District Initiatives
In an effort to "create the leaders of the next generation," Byram Hills continually seeks to improve current programs while finding new ways to engage our students in meaningful learning experiences. This page summarizes some of our current and ongoing initiatives that meet the District mission:
In an environment of mutual respect, the Byram Hills School District and its community will provide students with the means, the knowledge, and the opportunity to excel in order to become productive and responsible citizens of the twenty-first century.
The District uses a cycle of continuous improvement for all academic programs. You can view the curriculum review cycle here.
K-5 LITERACY
At the May 3, 2022 Board of Education meeting, I presented an update of our K-5 reading curriculum. At the start of the pandemic, the Board adopted a literacy program in order to ensure our students had access to a strong reading and writing curriculum with the option of digital access. We were studying our literacy curriculum during the 2019-2020 school year, and we will pick up the study in the fall of 2022.
You can review a summary slide show here, and watch my presentation at the Board meeting here.
CHARACTER EDUCATION
The District adopted a set of core values with respect to character education over 20 years ago through surveys of parents, teachers, and students. From the survey data, we distilled the following character education principles:
Respectful Dialogue
Respect for Self and Others
Service and Kindness
These principles are supported in a variety of ways in the classroom, throughout the school environment, and integrated within the curriculum and instructional strategies. Examples of where character education can be seen in Byram Hills include:
- Morning meetings and grade/school wide community meetings
- Kelso's Choice (conflict resolution system)
- Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework
- Physical education and athletics sportsmanship
- Student-faculty voice circles
- The use of civil discourse in social studies and ELA classrooms
- Digital citizenship curriculum
- 9th grade mentor program
- Students Acting in Leadership (SAIL at HCC)
- #Kindness at HCC
- Science ambassador program
- Various clubs and extracurricular programs (VIP; Mu Alpha Theta; Tri-M; Big Brother/Big Sister; etc)
All our interactions throughout the District are driven by these core principles.
Ultimately, we strive to create an environment where everyone feels they BELONG; that is, we feel appreciated, validated, accepted, and treated fairly within our school community.
Character education remains a focus of the District Site-Based teams, and each year our
Additional ways we seek to cultivate the tenets of character education are noted below:
Cultural Proficiency
In 2005 the
To this end, the District developed a training program and additional structures to continue its journey toward cultural proficiency. We trained administrators, faculty, parents, and students. Study groups were created at Coman Hill and Wampus, which resulted in
The links below offer detailed information about this important initiative.
- View the cultural proficiency Conceptual Framework.
- Read an Overview of our cultural proficiency initiative since 2005.
Wellness and Social-Emotional Learning
The District recognizes the importance of supporting the social, emotional and academic needs of students. We are deeply committed to addressing student wellness through all aspects of our school environment. Recent initiatives have proven successful, and we are finding ways to assess these programs and find data that demonstrates the degree to which we are successful at supporting students' emotional health.
- Watch this discussion with the Board of Education on Character Education and Wellness.
- Watch this show on Emotional Wellness at Wampus.
Some recent initiatives include:
- Studied social-emotional programs and will pilot a K-5 social-emotional curriculum in 2021-2022.
- Created the flexible support program at the high school to help students succeed in our academic programs.
- Provided training from the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence, to help students become aware of emotions and learn to regulate them.
- Interview with the Director of the Center for Emotional Intelligence, Marc Brackett: On the science and teaching of emotional intelligence.
- Collaborated with the University of Michigan Depression Center to train faculty and collaborate with District on programs to support students.
- Collaborated with Stanford University's Challenge Success, including surveying students and families, and establishing new programs and systems to support student wellness and emotional health.
Bullying Prevention / Internet Safety
The District seeks to create a positive school climate. In doing so, we implement programs on bullying prevention and
- You can view our pro-social behavior programs for each school.
- Bullying Prevention: view the Parent Resource Guide.
- Watch this Bullying Prevention Program, titled, What Works and What More Can be Done. (
soon)coming - Visit the Byram Hills PTSA website for additional information on ways in which families can get involved in our schools.
- View the Bobcat TV show on Internet Safety and Cyber Bullying at HCC Middle School, featuring Detective Frank Kolarik, the HCC Guidance Counselors, and Dr. Evan Powderly.
- View the Bobcat TV show on Internet Safety with Judge Elyse Lazansky.
- Visit the
web pages for additional information on school-related programs.schools
Facing History and Ourselves
Since 2007, the District started to engage in teacher training and curriculum writing to integrate ideas and principles
- Watch the Bobcat TV show: Facing History and Ourselves.
A recent research study shows that "students of the Facing History teachers demonstrated significantly greater historical thinking skills, civic efficacy, and tolerance for others with different views than control students. They also reported that their classrooms were more inclusive, respectful, and tolerant of different points of view." (You can read the full report here, conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.)
GLOBAL COMPETENCE
As we move deeper into the 21st Century, we have left the information age and entered the innovation age. People
The Asia Society Global Competence Framework is one model we use to guide our work, and more information can be found on the Asia Society website.
We launched a 3-year Global Scholars Program in 2017-2018, an interdisciplinary study of global issues and leadership for students in grades 10-12. This program was developed by our academic chairpersons, Ms. Jen Laden (social studies), Mr. Duane Smith (English), and Ms. Melissa Stahl (world languages.)
Visit the Global Scholars Program webpage for more details and examples of the curriculum and student work.
- Read more about the start of our global competency initiative in this presentation to our Board of Education.
- Watch a Board of Education presentation with teachers and students from the global scholars program. (February 5, 2019.)
- Read the slide presentation update on the global scholars program (February 5, 2019.)
STEAM
For the past 20 years, the District has engaged in a focused and sustained effort to integrate technology into every classroom at all grade levels to support student learning. We continue to support the use of meaningful technology in our classrooms, and now, technology is ubiquitous to our curricular, instructional and assessment programs. Some highlights about technology include:
- Updated our infrastructure starting in 2014.
- Joined the Google environment in 2014.
- Launched a mobile learning initiative in 2014-2015
1:1 Chromebooks in grades 3 through 8, and mobile devices throughout K-2 and 9-12.with
You can view Bobcat TV programs on various technology and STEAM initiatives over the years:
- Robotics at BHHS
- Robotics & Coding at HCC
- Data Collection Devices in grade 3
- High School Physics
Hill TechnologyComan - Lego Robotics at Wampus
- HCC Robotics
Watch this discussion with the Board of Education on Robotics at the high school. (February 13, 2017)
STUDENT LEADERSHIP
The District seeks to "create the leaders of the next generation." To achieve this goal, all aspects of our curriculum, instruction, and assessments are
Additionally, the District provides other ways for students to learn the skills of leadership and to become true leaders. Some examples are noted below.
Watch this Bobcat TV video on Student Leadership in Byram Hills.
Watch a discussion with student leaders at a Board of Education meeting. (Start at 19:45 into video.)
Teaching Assistant.
Initially started
Watch this Bobcat TV show on the Chemistry TA Program.
Peer Leader.
All high school students are required to take a Health course, which includes important topics for students in the midst of transition to adulthood. To provide guidance, we offer a Peer Leadership program where high school
Mentor.
A signature program at the high school is our 9th grade Mentor class, a one semester course to orient ninth grade students to the social, emotional, and academic life of the high school. The Guidance Department
- Watch this show on the Mentor Program
Student Leadership Board.
Growing out of the District's initiative on cultural proficiency (see below for more information), we created the Student Leadership Board, a program for high school students in grades 9 - 12 to learn the skills of cultural proficiency, expand their view of global issues, and develop leadership skills to make a difference in their local and global communities.
- View this presentation to the Board of Education on the Student Leadership Board. (
soon)coming - Watch this Bobcat TV video on the Student Leadership Board.
SUSTAINABILITY
The Byram Hills School District recognizes the importance of educating students, parents, faculty and community members about environmental responsibility. The District models best practices in the schools, develops a coordinated K-12 curriculum, integrates environmentally sustainable products and practices into the facilities and transportation departments, and finds partners with local, state and national communities and organizations.
"Educators for sustainability work to develop in young people and adults the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and enduring understandings required to individually and collectively contribute to a healthy and sustainable future." (Jaimie P. Cloud, Educating for a Sustainable Future, 2010, p. 168)
- Watch the Bobcat TV shows on:
Recycling at Wampus
Sustainability at Coman Hill
Recycling at Coman Hill
Recycling PSA at BHHS - See an overview of the Education for Sustainability curriculum K-8, including essential questions and alignment with the sustainability standards: K-8 EfS Chart.
Standards.EfS - Review the Education for Sustainability Standards, by the Cloud Institute, which serve as the framework for our curriculum.
- Our sustainability curriculum was written by teachers through a regional initiative, sponsored by Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES. You can review the Education for Sustainability website for detailed information.
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Since 2005, the District has provided extensive training in the development of high quality performance assessments. Various high-quality performance assessments exist throughout the district and the areas of focus are captured on our curriculum maps. While various
Given the District focus on STEAM and Global Competency, we are entering a new era for assessing student learning. We are moving away from the term "performance assessment" and moving more toward an ongoing cycle of demonstrating learning through "authentic learning experiences." We will post more information as we make progress on this ambitious initiative.
DIFFERENTIATION
The District strives to meet the learning needs of every child. Over the past ten years we have provided professional development at all grade levels to support teacher learning of the theories of differentiation and provide opportunities for collaboration on differentiated lessons, activities and assignments. Our efforts have been guided by the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson, and recently.
Most recently, we
We continue to add new information to our work in this area.