Dr. Christine Johns has served as the superintendent of Utica Community Schools in Sterling Heights, Michigan, since 2006. As superintendent, Dr. Christine Johns is responsible for nearly 29,500 students across 36 schools ranging from elementary schools to alternative and adult education programs. Kindergarten eligibility is available to children living in the Utica Community Schools district who will be five years old on or before September 1st of the upcoming school year. There are a few exceptions to eligibility for prospective kindergarten students. For example, children turning five by December 1st of the same school year may be permitted to begin their education in September if the parents feel an early start is appropriate and fill out the necessary waivers. However, all children in the district must be enrolled by their sixth birthday. Similarly, while eligibility is generally reserved for families within the school district, Utica Community Schools hosts a Schools of Choice program. Thanks to this program, parents of kindergarten-aged children who live in Macomb County but outside of Utica Community Schools district may still be able to attend. More information about the Schools of Choice program and other aspects of student enrollment can be found at www.utica.ss9.sharpschool.com.
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A graduate of Harvard University with a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in educational administration, Dr. Christine Johns has more than 12 years of experience as a superintendent of schools. Utica Community Schools, the Sterling Heights, Michigan, district where Dr. Christine Johns serves as superintendent, recently announced its conversion to the PowerSchool Unified School platform. Parents of students in Utica Community Schools can now transition from the Parent Portal to the PowerSchool Unified School platform. The new platform contains a variety of new features, including improved communication tools, attached assignments, and Naviance access for secondary parents. To begin using Unified School, parents must have a traditional PowerSchool Parent Portal account. Upon signing in, parents will be redirected to a sign-in page for Unified School. After clicking on “Create PowerSchool ID,” parents can input their email address as the username and then create a password between eight and 64 characters. For ease of transition, the Unified School platform accepts parents’ password for the Parent Portal. After following these steps, parents will see a display stating the process is complete. Dr. Christine Johns serves as the superintendent of Utica Community Schools in Michigan, where she strives to increase achievement for all students. Under Dr. Christine Johns’ tenure as superintendent, the district has received recognition from the College Board for its students’ increased participation in advanced placement courses. Advanced placement (AP) courses are academically rigorous classes for high school students. They progress faster and require students to process more material, collaborate with peers, and analyze at an advanced level. In that regard, they can help students become more prepared for the kind of challenges that they may face in college. AP classes can also improve a student's grade point average (GPA), as many high schools give more weight to AP courses than standard classes. Colleges and universities may also look at a student's transcript to see whether he or she has taken an AP course, as this indicates both a willingness and an ability to engage with college-level academics. Furthermore, if a student scores well on the AP exam associated with the course, he or she may be able to receive college credit. A high score may also exempt a student from taking a lower-level course in college, which the student may be able to replace with something more in line with his or her interests. Students who receive enough high AP scores may even be able to accrue enough credits to graduate early, thus saving significant amounts of money. As superintendent of Utica Community Schools (UCS), Dr. Christine Johns oversees the second-largest public school district in Michigan. UCS serves nearly 30,000 students in more than three dozen schools. Over the course of her tenure as district superintendent, Dr. Christine Johns has helped advance specialty programs such as the Utica Academy for International Studies (UAIS). Previously recognized as Michigan’s most challenging public school, UAIS is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School that serves nearly 400 students in grades nine through 12. Classes at UAIS center on the IB curriculum, which focuses on six academic areas surrounding three core requirements that teach students to think independently and critically. Academy students enroll in eight 90-minute classes each school year and have the opportunity to graduate with up to 32 credits. The challenging academic requirements at UAIS are designed to develop students into lifelong learners who are positioned for success in college and beyond. After graduation, nearly all (99 percent) of UAIS students continue their studies at a four-year university. The academy’s 2017 graduating class boasted an average GPA of 4.03 and received more than $10.5 million in combined scholarship offers. Named a Tech Savvy Superintendent of the Year by eSchool News, Dr. Christine Johns brings multi-modal education into classrooms at all levels. Dr. Christine Johns serves as superintendent of Utica Community Schools in Michigan, where she has drawn nationwide attention for the blended learning program carried out in the district’s kindergarten through second-grade classrooms. Blended learning expands an instructor's ability to meet each student at his or her level, and to intervene in a relevant way. Relatedly, as it can provide automatic reports of student progress, blended learning can give more individualized assessments while taking less time from instruction to evaluate a student. It also enables an overall increase in the amount of time students spend engaged with material, while offering opportunities for extended learning beyond school hours. Blended learning can have a particularly strong impact on students who are living in poverty or learning the English language, as it can support the language acquisition skills that are crucial for academic success. Interactive learning tools provide for immersive practice with both written and oral language, and their inherent ease of customization means that children can engage at their present stage of ability. The effects of blended learning on student achievement have manifested in a number of studies. In Washington, DC, for example, where children at all grade levels engage in blended learning, students who use the blended learning tools show the highest levels of improvement in both math and reading. Much of these effects may be partially due to the familiarity that children have with electronic resources, and this familiarity also empowers these children as their education and future work environments more seamlessly integrate technology. Education professional Dr. Christine Johns serves as the superintendent of Utica Community Schools (UCS), based in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Under the leadership of superintendent Dr. Christine Johns, a number of specialty programs available to the district’s secondary students have been recognized for their performance, including the Utica Academy for International Studies and the Utica Center for Mathematics Science and Technology (UCMST). The Utica Center for Mathematics, Science & Technology is a highly selective four-year program within Utica Community Schools. Students participating in the UCMST are academically talented and complete college-level science, math, and computer science coursework. Additionally, the UCMST Junior Internship Program, recognized by the state of Michigan’s Department of Education, allows high school juniors to experience careers in a professional setting. Past internships have included transplant surgery, cardiology and orthopedic research, engineering, emergency room medicine, and software development. Each student develops and presents a formal presentation about their internship at the beginning of their senior year. A graduate of Harvard University with both a master’s degree and a doctorate in educational administration, Dr. Christine Johns serves as the superintendent of Utica Community Schools (UCS) in Michigan. In an interview with eSpark Learning, Dr. Christine Johns shared her expertise in various areas of education. When eSpark asked Dr. Johns about her team’s decision to use eSpark Learning apps, she responded that the apps proved to be high-quality, standards-aligned learning tools for elementary students. Further, the apps helped UCS avoid what would have been a complex logistical challenge: having teachers purchase apps for 28,400 students across multiple schools and classrooms. UCS instead hired eSpark as a third-party curator and provider, which expedited the process of reaching each student with eSpark Learning apps on iPads. With these apps, teachers can differentiate learning and even form small groups to address students’ individual needs, such as vocabulary development and reading skills. With eSpark Leaning apps, UCS students engage in several classroom learning stations as they work to meet the goals of their individual learning plans. As superintendent for Utica Community Schools in Michigan over the past decade, Dr. Christine Johns has set in place educational changes aimed to enable a success-focused college culture to flourish. In her role as superintendent, Dr. Christine Johns has facilitated the use of resources such as Naviance, which encourages secondary school students to engage with the Advanced Placement curriculum and embrace a rigorous learning environment. Introduced to the Utica Community Schools in early 2015, the universal resource tool Naviance brings together diverse aspects of the post-secondary planning process. The system provides guidance on admission requirements and applications, and it alerts students to financial aid and scholarship opportunities. It incorporates a goal assessment component, which helps define students’ current scholastic goals and generates course recommendations. Naviance provides another distinct benefit in integrating with the online Family Connection platform. This tool aims to increase parents’ involvement in their children’s education. Its collaborative tools are designed to bring family members together in a range of career and secondary education readiness activities, from resume building to college entrance exam preparation. Throughout her tenure as the superintendent of Utica Community Schools (UCS) in Michigan, Dr. Christine Johns has made extensive use of technology to improve teaching and learning in district classrooms. In particular, Dr. Christine Johns’ efforts as superintendent have included implementing school-wide data teams to maximize content mastery and improve student performance. In today’s educational environment, student data shows immense potential to help teachers structure their lessons in a thoughtful, targeted way. Although standardized testing represents one useful source of data, it is not the only type of information that can help teachers. In fact, teachers often gather the best data when left to their own devices; that is, when they are asked to pose and answer questions about their own classrooms. For example, teachers may distribute surveys to parents about their impressions of the learning environment, or they may ask their students directly about their experiences in the classroom. Once teachers collect data, they can share it with fellow educators and refine their classroom practices to reach their pedagogical goals. |
AuthorUnder her leadership, district academic and music programs continue to receive national recognition for innovation and promoting student success. Archives
May 2017
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