DFHS Named One Of America's Best High Schools

NEWSWEEK Magazine named Dutch Fork High School one of the best high schools in America.  NEWSWEEK, which has been ranking the top public high schools in America for more than a decade, revamped its methodology this year in hopes of highlighting solutions. They enlisted a panel of experts—Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, Tom Vander Ark of Open Education Solutions (formerly executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor of education and founder of the School Redesign Network—to develop a yardstick that fully reflects a school’s success turning out college-ready (and life-ready) students. To this end, each school’s score is comprised of six components: graduation rate (25%), college matriculation rate (25%), AP tests taken per graduate (25%), average SAT/ACT scores (10%), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10%), and AP courses offered (5%).   

Dutch Fork High School was the only traditional public high school to make the list in South Carolina.  The other 3 schools from South Carolina are The Academic Magnet, Charleston; South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Math, Hartsville and South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville.

America's Best High Schools
http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2011/americas-best-high-schools.html

Dutch Fork Names Matt Brown Head Boys Basketball Coach

​Dutch Fork High School is proud to announce the hiring of Matt Brown as the new Head Boy’s Basketball Coach.  Coach Brown has come to Dutch Fork from Indiana where he most recently served as a Boy’s Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach at Leo High School in Fort Wayne.  Last season, Leo High School achieved much success, including the following: regular season co-champions, conference tournament champions, a ranking as high as #5 in the state of Indiana in class 3A, and leading the state in scoring with an average of 93 points per game.​
 
Coach Brown grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, playing his high school ball at Homestead High School.  After graduating, he attended Indiana University and served as a Student Manager for the Indiana Men’s Basketball team for former Head Coach and current UAB Head Coach Mike Davis.  During college, Coach Brown also served as an Assistant for 3 years for the Spiece Select AAU team where he helped coach the following standouts; Dominic James (Marquette), Chase McFarland (Wake Forest), Aaron Richie (IPFW), John Peckinpaugh (IPFW), Jason Holsinger (Evansville), and Julian Muvanga (Miami of Ohio).
 
After graduating from Indiana University in 2006, Coach Brown began his collegiate coaching career at Pfeiffer University, a division II program in Misenheimer, North Carolina.  He was an Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach for former coach and current Newberry College Basketball coach, Dave Davis.  While at Pfeiffer, the Falcons were ranked as high as #10 in the country.
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From  2007-2009, Coach Brown was a Graduate Assistant at UNC-Charlotte for former Head Coach and current NC State Assistant, Bobby Lutz.  While at UNC-Charlotte, the basketball team made  the NIT in the 2007-2008  season.  During those 2 years, UNCC beat 4 top 25 teams.  In the 2009-2010 season, Coach Brown worked for Duke legend Johnny Dawkins at Stanford University for the Men’s Basketball program, as Assistant Video Coordinator/Coaching Intern.  
 
“First I want to thank the Lord for providing me with this opportunity.  I also wish to thank Mr. Morton, Coach Knotts, and the search committee for selecting me for this position and welcoming my fiancée Nicole and me to the Dutch Fork family.  I am looking forward to meeting and working with the players and coaches.  Nicole and I fell in love with Irmo, Dutch Fork High School, and the community the minute we saw it. We hope the student body and the community will come out and support Dutch Fork Basketball this upcoming season,” said Brown.  Coach Brown plans on playing an exciting brand of basketball as well as putting a product on the floor that the students and community of Irmo will be proud of.
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Coach Brown will also be serving as a Social Studies teacher at Dutch Fork High School.  He received his Bachelors degree in secondary education from Indiana University and received his Masters degree in Liberal Studies from UNC Charlotte.  
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He is the son of Steve and Judy Brown of Fort Wayne, IN.  Matt is engaged to Nicole Cummings of Sanford, NC, and they plan to wed on August 6, 2011.  
 
 

Summer Reading at Dutch Fork High!

By: Robert S. Jackson, Ed.S., Assistant Principal for Instruction

 

In 2011-2012, all Dutch Fork High School students will establish the goal of reading 25 books per year. We recommend reading an average of five books per grading period, plus five books during the summer. The following expectations have been set for students:

• Students will set their goals for DFHS Reads 365 in the spring of each year. For the May 2011 – May 2012 reading year, Dutch Fork High School students will be expected to set a goal of at least 25 books. 
• Books read beginning in late May through May of the following school year will count toward our DFHS Reads 365 Initiative. 
• During the school year, students will complete a simple log for each book they read, including books read over the summer.
• Students will also participate in a variety of summer reading assessments between the opening of school and September 30. Assessments will be given throughout the year related to the student’s outside reading.

To see the details of the summer reading list...click on the links below.

Summer Reading at Dutch Fork High

Summer Reading Brochure

Reading Tracking Sheet

For specific reading lists....select the appropriate option below!

English 1 Honors

English 2 Honors

English 3 Honors

11th Grade AP Language

12th Grade AP Literature 

Enjoy your summer and remember to read...read...read! Doing so will allow you to EXCEL!