Revere Superintendent’s Corner by Dr. Michael Tefs

Workforce development at Revere Middle School

I am truly inspired by the philanthropy, vision, and mission of the Revere Schools Foundation. The foundation’s mission to promote experiential learning, produce leaders and protect our kids is so greatly appreciated. RSF continues to be an amazingly value-added partner for us.

The Revere communities are keenly aware, I am sure, of how the foundation protects our schools as they assist with the funding of a school resource officer and other school safety initiatives in and around our schools.

Next year, the foundation will assist Revere Middle School in producing leaders.  Beginning in August 2024, RMS will deliver a new student leadership curriculum that we believe will have a tremendous impact on our students and their mobility toward graduation. We are striving for our students to believe they can solve any problem, believe that no challenge is too great, and approach problems with an attitude of optimism, persistence, confidence, and resolution to improve the situation.

From a workforce development perspective, I often hear from local companies about what kind of talent they are hiring and desiring. They want students to be:

• Adaptable: a willingness to embrace change.

• Strong communicators: strong written and verbal communication skills. Comfortable communicating in-person, online, and collaboratively.

• Collaborators: understand the value of teamwork.

• Self-Starters: motivated to take initiative and learn independently.

• Tech-Savvy: having the ability to adapt to new software and technology.

• Resilient: in the face of adversity, an ability to bounce back from setbacks and lead with determination.

• Global Perspective: understanding the interconnectedness of the world and the implications for business and society.

The curriculum that we will recommend to the board of education, late in the first quarter of 2024, will focus on building student leadership competencies that will align with our Vision of a Minuteman and support the above competencies. We anticipate that our recommendation will include curriculum on creating change, empowerment, follow-through, group development, initiative, mission, power dynamics, providing feedback and responding to ambiguity.

We are excited about this new opportunity to respond to what we are hearing from our workforce development partners and are so very thankful for the support and partnership of the Revere Schools Foundation. An exciting moment, for sure.

#thisisRevere

Student Achievement – Nationally Recognized

The impressive student achievement of the Revere Local Schools is certainly nothing new. In fact, at times, I often feel as if the scores, accolades, and awards are taken for granted.

In a time when, nationally, pre K-12 public education is often spoken of with disapproval and condemnation, Revere is excelling and succeeding. Several new reports highlight the education delivered by our impressive faculty/staff and the achievement of our terrific students.

U.S. News & World Report (#23 in Ohio)

Revere has improved its standing over the past three years and is currently ranked 23 in Ohio, out of 1,011 high schools. These results place Revere in the top two percent of all Ohio high schools!

Below is a brief description of each of the six ranking indicators and their weights (percentage) used to produce the overall score.

• College Readiness – 30%. RHS seniors who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one AP exam.

• Ohio Department of Education Assessment (Proficiency) – 20%. Aggregated scores on Ohio assessments that students are required to pass for graduation.

• Ohio Department of Education Assessment (Performance) – 20%. How aggregated scores compare with other schools given the proportions of Black, Hispanic, low-income students.

• Underserved Student Performance – 10%. Scores on Ohio assessments aggregated among Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. These scores are compared with what is typical in the state for non-underserved students.

• College Prep Curriculum Breadth – 10%. The proportion of RHS seniors who took and earned qualifying scores on the AP exam in multiple areas. More exams are valued more than fewer exams, up to a maximum of four. Earning a qualifying score on an exam is worth three times more than just taking the exam.

• Graduation Rate – 10%. The proportion of RHS freshmen who graduated on-time (four years later).

Ohio Department of Education (Top 2%)

Performance Index. 2023 – 103.8 (95.4%); 2022 – 102 (95.2%); 2021 – 101 (84.2%).

Revere is in the top 2% of schools in Ohio. Please, applaud our teachers and students for our student achievement.

While these data are impressive, please know that student safety and the daily student experience remains our strongest strategic deliverables. We want our schools to be a place where our students and employees want to be.

If you have yet to see our digital 2023 State of the Schools presentation or our “This is Revere” video, I highly recommend that you visit our website, revereschools.org. You’ll find both of these videos on the front page of our website.

This is Revere … a wonderful high-achieving and student-centered school system! #thisisrevere ∞