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Our scholars learn through exposure and experiences that enable them to be lifelong learners and productive citizens. We provide a plethora of activities, programs, assemblies, field trips, and technological opportunities for children, families, teachers, administrators, and the community to work together to achieve our school goals. We work diligently to be a hub of the community.

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.

John Eager Howard is a ChildFirst Community Resource School with a full-time Community Resource Liaison. The Resource Liaison assists with a range of activities to increase family and community engagement. Some of the programs that are offered to parents include Family Learning Night, First Friday Breakfast and JEH Volunteer Program. Family Learning Night is an opportunity for teachers, parents, and students to engage in activities that provide families an opportunity to learn together. The "First Friday Breakfast" provides parents and community members with the chance to engage in workshops, trainings, and chat sessions based on identified parental needs. The JEH Volunteer Program is a comprehensive initiative that matches the needs of the teachers with the talents of volunteers to improve, strengthen, and maximize the impact of student learning.

Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.

Our school’s motto perfectly explains our philosophy of school change and improvement. The motto is "Educating Scholars and Servicing Families...By Any Means Necessary." This means that our staff will go above and beyond to ensure that our scholars and their families receive what is needed to have a partnership that will produce lifelong learners and productive citizens.

What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?

The John Eager Howard staff is committed to being an institution of learning where there is a safe and orderly environment in which teachers teach to meet our scholars’ holistic needs. Our scholars learn through exposure and experiences that enable them to be lifelong learners and productive citizens. We provide a plethora of activities, programs, assemblies, fieldtrips, and technological opportunities for children, families, teachers, administrators, and the community to work together to achieve our school goals. We work diligently to be a hub of the community.

Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement.

Our Title I Funds enabled us to purchase materials to support Drop Everything and Intervene. This form of reading intervention has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement. During the first hour every child begins the day feeling successful because they are reading on their "just right" level all while receiving instruction from teachers and assigned support staff. The Title I funds were used to purchased supplementary materials to support our program.

Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.

One of the identified goals of our School Performance Plan is to improve the culture and climate of the school. We have developed a unique school-wide Behavior Program entitled "Go for the Gold." Our "Go for the Gold" Behavior system provides common expectations, strategies, and protocol for both positive and negative reinforcement. The advantage of the program is that it allows students to self-monitor and take ownership of their actions, decisions, and behavior. Unlike other behavior programs where the focus is on negative behavior and consequences, our program focuses on highlighting positive behavior and rewards students for making good choices. We also pride ourselves on maximizing time on task, therefore we have bell-to-bell instruction. Finally it is mandatory for teachers differentiate instruction to ensure that all scholars’ individual needs are met.

• Category 2

  Selected in 2012

• Grades: pre k - 5
  School Setting: urban
  Town Population: 0
  Student Enrollment: 254
  Student Demographics:
  

  Black/African American: 100%
  White/Caucasian: 0%
  Hispanic: 0%
  Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
  Asian: 0%
  Native American: 0%
  Other: 0%
  

  Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
  % Reduced Lunch: 99%
  % ELL Learners: 100%
  Founded: 1961
• PRINCIPAL:
  Tamara Hanson
• CONTACT:
  2011 Linden Avenue
  Baltimore, MD 21217
  410-396-0837
  thanson@bcps.k12.md.us