CASE 42st Annual Convention DATE - TBA

Expecting and Delivering Excellence in the Middle Grades

School Name: Mead Middle School

School Location and Contact Information: Mead Colorado / Joshua Barnett / (970) 535-4446 / barnett_joshua@svvsd.org

School Demographics: 18% Free and Reduced Lunch

School Achievements: Mead Middle School students had growth of over 70 percentile in Reading, Writing, and Math on the 2010 CSAP. Mead Middle School received the Governors Distinguished Improvement Award for the 2010 CSAP

Please Share 2-3 concrete strategies that can be used by other middle schools to replicate your schools success. Strategy #1 Team Teaching -6th graders take Math and English everyday (this is the same for 7th and 8th). They stay with the same teachers for all 4 of their core classes (we do ability group for Math). They get comfortable with these teachers (much like elementary school). All core classes are team taught. -7th and 8th graders have the same two teachers for English and social studies. Both these classes are team taught. These students also loop with their same English and social studies teachers from 7th to 8th. Every day 7th and 8th graders have English and Math. Every other day they have Social Studies and Science. All of these core

classes are taught on an 88 minute block. Benefits of Team teaching: -Team teaching allows easy integration of subjects. -Team teaching allows for more consistent learning. Team teachers use the same procedures as their partners and this consistency helps middle school students learn. -There is never a wasted day. If one teacher is out, the other teacher simply keeps going with the substitute in support. -Team teachers must collaborate and watch a teammate on a daily basis. Teachers report that they must always give their best because they are being watched and dont want to let their teammate down. -Small group instruction is easy as the 2nd teacher can easily take groups to the library to work with kids that need help or acceleration. -Team teaching means that teachers have these students for more of the school day and therefore get to know their kids better.

Strategy #2 EXCEL (EXtra Curricular Engagement and Learning) focus school Mead Middle school believes that students that get involved and are connected to the school are more likely to succeed in school. We believe that at Mead Middle School, our focus on Reading, Writing and Math have made us an Excellent Middle School. We also believe that our work around getting kids involved in our school has helped to support our success. Our EXCEL program allows us to extend kids learning and sense of belonging by adding more programs outside our instructional day. We believe by doing this, we will not lose our core academic focus during the school day and still able to do those other things that help make our kids well rounded. Our goal is to have 100% of our students involved in co curricular or extra curricular activities. Strategy #3 Accelerated Reader Program All students at Mead Middle School participate in the Accelerated reader program. Students read books at their reading level and take quizzes to assure that they read the book. Last year the 380 students at Mead Middle School read over 10,000 books.