Middle Start Happenings
Middle Start is a busy place! From workshops to webinars, presentations to conference participation, there are many ways to see Middle Start in action.
June 2007
Middle Start works with Amistad (PS/IS 311) in NYC
March - June 2007
This spring, Middle Start provided Amistad with the DataSmart Student and Teacher Survey and two Making the Connection workshops focusing on the characteristics of young adolescent learners. The survey and workshops were complemented by two days (approximately 16 hours) of on-site coaching to administer the survey and to help the faculty analyze the results. The surveys were used in conjunction with other key data and the knowledge and skills developed at the workshops to begin to address how to improve academic and developmental outcomes in the school's middle grades. The on-site professional development was designed to support the increased ability of participants to deliver effective instruction to middle-grades students as well as to strengthen the professional learning community within the school.
May 2007
Beating the Odds: Creating Successful Middle Schools — Citywide Forums on Middle Level Education
May 2007
This spring, AED, represented by Patrick Montesano, collaborated with St. John's University School of Education and the Bank Street College of Education on three day-long forums each including presentations from national and local experts and breakout sessions on practical topics related to the young adolescent learner, middle-grades curricula, and characteristics of successful middle-grades schools. In addition to working with the other organizations to conceptualize and organize the forums, AED organized two of the panels, one featuring AED's service-learning work in NYC and the second featuring two of the NYC Middle Start partner schools. In the latter panel, AED's Maud Abeel and representatives from PS 89 (Cypress Hills) and PS 210 (Twenty-first Century Academy) described the schools' and AED's work to provide a quality middle-grades education to their young adolescent students in a K-8 setting. Based on the contributions of presenters and participants, the forum partners are now collaborating on a position paper that will offer ideas for policy and practices at the middle-grades level and be widely distributed to a diverse audience of school teachers and leaders, parents, graduate schools, policy makers, government officials, not-for-profit agencies, public and private funding agencies, children's advocates, and all others with a stake in middle-grades education. AED will be helping to make a bridge between the work of this group and the City Council's task force, which will also issue a report with recommendations in July 2007. View flyer (PDF) for more information on the forum series
Lenox Academy (PS 235) Begins the Middle Start DataSmart Program
April - May 2007
Lenox Academy, a K-8 school in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, worked with a Middle Start coach to create a middle-grades data team committed to collecting data and using the results to improve teaching and learning and student achievement for students in grades six, seven, and eight. After a staff orientation to the process, the faculty took the surveys. Following the faculty surveys, all students in the intermediate school completed a survey. The Middle Start coach reviewed the results with the faculty and, based on key outcomes of the survey, the data team established a set of action steps to address during the 2007-2008 school year. At this point in the process, the faculty have shared that they see the DataSmart as means to go deeper into the "best practices" of the school and to make them universal in the school-"across all grade levels in every class."
April 2007
NYC Empowerment Schools Information Session -- Making the Connection: Middle Start Adolescent Development and Achievement (a Webinar)
Tuesday, April 24 from 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Learn how the Making the Connection workshop series can facilitate your school's focus on adolescent learners. In this session you will have the opportunity to explore how development affects learning, and use what we know about adolescent development to Improve outcomes for young adolescents. This is a webinar, so you can login to the meeting using an internet connected computer (for the live graphic display) and a phone line (for the audio portion). Open to all NYC Empowerment Schools. Pre-registration is required.
Long Island Schools Pilot the Middle Start School Study Program and Break Down the Walls of the Classroom
March - April 2007
Over a period of a few months this spring, a team of educators representing a half dozen schools in Long Island came together to participate in regional Middle Start School Study. Three schools participated fully in the School Study, a process that included a three day on-site observation at each school in which a school review team of trained teachers and administrators visit all classrooms and review a collection of student work to gather evidence of how well the school's goals are being realized through instruction. This process is intended to promote reflection and discussion among school staff about the continual improvement of teaching and learning. Three additional schools sent representatives to be trained to participate on the review team. Each review team provided a detailed report citing evidence, from the classroom visits and review of student work, of the ways in which the school is meeting its goals and raises questions for staff to consider in strengthening their work.
By design, the Middle Start School Study helps schools build, deepen, and sustain a reflective, collaborative culture focused on the improvement of teaching and learning for all students. Growing evidence from research shows that student achievement improves in schools with collaborative cultures in which inquiry focuses on the improvement of teaching and learning for all students. In such schools, reflection on teaching and learning is an ongoing and regular aspect of school life.
March 2007
The NYC Center for Charter School Excellence 2nd Annual Service Provider Marketplace
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 10am - 5pm
Middle Start will be exhibiting at this conference for New York City Charter Schools. Come visit us at our table in the Marketplace! The event will take place at the Affinia Manhattan Hotel located at 371 7th Avenue, NY, NY 10001. For more information about that event, contact Florence Adu at fadu@nycchartercenter.org.
NYC Empowerment Schools Information Session -- The ABCs of Accountability: The Middle Start DataSmart Program (A Webinar)
Tuesday, March 27 from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Learn how the Middle Start DataSmart Program can help you collect and use data to improve instruction. This information session will introduce you to the DataSmart program and show you how your school can use data to create success for young adolescents. This is a webinar, so you can login to the meeting using an internet connected computer (for the live graphic display) and a phone line (for the audio portion). Open to all NYC Empowerment Schools. Pre-registration is required.
NYC Empowerment Schools Information Session -- Making the Connection: Middle Start Adolescent Development and Achievement
Tuesday, March 6 from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Learn how the Making the Connection workshop series can facilitate your school's focus on adolescent learners. In this session you will have the opportunity to explore how development affects learning, and use what we know about adolescent development to Improve outcomes for young adolescents. Light refreshments will be served. Event will take place at the Middle Start National Center at AED, 100 Fifth Ave. (15th and 16th St), NYC, 10011 (8th fl.). Open to all NYC Empowerment Schools. Pre-registration is required.
February 2007
Michigan Site Study Visit
February 29 - 30
Middles Start hosted a two-day study trip for a team of New York City middle-grades educators. The study team will travel to two middle schools in Michigan that have made major improvements in student learning and achievement using Middle Start's ABCI program (Achievement By Continuous Improvement). Participants included principals, administrators, staff developers, and teachers from three NYC schools.
NYC Empowerment Schools Information Session -- The ABCs of Accountability: The Middle Start DataSmart Program
Tuesday, February 27 from 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Learn how the Middle Start DataSmart Program can help you collect and use data to improve instruction. This information session will introduce you to the DataSmart program and show you how your school can use data to create success for young adolescents. Light refreshments will be served. Event will take place at the Middle Start National Center at AED, 100 Fifth Ave. (15th and 16th St), NYC, 10011 (8th fl.). Open to all NYC Empowerment Schools. Pre-registration is required.
October-November 2006
Two New York City Schools Pilot DataSmart
Middle Start has launched a pilot DataSmart project in two New York City schools: PS 210 and PS 89. As a part of this initiative, both schools have administered Middle Start�s DataSmart surveys, which anonymously gather and report on teacher and student attitudes and beliefs about school climate and teaching and learning practices. The surveys were taken by all students in grades 6-8 and all teachers that work with those grades. After analyzing the data, the Middle Start coach presented the confidential results as a part of a comprehensive data profile. Staff compared the perceptional data provided by the DataSmart surveys with other data (e.g., assessment, student work, demographics) to establish a focus for middle grades school improvement and create a plan for monitoring and evaluating progress.
Middle Start has established a three-to- five year partnership with both of these schools to further develop and strengthen their middle-grades programs. This work is supported by grants from the KeySpan Foundation, the Independence Foundation, and the New York Community Trust. The school leaders of both PS 210 and PS 89 have submitted letters of intent to collaborate with Middle Start for the length of this program.
