Building Upon Tradition to Support Students’ Pursuit of Excellence
Building Upon Tradition to Support Students’ Pursuit of Excellence
When I stepped foot on this campus as the new Lower School Academic Learning Specialist, I was awestruck. The facilities, including the play yard and music room, inspired my inner child to want to engage in discovery and play. The art on each teacher’s classroom walls highlighted the care and passion of the experienced and highly qualified staff. After the school year began, I was impressed by students embodying good citizenship who walked in line with shirts tucked in, saying, “excuse me” or “good morning” as they passed. I was amazed by the number of special classes that every student has the opportunity to engage in each week and overwhelmed with the frequency of family engagement. In short, I was truly overcome by how fortunate I am to have been asked to join The Meadows School family.
This feeling of fortune was only overshadowed by extreme excitement at the opportunity to build a student support program that would continue to advance TMS in its never-ending pursuit of excellence.
After ten weeks here, I am excited to share the progress we’ve made thus far towards building a tiered program to support students’ learning needs that aligns with The Meadows School mission and core values. At its base tier, this program ensures that we are holding “ourselves to the highest possible academic standards” by focusing on quality academic and social-emotional instruction for all students in the Lower School. To do this, we have begun looking at teaching materials to make sure that each grade level’s year-end expectations align with the beginning of the year expectations from the subsequent grade.
The program then leverages student individualities in the belief that “our differences are our greatest strength” by adding a second tier of standardized screening, progress monitoring, and collaborative brainstorming of targeted in-class supports for students with individual learning and social-emotional needs. For example, we had all first and second grade students take an objective measure of their academic skills at the beginning of the year and again six weeks later to show whether they have been making progress. I have also met with the teachers to dream up additional learning activities and strategies to help match different learning styles.
The final tier incorporates targeted interventions for students who have not demonstrated enough growth with the regular high-quality instruction and additional in-class strategies of the bottom two tiers. (For further information about the program model we are emulating, please visit the Center on Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports at the American Institute for Research’s website: https://mtss4success.org.)
In addition to this multi-tiered approach to student support, the established program embodies the belief that “successful education requires a three-way partnership between students, teachers, and parents.” No educational decision is made without this partnership. Families are made aware of a student’s individual learning needs through an in-depth review of compiled data. Together, a Student Success Plan is then developed, with families providing input about the strategies that will best help their child to meet their full potential. In addition to this partnership, we help to connect families with external professionals and resources within the community if needed.
The Meadows School, while embodying the rigor of its mission, has always had students with diverse learning styles and needs. However, this past year, the leadership team identified that the school could improve in providing each child the “opportunity to realize their individual potential.” With the work completed this year, we can now say that we have established a framework to ensure that we are doing the best job possible to support the learning needs of the Lower School student body. While we should celebrate the progress, we will strive to continue to adapt, evolve, and grow this program in the eternal pursuit of excellence. I look forward to the opportunity.
This feeling of fortune was only overshadowed by extreme excitement at the opportunity to build a student support program that would continue to advance TMS in its never-ending pursuit of excellence.
After ten weeks here, I am excited to share the progress we’ve made thus far towards building a tiered program to support students’ learning needs that aligns with The Meadows School mission and core values. At its base tier, this program ensures that we are holding “ourselves to the highest possible academic standards” by focusing on quality academic and social-emotional instruction for all students in the Lower School. To do this, we have begun looking at teaching materials to make sure that each grade level’s year-end expectations align with the beginning of the year expectations from the subsequent grade.
The program then leverages student individualities in the belief that “our differences are our greatest strength” by adding a second tier of standardized screening, progress monitoring, and collaborative brainstorming of targeted in-class supports for students with individual learning and social-emotional needs. For example, we had all first and second grade students take an objective measure of their academic skills at the beginning of the year and again six weeks later to show whether they have been making progress. I have also met with the teachers to dream up additional learning activities and strategies to help match different learning styles.
The final tier incorporates targeted interventions for students who have not demonstrated enough growth with the regular high-quality instruction and additional in-class strategies of the bottom two tiers. (For further information about the program model we are emulating, please visit the Center on Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports at the American Institute for Research’s website: https://mtss4success.org.)
In addition to this multi-tiered approach to student support, the established program embodies the belief that “successful education requires a three-way partnership between students, teachers, and parents.” No educational decision is made without this partnership. Families are made aware of a student’s individual learning needs through an in-depth review of compiled data. Together, a Student Success Plan is then developed, with families providing input about the strategies that will best help their child to meet their full potential. In addition to this partnership, we help to connect families with external professionals and resources within the community if needed.
The Meadows School, while embodying the rigor of its mission, has always had students with diverse learning styles and needs. However, this past year, the leadership team identified that the school could improve in providing each child the “opportunity to realize their individual potential.” With the work completed this year, we can now say that we have established a framework to ensure that we are doing the best job possible to support the learning needs of the Lower School student body. While we should celebrate the progress, we will strive to continue to adapt, evolve, and grow this program in the eternal pursuit of excellence. I look forward to the opportunity.
- Lower School