By Brooke Meyer
At Batavia High School, a new system has been going around called “BARK chart.” The chart emphasis on responsibility, respect, and safety. Batavia High School’s goal is for each student is to grow in education but also social-emotional growth. According to BHS, these are important rules each student should follow in the classroom and throughout the school day. With that BHS has been starting to grade students on how well they are following the chart.
Batavia High School is starting to take charge in caring more about the BARK chart. This chart works with teachers monitoring and reporting on how students act in and out of the classroom.
“Research indicates that having common language in a school or district about expectations is very effective,” said Dr. JoAnne Smith, BHS principal. “We want to be very clear with all the students about their expectations for behavior.”
The School Leadership team, also known as SLT, said that this process will help students be more successful in developing proper academic behaviors.
“They will monitor goals, provide structure, gathers feedback, and implements support structures for all of our students to succeed,” SLT said.
The SLT wants to use the BARK chart to watch feedback on the growth of students.
The assessment begins on the 15th of September for the first term and 30th of January for the second term. Teachers will be grading students on whether they “meet” or “do not meet” in each category of the chart. They have been instructed to keep updates on those grades every two weeks. This with inform parents of how their child is acting in classrooms.
The BARK chart is under three main categories: responsible, respectful, and keep it safe. These main rules have examples on how the students can follow them.
“It is nice to have and know the chart is in the classroom, since at first people don’t know what the teacher expects to happen in the class,” said Skylar Morris, a current sophomore at BHS.
Current teacher Ms. Fricke agreed with Morris.
“I love the BARK chart. I think students need a consistent and common behavior expectations from teachers,” Fricke said. “ I use BARK as an opportunity to ask students how they could have reacted better.”
Batavia’s BARK chart will help students know the right way to act during school, according to school administration. The theory is that since students are graded on their behavior, it will cause them to perform the right ways a student should in class. BHS teachers and administration hope changes will have an impact and work in the long run, according to Dr. Smith.
“After reviewing our older Learner Profile system, we realized that some adjustments we needed to make the system more relevant and useful for all involved.”