Decisions are hard to make — especially when you’re a teenager.
At Homewood-Flossmoor High School, the Guidance Office staff works to provide the best advice for students starting in junior high, said Jim Schmidt, guidance department chairman.
It’s all about keeping students keenly aware of the academic excellence of H-F and how the school’s numerous academic and extracurricular programs can benefit them throughout their four years of high school.
“Our goal, as a school, is to develop our students academically, socially, emotionally. And I know we put our actions behind that,” Schmidt said. From that first talk with eighth grade students until graduation week the Guidance Office will work with students to make certain they stay on track to meet their goals, whether that is college or employment.
H-F offers PowerSchool, the academic database program giving students and parents current information on everything from grades and teacher comments to absenteeism and discipline records.
H-F students know what’s expected of them in the classroom because it is part of the high school’s culture. Schmidt said with 90 percent or more of the graduating seniors headed to college, teachers, counselors and administrators continuously emphasize academics.
“We tell them homework is minimally two hours a night at the college prep level. If you’re going up to AP (advanced placement), you’re adding probably another hour a night some nights. So the message is there,” he added. “Our freshmen goals are always academic success,” and the building blocks that get students ready for college.
Schmidt said the students with the best grade point averages (GPA) after freshman year will be among the most successful because they will be highly ranked and will show success when they take the ACT college entrance exam as a junior. GPA, rank and ACT scores are three of the most important markers for college recruiters.
“If you don’t build a strong GPA your freshman year, you’ve got one more semester to pull yourself up, but your GPA is pretty much set that freshman year,” Schmidt tells the incoming class. When their parents review these statistics in Guidance Office presentations “it’s one of the most profound things they see,” Schmidt said.
Counselors place special emphasis on preparations each of the four years. For freshmen, its personal awareness and building a strong academic foundation.
For sophomores, the emphasis is on careers and personal awareness that correlate to college admissions. Juniors begin their college searches, and as seniors they are filing their college and scholarship applications.
Schmidt says he tells students H-F is “like going to Old Country Buffet—you have a variety to choose from, but some students only pick one or two things. Other students will fill their plate freshman year, and the next year they’ll fill their plate even more. At H-F they have the power to choose. We provide intense academic opportunities. It’s rigorous, but we provide support.”
The Guidance Office has eight generalist counselors each with a caseload of between 300 and 350 students. The team of specialists behind them, if teachers recognize a problem, includes a school psychologist who heads up the Response to Intervention (RTI) team, two college counselors, two social workers, three administrative assistants and a registrar.
Student assistance begins with teachers differentiating instruction based on the student’s need. The district provides teacher-certified tutoring seven days a week.
About 80 percent of student assistance is done with teacher/RTI assistance. If students need additional help, H-F has a Student Support Team in place that does another assessment of the student’s needs. Students also can be part of an Academic Intervention program four days a week that helps teach time management or organizational skills as well as academic tutoring.
Schmidt said the team knows all students aren’t at the top of their game.
“Being a teenager is difficult. Some come in lacking foundation skills. H-F provides the supports that require a lot of energy and resources,” he explained, “but fortunately H-F has the finances and the professional people in place and is willing to put that time and energy” into student success outcomes.
Contact Marilyn Thomas at [email protected]
