Questions such as the following drove discussions around Anne Arundel County: 

• What are the challenges and obstacles that negatively affect our students’ engagement and achievement most significantly and why?
• Are we analyzing our data and listening closely to learn about all of our students when we seek to understand our learners’ social-emotional and academic struggles?
• How do cultural differences, language challenges, transportation difficulties, health problems, and frequent family relocation (mobility) serve as obstacles to school success for our students?
• What resources and supports are available within AACPS and across our county to support students and families in need?  How do we help our families receive the supports they need?

In order to meet the needs of ALL students, we work to eliminate the specific achievement gaps that exist between white, black, multiracial, and hispanic students, as well as special education students, in passing scores on the mathematics PARCC Assessments, providing opportunities for success for ALL students.  Our teachers willingly promote and conduct teacher help sessions each Wednesday and Thursday afterschool to individualize instruction with students in need of additional assistance, support, or remediation.  In addition, our “Falcon Flight” and “Falcons Soar” programs exist to help students of diversity and freshmen in need of intervention, helping them to meet with social, emotional, and academic success as they transition to and continue through their high school years.  Also, our “Mentor Student Program” follows those freshmen in their sophomore through senior years, pairing up individual teachers with students earning below a 2.0 GPA in order to mentor, support, and advocate for those students to help them increase their GPA and meet with greater success, ultimately graduating on-time with their grade level peers.  

Our Counselors and School Community Liaison use our College & Career Center to facilitate meetings between over 1,000 students and more than 100 college admissions representatives each year, and provide information related to student scholarship opportunities, college searches, and career exploration.  The Counseling Center implements our annual S.T.A.R. (Students Taking Action Responsibly) program, a school-wide program designed to promote a positive and healthy learning environment for our school community by improving  decision-making strategies, enhancing self-esteem, increasing the use of social support resources, and preventing destructive behaviors. 

Our Business, Innovation & Leadership Signature program, helps students develop a sense of individual responsibility, as well as learn life and career skills along with business-like and critical thinking skills.  The Business, Innovation, & Leadership Signature includes pathways to future opportunities affiliated with our community college, universities, and technical schools.  Another way in which our school is meeting the needs of ALL learners is through the “Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program.  AVID is designed for students in the academic middle and provides overall curricular support to maximize college and career readiness. A schoolwide emphasis on the program is created through the collaborative efforts of the AVID Site Team which is composed of teachers from core content areas, counselors, and administration.