Middleton High Is Removed from Intervene List

Middleton High School teacher David Folmer asked his geometry students to solve a problem, then pair up with a partner to see if they got the same answer.

Two students at the back of the class used a formula they had just learned to find the arc of a 70-degree section of a circle.

“I got 1.16,” one said, and the other nodded.

It ended up being the right answer.

Teachers in all of Middleton’s classrooms are using the partner learning technique. It’s called "think-pair-share," and it’s one of the educational strategies that has helped the school come off the Florida Department of Education’s Intervene List.

“It was a sigh of relief,” Principal Owen Young said of his reaction to the accomplishment, which was officially announced Jan. 28. “We’re demonstrating that the school is moving in the right direction instructionally.”

But, he added, “There is still a lot of work to be done here.”

The state’s Intervene List comprises Florida’s worst performing schools. Intervene schools have a history of low levels of student achievement, low graduation rates and high dropout rates.

Middleton landed on the list two years ago because it was a D school in 2008 and because it had a high percentage of students who were non-proficient in reading and math. The Florida Department of Education came in to monitor Middleton’s performance, meeting with school leaders bi-weekly. Middleton also worked in conjunction with the district office.

“The school has gone through a transformation, and the shift is totally on student academic achievement,” Young said.

Decisions are made based on the best academic interest of the students. The school also measures the quality and effectiveness of its teachers.

“We have to be very self-critical,” Young said. “How do we make changes to support student learning? It’s not about teaching, it’s about how do we foster student learning.”

One of the biggest ways has been through collaborative learning strategies.

“Teachers implement learning groups in the classrooms as it pertains to students helping students grow academically,” Young said.

Partnering up, like the students in Folmer’s class, is one of those. Another is quiz-quiz-trade in which students have quiz questions and get up out of their seats and question each other.

“The engagement isn’t always teacher to student, but is also student to student,” Young explained. This gives the student a sense of purpose and it entrusts them with ownership in their own learning.

Additionally, Young said, teachers spend countless hours aligning instructional focus. They meet twice a week to collaboratively assess how they are teaching and what might need to be re-taught.

“Everyone has input into what is best for the students,” Young said.

And the administrative staff walks through six to eight classes per week to observe students and teachers.

“It is a very in-depth process,” Young said, “and it requires constant monitoring and it requires constant adjusting.”

All of these new approaches helped remove Middleton from the Intervene List. To come off the list, a school must earn a grade C or higher and improve at least 5 percent in the overall percentage of Adequate Yearly Progress in reading and math. Middleton earned a C grade in December. Additionally, economically disadvantaged students improved in math, and exceptional education students improved in reading.

Young leads by example and his pride for Middleton is made obvious as he walks through his school. He greets faculty and staff warmly and shakes students’ hands. He makes sure students are respectful and that they get to class on time, questioning anyone who seems to be wandering aimlessly through the halls. He straightens doormats and picks up trash from the floor.

“They’ve come a long way,” he said of the students. “It starts at the top. If I don’t show that level of being proud, how can I expect them to take ownership?”

And that’s exactly what he expects. The work isn’t going to stop just because the school is no longer on the Intervene List; it’s going to continue until Middleton is one of the top schools in the country.

“I want Middleton to be a nationally-recognized high school,” Young said. “… We’re not satisfied with a C. I’m looking to build, and within the next couple of years, I want to move Middleton to an A grade.”