High Academic Expectations
At Kensington Woods, we hold high expectations for all students in their character, behavior and, most importantly, their academics. By holding students to high academic expectations, we believe, and research supports, that they will rise to those expectations and excel. We help students meet our high expectations through a variety of ways.
Mastery Learning
We expect all students to master the content. Therefore, there are no "D's" at Kensington Woods. The minimum passing grade is a 70%. But we hold a mastery learning philosophy that allows students to develop their skills and knowledge until they can demonstrate mastery of the content. That might be retaking a test, revising a project or other was to demonstrate their knowledge, depending on the course and teacher.
Growth Mind Set
We practice a “Growth Mind Set” philosophy where students are instructed in the extraordinary ability of each human brain to grow and change throughout a lifetime. At KWHS there is no such thing as “I’m not good at math,” or “I’ve never done well in English.” Rather, we guide students in locating their strengths, building on what they do well, and applying those strategies to new tasks. They are amazed at what they can do! By maintaining the same standard of learning for all, we believe that every student who enters our building can truly be whoever they want to be.
Whatever it Takes Attitude
At KWHS, we hold a "Whatever it Takes" attitude. Teachers will do whatever it takes to help a student find success, and we expect students and parents to do so as well. Teachers, students and parents work as a team to help students achieve.
College Acceptance
We hold the expectation that all Seniors will be accepted into a 4-year university or college before graduating. We support them in achieving this goal through rigorous and relevant academics as well as our Advisory and college counseling programs. For more information on our graduates, click here.
Standardized Tests
Through our high expectations we expect to, and do see, academic success for students through improved performance in the classroom as well as on standardized tests like the MEAP, ACT and MME. We support strong performances on these tests not through teaching to the test, but by teaching the state standards and ACT's college readiness standards in engaging and rigorous ways that helps students truly learn the content and skills needed for success on these tests but also for success in college and beyond.
We also support students' strong and improved performance on the ACT through an ACT preparation program unique to Kensington Woods, designed for each student's needs.
At Kensington Woods, we have a proven record continual success at students improving their standardized test scores over time, especially for those who started with us as 9th graders. For more information on our test data, click here.