1. How to Increase Student Success at Helen A. Fort Middle School Suggestions by Robert Horn, Language Arts Teacher, Helen A. Fort Middle School

2. Choose new initiatives and programs carefully.  Since 2004, the following programs have been introduced, with varying degrees of success: Project Based Learning (PBL), Intensive Co-teaching / Learning Styles with Rick Welsh, Blueprints, LEADS, OnCourse, eChalk, Brain-based Learning, 6 + 1 Writing Traits, Ellin Keene’s Comprehension Strategies, etc.

3. Choose new initiatives and programs carefully.  Better to do a lot with a little than a little with a lot. In other words, less is best, or quality over quantity.  Language arts teachers’ heads are spinning with too many new programs and ideas to juggle, some of which may not be compatible. There are only so many hours in a day or a week.

4. Choose new initiatives and programs carefully.  Seek teacher input and feedback before and during the implementation of new programs and ideas.  If teachers can buy into a new idea and take ownership of its development, it is more likely to succeed.  Give worthwhile programs and ideas sufficient time to succeed.

5. Invest appropriately in new programs and ideas.  If you choose to invest in a program, do it right. The LEADS program, for example, requires expenditures for a literacy coach and for leveled nonfiction resources for PBLs for all language arts classes. Two years into the program, neither of these expenditures has been made in Pemberton.

6. Invest appropriately in new programs and ideas.  Allow sufficient training and planning time to develop and implement new ideas and programs.  7 th grade language arts teachers had to create their first thematic LEADS unit 2 nd marking period of 2009-2010 while teaching it.  ASK language arts scores went down during the 2009-2010 school year. (In 2008-2009, “Safe Harbor” was missed by less than one percentage point.)

7. Invest appropriately in new programs and ideas.  7th grade language arts teachers were given only two days of curriculum planning in the summer of 2010 to develop two marking periods of LEADS thematic units for the 2010-2011 school year. Although broad strokes were sketched out, the units remain largely unfinished.

8. Schedule for Success.  There is currently insufficient time for collaborative planning between co- teachers, among team teachers for cross-curricular instruction, or among department members.  Build more planning time into the schedule for these purposes.

9. Schedule for Success.  Every year from 2004-2005 through the present, I have had my least-motivated, lowest- level basic skills class at the end of the day (period 7-8). These are the students we need to target for proficiency on the ASK tests.  Whenever possible, schedule language arts classes for basic skills students at the beginning, rather than at the end of the day. This maximizes their potential for success.