‘House’ philosophy at Taft’s freshman campus plays key factor in increasing school’s on-track rate to graduate, principal says

by BRIAN NADIG

Freshman on-track at Taft High School has jumped about 11 percentage points to 98.1 percent from two years ago, and principal Mark Grishaber believes the school’s separate freshman campus has fueled the improvement.

“This is huge for us,”Grishaber said after the Feb. 8 meeting of the Taft Local School Council. “The only schools above us … by less than one percent … are Lane and Northside, and they’re selective enrollment. We are a neighborhood school.”

The on-track indicator measures whether a student is on pace to graduate, based on the number of classes a student is passing or failing.

The freshman campus at 4071 N. Oak Park Ave. opened in the fall of 2019, and it has allowed teachers to better collaborate in terms of identifying a particular student’s needs and strengths and addressing problems, Grishaber said.

Taft’s freshmen are “housed” in groups of 150 students, and each group has the same teachers for their academic core classes, Grishaber said. He added that he would not be surprised if more large high schools implement a freshman campus.

The LSC was provided with freshman on-track figures for the following groups: Black male, 100 percent; Hispanic male, 97.2 percent; Diverse Learner, 96.2 percent; and English Language Learner, 98 percent.

Taft likely would jump from a “Level 1” performance school to the highest rating of “Level 1-plus” given the on-track improvement if schools were being rated at this time, according to Grishaber. The school system suspended the ratings after the start of the pandemic.

In other news, Taft is using teachers when they have a free period to fill in for a class when a substitute or staff member, such as a counselor and an administrator, is not available, Grishaber said.

Taft has about 250:teachers, who have up to 10 free periods a week, and it can more easily use teachers to fill in for a class than smaller schools, Grishaber said. “It’s done on a rotating basis,” he said.

At times students were sent to the auditorium to work on class assignment when a substitute was not available, but that has not happened in the past few weeks, Grishaber said.

At its peak during the pandemic, the school had about 40 staff members out sick compared to about 22 to 24 in recent weeks, Grishaber said. Before the pandemic, typically 10 to 15 staff members were out, he said.

Also, Taft has received a 14-seat van that will be used to transportation students to games and other events. It cost $60,000, but Taft expects to save that much in a year in its bus rental budget, Grishaber said.

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