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'Like in Harry Potter': Phoenix Camelback High School freshmen split into 'houses'
Phoenix Union High School District is building a stronger foundation for incoming students by restructuring freshman year. Students will now be split into different 'houses' to build closer relationships with teachers and staff.
'If you're going to be successful with 600 different kids from diverse backgrounds, speaking different languages from different countries, you need a more customized, bespoke approach,' said James Arndt, principal of Phoenix Union's Camelback High School. 'The best way to do that — shrink the school.'
Camelback High School receives hundreds of incoming freshmen from 43 middle schools across Phoenix. Freshman houses will create a system where students don't get lost in the numbers and teachers can keep track of their progress, Arndt said.
Freshmen will be divided into four houses. Each house will have four core teachers in algebra, biology, English and health who monitor students' grades, as well as counselors, social workers, an attendance liaison and the freshmen house coordinator.
'Think like in Harry Potter — there's Gryffindor and Slytherin and Ravenclaw,' said Arndt. 'Our teams are named Earth, Air, Fire and Water."
Students under the same house will have the same teachers, which allows educators to communicate with each other and keep tabs on students, said freshman house coordinator for Camelback High School, Erika Wimble.
Wimble gathers data on students' grades and attendance and distributes them to teachers once a week. Teachers will then use one of their free periods to discuss how their students are doing.
The goal is to help students connect with their teachers and lay the foundation for the rest of their high school years, Arndt said.
'Camelback is a really, really big school, and high school in general is just really scary,' said Dezzarae Medina, 18, a recent Camelback High School graduate.
Medina began her freshman year at Camelback later in the year and found teachers to be supportive inside and outside of school. As a straight-A student, she remembered an instance when her then-English teacher reached out after Medina got a B to offer after-school assistance.
'I felt like the support system my freshman year kind of allowed me to open up enough to feel OK to ask questions,' Medina said.
Camelback High School first adopted the house model on a small scale in 2019, according to Arndt. After COVID-19, the school was allowed to implement the new program across its whole campus. They received additional assistance from the Center for High School Success, which connected with Phoenix Union to introduce the 9th Grade on Track program to the district.
9th Grade on Track measures how likely a student is to graduate and continue postsecondary education based on the number of credits they complete during their freshman year. To maximize success, Camelback moved its best teachers to freshmen classes as part of its restructuring, Arndt said.
Wimble said she views the program as 'trickle-up education' since freshmen involved with 9th Grade on Track proved to have better grades in their following years.
'I had a senior teacher once tell me, 'I never want to teach freshmen, but I will support you in whatever you need, because if your freshmen are successful, my job is gonna be easier as a senior teacher,' said Wimble.
There has been an increase in Camelback High School's "on track" rates, or what determines students' likelihood of graduating, from 39% for the 2019-20 school year to 76% for the 2023-24 school year, according to the Center for High School Success.
Camelback High School has also seen chronic absenteeism decrease from 45% in 2019-20 to 25% in the 2023-24 school year, according to the high school's data.
The Arizona Department of Education has also increased Camelback High School's state report card grade from D to B and has even been used as a demonstration school by the Center for High School Success for its 9th Grade on Track implementation.
Seniors placed in freshmen houses have seen a rise in their ACT scores and received four times the number of scholarships at $22 million, according to Arndt.
Arndt said the different freshmen houses would inspire some friendly competition among their teachers, but it was not something they wanted to directly involve their students to keep the new system positive. However, that didn't stop students from trying to better their peers.
'I feel like from first quarter to fourth quarter, we did improve a lot just by that little competition that we had between houses," said sophomore Daniella Lerma, 15.
Teachers within Lerma's house would frequently check in on her and how she was balancing school and extracurriculars, which kept Lerma motivated throughout her freshman year. The freshman house also allowed her to connect with her peers and build friendships.
'It's a better start,' said Lerma. 'If I didn't have that support, I wouldn't be where I am today.'
Coverage of education solutions on and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix high school adopts Harry Potter model to help students improve
