Schools to Watch

Developmental Responsiveness: high-performing schools with middle grades are sensitive to the unique developmental challenges of early adolescence.

• The school creates a personalized environment that supports each student’s intellectual, ethical, social, and physical development. The school groups adults and students in small learning communities characterized by stable, close, and mutually respectful relationships.

• The school provides access to comprehensive services to foster healthy physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.

• Teachers use a wide variety of instructional strategies to foster curiosity, exploration, creativity, and the development of social skills.

• The curriculum is both socially significant and relevant to the personal interests of young adolescents.

• Teachers make connections across disciplines to help reinforce important concepts and address real-world problems

• The school provides multiple opportunities for students to explore a rich variety of topics and interests in order to develop their identity. Discover and demonstrate their own competence, and plan for their future.
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• Students have opportunities to voice -- posing questions, reflecting on experiences, developing rubrics, and participating in decisions.

• The school develops alliances with families to enhance and support the well-being of their children. It involves families as partners in their children’s education, keeping them informed, involving them in their children’s learning and assuring participation in decision-making.

• The school provides students with opportunities to develop citizenship skills, uses the community as a classroom, and engages the community in providing resources and support.

• The school provides age-appropriate co-curricular activities.

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