Keystone Course

Course Overview

Keystone is a new course at Sandalwood High School designed to help all ninth grade students launch successfully into their first year of high school and beyond.  Students will focus on three key questions: Who am I? What do I want? How do I get it?  Our goal is for students to understand the direct connection between academic achievement and life satisfaction.  The course focuses on high school orientation, organization and study skills, goal setting, and career exploration and research.  Students will leave the class with a comprehensive career portfolio and personalized 10-year plan.  They will graduate high school with a clear vision of their future (college, military or work force.)

Dear Freshman Parents,

I would like to welcome you all to the 2008-2009 school year.  It’s been said, “If you truly want to change a high school… change the freshmen” (Keystone, 2001.)  I am writing this letter to inform you of our Freshmen Experience Program.  The program is based on other successful 9^th grade transition programs throughout the country.  The idea is to make every student who enters school as a 9^th grader aware of the skills they need to be successful in high school and beyond. 

The freshman year of high school has been documented as a pivotal time for students.  It is during freshman year that:

• The highest dropout rates are recorded.
• Students are asked to make academic choices that either launch them along a trajectory toward college or some other form of post-secondary education, or potentially condemn them to a life of limited career choices
• Students start making lifestyle choices that can either lead to a life of self-sufficiency or one of dependency (e.g., teen parenting, substance abuse, unemployment or under-employment, gang involvement)

The Freshman Experience Program is designed to combat these realities.  Students must understand the link between life satisfaction and academic achievement.  If a person is to truly prosper in the 21^st-century workforce it is critical that they make the most of their education.  The course will address a combination of personal/social, educational, and career and life skills needed to be productive students and citizens.  Students will: 

• Receive a thorough orientation to their high school’s opportunities and expectations
• Develop organizational skills
• Learn effective study strategies and test-taking skills
• Understand the importance of setting goals
• Understand that all decisions have consequences
• Demonstrate leadership, citizenship and teamwork skills
• Complete formal assessments and surveys to help them establish and consolidate their identity
• Research different career opportunities
• Know the process for career planning and educational preparation
• Recognize the impact their commitment to education has on their future lifestyle
• Know the process used to locate and secure entry-level employment

I encourage you to communicate with your child throughout the year about the program.