development of critical thinking skills.  

Scheduling the school year as a trimester would result in restructuring the day into five instructional periods of sixty-five minutes.  Each trimester would last twelve weeks.  A yearlong course would be two trimesters in length, and the majority of elective and non-core courses would be offered as a single trimester.  The daily bell schedule would be as follows: 

            Period 1:     8:30 – 9:35

            Period 2:   9:40 – 10:45

            Period 3:   10:55 – 12:00 

            Lunch A / Advisory A 12:00 – 12:35

            Lunch B / Advisory B 12:35 – 1:10 

            Period 4:   1:15-2:20

            Period 5:   2:25 – 3:30 

      In our current model, a yearlong course consists of forty-five minutes per day for thirty-six weeks or 8,100 instructional minutes.  In the trimester model, a yearlong course would consist of sixty-five minutes daily for twenty-four weeks or 7,800 minutes.  Although there is a 4.7% reduction in instructional minutes, we feel confident that extending the daily period is well worth the change.  

      Having classes with sixty-five minute periods as opposed to the forty-five minute model will allow our instructional staff greater flexibility regarding the choices they make.  Our staff will be able to better implement teaching strategies that stress critical thinking and collaborative learning.  More time will be available for labs and lessons utilizing project –based learning.  We envision a more engaging educational experience that helps to produce life-long learners who think critically and lead collaboratively.   

      In our version of the trimester model that we will implement, a rotating schedule will exist.  Some students perform better in the morning while some students perform stronger in the afternoon.  Rotating the order of classes on a daily basis will allow students to do their best in every class.  This rotation will allow athletes, who need to be dismissed early for sports, to avoid missing the same class on a regular basis.  

      The later start time of 8:30 is to deliberately create a time before school for clubs and activities to meet.  By adopting the later start, our students will be better able to participate in a wider variety of activities.  Research indicates that a later start time is ideal for high school-aged students and their learning needs. 

Why the 1:1? 

      It is difficult to deny that technology has changed everything.  The last twenty years has witnessed the revolution of personal computing.  Technology has changed the way we work, learn, and communicate.   1:1 programs have been around for more than a decade now and have proven their merit as a means of enhancing student engagement and lead to increased performance.  Laptops in the hands of our students put the world of information at their fingertips - a mere click away.  The personal computer has revolutionized every other aspect of society, and one would expect that the same should be true for education, especially now that laptops are more affordable, durable, and portable.  

      We will partner with Apple, Inc. to provide a quality, durable solution.  Beginning with the 2010-2011 school year, all Freshmen and Sophomores will be required to participate in the laptop program.  Juniors and Seniors will have an opportunity to participate in a number of ways, but will not be required to purchase a laptop.  

      Our current plan is to enter into a leasing agreement with Apple.  A new technology fee will be created that will cover the course of a student’s education at Peoria Notre Dame, leading to each student owning his/her laptop upon graduation.  He/she will be free to take that computer to college.  Students who will be Juniors and Seniors during the 2010-2011 school year will be able to participate with an appropriately pro-rated monthly fee; the rates are shown below.  In addition, Juniors and Seniors who already own a laptop will be permitted to use their family-owned laptops and connect to our network at school, thus alleviating a large unplanned cost for our Junior and Senior families during this transitional period.

      The dollar amounts below are our good faith estimate at this time.  These prices include software additions of Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite 4, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Apple Care, and comprehensive theft and damage insurance.   

      Cost per month for:  Freshmen  $30

                        Sophomores  $36

      Juniors   $55

      Seniors  $90 

• At these pro-rated costs, Juniors and Seniors who decide to participate in the Apple Laptop Program will be able to take their MacBooks to college. 
• Juniors and Seniors will be able to buy-into, but are not required to participate in the Apple Laptop Program.

      It is our goal at Peoria Notre Dame to provide the best educational program that we can in a manner that is affordable to our families.  Although there are a number of choices on the market in terms of laptop computing, it is our belief that this choice is in our best interest as a school community.   

What’s Next? 

      The changes we’ve written about above are not merely cosmetic changes or a simple new program, but denote a change in how we operate instructionally.  To prepare for this change, our teachers are participating in year-round professional development that is focused on teaching in an extended class period and utilizing 1:1 computing in instruction.  This training has already begun and will continue throughout the school year.   

      We’ve scheduled two informational sessions for the end of October to help answer concerns and provide greater clarity to the changes we propose.  In the meantime, we’ve created an informational webpage, which contains more detailed information on the proposed changes.  Peoria Notre Dame is also working on upgrading our curricular offerings, reviewing core requirements, and seeking to add more AP courses to our offerings over the coming years.  I encourage you to visit the following link: www.vision2012pnd.wikispaces.com for more information. On this link, you can listen to a presentation about these changes and view some very entertaining videos about twenty-first century school reform.   

      Please join us in the Robert Livingston Auditorium on either October 31 at 10:00 AM or November 5 at 7:00 PM to have your questions answered and to hear greater details.  As always, I welcome your emails, calls, and comments, and welcome the chance to discuss these changes with you.   
 
 
 

Yours in Christ, 
 
 
 

Charlie A. Roy

Principal