The Story of White Pine Middle School

White Pine Middle made the commitment to become a Professional Learning Community in the summer of 2006. After some difficult conversations about where the school was headed, WPMS dove into the process in earnest. The school saw rapid improvement as a result. Over the course of four years, WPMS helped more than 20% more students meet or exceed the standards on the state assessments.

Then 3 years ago, the school, along with many other local schools, experienced deep budget cuts and high rates of lay-offs and turnover. As a result programs were dismantled throughout the district and achievement began to plummet. WPMS recognized the need for change again. WPMS was able to come through this storm of events with the PLC model as the foundation that had been built, but had to adapt structures to meet the needs of incoming students who were now coming in very deficient.

This was the second time the school had to go through an intense overhaul but this time had the PLC foundation established to make the transition much more easily than the first. By learning through the research of Mattos, Buffum, Weber and trial and error, the school now has a robust system of interventions in place to meet the needs of each incoming child.

The Beginning of Transformation…

“Kids don’t listen.” “They don’t care.” “More kids have been suspended this year for fighting than any other year that I’ve been here.” “Kids aren’t happy.” “I am afraid to be in the halls during class change.” “I’m leaving at the end of this year.” “It’s us vs. them.” “Teachers backstab each other.” “I don’t care! I just do my thing and go home.” “The contract says that I don’t have to.” “Administration doesn’t listen to us.” “You better watch your back with that group of teachers.”

When a new principal was appointed to WPMS in the spring of 2006 he interviewed each staff member. He asked two basic questions based on Rebecca DuFour’s example in the book Whatever It Takes: “Tell me what is good about White Pine Middle School and tell me what needs to change.” Above are some statements that were said to him. However, not everything was bad. Many great things were taking place in WPMS, but they were generally taking place behind what Schmoker calls the “Buffer of Isolation”- by individuals. That said, the number one problem was clear. Student culture needed to change. It was also clear that to change student culture, staff needed to change their outlook and make some of their own changes.

Even though the staff had a mission statement hanging on their walls, it didn’t mean anything and they didn’t have a sense of an overall vision of what the school was really about. The adults in the building needed to be united in an overarching purpose. The staff needed to be able to communicate and trust one another and quite isolating.

The Discipline Committee was reformed and renamed the “Positive Behavior Team” or PBT, comprised of teachers, parents and administration. The team realized that changes needed to occur and they needed to occur quickly; our kids were suffering! The team also realized, through difficult conversations, and accepted that the adults in the school control the system. We accepted that if we did not take control of the variables within our control we would continue to be victims, reacting to a culture none of us liked. We accepted responsibility that students were just mirroring our beliefs and attitudes about them. The team decided that we needed to get everyone to see the vision that we had begun to see. We needed them to “buy-in”. More than that, we needed to heal!

It started with a retreat. “Let’s get them off of the campus where the problems exist.” The PBT (Positive Behavior Team) planned a voluntary retreat at the Boy Scout lodge in the mountains 30 miles from town and made personal invitations to all staff members. All but three came. A humming generator, new shirts, amazing food, bug spray, competitions, fun, and structured dialogue circles, led to a point where authentic conversations about purpose could be honestly held. Through structured conversation the staff came to consensus that “we control the system.” “We make the rules of the game, and we control enough of the variables to make a difference.” People were excited! Teachers were re-inspired. By leading teachers through activities and empowering them to solve some of the problems that had beaten them down, they were reconnecting to their idealistic goals that most teachers start teaching with. They were ready to change the world, or at least White Pine! A vision was formed and collective commitments were made. The school culture had begun to heal!

“We began our journey of creating a PLC culture by defining where we stood and by taking the first step. And since then, a new journey begins everyday - from where we currently stand and by taking the next step.”

The Current Culture of WPMS

We believe that students should feel safe, accepted, listened to and have a meaningful relationship with an adult. We believe that schools can’t be valueless anymore. We believe because of the diverse backgrounds that students come from that we must teach them the values that we expect them to abide by while at our school. We believe that if students’ social needs are not first met, we will not be able to adequately address their academic needs. Many of our students come to us with many different backgrounds and often many problems. Instead of reacting to things like, lack of basic manners or respect, bullying, irresponsibility, lack of motivation, the poverty cycle, and all of the other social challenges that schools now deal with, we have made the conscious choice of acting proactively and creating a culture where those obstacles don’t become the dominating factors for student success. We control the system! As a result of this choice WPMS has created a culture where students feel good about school, are safe, have a voice in the school and have a meaningful relationship with an adult. We use the PLC model as a vehicle to continue to improve learning, by assessing frequently, publishing results and using the data to drive our instruction and support provided to individuals. By stepping out of the traditional box, we have been able to create a way of doing business that is different than other schools. WPMS believes that we collectively control enough of the variables in students’ lives to make a difference.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

WPMS has adopted a standards based grading system, modeled after the work of Robert Marzano in Formative Assessment & Standards Based Grading. As part of the new practice, teachers are assessing much more frequently and more accurately reporting student learning versus student compliance. The school is in the process of helping parents understand the 4 point scales used. “Co-Teachers” keep a “data tracker”, which they use to track the learning of each of their students. Students also keep a “Student Data Tracker” where they record their formative scores. Students are able to track their progress in each essential standard to determine if they are on track to becoming proficient.

Grade level teams meet weekly for 45 minute “Data Meetings”. During the data meeting (separate from a planning meeting), the teams discuss learning, “by the student, by the standard”. Teachers use their data trackers prior to the meeting to prepare lists of students who after tier I intervention still need more support in a particular standard. Teachers then choose the most qualified adult to provide that intervention during time set aside in the regular day called “CAT Time” (Cougar Academic Time). The agenda for this meeting is always the same: “What needs to be learned? Who needs more help? What are we going to do to help them learn it? Who is responsible for providing the help?

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

WPMS used Adlai Stevenson’s Pyramid of Interventions as a model to create its own. Most recently that system has been expanded based on the work of Mattos, Buffum, and Weber. However, there are a few unique characteristics that have led to the successful intervention on behalf of so many kids at WPMS. Those unique approaches are explained below. That said, the key is that staff members have been trained extensively to ensure that they understand their roles in Tier I, Tier II and Tier III intervention.

Since WPMS is a true “standards based” system; students must become proficient in the essentials before they move to the next grade level. Because of this, there is a heightened sense of urgency on the part of staff, parents and students. It’s not enough to just do the work to get the points needed to pass. Students have to actually LEARN what is intended in order to pass the class!

Interventions Unique to WPMS:

1. The school has been restructured to provide additional adult support in 2/3 of the core classes. Students are scheduled so that those most at risk, receive the support of a “Co-Teacher”. Essentially the school is set up as a hybrid between a traditional secondary school, where students go from class to class, and an elementary school where one teacher follows the same group of students throughout their core classes. The Co-Teachers’ first responsibility is to get to know their students well. In addition, the Co-Teachers’ responsibilities include: providing literacy support, differentiating the lessons when needed, vocabulary acquisition support, being liaison to parents, providing in-class intervention, providing lunch and after school tutoring, implementing rewards systems and etc. The bottom line is that the job of a co-teacher is: “do what it takes to make sure your 30-35 students meet the standards!” While the Essential Standards for every student are the same, the level of support provided on daily basis varies widely depending on need.
2. CAT Time is time designated for students within the school day to provide Tier II intervention. Tier II is defined as the collaborative response of the grade level team after Tier I intervention has been applied. These are fluid groups that change based on need each week.
3. Math and Reading “Intervention” classes are less fluid remediation classes students are assigned to in addition to students’ regular Math or Language Arts classes. Intervention classes are designed to remediate basic skills that students should have learned before entering middle school. Answering question #1 in the PLC process, teachers have developed a checklist of skills that students need to master in order to be successful in a regular middle school class, starting with things like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This tier III intense intervention focuses not only building basic skills, but helping students develop a growth mindset through short term goal setting, and lots of celebration. These classes provide many students with hope, when they have long since given up on themselves ever becoming a successful learner.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Data Meetings, held on Tuesdays, are described above in the “progress monitoring” section. Essentially grade level teams meet and determine which students need more support in learning particular standards. Strict norms have been set and agendas are published each week to ensure the productive use of time. Team leaders have been selected that have the capacity to lead these teams and ensure that the team stays focused on the right work. Because Co-Teachers are embedded in regular classes and rotate through the core classes, they are able to share particularly effective strategies that they experience in one classroom with the rest of the teachers in the grade level.

Wednesday’s meeting is used for common planning time. Teachers use the data and decisions made on Tuesday to commonly plan the upcoming week. They adjust their pacing guides and lessons according to the needs of the students based on what they have learned through the common assessments and data shared during the data meeting. .

The structures of Co-Teaching and CAT time require teachers to work together toward the common goal of proficiency for the students in their grade level. The culture has been established so that it is a non-negotiable expectation that teachers work as teams. However, there is a great deal of autonomy within teams to do whatever it takes to get students proficient, including rearranging bell schedules, intervention schedules, interventions used, assessment design, lesson design, resources used, and etc. The expectation is that students become proficient. How teams collectively decide to do that is up to them. Because of the structures and culture that have been established at WPMS, it just isn’t possible for a teacher to work in isolation.

The school has also arranged its schedule in cooperation with our local Association of Classroom Teachers to have a common preparation outside of student contact time. This allows teachers to have an additional hour of common prep each day, which they often use to commonly plan or strategize.

Additional Achievement Data

Because the state assessment cut scores and the assessments themselves have changed in recent years, the best way to see student learning gains at WPMS is by looking at cohorts of students over time, as compared to their peers across the state.

The same students over time; current 9th graders.	ELA		Math		Science
	WPMS	Nevada	Difference	WPMS	Nevada	Difference	WPMS	Nevada	Diff
2008-09 (5th grade, composite of feeder schools prior to WPMS)	32%	52%	-20%	46%	62%	-16%	52%	66%	-14%
2009-10 (6th grade)WPMS	63%	65%	-2%	66%	64%	+2%	No test	No test	NA
2010-11 (7th grade)WPMS	53%	56%	-3%	71%	72%	-1%	No test	No test	NA
2011-12 (8th grade)WPMS	59%	49%	+10%	71%	62%	+9%	65%	50%	+15%
Gains in “percent proficient” compared to “percent proficient” across the state.		+30%		+25%			+29%

The same students over time; current 8th graders.	ELA		Math
	WPMS	Nevada	Difference	WPMS	Nevada	Difference
2009-10 (5th grade, composite of feeder schools prior to WPMS)	44%	54%	-10%	39%	67%	-28%
2010-11 (6th grade)WPMS	57%	59%	-2%	69%	75%	-6%
2011-12 (7th grade)WPMS	54%	57%	-3	71%	73%	-2
Gains in “percent proficient” compared to “percent proficient” across the state.		+7%		+26%

The same students over time; current 7th graders.	ELA		Math
	WPMS	Nevada	Difference	WPMS	Nevada	Difference
2010-11 (5th grade, composite of feeder schools prior to WPMS)	47%	63%	-16%	40%	69%	-19%
2011-12 (6th grade)WPMS	57%	60%	-3%	68%	75%	-7%
Gains in “percent proficient” compared to “percent proficient” across the state.		+13%		+12%

As shown in the cohort charts above, incoming students are significantly below their peers when entering WPMS. Because of massive budget cuts, layoffs and turnover, WPMS’s feeder schools have struggled in the past 3 years. One of its feeder schools is a “focus school”, performing within the lowest 5% within the state. The other feeder school has also struggled to maintain previous achievement levels. WPMS staff have not placed blame, but recognized the challenge and developed a system of interventions and remediation, closing the significant gap between our incoming students and their peers across the state. WPMS 8th graders last year not only caught up to the state average but surpass it, and current students are on track to do the same! WPMS is a powerful example of the systemic approach to ensuring learning described in the PLC model.

School Year Comparisons (Current and “Prior to Implementation”)

Suspensions
2005-06	161 Suspensions
2011-12	41 Suspensions
Number of Failed Classes
2005-06	313
2011-12	15
Average Daily Attendance
2005-06	86.5%
2011-12	93%

White Pine County Juvenile Police Contact/Referrals Outside of School (Middle School Age Group)

2004 120
2005 109
2006 80
2007 81
2008 56
2009 58
2010 55
2011 65
2012 48

Local juvenile probation officials attribute this change in the community to the school teaching the Cougar Traits, our school values. (We are most proud of this stat. It shows us that what we are teaching students in school is helping students make better choices out of school. We are truly making a difference in our students’ lives!)

• Featured in a BBC documentary highlighting the cultural changes at WPMS, including Anti-bullying initiatives. (2013)
• Chosen in 2009 as “The Mid-level National Distinguished School” by the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE). (Only middle school in the nation to receive the award.)
• Selected in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 as a National Model School and asked to present at the Annual Model Schools conference (ICLE).
• Featured in Ray McNulty’s (Former Fellow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Current Chief Academic Officer of Penn Foster) book called “It’s Not Us Against. Them”. (2009)
• Invited to present National Staff Development Council Conference among a number of other national conferences.
• Featured on ABC World News with Charles Gibson, Fox, CNN, American Morning, NBC Evening News, CNN radio, Associated Press and many newspapers throughout the West for its innovative approach to bullying and changing school culture. (2009-11)
  • http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MindMoodNews/story?id=7088059&page=1
• Lincy Foundation grant winner. (2009)
• Chosen as a Nevada Title I Distinguished School in 2010.
• In 2008 and 2010, 2012 WPM was chosen as a Nevada Model School to present at the state’s annual Nevada Mega Conference.
• Designated in 2008 High Achieving School in Nevada because of rapid improvement.
• In 2008 WPM was chosen as one of Nevada’s Empowerment Schools.
• Most importantly… Our kids are happy and learning!!!