About Andersen Junior High School

Andersen is a good school with caring teachers, counselors who will listen and help, and an administration committed to your education.

The normal pencils, pens, and paper will get you through the first few days. Each teacher will tell you anything special you will need for his or her course during the first week.

During your 30-minute lunch period you may purchase an entire lunch, a la carte items, or bring your lunch from home. We have both indoor and outdoor seating areas.

There is a dress code at AJHS, which is listed in its entirety in the school agenda you will receive your first day. If you wear modest clothing your first day there shouldn't be a problem.

Teachers are on campus from 8:15 - 4:15. Since you get out at 3:53, you can see that coming in early is the best way to spend extra time with a teacher. Most of the teacher meetings we have are in the morning however, so it is a good idea to contact the teacher ahead of time if possible.

Tutoring

Free after school tutoring staffed by several of our teachers and instructional aides is available in our media center Monday – Thursday after school. An activity bus leaves at 4:30 for students who live in our busing areas.

• Team Organization
• Collaborative
• Curriculum Team Planning
• Common Assessments in Core Curriculums
• 60-Minute Class Periods
• Elective Team
• Physical Education Team
• Site-based Decision Making
• Modified Year-Round Calendar

• Full-time Health Assistant
• Three full-time Counselors
• Honors Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies
• TV-News Station & Studio - Daily Announcements on *KJAG

*KJAG is our in-school televised daily announcement program. When the school opened in 1989, it included a central TV distribution point and a wall-mounted TV in each classroom. For ten years our announcements were broadcast live over this system. However, in 1999 we purchased the first of our three state-of-the-art video editing systems. Since that time, all announcements are written, read, taped, edited and broadcast by the students of the KJAG staff, under the direction of Mr. McNamara.

The transitional years of middle school can be the most critical and yet most difficult of a child’s education. To ensure the academic success of all students the staff at Andersen Jr. High School has implemented several programs designed to provide a helping hand and additional support. Most of these programs are unique to AJHS.

Students are given a progress report of their grade in all classes at the end of the 4th week of each quarter. Students are required to take the reports home and return them with a parent signature.

The AJHS website has a “parent portal” where parents can check their child’s current grade in all of his/her classes. The “parent portal” is available 24 hours a day to parents and students. Please contact our office if you experience difficulty accessing the “parent portal” on our website.

We realize that, from time to time, a student may not have studied enough to do well on a test, had a conflict with studying for the test, or didn’t really understand the material and thus failed the test. Students who fail a test should be given an opportunity to retake the test and, if he/she scores higher on the retake, should receive the higher grade. Teachers are encouraged to have the student demonstrate that they have studied and understand the material before retaking a test. This can be done by the student completing a study guide, correcting wrong answers on the test, or other activities like tutoring. Students are only allowed one retake for each test failed and only tests where the student failed are allowed to be retaken.

Students who are two or more years behind in reading comprehension will be placed in a Read 180 class. For the past several years the Scholastic Read 180 program has proven to be the most effective reading improvement program for secondary students.