Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of visiting with Deputy Superintendent Pedro Martinez, Principal Neddy Alvarez and her staff at Western High School, located in the Clark County School District, in Las Vegas. The school undertook a comprehensive effort to completely transform the culture of the school and added a motivated group of talented teachers. Western altered（改变） the school day to add opportunities for students to get additional credits toward graduation and created smaller learning groups. As part of these comprehensive changes, the school’s leadership also focused on four main reforms to transform their school.
First, improvements started with the change in the relationship between the school and students to create a caring atmosphere at the school. Using the “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” strategies, school leadership and teachers began building a trusting environment and students and families described seeing changes aimed at improving student outcomes and ensuring the success of every student. The school day was altered to add more options for students to obtain additional credits toward graduation. Students and teachers were grouped into “houses,” so that smaller groups of teachers and counselors(辅导员)could create one-on-one relationships with students. Teachers and counselors said that the altered school day provides time to address student’s individual concerns and develop individualized learning plans to put every student on a path to graduation.
The school also made changes to encourage parents to support school and encourage real dialogues between parents and the teachers and leaders at Western. Funded in part through the United Way, the school created a family engagement center to get parents more involved in their children’s education, particularly parents of English language learners. Parents like Ally Gaona and Martha Mendez told me that they had a voice and the tools to engage in their children’s learning and that they recognize that the main responsibility for their children’s learning must rest with the parents. Parents were passionate about these positive changes and said that these changes signaled to the entire the community that the school was serious about family engagement.
小题1:What is the main purpose of the passage?
A．To attract people to the school.
B．To talk about the school reforms.
C．To introduce the school
D．To introduce the relationship between the school and students.小题2:How many main reforms are mentioned in the passage?
A．Two
B．Three
C． Four
D．Five小题3: Students and teachers were grouped into “houses in order to ___.
A．provide time to address student’s individual concerns.
B．add more options for students to obtain additional credits toward graduation..
C．create one-on-one relationships with students.
D．develop individualized learning plans to put every student on a path to graduation.小题4:Which statement is the right according to the passage?
A．Parents didn’t support the reforms.
B．The reforms intended to improve student outcomes and ensure the success of every student.
C．The school asked parents to donate their money.
D．the school was not serious about family engagement.
