Middle School Mission: "Rising Stars, Reaching Academic Excellence"

Having spent four years as a successful elementary principal in the inner city, I was excited about being assigned principal of an elementary/middle school. As I walked from the curb down what seemed like a mile to the front door, the students asked many questions. "Are you our new principal?" I knew the answer to that question. "Yes," I responded. "Have you been a principal before?" I knew that answer, too. "Yes." I guess, having successfully met their requirement, I qualified for the next series of questions.

A tall, handsome young man stepped forward. "Hi, I’m in the middle school. Can you have the middle school name added to the front of the building?" As I gazed at the top of the building, I realized this young man was absolutely right. The name of the school was incomplete. Three years ago, the elementary school was extended to include the middle grades. It was a matter of pride for the students to have "middle school" added to the existing elementary name. Feeling confident, I agreed to honor this request. Relieved, the student launched another question. This one caused me to pause, reflect, and think of the reason behind the question. He asked, "Am I in the slow class?" By this time, we were approaching the front door of the incompletely titled school.

The students had graciously carried my book bags, and we were already beginning to bond. I could not start off on the wrong foot. This precious jewel needed to know, in essence, if I could change the mission, vision, values, and goals of this school. "What makes you think that you are in the slow class?" When in doubt, I always answer a question with a question. This gives you time to think! "Well," he said, "I got into trouble a lot last year. I barely passed. I missed a lot of days from school. I didn’t want to come to school because I would just get into trouble. My report card was not good. And, I’m in 08-03. That’s the last class of the eighth grade. So, am I in the slow class?" Everything that he said made me think he definitely qualified to be in the "slow" class. Suspensions, poor grades, and poor attendance—any principal’s nightmare.

I hadn’t even entered the building and I’m holding an unofficial "press conference" with my most important constituents. What do I say? In an instant, my entire educational philosophy came to me. What is my mission? Why do I exist? The reason I entered the field of education hung in the balance. The student looked at me to see if I believed in his capacity to learn. He looked at me with hope in his eyes. He looked at me as if to say, "Are you the one for such a time as this?" Pausing, looking him face-to-face, eye-to-eye, I replied, "No, you’re not in a slow class! In this school, everyone is smart! Everyone is a star! Whatever kept you from learning, whatever caused you to miss school, whatever made you get suspended, will change."
Were these just words filled with hot air? Were my words just another cliché? Did I believe? I asked for his help. "Will you help me? Will you help let everyone know that we are going to succeed?" With a smile on his face, he said, "Yeah, and by the way, what’s your name?" I entered the school feeling empowered, directed, on a mission. He had given me a job to do.

That year was most unusual. It would be like no other year in my career. The year began with creating the mission statement and a clear vision of how we would get there. "Rising Stars, Reaching Academic Excellence" would be posted everywhere! Two thousand stars of all shapes, forms, and colors appeared almost overnight. We discussed and documented things that we valued as a school and how those commitments would change our behavior and define our steps to reach our mission. We committed ourselves to deny sorting and selecting as a way of determining who would succeed. We made commitments to succeed in improving the culture through collaboration. We used the budget to make our commitments a reality. Resource teachers were hired to provide team collaboration time during the day. Each grade-level team met twice a week for 45 minutes. Team leaders were identified and taught how to conduct team meetings. Team leaders completed team meeting log sheets and received feedback concerning issues raised. As the principal, I spent 50% of my day in the classrooms serving as the instructional leader. The secretaries could only call me to the office if it was one of the "Three B’s."

The "Three B’s" meant:
1. Boss (Board)
2. Boys in Blue (fire, police, ambulance)
3. Beloved (family)

Adhering to the "Three B’s" allowed me to focus on classroom instruction and ensure that we were "flowing mellifluously" and "honoring time." Flowing mellifluously and honoring time meant that teachers would be mindful of time wasters, i.e., late starts, transitions, etc. Teachers received daily feedback "love notes" concerning instructional strategies seen during the day. Intense job-embedded professional development was planned based on the "love notes." In addition to their regularly scheduled team meetings, teachers routinely collaborated about student work before school and during lunch. Conversations about evening socials were also the norm.

It took three months for the 750-member student body and 40-member teaching staff to realize that they were all smart and that they could get smarter through collaboration and hard work. Walking into classrooms, asking for the smart students to raise their hands grew from one student to ultimately everyone raising their hand!

Adhering to the mission statement was a task. But it was a task that had to be done for everyone in the school. When your mission and vision are intact, then you can focus on goals for success. The entire school year was spent learning how to succeed, step-by-step, and celebrating every evidence of success.

By changing the belief system, we changed the way we operated and we changed student and staff expectations. No longer could students enter the building with a notebook rolled up in their back pocket. They now proudly walked through the neighborhood with a book bag, notebook, textbooks, and all the tools for success. Getting by was no longer the norm and "getting smart" perceived as being a nerd. No longer was lateness tolerated. No longer could students wear their shirts outside of their pants and their pants down to their knees. They had to dress for success: shirts in, belts on, pants up! No longer was fighting a response to every altercation: "Thoughts determine actions!" Through this step-by-step process, students and staff acquired the skills necessary to have a high quality of life. "Smart is what you get if you work hard!" The words "Never Say Never" were instilled through the school song. The key to success came in the form of an educational rebirth. Staff and students were taught to believe and succeed.

Individual success was transferred to the entire staff and student body. Because of the change in the culture (now collaborating and learning) the staff believed that they could succeed. An environment that was once marred with graffiti was transformed. The students believed that they could succeed. The physical plant received a face-lift. Students and parent volunteers helped to repaint the school. We instituted performance-based instruction, coach classes, and a Saturday academy. At the end of the year, the 435 suspensions of the previous year were reduced to 43. Student attendance increased from 94% to 95%, and staff attendance increased from 94% to 96%. Test scores? A three-year decline ended. State test scores increased from 24% to 34% of the students scoring 70% or better. Parents cried at year-end closing exercises. Students crossed the stage determined to move forward. They overcame a stigma, a label of inferiority that’s placed on students early in life.

All of these changes only required confidence in the established mission vision, values, and goals of the school. Confidence in their capacity to believe that they had what it took to grow and develop. Teachers had confidence to believe that they had in their repertoire what it took to find the strategies for student success.

Deborah Wortham In over 35 years in the educational field, Dr. Deborah Wortham has gained a variety of experience, developing her excellent leadership and management skills. She is currently a superintendent, but she has served education in many capacities throughout her career, including as a teacher, program facilitator, assistant principal, and principal at the school level, as well as district-wide director of professional development and an area academic officer. During this time she has earned numerous awards and honors, including the Kathleen Cooper-Wright Dissertation of the Year, Teacher of the Year, and Outstanding Principal.

Alan M. Blankstein is Founder and President of the HOPE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose Honorary Chair is Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The HOPE Foundation is dedicated to supporting educational leaders over time in creating school cultures where failure is not an option for any student. HOPE has a decade-long track record of sustaining student success in districts throughout North America.