Middle school committee presentation

1. Middle schoolcommittee presentation Central Islip School District 2003/2004 School Year

2. Middle Level Education – Contemporary Purpose • Addresses Academic Achievement • Concerned with Personal needs of Young Adolescents (ages 10 – 14 years) • Is Standards-Focused • Develops the Affective and Cognitive Domains

3. Seven Essential Elements of Standards- Focused Middle Level Schools • Philosophy and Mission • Educational Program • Organization and Structure • Classroom Instruction • Educational Leadership • Network of Academic and Personal Support • Professional Training and Staff Development

4. MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCEPT A middle school concepts deals with facilitating an academic learning environment that is standards-based and encourages self-development for all young adolescents. In essence, a middle school education deals with the cognitive and affective domains. In addition, a middle school concept deals with the encouragement of a healthy physically active young adolescent. Ultimately, it is the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of the young adolescent which is being emphasized.

5. Seven Essential Elements of Standards – Focused Middle Level Schools • Philosophy and Mission • Should reflect the intellectual and developmental needs and characteristics of young adolescents • Educational Program • A program that is comprehensive, challenging, purposeful, integrated, and standards-based

6. Seven Essential Elements of Standards – Focused Middle Level Schools • Organization and Structure • A structure that supports both academic excellence and personal development • Classroom Instruction • Instruction appropriate to the needs and characteristics of young adolescents provided by skilled and knowledgeable teachers

7. Seven Essential Elements of Standards – Focused Middle Level Schools • Educational Leadership • A strong educational leadership and a building administration that encourages, facilitates, and sustains involvement, participation, and partnerships • Professional Training and Staff Development • Training and staff development that is on-going, purposeful, and collaboratively planned

8. Research Documents • Essential elements of standards-focused middle level schools and programs • Regents policy statement on middle level education and schools with middle level grades • A report on middle level education in New York State • Review of the most recent literature and research on middle level education • Caught in the Middle: Helping students avoid the Middle School • Various middle school agendas and handbooks

9. Research: School Visitations • Port Jefferson • Sayville • Harborfields • Louis Armstrong • Brentwood • Elwood • Wantagh • Bayport • Kings Park • Miller Place • VISITORS • Dave Payton and Robin Elliser

10. Our Present System • One Kindergarten Center • Five Elementary Schools (1st – 6th grade) • One Junior High School (7th and 8th grade) • One High School (9th – 12th grade)

11. Concerns Of The Present System • Overcrowding conditions in the district • Transition from childhood to adolescence • State standardized test scores • State learning standards to enter high school prepared to meet regent’s graduation requirements • Emotional, personal, and social support

12. Concerns of the present system • Overcrowding conditions in the district • Transition from childhood to adolescence • State standardized test scores • State learning standards to enter high school prepared to meet regent’s graduation requirements • Emotional, personal, and social support

13. Rationale for a Middle Level Education (5th – 8th grade) in Central Islip To help students make a successful transition from childhood to adolescence. • NYS assessments will be better aligned with the fifth through eighth grade middle school grade campus configuration. • Grant funding may be available for an approved middle school model.

14. Rationale for a Middle Level Education (5th – 8th grade) in Central Islip A middle school will be better equiped with a home/school connection which encourages parents to become more involved in the education of their children in the middle school. • To encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, teaming and looping. • Provides enrichment activities such as foreign language, extra-curricular, arts, sports, technology and clubs

15. Vision Statement • Good middle-level schools exhibit academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, and social equity. Vison statement: Newton, Massachusetts National forum to accelerate middle grades reform, 1999.

16. Task Force MS Committee Recommendations • To help students make a successful transition from childhood to adolescence. • There will be more individualized supervision with the addition of adult advocates who monitor the development of their students during their academic career. • Middle school components build supportive school community partnerships that encourage academic success. • Middle school students will be better supervised in a teaming approach with looping to encourage better communication among faculty and students.

17. Task Force MS Committee Recommendations • All professional staff will foster each student’s personal development, health, wellness, and safety. • There will be a climate for learning that is respectful, purposeful, physically and psychologically safe, and personalized to ensure close, sustained relationships between students and teachers. • Middle school teachers will undergo professional training to use a variety of research-based, instructional strategies that are cognitively and developmentally appropriate for young adolescents, and that respect individual experiences, learning styles, and learning needs.

18. issues to be addressed • Staff Identification must be completed in a timely manner in order for the professional staff to be trained for their new middle school assignments. • There should be ongoing professional training throughout the beginning stages and ideally throughout the careers of professionals in the new middle school assignment. • A discussion should take place concerning the issues of scheduling, certification of personnel, teaming, counseling, advisory, differentiation and other practical matters as it pertains to implementing the components of the Central Islip fifth through eighth grade middle school campus.

19. Middle school or junior high school