Avalon Student Wins National Award!
Holly Marsh recently returned from Washington D.C. where she was honored for the 2009 National George B. Hartzog Youth Volunteer Award. The National Park Service chooses just five of their 175,000 volunteers to honor with this award. Holly was chosen because of her extreme dedication- she volunteered for over 270 hours for the National Park Service last year. Not only is she an incredible public servant, but she is also an outstanding student. Her interest with the National Park Service began with an Avalon trip to the park headquarters in the Minnesota Science Museum. We like to think that project based learning contributed to her achievement.
You can read the article about Holly at this link.
Avalon identified as one of the top five high schools in Minnesota by Business Week magazine
In January 2009, Avalon School was identified as one of the five top performing high schools in Minnesota. GreatSchools, an independent, non-profit organization that inspires parents to be involved in their children’s education, and Business Week partnered to identify the top performing schools in the state by using a combination of test scores, and the parent reviews and ratings featured on the GreatSchools website. There were five categories and Avalon was chosen as the parents’ choice for public schools. Other categories were: top academic performance overall, top academic performance low-income, parents’ choice private school, and most improved in academic performance.
US News & World Report: Bronze Award – America’s Best High Schools
U.S. News & World Report awarded Avalon a bronze medal in their second annual list of America’s Best High Schools. They used testing data from 2006-07 to determine which schools in the U.S. were best serving all of their students. They looked at 21,069 public schools and gave out 100 Gold, 504 Silver, and 1,321 Bronze awards nationwide. The Bronze medal schools had data which could have qualified them for a Gold or Silver but didn’t have Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data- a necessary component to reach the top two awards. While we do not have these programs, many of our students do take PSEO (Post Secondary Educational Option) classes. This is not a national program, however. In any case, this is good news for Avalon! We are working hard to make sure every student is receiving a quality education, and it is thrilling to be recognized for these efforts! The following link should bring you to an article with more information. http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/minnesota/avalon_school
Promising Practices Award
On May 21st, 2009, Avalon School was one of six schools awarded the 2009 Minnesota Promising Practices Award. Avalon School earned this award for our Avalon Constitution and student governance model as a character building practice. The Avalon School Constitution highlights our Peer Mediation program, Avalon Circle, and Avalon Congress. Peer Mediations are used to solve conflicts between individuals, and Circle and Congress meetings are used to solve school-wide dilemmas. When a conflict arises between students or even a staff member and student, the adults and students in the community are encouraged to use Peer Mediation. Through Peer Mediation and the Circle process, students learn to speak respectfully about difficult issues, ultimately making them better problem solvers and peacemakers. During Avalon Congress, students solve problems and discuss solutions by creating new laws to be approved by the staff. By participating in these activities, students learn character-building ideals like respect for others, communication skills, and self determination. More can be learned about the Minnesota Promising Practices Awards at www.mncae.org.
National Merit Scholars
During the school year of 2009-2010, Avalon’s senior class of 34 students produced one National Merit Commended Scholar, one Semi-Finalist, and two Finalists. We are proud of these hard-working individuals!
MPR Story: Is the High School Obsolete?
In the spring of 2007, Minnesota Public Radio did a week long series of programs entitled Is the High School Obsolete? Teh feature story by reporter Laura McCallum had a long segment on Avalon. Her conclusion was that we are not obsolete! She spent time at Champlin Park, the largest high school in Minnesota, St. Paul Central, and Avalon. The feature story was aired on the local section of All Things Considered. MPR also hosted a public forum with a panel discussion. The panel included a St. Paul Public School Curriculum Specialist, a new Minneapolis School Board member, and Randall Fielding, a school architect. Whenever this discusison focused on solutions, people mentioned ‘new’ ideas that are already in play here at Avalon. You can find the story at this link.