Kennedy HS

John F. Kennedy High School

Home of the Titans

School Community
John F. Kennedy High School (JFK) serves approximately 1,400 students, and has been committed to providing a rich and rigorous curriculum in a supportive environment for every student for over 50 years. The staff meets each week to collaborate on curriculum and instruction with a clear focus on improving student achievement. The staff at JFK is committed to serving the learning potential of every student, with high expectations.

John F. Kennedy High School is committed to teaching our students the skills needed to succeed in college and the workplace through academic achievement, environmental and social responsibility, self-advocacy and leadership. 

Curriculum and School Programs
Kennedy High School has focused on academic achievement as well as creating a college-going culture for the past seven years. JFK continues to focus on student achievement through the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model. This model has been adopted and supported by the Fremont Unified School District. In this model, our school staff is learning to use effective collaboration, formative and summative assessments, data analysis, and targeted interventions within the school day to improve the experience of every student at JFK. Using this model, our staff has developed common norms and agreements to define how we move forward in positive changes for the benefit of our students. This approach is guided by the Four Essential Questions of PLC. These questions are: 

1. What do we expect students to learn? (Defining Learning Objectives for students)

2. How will we know if they are learning? (Creating assessments which provide accurate data, and analyzing that data to help professional practices),

3. How will we respond when some students do not learn it? (Tiered Intervention), 

4. How will we respond when some already know it? (Enrichment). 

These essential questions have led our staff to determine areas of need for our school. The school facilitates and supports 4 one-hour structured collaboration meetings per month in order for subject matter/course-level teachers to analyze, discuss, and utilize the results of the school/district assessments to support academic achievement and enrichment. 

We are pleased with continual, positive test-score increases. JFK has modified the upper-grade “family” plan to include partnership academies in several Technical Education areas. These California Partnership Academies focus on traditional careers with a “green” emphasis. To date, Kennedy offers the Green Ventures Academy, which focuses on Culinary Arts and Hospitality careers. These academies offer real-world application which aligns with the Common Core State Standards. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is in its 11th year at Kennedy High School. This program prepares students for the rigorous demands of 4 year college success. The program is a four year elective class which currently serves over 10% of our students. Ohlone College has remained a strong educational partner with JFK offering several transferable courses at Kennedy during the school day which include psychology, sociology, business, and philosophy. Kennedy High School has developed these programs in an effort to align with the school vision: Build Trust. Build Capacity. Achieve Success. 

John F Kennedy High School was designated a Title I school for the first time during the 2015-2016 school year. This designated JFK as a School-Wide Title I program. As a result of this designation, Kennedy receives federal funds to assist in creating and maintaining a school-wide program to increase academic opportunities and achievement for all students. Through the school’s master schedule, the school allocates adequate instructional time for the locally-adopted, standardsaligned, basic core programs for core content subject matter. This time is given priority and protected from interruptions to support student achievement. 4 

Equitable Access to a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum for All Students
The 4x4 Block schedule affords all students to have equitable access to intervention, enrichment and Honors / AP coursework. A 28 minute flex period was added to the schedule in 2016 in order to provide all students with time for help and intervention within the school day. John F. Kennedy High School has developed student programming and has provided staff with support and professional development for the purpose of building capacity. The shift in school culture has included an element of academic, professional, and peer coaching designed to gain trust in asking for support. This has led to opportunities for all staff and students to build their capacity and confidence in the areas they feel are needed most. This has led to increased academic success by students and implementation of new technology and innovative ways for teachers to engage students in high levels in the classroom. In the past two years, Kennedy High school has provided teachers with several opportunities to learn, develop, and practice strategies which promote high level thinking and application of information as required by new California State Standards. The focus on three main strategies (Cornell Notes, Compare/Contrast, and Annotation) has been an effective means of moving toward a school-wide effort of teaching the skills of CER (Claims - Evidence - Reasoning). CER is at the core of all California State Standards and is the road map and blueprint for Kennedy High School in preparing students for Smarter Balanced Assessments. As a result of this shift in focus, Kennedy High School was named a California Gold Ribbon School in 2015. In 2017, Kennedy received a full six year accreditation term by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).