Academic Excellence

• Teachers assess ongoing data to progress monitor and utilize the tools from NWEA MAP testing to differentiate the instruction in order to create personal learning goals for all.

• School wide processes, including daily advisory, attendance/discipline, pod team meetings, and content PLC meetings, continuously identify students who are struggling academically and provide support structures for RTI A and B interventions.

• To enrich students’ academic excellence and meet the diverse needs of our learners, McNair Middle School is focused on creating quality formative assessments. • Each student conferences one-to-one with their advisory teacher to create SMART goals that address areas of focus within the Reading, Language, and Math learning strands from MAP testing. From these conversations, students share their academic goals with their families creating a culture of community focused on academics between home and school.

• McNair is implementing a more blended approach to learning as teachers integrate Google Classroom, one-to-one technology, and other technology tools and applications.

• McNair has continued supporting the differentiation of learning and closing the achievement gaps by giving access to research-based interventions that support the data such as Empowering Writers, Barton, Alphabetic Phonics, ELD and Corrective Reading.

• To help all our students reach their full academic potential, McNair continues to focus on implementing rigorous lesson planning, relevant research-based, data-driven instruction, and building relationships with each of our Mustangs.

• Teachers continue to utilize data in their instruction to focus on specific learning targets/goals for each student.

Developmental Responsiveness

• Advisory is a dedicated class period that focuses on academic planning, team building, service learning, and character education. Advisory continues to assist students with goal-setting and smaller learning communities in order to support the whole child.

• McNair implements an Impact Team, which is a systematic approach to support a student who may not receive support outside of the school. The Impact Team pairs teachers and staff with students. The goal of the Impact Team relationship is to ensure every student’s academic and personal development is guided by an adult advocate. The Impact Team may eat lunch together, check grades, recognize their hobbies, or introduce new goals.

• Teachers and staff are continuing to explore current research in order to understand early adolescence. McNair provides targeted professional development to teachers each year on the specific academic, social, emotional, and developmental needs of early adolescents.

• Students are given an opportunity to have ownership and choice in their learning. Students feel respected when topics, and how to approach the learning of that topic, can be explored in many different ways.

• Core and encore classes allow students the opportunity to showcase their learning in a variety of learning modes and find ways to collaborate with their peers in order to better understand the given topic. Teachers are comfortable being the facilitator while letting students lead the discussion.

• McNair implemented student-involved conferences that provide a hybrid approach to parentteacher conferences. Students and families meet with the teacher to discuss academic and social progress. Then the student and family meet together to review his/her Google Sites student portfolio. Using Google Sites as our mode for student portfolios creates a realistic and relevant method of communication and branding. Student portfolios currently consist of a personal mission statement, grades and attendance, a personal learning plan (data sheet and goal setting), and artifacts from each content area. Together as a family they answer reflection questions of celebrations and growth areas.

• Flexible Seating is utilized throughout the building to meet students’ developmental needs.

• Students have opportunity to explore a variety of personal interests such as Fly Fishing, Archery, Odyssey of the Mind, Theatre, and many more. This gives students a sense of belonging while building relationships with teachers outside of the classroom.

• Creating lifelong leaders along with lifelong learners is a high priority at McNair. We create a variety of leadership roles. These leadership roles consist of Ambassadors, Principal’s Cabinet, Fire Marshals, Student Council, Pod Council and Students of the Week who lead pod meetings. To maximize our student leadership, we ensure that there is no overlap of students for each leadership role.

• Through our relationship with community partners, students participate in a variety of studentlearning project through advisory, leadership roles, and after-school clubs. Service Learning is a designated time when students can focus on their passion and develop soft skills while enhancing and enriching the lives of others Community connections may include guest speakers, informing students of methods to get involved in the community, and/or partnering with a community group.

Social Equity

• Families are provided access to comprehensive services to meet their physical, social, and emotional needs.

• McNair has established a PBIS/RTI Committee of teacher leaders. The PBIS/RTI meets once a month to discuss building-wide initiatives and academic/learning progressions. The PBIS/RTI committee then meets with their respective team members and leads the monthly team RTI and Praise and Polish meetings.

• Our staff maximizes the master schedule by having ongoing interventionist available throughout the day in order to help support the child’s academics and behavior needs.

• With the addition of MAP data, teachers are now able to progress monitor and create specific learning goals.

• Our Structured Learning Classroom (SLC) is mainstreamed for encores, advisory, and runs our Green Team.

• Families are supported with ongoing community resources providing access to school functions, transportation, and meals. When families attend McNair, they feel the connection of community within the school.

Organizational Support

• McNair advisory is built on the foundation of four pillars: team building, character education, academic planning, and service learning.

• Our R.U.N. motto has been ingrained into our culture at McNair. ‘R’ stands for Respect, ‘U’ stands for Understand We Own Our Behavior, and ‘N’ stands for Never Quit.

• Our PBIS Behavior Matrix system establishes student behavior expectations. By using researchbased strategies, the PBIS increases positive interactions. The PBIS leadership team meets monthly in order to answer building questions and review on a regular basis about the student success.

• McNair has a school-wide instructional leadership teams focusing on promoting the middle school philosophy, effective instructional practices, and educational initiatives. The purpose of the ILT team is to work collaboratively to develop and implement school wide improvement goals in order achieve the vision and mission of McNair Middle School.

• A multi-tiered RTI program is in place to support all students in academics and behavior.

• Professional Learning Communities are established by grade-level content teams.

• McNair has implemented one-to-one technology. Teachers have collaborated and researched best practices to ensure effective technology implementation and integration into their lesson plans.

• McNair has started MakerSpaces in the library. MakerSpace allows students to become creators of information (not just consumers), build critical thinking and problem solving skills, participate in selfdirected learning, foster a culture of creativity and collaboration, and allow for inquiry and exploration.