The greatest of educational leaders value the importance of reflection and refinement as they look forward to the next school year. Schools across the country have started this practice by working on their school-wide improvement plans and needs assessment to address student achievement. Many of these institutions have begun rewriting the education narrative, promoting a culture of student accountability, and eliminating “grades” from their vernacular. As the author of their outcome, they have chosen not to allow apathy to be the antagonist of their school’s success story. Instead, these innovative leaders have twisted the plots and turned conflicts of failures into happily-ever-afters of completing assignments, demonstrating learning, advancing student achievement, and increasing graduation rates. Although each success story is unique, the one common theme is that no one single person solely claims the character of hero. Rather, the champion’s tale of student success is a school-wide collaboration appropriately titled the Power of We.
With pen in hand, districts across the nation have committed to edit the ending of their story by bringing the ICU Database to their schools and teachers. Like a sword to a knight, the ICU Database equips every faculty member with the power to support students and defeat apathy by creating, monitoring, and managing missing assignments in one accessible location. Armed with the ICU Database, the responsibility to help a student doesn’t fall solely on the teacher. The ICU list makes every minute count with all students in all classes. Student achievement becomes the focus of the whole school community and each staff member pursues students to turn in missing assignments by creating opportunities to demonstrate their learning. Teachers are grateful for the extra help believing that more can be achieved when working together. Students and parents appreciate knowing that the entire school is working toward the same goal, the student’s success. For ICU schools, every faculty member can be the hero and responsibility for student learning no longer falls on “me” but is achieved through the power of “WE“. Lifeguards Michelle Mack and Noelle Heuer share about the success that comes from having a school-wide culture where each faculty member is working for every individual student.
“Our ICU culture raises the bar. We are just trying to hold students accountable and give them every opportunity to learn!”
– Michelle Mack, Lifeguard
“Communication is not only between the teachers and the students, but also with coaches, administration, and most importantly the parents. It’s important to remember that ICU is not a negative intervention. It’s a chance to address academic issues quickly and in a timely manner so that other educational gaps do not arise.”
– Noelle Heuer, Lifeguard
At the end of this year, will your school improvement narrative be one of tragedy or triumph? The Power of ICU team would like to partner with you to rewrite your school’s success story and help turn the responsibility of “me” into the Power of “WE”.