Once again, we have had a busy summer. Foremost among our administrative tasks during our break was the hiring of new personnel. Since many of you were not able to attend our parents’ nights, I thought I would start the year by giving you a brief introduction to our new faculty.
Natalie Jeffcoat, our new Library and Media Specialist, is not new to Houston Academy. She and her husband, Cliff, have two children at HA, Sydney, who is a freshman and Lucy, who is a 7th grader. Natalie has a B.S. Degree in environmental science from Troy University, an M.S. in environmental analysis and management from Troy University, and a M.Ed. in library media from the University of West Alabama. Natalie has worked as a science teacher, a resource specialist, and a media specialist.
Emily Smith is our new Learning Specialist. Ms. Smith holds a B.A. in communication disorders from Auburn University and master's degree in communication disorders from Auburn University. She has received Orton Gillingham training to work with dyslexic students, and she has extensive experience in cognitive linguistic and speech disorders. Additionally, Emily is licensed by the Alabama Board of Examiners for speech language pathology and audiology. She is a native of Dothan and is a former Houston Academy student (and student of Mrs. Boothe).
Laura Smith will be serving as our new 3P teacher. Ms. Smith holds a B.S. in early childhood education from Troy University, where she was the recipient of the Outstanding Student Award. Moreover, she earned an associate of arts and associate of science degree from Wallace College. She has worked in a Montessori school, as a kindergarten teacher, as a second grade teacher, as a first grade teacher, and as tutor and mentor at the Wiregrass Children’s Home. Significant to our 3P program, she has received Alabama Reading Initiative Training and has also been trained in technology integration.
Connie Capaldo will be teaching 4P. Ms. Capaldo has an Ed.S. in learning technology from University of Missouri, an M.S. from Troy University, and a B.S. from University of Montevallo. Ms. Capaldo has been teaching for almost 20 years. She has a daughter in fifth grade named Bella,who has been at HA since kindergarten. She has a tremendous love of children's literature, and she is looking forward to sharing her love of reading with her students. When she is not teaching, she enjoys spending time with family, doing crochet, digital scrapbooking, and caring for her two dogs.
Eve Espy is our new third grade teacher. Ms. Espy has a B.S. from Auburn University, and she has taught for 18 years. She spent the last eight years at Deerfield Windsor in Albany, Georgia, which is a quality independent school that is very similar to HA. Ms. Espy is moving back home to Dothan after being away for 26 years. She has three children, Emily, who is a graduate student at Auburn, Miles Jr., who is a sophomore at Auburn, and Michael, who will be a junior here at HA. Ms. Espy is a huge Auburn fan, and as a fun fact, Mrs. Boothe was Ms. Espy’s fourth grade teacher.
Lindsey McAllister will be taking over our very successful lower school Spanish program. Mrs. McAllister is an Honors College graduate of Auburn University and has experience as both a second grade teacher and an elementary and high school Spanish teacher. Mrs. McAllister was also salutatorian here at HA. She is married to Anthony McAllister, and they have four children. She loves spending time with my family, good food, and Broadway musicals.
Ashleigh Savoy will be teaching fifth grade, and she is certainly no stranger to HA. Ashley and her husband, Kevin, have three children who attend Houston Academy - Davis, who is a junior; Emma, who is in eighth grade; and William, who is in fourth. She has lived in Dothan 15 years. Mrs. Savoy completed her undergraduate work at Auburn and has done her graduate work at Troy-Dothan. Ashley has experience in both public and independent schools, but she has been a stay-at-home mom for the past 17 years. However, in the last two years, she has subbed at HA, at which point we found out she was a veritable rock star. We are excited to have her as a part of the HA Faculty!
Amy Hafen will be teaching sixth grade. She holds a B.S. degree in elementary education from Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. She was born in England and has lived in Texas, Nevada, and Utah. She has experience teaching both fourth and sixth grades. Her husband has just started medical school at ACOM, which is what brought them here. Her hobbies are photography, skiing, hiking, camping, singing, playing the flute, technology, serving, sewing, and raising a dog. One of her goals is to travel the world.
Julie Capouch is one of two new upper school English teachers. Mrs. Capouch recently received an M.A. in English from Austin Peay State University, and she holds a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland. She has taught pre-AP English, AP English, and English composition at the college level. Julie has been nominated for and has won at least two awards for her writing. Originally from Clarksville, TN, she and her husband Tom have been married for 10 years. He is a flight engineer and has been in the Army for 15 years. She has two children, Jason who is eight and Brandi who is six. In terms of hobbies, she loves reading and really enjoys watching science fiction shows and superhero movies.
Jeff Edge is our second upper school English teacher, and he is also an upper school parent. He and his wife, Penny, have a son (Alex) in the 11th grade at HA. He has a B.S. in secondary English from Troy-Dothan, an M.S. from Troy, and a B.S. in business from the University of West Florida. He is an accomplished writer - he wrote for the Dothan Eagle and the Enterprise Ledger for 16 years. Jeff has twice been named teacher of the year in his schools in Florida, and he is a very accomplished AP English teacher who has a strong reputation for pushing his students to achieve their potential. Additionally, Jeff is a sports fanatic. He has been a very successful basketball coach, and he enjoys playing basketball and golf. You will probably see him at most HA sporting events –whether or not his son, Alex, is playing.
As in years past, Mrs. Boothe, Mrs. Holman, and I are extraordinarily pleased with the quality of our new faculty. Not only do they have outstanding credentials, but they all love children. Please join us in welcoming this talented group of people to the Houston Academy family.
Showing posts with label Auburn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Auburn. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
HA Graduates Excel in College
“If you think
education is expensive, try ignorance.”
– Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University
Let’s talk about the proverbial elephant in the room: HA is
more expensive than our public and private school competitors in Dothan. Sure,
we’re almost half the average cost ($22,700) of independent schools, nationally[1],
and we are significantly less expensive than our peer schools in Montgomery[2],
Birmingham[3], and Huntsville[4].
Still, I understand where we are – we’re not in Montgomery, Birmingham, or Huntsville;
we’re in Dothan. Moreover, I certainly
understand that a Houston Academy education is a huge financial sacrifice for
our families.
So, the question is: “Is it worth it?”
Speaking solely in terms of finance, I think we can predict
some value with a Houston Academy education.
Over the last five years, our students have been awarded $16,874,012 in
scholarships. That’s an average of $73,686 awarded per HA graduate.
However, as we all know, getting into college and getting a
scholarship is one thing; keeping that scholarship and graduating from college
is quite another. So, that begs the question of how our students actually
perform once they get to college. Anecdotally, we always hear from our students
how well prepared they are for college, but recently I received some hard data
from Auburn University that should be very encouraging to our stakeholders.
Auburn sent us a report of how our graduates who attended
Auburn have done through the spring semester of 2013. What Auburn tells us is instructive.
Not to confuse you too much with statistics, but a common
statistic in educational research is Pearson’s r. Pearson’s r is a correlation
coefficient, which in layman’s terms, means that Pearson’s r measures the strength of a linear relationship.
Accordingly,
as the value of r moves in either
direction away from 0, the strength of the relationship gets stronger. Generally
speaking (and there is certainly academic debate about this), an r-value of .40 or higher is considered
to be a strong, positive relationship; an r-value
of .30 or higher is considered to be a moderately positive relationship; and an
r-value of .20 is considered to be a
weak, positive relationship. Any r-value
below .20 is of negligible strength.
In short,
research I find to be fairly reliable (Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012), indicates (not
surprisingly) that two of the strongest predictors of college GPA are high
school GPA (r = .40) and ACT/SAT
score (r = .34). Academic
self-efficacy is also a fairly strong predictor of college success, but that is
a discussion for another time.[5]
In any
case, the data that Auburn sent us tells us three things:
1. Our students are doing MUCH
better at Auburn than the general student population;
2.
Our students are doing better at Auburn than either their high
school GPA or ACT would predict[6];
3.
The lower our students’ ACT/SAT scores and high school GPAs, the
larger the difference between our students’ GPAs and other students at Auburn.
Without betraying any confidentiality, the table below
illustrates that the cumulative GPA for HA graduates who are freshmen at Auburn
is 3.76, while Auburn’s average freshman GPA was 3.05. That means that our HA
graduates had GPAs that were .71 higher than the Auburn freshmen population,
at-large. For our students who had an ACT score in the 28-36 range, the
average, cumulative GPA was 3.91. For all other students the average GPA was
3.34 – a difference of .57. When comparing high school GPA to students’ GPA at
Auburn, you can see that our graduates are earning a GPA at Auburn that is
equal to or higher than the GPA they earned at HA. That is NOT the case for other Auburn
Freshmen. On average, most Auburn
freshmen are doing worse in college than they did in high school. What was most interesting to me in this
regard was that our students who had GPAs at HA between 2.50-2.99 had the
largest, positive difference from their Auburn counterparts (almost a full GPA
point!).
Certainly, HA graduates’ relatively higher college GPAs will
make a big difference when it comes time to apply to medical school, law
school, or graduate school. Likewise, a higher college GPA certainly can’t hurt
when it comes time for our graduates to get a job in an increasingly global and
competitive market.
Of course, any statistician will tell you that we should be
careful about extrapolating results like this to all our graduates or even
attributing causation. However, when combined with HA graduates’ stories of how
well prepared they are for college, we can reasonable assert that our primary
mission as a college preparatory institution is being met. Moreover, the ACT data would seem to contradict the notion that there is no benefit to the rigorous education provided at HA
and that “smart kids” at other public and private schools across the state will
do just as well as HA graduates. The fact is, on average (and in every single
individual case), HA students are performing better than their peers at one of
the nation’s premiere “Doctoral/research universities."
As an HA parent, I would classify that as good news!
Freshman GPAs at Auburn University
Auburn Freshmen/Houston Academy
Graduates
|
All Auburn Freshmen
|
|
ACT of 28-36
|
3.91
|
3.34
|
ACT of 24-27
|
3.34
|
2.92
|
ACT of 20-23
|
3.29
|
2.67
|
HS GPA of 3.5-4.0
|
3.79
|
3.22
|
HS GPA of 3.0-3.49
|
NA
|
2.57
|
HS GPA of 2.5-2.99
|
3.29
|
2.37
|
[5] My
dissertation dealt heavily with the concept of self-efficacy, which in this
sense is, basically, the belief that one’s hard work pays tangible results in
terms of grades.
[6]http://research.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/publications/2012/8/researchreport-2012-6-validity-sat-predicting-cumulative-gpa-major.pdf
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