Middle School Virtual Visit
East Union Middle School
Submitted by: Stephen Foster and Kathryn McCallister
Introduction
East Union Middle School is located in the town of Marshville, in Union County, on the outskirts of Charlotte, NC. The school has 801 students consisting of grades 6-8 and is classified as a "regular” school, meaning that they don not qualify as a Title 1 school. There are 60 full-time teachers employed at the school making the student-teacher ratio 13:35. White non-Hispanic students account for 47%, black non-Hispanic students account for 34%, Hispanic students make up 18% of the school population, and Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Natives make up the remaining 1%. Male students make up 51.7% of the student body, while females make up the remaining 48.3%. 66% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunch with a greater percentage receiving free lunches. These statistics point towards a very diverse student population.
According to the background information the school offers, they met all 25 points of AYP and all of their eighth graders to take the Algebra I EOC passed with a Level 4. Locally, the funds received by the district amount to about two thousand dollars a student. State and federal funds combined amount to approximately $8,000 a student. The entire district consists of about 40,000 students enrolled at 53 schools, 9 of which are middle schools.
Academic Excellence
In a developmentally responsive middle school, academic excellence is represented by the development and application of essential skills and knowledge relating to real-life situations concerning young adolescents. Students should be challenged with curriculum that allows them to develop higher order thinking skills while also engaging students in their own learning. Manning and Bucher (2009) point out that, "subjects should be taught through genuine, interesting, and relevant activities that are assessed authentically and that both reflect the diversity of learners and the usefulness and importance of the subject to contemporary society." (Manning& Bucher, p. 90) Academically excellent schools promote a diverse and safe learning environment. Instruction and assessment is designed to meet individual student needs and includes students, parents, additional staff members, and the community in the learning process. Manning and Bucher state that, "teachers should and do regularly collaborate with a number of other educators in a school." (Manning & Bucher, p. 177)
Evidence of Academic Excellence at East Union Middle School
- School met 25 (or 100.0%) out of 25 target goals
Developmental Responsiveness
In todays middle grades schools, developmental responsiveness is achieved in a number of ways. Educators should be knowledgeable and supportive of the diverse needs of young adolescents. "Being aware of changes is a major step in helping young adolescents deal with the developmental problems that they face." (Manning 38) Teachers in a developmentally responsive middle school should foster curiosity, creativity, and the development of social skills in a structured and supportive classroom environment which acknowledges and encourages the diversity found in today’s middle schools. "Variations in race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, immigration history and language usage, and physical and mental abilities, among other factors, can influence how young adolescents experience their development, and the resulting implications for educators."(NMSA 54) Class instruction and assessment must match the needs and capabilities of individual learners. By creating curriculum that is socially significant and relevant to the personal interests of young adolescents, teachers can encourage students to challenge themselves and set high academic goals. Moreover, assessment should provide a continuous measurement of student learning as well as reveal areas that need more work. "In middle level grades, more than in any other, the emphasis needs to be on whom we teach rather than on what we teach." (Manning 29) Class instruction should teach students to make informed choices, work collaboratively, and learn to resolve conflicts while including issues that are relevant to their lives, their communities, and their world.
Developmentally responsive middle schools provide access to services that foster healthy physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development, such as a wide range of extracurricular activities, help for students and families who need special assistance, and highly qualified nurses and counselors. Additionally, every student should have a mentor or someone to advocate for them throughout their middle school experience. "Serving as advocates means educators foster compassion, a workable set of values, and the skills of cooperation, decision making, and goal setting."(Manning 62) Furthermore, developmentally responsive middle schools develop relationships with families as well as the community to enhance the well-being of their students.
Evidence of Developmental Responsiveness at East Union Middle School
Equity
Social Equity should look like fair treatment of everyone by everyone. The students are cared for. NMSA states “ Effective middle grades schools develop structures that ensure students will be known as individuals and feel cared for and valued.” (NMSA 34). The next page addresses adult advocates and their role in the student’s life. “When students and their advisors meet regularly during the day, an advisory program helps students develop respect for self and others” (NMSA 34) Adult advocates help teach students how to treat others. NMSA continues on discussing the importance of guidance counselors, and health and wellness programs to teach young adolescents how to be functioning, effective members of society. Equity goes beyond the school as well. Social equity touches families and the community. "Schools do not presume to educate children alone.” (NMSA 41). Young adolescents are going through many changes during this time in their lives and their "allegiances begin to shift from teachers and parents to their peers, who become the prime source for standards and behavior." (Manning 43) Extracurricular activities, such as sports and clubs give students an opportunity to socialize as well as form important social skills such as cooperation, teamwork, and critical thinking skills.
Evidence of Social Equity at East Union Middle School
Organizational Structures and Processes
Developmentally responsive middle schools should have certain evident organizational structures and processes. The first of these is a mission statement. A mission statement is important because it is the vision of the school.
The vision becomes the concise, collaboratively developed mission statement supported by all stakeholders --- students, teachers, administrators, families, board of education ... When a shared vision and mission statement become operational, middle grades educators implement appropriate practices to develop a challenging academic program. (NMSA 27)
A mission statement, or a shared vision, brings some unity and common purpose to the school, thus allowing teachers to form and follow organizational structures and processes.
The first organizational structure is the actual structure of the school day, or scheduling. “The ways schools organize teachers and group and schedule students have a significant impact on the learning environments.” (NMSA 31) Unfortunately, there is no set rule to follow for scheduling; principals and teachers need to observe their students and create a schedule that is best for the students.
This calls for effective leaders in the school. “Effective leadership is the linchpin of a school’s success.” (NMSA 28) Effective leaders make it possible to fill in the gaps when an answer is not given straight from a textbook. Also, effective leaders in the school will guide and influence the students. “If teachers demonstrate effective teaching behaviors, students will behave appropriately.” (Manning 242) The best way to create effective leadership is professional development. “Middle grades educators thrive on professional development.” (NMSA 30) Professional development allows teachers to grow and learn, so that they can continue to effectively teach their students.
As teachers become more effective, they begin to value the importance of student involvement in learning. “As a curriculum moves up the pyramid from subject centered to learner centered, there is an increasing emphasis on interrelated planning and teaching.” (Manning 119) An integrated curriculum allows students to make connections between many different subjects and topics. Developmentally responsive middle schools should have integrated curriculum. This can occur through many different routes; including, a single teacher teaching life skills and their course content, many different teachers combining to do a unit that umbrellas all of their subjects, etc. The easiest example of this to find is team teaching.
“There should be a balance between the needs of young adolescents and the demands of the school’s curriculum.” (Manning 228) A positive learning environment can help reach a student’s personal needs and encourage learning of the curriculum. In fact, positive learning environments are ground zero for learning.
“Our increasing knowledge of the early adolescence developmental period suggests that 10- to 15-year-olds need a positive atmosphere in which to learn and socialize. Also, there is a growing movement in school to instill closer interpersonal relationships between learners and teachers as well as among learners themselves.” (Manning 223)
Positive learning environments increase more than learning, they foster connections and relationships. “Some educators believe that the development of a sense of community is an important part of creating positive middle school environment.” (Manning 225) Developmentally responsive middle schools should make creating positive learning environments a priority so that students can create learning communities.
Evidences
School Improvement Plan
East Union Middle School has included three recommended goals or strategies in their school improvement plan. They have chosen to focus on encouraging high achieving and globally competitive students; Increase family, business, and community member involvement and support of the school; Improve the use of technology in classroom instruction.
To increase high achievement and equip their students to be globally competitive, they have listed two goals:
These goals are targeted at all students using EOG test data as an indicator of success to be achieved by the end of the year.
This goal is targeted towards minority students using EOG test data as an indicator of success to be achieved by the end of the year.
To achieve their goal of increasing family, business, and community member involvement and support of the school, they have chosen to Increase the frequency of positive home communications in an effort to be proactive in modifying student behavior and building productive relationships with parents. Additionally, they wish to improve their score on items regarding positive home contacts on the UCPS parent survey. The school has outlined three strategies to achieve this goal:
This goal is targeted towards all students. Success is to be indicated by UCPS Parent Survey, Question #8 "Teachers tell me about the positive things my child does." The target achievement date is the end of the year.
To increase the use of technology in classroom instruction, East Union Middle School will increase the appropriate and effective use of instructional technology, including the use of technology to promote global awareness. They have listed two strategies for achieving this goal.
These strategies target all students. The success of the strategies are to be measured by standard 4D on NC Teacher Evaluation, "Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction" and this goals target date of achievement is the end of the year.
This is a list of services aimed at meeting the needs of students at-risk of academic failure, or of engaging in disruptive or disorderly behavior, or both.
RTI, PBS, failure prevention plans, PEP's, Intervention and Enrichment Period, use of BMT’s, Benchmark Testing, Staff Mentoring Program, Community Mentor Program, Saturday School, Problem Solving team, South Providence, Day Treatment Screening, ALPS, School Resource Officers (SRO's), Use NC WISE to identify attendance, Analyze EOG, EOC, SAT, PSAT, Alternative Assessments, and other standardized test scores, Exceptional Children (EC), Limited English Proficient referrals and conferences, OSS and ISS discipline reports, guidance and attendance counselors
East Union has also included methods to meet all of the state’s general statutes for school safety: They have provided school information to the community, parents, and representatives of the local community, plan to work effectively with local law enforcement and court officials, offer professional development opportunities, and they have provided a list of services assigned to alternative schools or alternative learning programs.
The North Carolina School Improvement Planning Implementation Guide states that their “recommendations are intended to guide schools toward a best-practice model of school improvement, but ultimately, districts and schools should use the most effective planning approach that results in positive change for students.” I believe East Union Middle School has developed a comprehensive improvement plan that mainly focuses on increasing and expanding student success throughout their school. They have also chosen to increase the frequency of positive home communications in an effort to be proactive in modifying student behavior and building productive relationships with parents. They state that this goal supports the district goal to increase family, business, and community member involvement and support of their school. While their strategy does target family participation and communication, it does little to encourage local business and community involvement. NMSA states that, “In today’s society, genuine community involvement is a fundamental component of successful schools for young adolescents.” (NMSA 41)
Conclusions & Recommendations
We would conclude that the school has many opportunities for a middle school. Something we found perplexing is that the school has such good scores, and is not a title one school, yet they have such high percentages for diversity. We would like to encourage the school and the surrounding community to become more involved with the school. We found very little school-community involvement. Community involvement is very easy to attain. It can look like a student participating in a grant funded by the outside community. For example, the Jones Electric company partners with Onslow County for high school students to mimic an economy. The tenth grade students create a product and, starting with sixty dollars, then sells the product to the school. Another option is to open a community garden. Plants are a part of the essential standards for science. The students could learn about plants, gardening, buying and selling. The outreach to the community could also become a cross-curricular unit. The school could work to provide lessons for the parents of the community; lessons in budgeting, speaking english, etc. Whatever is needed in the surrounding community. We discussed the importance of every middle school student having an adult advocate By reaching out to the community, students are given opportunities to connect with adults around them, allowing for important relationships to form. We believe that the focus of every school is that their students are college bound. In today’s society, college is more important than ever. We recommend that the school focus on making their students college minded by encouraging them to decide on an interest area and providing them with the means to explore those areas. When students enter ninth grade, they placed on a track that determines the classes they will take. The track the student is placed on comes from their middle school. It is important that students are placed on tracks where their interests and passions lay, so that they are prepared in those areas when they enter college.
Websites
References
East Union Middle School. Union County Public Schools, 2011. Web. 20, November 2011
Manning, M. Lee., and Katherine Toth Bucher. Teaching in the Middle School. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2009. Print.
National Middle School Association. This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents. Westerville, OH: National Middle School Association, 2010. Print.
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