INDIANAPOLIS — Scecina Memorial High School again has earned a grade of “A” in the Indiana Department of Education’s school accountability rating system.
Scecina’s “A” rating for the 2017-18 school year was based on three criteria: student performance as a percentage who pass English and math assessments, individual student growth based on catching up, keeping up, and moving up in English and math assessments, and the percentage of 12th-graders who graduate from high school and have taken steps to be college and career ready.
“Scecina is proud of its ‘A’ rating from the Indiana Department of Education,” said Principal Joe Brettnacher, Ph.D. “Our rating is a tribute to how hard our students worked. The accomplishment is the result of the high expectations our faculty, staff, and administration set for our students and themselves. The ‘A’ rating was a community effort.”
“Scecina has been preparing young people for college and life since 1953,” said Scecina President Joe Therber. “We’re very proud and grateful this tradition continues with yet another ‘A’ rating from the State of Indiana. Our community commits every day to the highest possible levels of academic progress to prepare our diverse group of students for future success.
Great teaching and learning are happening at Scecina, said Dr. Brettnacher. Some recent examples:
• In October, sophomore Amori Curiel represented Indiana at the Global Youth Institute that is devoted to find solutions to world hunger. Amori was accompanied by Scecina English teacher Kathryn Wetzel, who encouraged her Honors English students to research hunger and food insecurity issues in a chosen country, write a paper and present the results at the Purdue Youth Institute. Amori’s presentation at Purdue earned her the trip to the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa, as an Indiana delegate.
• Five Scecina students were selected for the 2018 Jim Holland Summer Enrichment Program at Indiana University in Bloomington. This is an opportunity for high-achieving, underrepresented high school students “to broaden their horizons in genetics, evolution, environmental biology, molecular biology, plant sciences, and more. Scecina biology teacher Mrs. Marianne Echelbarger encouraged eligible students to apply for this unique opportunity to instill interest in biology and in attending college. She said it was a high achievement for a single school to have five students selected.
For more information about Scecina Memorial High School, visit www.scecina.org/newsroom.
