DeKalb County School District

The National Middle School Association and the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform state that middle schools must be:

• academically excellent
• developmentally responsive
• socially equitable

The DeKalb County School District is dedicated to meeting these national standards in a variety of ways through its middle school program. Middle school teaching and learning has facilitated the implementation of the new Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) curriculum, which is rich in rigor, relevance, and relationships.

Middle school teaching and learning offers essential instruction in language arts, science, mathematics, and social studies. The department collaborates with school improvement, English language learners (ELLs), exceptional education, counseling, assessment, media services, Fernbank Science Center, athletics, and professional learning. Middle school courses are designed to meet the needs of students moving from childhood into adolescence. Connections classes are also available in world languages, career technology, physical education, health, visual arts, choral music, and instrumental music.

Middle schools actively promote the reading of twenty-five books per year and writing weekly in all classes, as well as writing a minimum of one research paper and one research-based project each year. Extended learning time provides a daily opportunity to engage in extra study in a core area and/or double dosing of math or language arts when necessary. This period provides each academic team the opportunity to remediate and enrich the academic experiences of students as needed. Benchmark assessments help to identify student needs and target instruction.

The middle school program is designed to meet the special needs and characteristics of the adolescent student; it is student-centered, content specific, and data driven. Middle schools provide students with consistent academic and behavior expectations from all staff. Because an informed parent is essential to a student's success, a basic tenet of the middle school program is to communicate with parents at every opportunity. The middle school program also promotes communication among teachers through the interdisciplinary team approach. Within the team, discussions concerning the students' performance and welfare take place across disciplines. The teachers' communication in team meetings provides them with a more complete picture of the student's work and helps early identification of any problems or weaknesses a student may have. Parents should participate in student- led conferences where the teachers serves as facilitator and the student uses a portfolio to update the parent. Middle school is a time when students must begin to take ownership of their own learning with staff support.