HEWITT, Texas — Midway Middle School has been named a Texas School to Watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform and the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals. It is one of only 30 middle schools in Texas to receive the honor.
Channel 6 visited the school Monday to find out what they are doing differently to deserve the attention.
"We are very excited," Principal Herb Cox said. "This is one of the best things that has ever come our way."
In early January, three principles came to Midway Middle School to judge it as a contender for the honor. They visited classrooms, talked to students and even talked to parents.
What they found was a school district that supports its teachers in and out of the classroom.
Midway Middle School has implemented something called professional learning communities. It's essentially a daily group meeting for teachers of the same subject to talk about student needs and lesson plans.
The meetings support teachers by helping them collaborate on what works best in the classroom, but it also keeps teachers on the same page about students who are falling behind and need help.
"It kind of helps prevent kids from falling though the cracks when we can talk about this multiple times a week instead of once in a while," Eighth grade science teacher Whitney Taylor said. "This has been a really great thing for us to have."
Taylor said the teachers get much more accomplished by working in a group and gives them an advantage since it helps them get to know their kids better through sharing experiences.
However, sometimes teachers need more direct help in the classroom and there is a program for that as well.
Midway Middle School is part of a professional development program with the College of Education at Baylor University. Cox said around 28 students work on the campus as teaching assistants or full time interns. The teaching assistants can deliver the main lesson in a class, while the school's teacher works with students that are falling behind or trying to get ahead.
Cox told Channel 6 the school will also bring in assistant principals and instructional specialists to support students that need extra help during a certain class period.
"Sometimes there is maybe four people in the room, and if that particular teacher has a Baylor intern, there is another set of eyes and ears and hands that are in there serving side by side with that teacher in order to meet those kids' needs," Cox said.
Yet another benefit to students and teachers is called the "panther prime time."
Students will fit into one of two thirty minute lunch periods, and then will get to attend a club for the other thirty minute portion. Some clubs are more extracurricular activities like yoga or chess, but kids that need help can also get tutoring for a course they are struggling in.
Teachers can also require kids to go and get the extra help in certain cases.
"If they are failing the class," Cox said. "They don't get to chose. They have to go to that tutorial after their lunch."
Midway Middle School's School to Watch designation will last for three years. The school will be recognized in Austin at an event hosted by the TASSP in early March, and will be recognized nationally at the National Schools to Watch Conference in Washington D.C. in late June.
In both cases, the school will have to give a presentation talking about their programs at both events.
While Cox said the school is excited to share what they have learned so far, he also said the school cannot stop looking for new ways to improve the experience of their students.
"It's that positive discontent that we have in our mindset," Cox said. "We all love being here, but we are never really satisfied. What can we tweak? What can we do to push our kids farther than before?"