Norton Middle School

School Information

School Name:  Norton Middle School
School District: South-Western City Schools
School Address:  215 Norton Rd., Columbus, OH 43228
School Phone: 614.801.3701
School Fax:  614.870.5528
Principal:  Scott A. Cunningham
Principal email:  scott.cunningham@swcs.us
Web Address: http://swcs.us

Demographics

Number of Students:  503
Number Eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch:  69.7% 
Percent of Limited English Proficient:  10.4%
Percent of Special Education:  12.9%
Racial/Ethnic Percentages:

• White:  60.3%
• Black: 14.9%
• Hispanic: 19.6%
• Asian/Pacific Island: NA 
• Other:  Multiracial: NA

Student Achievement Data:

Percentage of students passing: School scores/State average for OAA

Grade 7	Math	Reading
2006-07	58/71	65/78
2008-09	69/74	71/77
2010-11	72/66	73/74

Grade 8	Math	Reading	Science
2006-07	62/72	68/80	46/63
2008-09	66/71	64/72	63/63
2010-11	66/86	85/71	74/78

 

Please comment on any aspect of the data that you believe is particularly significant.

All areas showed improvement over a five year period. The larger the gains, the earlier the particular teachers in that subject adopted the PLC concepts. Science-27% increase, 8th Reading-17.1% increase, 7th Math 13.8% increase, 7th Reading 8% increase, and 8th Math 3% increase. 

Please present additional information that indicates your efforts to build a professional learning community have had a positive impact on students and/or teachers.

• We have built common planning into the teachers day both Interdisciplinary and by Departments. This time is used to build common assessments, review data from the assessments and to develop action plans for interventions and enrichment.

• We have been using the PLC concepts for five years and over the first three years,  I turned over almost half of my staff. The past two years I have only hired two new teachers, and this was due to teachers leaving for out of state jobs. Teachers who have bought into what we are doing and who believe in the PLC concepts want to stay at Norton Middle School.

• My school is visited on a regular basis and used as a model to look at how we have increased our scores so dramatically in a short period of time. We have implemented and are constantly sharing our best practices with other schools and districts to help them increase student achievement

• Because we use data to drive instruction and timely interventions Norton went from a school just five years ago that was holding back up to 5% of its population per year, to not holding back any students the past five years.

 

Please elaborate strategies you have found to be effective in the following areas:

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

• We use a data collection tool called “Mastery Manager” which is a web-based program that allows teachers to align all of their assessments to the state standards.
• After students take the assessments instant data is produced to show how the students performed on each Grade level Indicator.
• Teachers use this data to drive instruction and develop action plans for intervention and enrichments

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

• We use a strategy called “Academic Lunch”.
• Students are not allowed to take a zero on an assignment, they must finish all of their work.
• If a student does not turn in an assignment, the teacher has the student fill out a short academic lunch referral form.
• This information is updated daily on an excel spreadsheet showing the students name and assignment.
• If the work is not completed, the student finishes the work during lunch with the Principal or Counselor. A
• As soon as their work is completed they are allowed to return to lunch.
• If a student is on “Academic Lunch” for longer than a week, they have to attend a mandatory after school study table.
• If they continue to struggle with completing their work, they are referred to the Intervention Assistance Team. Very few students get to this point, less than 1% per year.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

• We have built collaboration time into the teachers’ day.
• All teachers have a daily 50 minute common interdisciplinary planning time.
• Once a week each department meets for 50 minutes on a specific day during homeroom, the administration and other teachers monitor the students in the cafeteria, while the departments collaborate.
• Twice a month each department has a department meeting 40 minutes before their weekly collaboration time. These meetings are strictly about designing quality common assessments, analyzing data, and writing action plans for interventions and enrichments.
• Each teacher has over 6 hours of collaboration time built into each week to collaborate with one another.

 
Awards and recognitions:

1. Rated “Excellent” by the Ohio Department of Education 2010/2011
2. Met the Federal AYP measure in all subgroups 2010/2011
3. Value Added Gains of more than a year’s growth 2010/2011
4. One of 11 out of 148 middle schools in the state of Ohio with a high poverty rate to be rated “Excellent”
5. Article in the Columbus Dispatch about Norton Middle School.
6. Editorial in the Columbus Dispatch