About
Center Point High School is one of thirteen high schools in the Jefferson County school system and is the only Title I high school within the school system's district. Center Point High School is located in northeastern Jefferson County and is within the city limits of Center Point, Alabama and serves as the feeder high school to Erwin Middle School students. Center Point High admitted its first high school students in grades nine through twelve on August 16, 2011. Since the 2011- 2012 school year, several changes have occurred. Center Point High School was previously named Erwin High School, was located at a different location in the Center Point community, and accommodated 1250 students from grades seven through twelve.According to the statistical data of the 2010 United States Census Report, Center Point, Alabama has a total of 16,921 households of which 32.62 % are Caucasian, 62.85 % are African American, 0 .21% are American Indian, 0. 38 % are Asian, 0.02 % are Pacific Islanders, and 1.10 % are identified as Biracial. Although Center Point, Alabama represents diversity in population, Center Point High School's student body is primarily homogeneous in ethnicity, yet constists of students of African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic backgrounds. Of the 778 students who attend Center Point High School, 94% are African-American, 3% are Caucasian, and 3% are Hispanic. The enrollment of students is as follows: 352 African-American males; 381 African-American females; 12 Caucasian males; 12 Caucasian females; 21 Hispanic males and 8 Hispanic females.
Center Point High School has a teaching and administrative staff comprised of 104 individuals committed to enhancing learning and ensuring school improvement for students. Of those 104 dedicated individuals, 33 are Caucasian and 71 are African-American. Employed are one chief-of-staff principal; three assistant principals who are assigned specific grade levels; one assistant principal whose responsibilities relate to curriculum and instruction; three guidance counselors; fifty-three teachers; one graduation coach; one mathematics coach; one literacy coach; one librarian; one library assistant; one school social worker; one nurse; one work instructor; one speech pathologist; one school financial secretary; four office assistants; three school academic classroom paraprofessionals; seven cafeteria child nutritional workers; eight custodians; and eleven bus drivers. All professional educators of Center Point High School staff are highly qualified in their areas of expertise.
Center Point High School further embodies its purpose by the employment of the Richard DuFour model for Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The DuFour PLC model is a research-based, data-driven instructional model that guides our educational process and assists to transform our school into centers of strong learning for our administrators, our teachers, and our students. Our teachers and administrators work collaboratively and engage in collective inquiry so they may consistently learn and share knowledge to create improved classroom instruction and enhanced student achievement. This model dictates that our PLC teams have common pacing, engage in common assessments, and dictate that interventions are in place to affect student success. The model demands that our teams be able to answer three essential questions.
What do we want students to learn?
How do we know that they learned it?
What do we do with the students that did not learn it?
Professional learning teams have been established and each Center Point High School teacher is a member of a team The professional development focus centers on building capacity among the staff, empowering teachers to engage in decision making, discussing team schedules, and establishing and fostering a sense of community. Standards-based pacing exists for each PLC team. For instructional practice improvement, walkthrough plans were developed that identify specific look-for that focus on student engagement, teacher engagement, higher order thinking questioning, and strategic teaching. To address what teachers want students to learn, teams focused on outlining the curriculum and pacing to ensure an approach to instructional cohesiveness that meets and advances the needs of students. The team developed formative assessments are administered to students bi-weekly and assessment outcomes are the vehicles that drive teacher collaboration and instructional decisions. Quarterly common benchmark assessments are administered to students using Jefferson County's quarterly assessments and USA Test Prep assessments. Individual teachers of instruction access and use data to determine the most appropriate use of classroom time.
Center Point High School offers a 9th Grade Academy Cohort configuration. Specifically, the configuration was constructed to provide for structure and concentration on freshmen academic behavior, attendance and the level of freshman success in order to engender freshmen achievement. The core team of the Freshman Academy consists of an assistant principal, a ninth-grade academy counselor and an assembly of devoted academic and elective teachers. The team engages in an array of practices to meet student needs. The team meets with students who lack academic and behavior success, they provide cohesive formative and summative assessments to progress monitor students and afford students opportunities for programs and events that promote academic rigor and school achievement.
With a sustained unequivocal focus on ensuring academic success through a wealth of rigorous curricula, targeted student support and interventions, PLC collaboration, and personal teacher and student commitment, Center Point High School is well-positioned to accomplish the school's vision and mission of ensuring success for all students.