Students and teachers at Britton Middle School could receive
national recognition as a
“School to Watch,” as they have been invited to apply for the
designation based on improvements in student performance.
Students and teachers at Britton Middle School could receive national recognition as a “School to Watch,” as they have been invited to apply for the designation based on improvements in student performance.
Britton Principal Jim McDonald said being named a “School to Watch” is similar to being named a California Distinguished School at the elementary level.
“It is very much like it in the sense that they are looking for schools showing a high rate of success with all possible subgroups,” he said. “But it is different in the sense that it is structured by a collaborative between the state Department of Education and the California League of Middle Schools.”
Britton currently houses seventh, eighth and ninth graders. Next year, with the projected opening of Sobrato High, the ninth graders will move into the high schools.
The school had to put together an extensive application document in very little time.
“The things they are looking for include academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equability and that there are organizational supports in place to help all target populations succeed,” said McDonald.
Six schools in Santa Clara County were invited to apply. Britton’s invitation, McDonald said, was a result of the improvement the school has seen in state testing results for its ethnic and socio-economic subgroups.
For the 2002-2003 school year, the school’s API, or academic performance index, increased by 26 points, from 693 to 719. Their target growth was 5 points. The subgroup growth, however, was dramatic. The Hispanic, white and socio-economically disadvantaged groups each had a target growth of 4 points. The Hispanic subgroup growth was 52 points; the white growth was 18 points; and the socio-economically disadvantaged subgroup grew by 60 points.
The schoolwide percentage of students tested was 99 percent.
“I think the reason we were tapped to apply is that we have a very diverse population with a large population of English language learners, a large special ed population, and all those groups have shown growth,” he said. “What they’re saying is, ‘This school must be doing something and we’d like to investigate what they are doing.’”
A lot of research went into preparation of the application document, McDonald said. Britton Assistant Principal Kathy Gibbs wrote the document, and Assistant Superintendent Claudette Beaty assisted with the research.
“We had to gather data; they really asked for a lot of data,” said McDonald. “We surveyed the entire staff, classified and certificated in the four different areas. They also asked us to include any information about the school we thought would be valuable, including awards, any recognition we had received, and a description of the school.”
The next step in the process is for the application to be reviewed.
“After the review, if we are selected, they will probably come and visit our school,” McDonald said. “They will want to verify the kind of things we’ve said in our application as well as take a look at the things we are doing. Then a final selection will be made.”
The “School to Watch” program is a national program, started, he said, as a part of a national forum to accelerate middle grades reform in 1999. In California, it is “basically managed by the California Department of Education and the California League of Middle Schools,” McDonald said, and the Association of California School Administrators and several colleges and universities are also a part of the program.
The staff is very happy to have been invited to apply, said McDonald, and is hopeful the school will make it through the entire process to receive the “School to Watch” designation; however, just putting together the application was a valuable exercise for the school.
“It was such a quick timeline, very short notice, but we managed to get everything together,” he said. “We were so excited to be tapped, even if we don’t actually become one of the schools to watch. Last year, there were just four throughout the state, and it is an honor just to be asked.
“The whole application process, the survey and putting together all the data, was a good thing for all of us. And the document is a good read on Britton. We talk about our strengths and weaknesses. We’ve been very honest.”
