Second Place, East Division, Middle Schools
Dr. Deborah DeFrieze, Director
PO Box 70632
Johnson City, TN 37614
Washington County Schools
Recipe For Success:
Our school improvement initiatives for the years 2004-2009 were conceived by two of the many fine faculty members at University School. Our school faculty decided during the 2004-5 school year to focus on the standards of the curriculum area to be adopted each year. We would address the areas that needed to improve in each curriculum area as well as use the standards to help us determine which text book would best meet our needs at University School and address the standards. By studying the standardized tests given in all grade levels K-12 we were able to identify those areas we for which we needed to create interventions to target. Through release time four times per year we were able to provide grade level and content area collaboration to determine our progress and possible revisions throughout the year. We developed a graphic representation of the test scores to track progress during the 5 years. Each year we shared our success with parents and teachers. The leadership of the school improvement team enabled our school to develop a K-12 initiative which ensured academic success for all students.