Dear CHS Community,
I want to start this week's update with a special update from Jeannie Pfautz, Coordinator and Specialist for English Learners, on our our English Learners:
This week, for the first time in CHS history, we had students take a test to show their bilingual proficiency skills in Dari, Pashto, and Arabic, languages we don't offer as courses but languages that many of our students speak. These students now have the opportunity to receive the Seal of Biliteracy on the high school diploma.
What does this mean?
Students were able to formally demonstrate academic-level proficiency in their home or first language—not just conversational ability, but the ability to read, write, and communicate effectively across contexts.
This expands access to the Seal of Biliteracy beyond our world language courses, creating a more equitable pathway for multilingual learners. It affirms the value of the languages our students bring with them, recognizes their full academic strengths, and ensures more students can graduate with a credential that signals college, career, and global readiness.
Such accomplishments remind me of the work that happens at CHS and the complicated challenges that so many of our students face to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. It also highlights the remarkable capacity our students possess and how the school's responsibility is to provide the pathways that help showcase and elevate our students' extensive talents and strengths.
Particularly as we move toward the end of our school year and into a period when our school schedule prominently features testing and assessments, a reminder about importance of creating opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know in ways that are meaningful, authentic, and aligned to their strengths.
IMPORTANT SCHOOL SCHEDULE NOTE:
The final quarter of this school year will include changes to our school schedule to support AP/SOL testing. Please note the following changes to our school schedule.
CHS will run a 3-hour delayed schedule on the following dates:
On these dates, testing students will report on time by 9am. There will be no Early Morning classes on these dates.
All other students will report by 12pm.
An overview of the spring testing schedule, including our bell schedule for the above dates, is below. It includes our testing schedule for April and May.
To be clear, our school schedule will only change for the dates above.
As always...We are the Black Knight Nation!
Dr. Malone
