Please click on the tabs below to read about Johnson High School’s IB policies. If you have any questions regarding any of policies below please contact the IB Coordinator:
Dr. Holly Wilson, Coordinator
(678) 310-6603 –Available for calls or texts
In Hall County, the IB Programme is considered a program of choice for Johnson High School. A program of choice is one to which students must apply in order to participate. Students may attend any program of choice in the county to which they are admitted provided they have transportation to attend that school. Students outside of the school district may apply. If admitted, they must pay a yearly tuition as an out-of-district student.
The Johnson High School IB Programme receives applications in the winter of each academic school year. It is an open, online application system. Any rising 11th grade student may apply. Students provide these items for the application:
Once applications are completed, a panel of IB and JISA teachers review the applications and make recommendations for student participation in the IB programme. The panel considers the whole student–the essay, the student’s grade and test score history, and the recommendations of their current 10th grade teachers. The panel makes recommendations about the level of the student’s participation in the program. Students apply for one of these levels of participation: full diploma, 4 academics, 4 academics plus, half academics (math/science or English/history, or course (1 course). Although a student may apply to become a full-diploma student, the panel will ultimately recommend an appropriate level of participation. Students receive a letter explaining the level of participation they have been approved for, or they receive a letter stating that they were not accepted into the program.
Rationale
In any scholarly exploration, one must remain cognizant of the creation, repetition, and transmission of ideas and the origin of these ideas. It is tempting for students to ignore the original source of an idea whether by mistake or on purpose. In order to maintain a learning environment where students are free to explore ideas—their own or others’—we have developed this Academic Honesty policy for the Johnson High School IB programme. We apply the same policy to our feeder program, Johnson International Scholars Academy (JISA).
Students
In this program, students are expected to think for themselves and respond to assignments based on approved texts, websites, podcasts, or any research source appropriately. Students must communicate with their teachers when they feel they do not know how to handle a situation regarding academic honesty. It is always the student’s responsibility to produce authentic work, and if the meaning of that statement is unclear to a student, then he/she must take action. As freshmen in our JISA program, students work through an academic integrity module before they begin their first lessons. Each year our programs review academic integrity with students. If an incident arises, teachers always address it with the student first before taking any further steps.
Teachers & The School
Our teachers play the role of both teachers of academic integrity and disciplinarian. During IB professional learning, teachers receive training on plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin and about handling issues of malpractice. Our IB academic integrity plan aligns closely to the Johnson High School code of conduct. As teachers instruct, they will provide information to students about how complete assignments, including how to properly use citations in-text if necessary. If a teacher is assigning formal research, the teacher will demonstrate what types of sources to consult and what is or is not acceptable for research in a particular discipline. They will explain such considerations as—
Teachers report instances of malpractice to the IB Coordinator and the school’s administration. Depending on the situation and the severity of the offense, some teachers may choose to handle an initial incident as a teachable moment. In most cases, the situation warrants, at minimum, a phone call or email to parents. All contacts and disciplinary measures are recorded in Infinite Campus.
Parents
It is sometimes difficult for parents to know if a student is following proper academic policies. At a minimum, parents should ask their students these questions:
Anytime parents have questions about an assignment, they can feel free to contact the teacher of the course for clarity.
We ask students and parents to sign-off on the following statements at the start of each school year.
I: Academic Malpractice
I, the undersigned, will not engage in academic malpractice. I will submit work for the IB/JISA program that is my own, and I will complete it without improper assistance. Academic malpractice includes, but is not limited to:
If I experience the slightest degree of doubt as to what constitutes improper assistance, it is my responsibility to find out from my instructor or the IB/JISA Coordinator before a situation of malpractice occurs.
Academic Malpractice First Offense
Student will receive a 0 for the assignment/assessment.
The teacher will contact the student’s parents.
The student will be referred to the administration who will assign appropriate consequences.
The teacher may allow the student to redo the assignment for half credit when or where appropriate. The 0 or half credit will be averaged in to the students’ grades.
Academic Malpractice Second Offense
The student will receive a 0 for the assignment.
The student will be referred to the administration who will assign appropriate consequences.
There is no opportunity to redo the assignment/assessment. The 0 will be averaged in to the students’ grades.
The student will be placed on probation for the IB/JISA program.
Academic Malpractice Subsequent Offenses
The student will receive a 0 for the assignment.
The student will be referred to the administration who will assign appropriate consequences.
Any subsequent offenses will be considered a breach of the probation contract and students may be dismissed from the program at the end of the semester or school year.
II: Academic Standing
I, the undersigned, understand that if my average drops below a 75 in any classes, I am in danger of being placed on probation if I do not take specific actions to improve. The JISA/IB teachers will determine when and if a probationary period is necessary. Students who fail to improve their grades may be released from the program. Students placed on probation will be notified by letter.
III: Behavior
I, the undersigned, understand that my behavior inside and outside of school must be of exemplary character. No disrespect toward teachers, administrators, or other students will be tolerated in this program. This includes disobeying teacher instructions, disobeying school policies, and mistreatment of one’s peers, teachers, or administrators in person and/or on social media. I understand that the Knight’s Creed always applies to my life, and my actions will be held to the standards of the creed.
All behavior issues are subject to the school’s code of conduct detailed in the student agenda.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!
All probations are for a single semester. At the end of the semester, the JISA/IB teachers will review the student’s progress and determine if the student may be released from probation. In the event the student is placed on probation and the student incurs an additional infraction or fails to improve, ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade students will be removed from the IB Programme/JISA at the end of the semester or academic year. Students who are not in Johnson’s attendance zone may be required to attend their home school at the beginning of the following academic year. Twelfth grade students incurring their second offense will not be allowed to take the IB examination in the subject in question and will therefore be ineligible for the IB Diploma or IB course credit. If the student has been registered for an IB exam at the time of the 2nd offense, the student may be asked to reimburse Johnson High School for the cost of the examination which is $116.
Having read, understood, and accepted this code, I pledge to function under its terms. My signature on the electronic sign-off denotes acceptance of this responsibility and indicates that this code applies to me at all times during my course of study in the IB/JISA Program. Parent(s) and guardian(s) also denote by their signature that they have read, understood, and accepted the terms of this code. Should any student or parent/guardian have questions about this code, please contact Dr. Wilson.
*Revised yearly by JISA teachers, IB teachers, and approved by administrators*
Johnson High School Assessment Philosophy and Policy
Philosophy
The IB Programme at Johnson High School, in keeping with the mission of the school, seeks to empower students to reach their full potential as lifelong learners and effective members of society by inspiring them to be honest, respectful, and personally responsible. Students are empowered to participate in a rigorous, engaging curriculum in an environment conducive to achieving success. We believe that assessment, both formative and summative, informs students’ journeys toward success. It provides markers of success for students along the way, and it also elucidates areas that need improvement. The Johnson High School IB Programme stresses a continual chain of assessment and feedback for the benefit of all students.
Furthermore, the IB programme at Johnson High School recognizes the necessity to provide summative and formative assessments that strictly align to the IB assessments for each course. Unit tests, essays, projects, and many other types of assessments are scored using IB rubrics or some modification of the IB assessment rubrics for exam papers, IAs, or other course components like orals or presentations. All Johnson High School IB teachers strive to align their assignments and assessments to the criteria of the IB assessments by consulting subject guides, subject reports, past exams, mark schemes, and other scoring information for their course.
Practices
Feedback and Reflection
Throughout each IB course, teachers provide students multiple opportunities to review exemplar assessments or essays and to study their respective rubrics. Students may score assessments themselves and apply the rubrics to their own work. Under the guidance of their IB teachers, students are expected to understand the IB rubrics for each of their assessments. Teachers use these rubrics to help students identify the areas of improvement on which they should focus. This process also enables teachers to gauge the areas of remediation necessary and to provide differentiated instruction for students as they learn at varying paces. Teachers are expected to assess informally as often as possible and formally at the end of each topic, text, or unit.
IB teachers are responsible for providing consistent feedback to students based on informal and formal assessments. Our teachers meet with students one-on-one as often as possible to communicate a sense of urgency and importance for the student to continually develop themselves. Additionally, teachers give feedback in writing on student work, using Canvas comments electronically, using Canvas audio/video comments or provide generalized feedback to the entire class. Students then are responsible for reflecting on their learning and the feedback they receive from their teachers. Together, feedback and reflection are the foundation of our assessment system.
Balance
In an effort to balance student workload, IB teachers attempt to stagger assessment dates using our Google calendar available to students and parents on our website. If a student misses a scheduled assessment, the student has 5 days to make up the assessment. We encourage students to notify teachers well in advance of an absence so they may take the assessment before they are absent if possible. This 5-day policy for makeup assessments is held by our district across all schools and programs. Additionally, the IB faculty work together to establish an internal assessment calendar so that deadlines for IAs do not overlap for students. Teachers plan backward from the goal of a completed draft ready for submission to IB. They allow time for drafts, feedback, and revisions within a specified time frame that does not infringe on the timeline of other subject assessments.
Standardization
In the event that two different teachers teach year 1 and year 2 of a course, these teachers use professional learning time to norm their scoring using the IB rubrics. They also work closely to vertically align their expectations for students so they are the same from one year to the next. Teachers communicate their expectations and scoring methods to students in their course syllabus and through their Canvas courses. Students’ scores on summative and formative assessments are communicated to parents through Infinite Campus.
All grades, whether summative or formative, are communicated as a percentage. Our district does not allow for reporting course or assessment grades as 1-7. Any number entered into the Infinite Campus gradebook is converted to a percentage. Grades are reported as scores from 0-100, where a 70 is considered a passing grade.To more faithfully reflect how IB examiners might score, teachers use score conversions to offer students an understanding of how their work compares to the IB standard. Conversions are designed to reflect the goals of each course and are shared with students and parents through Canvas. To develop these conversions, teachers consult the subject guide and the grade bands from previous exams. Conversions also reflect appropriate expectations for students according to their current stage of the course. Some flexibility is necessary to effectively assess student progress at students’ current phase in the two-year curriculum. Therefore, a conversion chart for a year 1, semester 1 student would differ for a year 2, semester 2 student. Where necessary, teachers vertically align conversions from year 1 to year 2 to demonstrate beginner, intermediate, or advanced mastery so that beginners are not penalized for not demonstrating mastery.
All Johnson High School teachers must administer a final exam for all students and these assessments count for 20% of the students overall grade. IB teachers are expected to provide students with an IB-style assessment for this final exam. No state testing is currently required for any IB course to meet a graduation requirement. As of the current school year, these requirements are met previous to students entering the program. However, the state of Georgia has changed testing requirements for the US History End of Course (EOC) test twice since our program began, and we do anticipate that our HOA students may be required to take the EOC in the next few years.
Inclusion and Academic Integrity
Students with an IEP, 504, or a TPC may receive assessment support according to their plan’s specifications. Supports range from extended time, small group settings, or any assistive technology required by the student’s plan. The coordinator applies for inclusive arrangements for exams for students with special learning needs to ensure students receive the same arrangements for exams as they receive for in-class assessment. The coordinator works with case workers and parents to determine the needs of these students.
All forms of assessment, both formative and summative, are subject to the Johnson IB Programme Academic Honesty Policy. Both the inclusion and honesty policies are made public on our Johnson IB website.
Roles for Implementation, Revision, and Improvement
Assessment policies are written, reviewed, and updated yearly by all members of the IB faculty and members of the pedagogical leadership team. As IB releases new grade boundaries for each exam session, teachers will adjust their scoring and conversion charts accordingly. All IB teachers are required to attend training at least once for every new curriculum change, and are encouraged to attend more if possible. The cost of training is covered by the Hall County School district. Teachers are also provided with professional learning time, as requested, to learn more about their subject assessments. If a new IB teacher joins the team, the teacher meets with a mentor teacher of the same group and/or meets with the coordinator. The coordinator will explain the assessment policy and the importance of aligning all classroom assessment to IB assessment. The new teacher will be expected to attend an IB subject training as soon as possible, preferably before the new school year begins. After training, the teacher will meet again with the mentor. The mentor teacher will ensure course and assessment objectives are fully understood. Thereafter, a school administrator, the coordinator, and mentor teacher will make classroom observations to determine if the curriculum and assessment objectives are being met.
Johnson High School Language Policy
Profile
Johnson High School is primarily an English-speaking school. Our state’s assessments are in English, and most instructions, with the exception of language support or language acquisition, occurs in English. All IB subjects except language acquisition courses are taught exclusively in English. However, Johnson High School
is unique because of the large number of students whose mother tongue may not be English. About 75% of our student population is of Hispanic origin, yet we do not consider all of them EL (English Learner) students because many were born in the US or have only attended English-speaking schools. A great number of their parents also speak English. The difference among Hispanic students stems from whether students are bilingual or biliterate. For this reason, those students are bilingual only are considered “heritage” speakers and not native speakers. We use this term for students who grew up hearing and speaking Spanish; however, they never learned to read or write Spanish like a native speaker. There are currently 324 EL students at Johnson, speaking 2 languages and 5 dialects, who receive some level of accommodation or monitoring. All students, regardless of mother tongue, are extended the opportunity to apply for our IB programme.
Support for Mother Tongues for Students
Our school has a thriving EL program with an experienced program leader and highly qualified teachers and parapros in each subject area. Our state also makes provisions for EL students by allowing them testing and learning accommodations. Some accommodations include extended time, read to, and translating dictionaries.
Support for Mother Tongues for Parents
To support our Spanish-only speaking parents, our IB application is in English and Spanish. We also enlist the aid of our Spanish B teacher who acts as a translator for the IB Coordinator. Our school has a strong Spanish-speaking parent liaison and a Hispanic parent organization that meets once a month. Parents are encouraged to seek help from the liaison when needed. Teachers seek the help of the liaison when a need arises to communicate with Hispanic parents. We also have a Vietnemese-speaking leader at our district’s central office who has supported us with parent communications for our Vietnamese students. She is Vietnemese and has a strong understanding of the community and their values.
Strategies to Support Teachers
At our school, our EL coordinator and our EL team of teachers frequently address the needs of these learners with our faculty in professional development. We have explored best teaching and learning practices for EL students for at least the last 10 years as our Hispanic population has continued to grow. Teachers are equipped with a list of students in their classes who receive EL accommodations and what those accommodations are.
Everyone is a Language Teacher
At Johnson High School, we believe that all teachers are language teachers. Specialized language learning, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking with fluency, occurs in each IB subject. IB teachers are expected to model clear communication in their subject specialty, including research methodology and research writing. They model reading and comprehension strategies and expect students to meet readability and clarity standards for internal assessments written in English. Additionally, as a whole school district, we have begun a literacy initiative to increase students’ reading fluency in their first or second language.
Language Courses at Johnson High School
In the last 10 years, we believe two factors contribute to the overwhelming success of interest and importance in language learning. One is that our district has an elementary school and a middle school that specializes in language immersion. Students take content courses in another language like Spanish, Portuguese, or Chinese in addition to courses that specifically focus on language acquisition. Second, our IB preparatory program, called JISA, Johnson International Scholars Academy, requires students to take a language acquisition course during their freshman and sophomore years leading up to IB.
Johnson High School currently offers these language courses:
Philosophy for Language Learning
Please see the Language Philosophy & Rationale document about language learning at Johnson High School. This is the text we feature on our IB website for our school.
Inclusion and Special Needs Policy
Philosophy
The mission of Johnson High School is to empower students to reach their full potential as lifelong learners and effective members of society by inspiring them to be honest, respectful, and personally responsible. Students are empowered to participate in a rigorous, engaging curriculum in an environment conducive to achieving success. This environment shapes our school’s philosophy and mission for providing an inclusive education for all students. Our vision of inclusion is that all Johnson students can learn, deserve to learn, and all Johnson students will have open access to do so. Inclusion begins with our positive school culture. At Johnson High School, all students are considered unique learners. Because of this approach, we strive to affirm their identities and remove any barriers to learning that may occur.
Support
As a means of support, our school has embraced many methods to remove barriers for students. The most notable of these includes teaching strategies that differentiate instruction for individual learners. This is a topic our school has spent years learning about in school-wide professional development starting in 2014 and continuing through the present time. Teachers participated in planning period meetings once per month to learn more about how to apply differentiation concepts. Moving forward, teachers were expected to demonstrate differentiated instruction on a daily basis and this was recorded in their lesson plans, which are made public on Planbook and, as of 2020, Canvas. Additionally, teachers build on students’ prior knowledge, scaffold their teaching of difficult concepts, and extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom to make learning real, thereby increasing student engagement and achievement.
A second, and essential means of support for students facing areas of challenge is reflection. Inherent in each IB course is the opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Teachers provide students the opportunity to reflect pre and post assessment. They reflect individually and as a group. Then, students are encouraged to communicate their reflections with their teacher. Also, the 504 and IEP protocols set in place by our state also require students to reflect on their learning goals and progress.
As needed for inclusion for students with specific requirements, our school is provided assistive technology from our district representative for special education. Our school-level SPED coordinator and EL coordinator communicate with our district representative who makes the appropriate purchases of any equipment and materials a student may require. Additionally, our district provides for co-teachers to support learning accommodations for students whose IEPs or 504s may prescribe such resources. Physically, our school is equipped with fully accessible classrooms and common area spaces. Should any changes need to be made to physical space our facilities principal ensures those changes are taken care of. Our goal is for students to self-advocate; however, they may need some support along the way from specialists like physical and occupational therapists or vision teachers to aid them in eventually becoming self sufficient
Continuous Assessment
An important and necessary aspect of the curriculum in the JHS IB Programme is assessment. Teachers assess students’ understandings daily. Assessments may be simple and formative or formal and summative. Students receive consistent feedback from teachers as a written response on their assignments, orally through Canvas comments, face to face through conferencing, or as choral response time as a class. As formal assessments are scored, teachers provide feedback to students and also record their scores in Infinite Campus, our county’s student information system. Each August during our open house, we invite parents and students to tour the school. Part of the tour includes information about how parents may access their student’s grades. Infinite Campus provides teachers a direct line of communication to parents and students about their progress on assessments. These forms of assessment may be used to help parents, teachers, students, and caseworkers make important decisions about students’ learning needs and any support they may require.
Special Education & EL Services and Supports in the State of Georgia
The Johnson High School IB Programme, through its admission process, considers students’ readiness for the program and does not discriminate against students requiring any special support. IB students with special needs receive services as outlined in their Individual Educational Plan as prescribed by the state of Georgia. Students with specific needs are evaluated by a psychologist who recommends learning support methods to the school. The student, classroom teachers, IB teachers, the special education team leader, and administrators all participate in the evaluation and revision of students’ IEPs to set goals for the students. Once the plans are prepared for the academic school year, they are shared with the student’s classroom teachers. In other special circumstances, a student may apply for a 504 plan which provides support to students with a temporary or permanent disability. Similarly, some Johnson students qualify for an EL/TPC plan. This is a plan created by a panel to provide learning and testing support to students whose first language is not English. By law, teachers must abide by these 504, IEP, and TPC documents, providing for the student explicitly the services described in the plan. Services vary according to student need. Services like extended time on tests or IAs has been permitted in the past according to a student’s specific plan.
After students are registered for exams in November, the IB coordinator reviews the special needs of students to determine if any request for inclusive services is necessary. The coordinator consults with the student’s case worker, counselor, and/or parent and applies for these services and provides the appropriate documentation to IB to justify the request. The supports provided for IB assessment match the supports provided by the school. Then the coordinator makes appropriate arrangements at the testing venue; whether it be a separate testing room, an additional proctor, frequent breaks, or extended time, these are provided for the student.
Stakeholders
Our inclusion policy is communicated to all stakeholders through our website. Specific confidential information is communicated to parents in IEP or 504 meetings. The program coordinator consults the student’s IEP/504 team about access arrangements for exams.
Review
This policy will continue to be reviewed once per year by a panel of stakeholders for the school.
3155 Robert Wood Johnson Drive
Gainesville, GA. 30507
Phone: 770-536-2394
Fax: 770-531-3046
School Code 111412
School Starts at 8:25AM
School Ends at 3:35PM