Attachment A
Middle Level
Problem-Based Learning Scenario
Thundering HerdMiddle School
West Virginia Institute for
21st Century Leadership
Fall, 2008
Middle Level Problem-Based Learning Scenario
Thundering HerdMiddle School
Community Demographic Profile[1]
Buffalo County, West Virginia, has been served by Thundering Herd Middle School (THMS) since 1985. The enrollment is 450 students in grades six through eight.There are 51 faculty and staff members who serve at THMS. The total population of BuffaloCounty is 8,600. The only major population center of BuffaloCounty is Blackwell with a population of 3,000. Blackwell is located on the Black River and is the county seat of BuffaloCounty. Thundering HerdMiddle School, located in Blackwell, is the only middle school in the county.
The community's demographics have been greatly affected by the decline in employment opportunities within river related industries such as chemical production and river transport. Unemployment exceeded 10 percent throughout the 1990's. New job opportunities tend to be in part-time and low-wage jobs. The current per capita household income for the BuffaloCounty school district is $17,900, which is below the per capita household income for West Virginia at $27,000. Limited job opportunity has contributed to a decline in population, reflected in falling enrollment figures for THMS. Over the past five years, the school has lost almost 10 percent of its enrollment. Local officials continue to seek ways to revitalize the economy by attracting manufacturing and encouraging small businesses.
About 75% of THMS students attend the school for all three of their middle school years, with about the same percentage attending BuffaloCounty schools through graduation. The declining economic situation has had some impact on the stability of the student population. The gender ratio is almost even at 47 percent male and 53 percent female. The ethnic mix (with 99 percent white, and one percent Asian, Hispanic, African-American and Native American), has been fairly consistent over recent years.About 19% of the students are in special education. There are forty students in the BD program alone. For the most part, THMS has had limited experience with mobile, transient, or non-English speaking students. Family dynamics at THMS reflect national trends with increased numbers of students living in single parent homes or with grandparents. A survey of ThunderingHerdMiddle School students indicates that only 48% of students live with two parents. Students increasingly come to school with social/emotional and physical needs that affect their academic performance. About 15 percent of the students have at least one parent that did not receive a high school diploma while about 18 percent attended college for one or more years. Approximately, 68 percent of students are eligible for free and/or reduced priced lunches.
A growing number of students are considered "at-risk" of dropping out of school. Teachers are frustrated with what they consider to be disrespect and lack of motivation by a growing number of students. One eighth grade teacher commented, “When I threaten to cut their grade for not doing their work, they just say, ‘so what.’ As social trends toward greater juvenile violence and decreased respect for authority make their way into the school, discipline has become a growing concern. Some teachers feel that their options for dealing with individual students have been reduced by fear of misinterpretation of intent, fear of litigation, and lack of respect in the community. Student behavior and discipline, although they involve a minority of students, are increasingly troublesome.
For most THMS students, the school and its activities are one of the focal points of BuffaloCounty community life. Most students love the school and have great school spirit. On Friday Spirit Days, nearly all the kids and faculty dress in school shirts and jackets. Approximately 70 percent of students participate in at least one school sponsored sport, club, or other activity. When the school was built twenty years ago, nearly 95 percent of students were involved in school activities. Now, the change in the community economic situation and family dynamics has impacted students’ ability to participate. Still when activities are part of the school day, kids are enthusiastic and participate.
School Climate and Culture
As part of the strategic planning process, the faculty adopted a new mission statement in 2005. The mission is, “The Mission of THMS is to create a supportive environment of high expectations where the faculty takes the responsibility to prepare all students with the skills, knowledge and attitudes of a life-long learner ready to participate in a rigorous high school curriculum and accept the responsibilities of being a self-directed young adult.” During the voting on the mission statement, it was clear that a significant group of faculty had strong negative feelings about the specific wording, “the faculty takes the responsibility.” This group of about fifteen teachers, primarily from the eighth grade, felt that more emphasis should be placed on the responsibility of students and parents. They felt that too many kids weren’t doing their work and their parents were not involved and/or supportive of the teachers. The teachers were adamant that they were working hard and should not be held responsible for the economic and social problems in the community. The principal, realizing that he had a majority in favor of the mission, pushed ahead for the vote. On the Monday after the vote, the principal got an anonymous letter basically saying, “You’ve got your head in the clouds.” and “You are developing a generation of welfare slackers.” The principal, a former highly skilled high school teacher, was very upset with the letter but decided not to make it an issue, hoping over time things would get better. However, this key division of the faculty has continued to color group decisions and the ability to work together. The faculty is split on nearly every suggested innovation.
Educational Programming
General Information: Although THMS was built as a junior high school, it switched to the middle school concept in 1995. The new principal at that time, a charismatic out-going former teacher, led the reorganization with much support from the faculty. A series of visitations to outstanding middle schools and attendance at the national Middle School Conference helped the staff make the original transition. Since that time, most key faculty retired, and the principal who led the transition moved to another county to take a central office position. The current principal has been in the job for two years after an interim held the post for two years. Most of the new eighth grade faculty came to the school within the last four years as transfers from the high school. This group of former high school faculty is anti middle school and supportive of the junior high model. They frequently comment in staff meetings that when they were at the high school, they got too many kids from this school who “weren’t prepared.” They believe that the middle school philosophy is ‘all they need is love.’ The majority of the sixth grade teachers and some of the seventh grade teachers are supportive of the middle school philosophy and tend to be offended by the criticisms. The sixth grade group tends to be open to change and wants to reinstitute the Advisor/Advisee program that ended three years ago with pressures of NCLB. The interdisciplinary team organization continues at the school but may be eliminated if support does not emerge from the entire faculty. The drop in student enrollment adds fuel to those in the school who want to end the interdisciplinary team approach to scheduling.
a. Curriculum: The school schedule is built around basic skills with 80 minutes of reading/language arts and mathematics daily. In addition students take 40 minutes of science and social studies daily. On a rotating basis, the students also have art, music, health, P.E. and tech ed. About 15 students at both the seventh and eighth grade levels take an on-line Spanish course. Fifteen “hand-picked” eighth graders are enrolled in Algebra I. The overall approach to planning curriculum is as divided as the staff. The sixth grade faculty has worked on unit planning both within subject areas and across some disciplines. They use the WVCSO’s as the basis for curriculum planning and have adopted an on-line unit and lesson planning format. Two of the science units and one of the math units won a national award from a NEE, a national engineering group that supports innovation in education. The eighth grade teachers use the textbook as the source of curriculum planning. The seventh grade teams have several new teachers who are open to change but are afraid to speak out. All teachers in the school code their lesson plans with the CSO’s, a practice that continues from the previous principal. Approximately five years ago, the former principal started a career guidance program that was part of the school’s Advisor/Advisee Program. In A/A, eighth grade students completed their transition plan and set goals for high school. Since Advisor/Advisee has been eliminated from the curriculum, these tasks have been assigned to 8th grade staff. They do not think this is their job. So, in reality, little is done to transition students to the high school. Basically, the kids are bused to the high school for “move-up day.”
b. Instruction: Instruction in the school is a mixture of tradition and innovation. Most of the sixth grade teachers use cooperative learning and differentiated instruction. One sixth grade teacher serves on the state DI (Differentiated Instruction) Cadre and is a skilled presenter and coach. All teachers in the sixth grade but one have attended summer sessions on technology integration and regularly take their kids to the computer lab for projects. Most of the students in the sixth grade have been involved in research projects like the social studies fair and the science fair. Unfortunately, the number of participants in these two events diminishes each year the students are at THMS.
c. School Effectiveness: The school has a very active School Improvement Council that meets prior to the beginning of the year then monthly thereafter. The new principal has revitalized the Council and has tried to help members take leadership for major improvement initiatives. They have struggled with how to address the division in the staff but are willing to work together to improve the school. The Council has one teacher from each grade level, two service staff (an aide and the secretary), two parents and a community member. One of the parents is new to the school having home schooled her child until sixth grade. She is concerned about some of the discipline issues. The school Five-Year Strategic Plan has a goal on improved instruction and a goal on improved discipline. During Faculty Senate meeting, the Council reports to the staff. The Council has been concerned about the lack of school-wide involvement in the implementation of the Plan. They would like to see greater involvement by teams and more control over professional development.
d. Student Support: Even though the school is small, the assistant principal recently wrote a grant with the sheriff’s office that allowed the school to get an officer daily for a half day. The officer is well-liked and is trying to work with staff, parents and students to improve student behavior. He sees great inconsistency in the way students are treated personally and in the discipline processes in the classroom. The school has a School Assistance Team chaired by the assistant principal that meets on a regular basis. However, the recommendations from the SAT are usually not followed by the eighth grade teams. They believe the kids are being coddled by some of the SAT suggestions. Other student support systems in the school include the sixth grade teams’ work in special education. They have implemented an inclusion model for special education students and use a three-tiered approach. They also have a sophisticated re-grouping process to help students who have not mastered concepts and a community mentoring program for students having personal difficulties. They are seeing great results. These teachers have also developed their own sixth grade orientation/transition program with the two elementary feeder schools. The sixth grade team has been asked to present at the state middle school conference on their innovations. Mr. T, the former principal, has asked them to come to his county to do a staff development. It should be noted that the school counselor and the librarian have both provided considerable support to the 6th grade teachers.
Educational Results
THMS has not met AYP for the last two years. It is the only school in the county that has not made AYP the current year. The school has been out of compliance in the low SES subgroup and the Special Education subgroup at the seventh and eighth grades for both reading/language arts and in mathematics. The school has also not met accountability standards in attendance. The attendance is 88 percent with the lowest attendance at the 8th grade level. The school scores on the Writing Assessment are above average largely due to the collaboration between the sixth and seventh grade language arts teachers and the emphasis on writing in the sixth grade. Each year, the principal meets with Teams to go over WESTEST and Writing Assessment results. He asks the team leaders to come up with a plan for addressing weaknesses. The sixth grade team has done an excellent job with their plan. ACT Explore has not been used in the school to diagnose student strengths and weaknesses.
Faculty and Staff Profile
There are 51 faculty and staff members who serve at THMS. There are 33 classroom teachers, one counselor, one librarian, two aides, one autism mentor, one head cook, four cooks, one secretary, three custodians, and a new assistant principal. One-half of the faculty has 20 to 28 years of experience, with nine having 28 plus years of experience. Eight faculty members have 5 to 9 years of experience. Nine faculty members have zero to five years of experience, four of those nine faculty members have less than three years of experience.
The following dossiers are profiles of key personnel who serve at THMS:
- Mr. A. is your new assistant principal. He comes from a long standing well-to-do family of BuffaloCounty. Mr. A. taught for six years before entering an on-line administration program for school leaders. He finished his on-line work and received his certification and made application for any open administrative position in the county. The school board and superintendent decided that Mr. A. was the strongest applicant for the assistant principal’s position at THMS. Mr. A. also applied for the principal job at THMS when it came open; he was passed over by the Board in favor of the new principal. He appears to be a team-player but at times seems to undermine some of the decisions of the principal.
- Mr. B. just earned his doctorate in school leadership and would like to have a leadership role in BuffaloCounty. He has been teaching sixth grade for seven years and is very popular with staff, students and their parents. Mr. B. uses a variety of technology applications with his students, takes them on creative field trips and is working with the community to upgrade the technology lab. Mr. B. teaches a science methods class as an adjunct professor for a state university.
- Miss C. is a newly hired energetic teacher in her second year of service at THMS. She graduated from a highly acclaimed five year teacher preparation program with a Masters degree. She has middle school certification in mathematics and science. Miss C. has extensive knowledge about instructional design and technology. She has designed award winning web pages for local businesses and is currently enrolled in an educational doctorate program for instructional design and technology.
- Mrs. D. is in her tenth year of service as a physical education teacher and coach. She came to the middle school from the high school. Mrs. D. is the president of the Buffalo County Teachers Association and has been very outspoken when it comes to protecting teachers rights. Mrs. D. is married to a prominent attorney in BuffaloCounty who many believe has political ambitions. Mrs. D. has clashed many times in the past with school board members and central office administration. She is a skilled and well-liked teacher and is supportive of many of the concerns of the eighth grade teachers.
- Mrs.E. has been teaching for 26 years and is revered by all of her students and the entire community. She never seeks the spotlight but many seek her advice on multiple issues. If Mrs. E. lends her support to any school initiative, people tend to rally around her and make things happen. Mrs. E. has lived in BuffaloCounty all of her life. She is a member of the sixth grade team and teaches reading/language arts.
- Mr.F. is an eighth grade math teacher who came to THMS from the high school. He is not happy at the school and misses teaching upper level courses. The only class he likes to teach is his one section of Algebra I. This class in made up of a small “hand picked” group of students. He is known to be an excellent mathematician.
- Mrs.G is an instructional aide assigned to the eighth grade special education staff. She has been in the school since its opening in 1985. She has great rapport with staff and students and is conscientious about her work. The principal counts on her for advice about community and school issues. She will take on any job assigned to her. Mr. F likes Mrs. G since she often stops to talk to him and brings him homemade baked goods.
School Organization/Professional Development