AdvancED School Executive Summary
Karns Middle School Knox County Schools
Ms. Cynthia R White, Principal 2925 Gray Hendrix Road Knoxville, TN 37931
Karns Middle School
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1
AdvancED School Executive Summary
2
Section 1: Introduction
2
Section 2: Student Performance
4
Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities
6
Section 4: Conclusion
7
Karns Middle School
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning.
The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis.
The Executive Summary contains four sections with prompts to guide the school to write its unique story; these are suggested prompts and all do not need responses. It might be helpful to write first the narrative offline before entering the ES into the web-enabled system.
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Karns Middle School
AdvancED School Executive Summary Section 1: Introduction
Provide the school's mission statement. What process was used to create the mission statement? Describe how the school engaged its stakeholders to parents and community members in the development and fulfillment of the mission statement. Describe the community in which your school is located. What are the unique features and special challenges of your school community? Briefly provide demographic information with regards to both students and staff and the community at large.
Karns Middle is committed to our vision, "Excellence for All...Every Student...Every Day." We strive to ensure that every student meets rigorous performance standards through instructional programs ranging from CDC-A to high school math and science courses. In order to achieve our vision, we provide a collaborative learning environment that promotes academic excellence for all students and empowers them to be self-directed, critical thinkers and responsible citizens.
As a result of a change in administration three years ago, the Leadership Team met during the summer to begin the process of developing and refining a shared vision and purpose for our school. Each year the team continues to revisit and update our vision seeking input from all stakeholders. As we reflected as a school, we defined our core beliefs which are as follows:
Student learning is the primary focus of Karns Middle School. Excellence is achieved by meeting the needs of all students. Teachers, administrators, parents, students, and the community share the responsibility for promoting positive student learning outcomes. Challenging expectations provide each student the opportunity to achieve academic excellence. Data is used by all stakeholders to drive informed decisions concerning student achievement. A student's self-esteem and character are enhanced by positive relationships and mutual respect among all stakeholders in a supportive and safe environment. Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process. A rigorous curriculum is used to maximize the academic potential of all students. Students will become confident, self-directed, and responsible citizens in a global society.
Karns Middle School has the largest student population of the fourteen middle schools in Knox County. We have a student body of 1318 students with 449 sixth graders, 437 seventh graders, and 432 eighth graders. The Karns community has continued to grow, changing from a mostly rural setting into a very diverse suburban environment. Our school population includes students from subsidized housing to affluent neighborhoods in the area. Students receiving free and reduced lunch have continued to increase and are currently at 35% of our population. Our special education population of 164 students consisting of CDC-A, CDC, Satellite, and resource classes is the largest of all Knox County middle schools . Through the No Child Left Behind Act, we received forty-two transfer students this school year. The growth of our student population this year necessitated the addition of five new staff members after the school year began. Our staff presently includes seventy-eight teachers, one librarian, two school counselors, three administrators, twelve teaching assistants, four secretaries, one bookkeeper, one school resource officer, four support personnel, five custodians, and ten cafeteria workers.
As our population has grown, there has been a change in the ethnic composition of our student body. The following shows a breakdown of our ethnic make-up:
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Karns Middle School
1159
87.87%
White
79
5.99%
Black
46
3.49%
Hispanic
14
1.06%
Asian
4
0.30%
American Indian
16
1.21%
Multiracial
1
0.076%
1319
© 2012 AdvancED
Pacific Islander
Total Students
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Karns Middle School
Section 2: Student Performance
Give a brief description of your school's vision about students and their performance. Provide a brief summary of student performance in your school. What are your goals and how will you know you have achieved them? Describe the variety of your school's student performance assessments. How does your staff engage in meaningful analysis of student work in order to modify instruction? Describe the school's student support programs and services. In what ways does your school ensure community/parent involvement in the life of the school?
At Karns Middle School, we are committed to our vision of academic excellence for all students. We provide a rigorous and challenging academic program while also offering enrichment opportunities for all students. Interventions are embedded into our academic program in order to provide support and meet the varied needs of our students.
Data drives the instructional focus of our school. Placement decisions and interventions are determined by our school data. On our last Tennessee School Report Card, we received all A's in academic achievement for every subject area. We demonstrated gains in our value added scores in mathematics, improving from a D to a C. We met AYP goals in reading/language arts both outright and in every subgroup. Although in mathematics we achieved our goals outright, we fell short of meeting those AYP goals with the following subgroups: blacks, economically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities. While we have made significant progress in both reading and mathematics, keeping our vision in mind, we continue to strive for improvement. Our goal is to increase our percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in both reading/language arts and mathematics with an intensive focus on seventh grade mathematics and the aforementioned subgroups.
Several performance assessments are used not only for placement decisions but also to monitor progress as we move to achieve our academic goals. Performance assessments include the following:
TCAP Achievement Test TCAP Writing Assessment Eighth grade EXPLORE Test Discovery Ed Think Link Assessments Sixth grade Gates-MacGinitie Knox County Social Studies Benchmark Assessment Knox County Mathematics Unit Test EOC Algebra I and Physical Science Exams Building Level Standards-Based common assessment
The results of these assessments are the catalysts for ongoing discussions that drive teacher instruction, resulting in positive student achievement. Opportunities for data-focused collaboration include grade level meetings, Leadership/Data Team meetings, monthly vertical planning, grade level department meetings, and staff meetings. In addition, our staff relies on professional development opportunities to assist in improving teaching and learning within the building. These opportunities are provided by staff within the building, instructional coaches, system-wide instructors, and professional organizations such as TAMS, NASSP, and the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). Our new state evaluation model, Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM), is an avenue for self-reflection and ongoing, job-embedded professional growth. The instructional rubric for this model focuses on research-based best practices.
Karns Middle School has the following comprehensive support programs and personnel in place to help address the needs of our Page 4 © 2012 AdvancED www.advanc-ed.org
Karns Middle School students:
Two full-time school counselors Part-time social worker/attendance officer Part-time school psychologist Part-time nurse Part-time speech/language specialist School resource officer Literacy and math instructional coaches Part-time occupational and physical therapists for CDC-A students Behavioral liaison as needed County-wide supervisors Professional Intervention Team (PIT) S-Team REACH Tuesday Remediation/Enrichment program Before/After school tutoring Full year math intervention Math lab Language! reading intervention Read 180 reading intervention AMP reading program Inclusion/Co-taught classes
In order to enhance each student's educational experiences, Karns Middle School encourages parental involvement at all levels. We have a very active and supportive PTSA and parent volunteer program. The goals of the Family Engagement Committee are to identify more effective ways to communicate and involve all stakeholders in Karns Middle School. Parents are encouraged to communicate with teachers through email, parent conferences, Open House, report card nights, concerts, athletic events, book fair, EXPLORE parent nights, and orientations. Parents are welcome to volunteer in classrooms and chaperone on field trips. All information about the school can be viewed on the KMS website. School Messenger and School Fusion allow us to communicate by phone, email, and text. All visitors to the school have access to the scrolling announcements through the televisions in the lobby. Communication is vital so that all stakeholders can keep abreast of events and information concerning Karns Middle School.
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Section 3: Challenges and Opportunities
What are the major challenges your school has faced in the last 3 years and how have you addressed those challenges?
Challenges are a necessary part of growth, and Karns Middle School has seen its share in the last three years. There is continued growth, both from a growing community and No Child Left Behind transfer students. This growth has created numerous obstacles with regards to space, staffing, student/teacher ratios, and scheduling. After the beginning of this school year, we received five additional staff members, and we are currently utilizing every available amount of space in the building. We have an increasing population of students with disabilities. Our challenge is to provide the interventions to meet the individual needs of these students as well as students in other subgroups so as to meet the Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) and close achievement gaps. Because of these challenges, every staff member provides remediation or enrichment on REACH Tuesday. We are all committed to ensuring excellence for all.
An additional challenge is adequate funding for technology. Not only are we in need of technology to support student learning but also technology that enhances quality classroom instruction. We are aggressively meeting this challenge through PTSA support, coupon book sales, donations, grants, and other fundraising activities. By the end of this year, we will have an interactive whiteboard in every core academic class and a calculator for every student in the building.
Karns Middle School is a high achieving school, but we must focus on growing our highest achieving students as well as our at-risk students in order to show value-added growth. Although we are making progress, seventh grade mathematics achievement and valueadded growth continue to be a challenge. We will use our data to target students needing additional support and providing that support through REACH Tuesday remediation/enrichment, yearlong math intervention, math lab, Read 180, Language!, and tutoring opportunities. We will continue to focus on quality instruction through the TEAM Evaluation Model and to offer honors and high-school courses for students needing the additional challenge.
As always, Karns Middle School remains dedicated to making students our first priority and working together as a team to ensure excellence for all.
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Section 4: Conclusion
What is your school most proud of and why? Is there any other information you would like to share with the public and the school community?
Karns Middle School is most proud of the individuals who partner together in order to provide a safe and nurturing school community where each student can achieve excellence. We are very proud of our highly skilled, devoted, and hard-working staff for their commitment to a shared vision of "Excellence for All." We are dedicated to the belief that we will do whatever it takes in order to help all students reach their full individual potential. Our students are multi-talented, and we are proud of their academic achievement as well as their accomplishments in athletics, art, music, orchestra, band, technology, and extracurricular activities. We are also grateful to our parents and community for their involvement and continued support of our programs, goals, and vision. We believe that our success, as a school, can be attributed to the following: a dedicated staff who holds high expectations for all students, students who are engaged in learning, and parents and community who value and support education.
Karns Middle School has a long tradition of academic success with regards to test scores; however, we are continually looking for ways to improve upon student learning. We received all A's in achievement and an A in writing for the 2010 - 2011 Tennessee State Report Card. On this same report card, we improved from a D to a C in value-added growth in mathematics. In every subject, we improved in percent proficient or advanced for the school year 2010 - 2011. We showed significant progress in achievement in both eighth grade reading/language arts and mathematics. In addition, we demonstrated positive growth in all subject areas for this school year. For the current school year 2011 - 2012, 49.5% of our eighth graders scored seventeen or above on the EXPLORE test. This is above both the district average of 41.4% and the district strategic target of 47%. We are also very proud of the fact that when ranked among 475 middle schools in Tennessee with regards to growth, Karns Middle School ranks eighth in the state in science and third in the state in social studies.
In conclusion, Karns Middle School strongly believes that our strength lies in the commitment of the people within our building and community who share a common goal of high expectations and excellence for all students. We believe that it takes a collaborative partnership among all stakeholders to foster a culture centered on student learning.
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