MS Reform → Project Teams → Tasks

Project Teams - Tasks

Leadership/Professional Development Team

  • Research and recommend middle school leadership models (including teachers, administrators, and supporting services staff)
  • Recommend roles and responsibilities of middle school leaders
  • Make recommendations to promote and retain effective middle school leaders
  • Develop a plan for professional development for all staff in effective middle school instruction (i.e., content, curriculum, and pedagogy)
  • Identify best practices for the delivery of professional development in the middle school context

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Team

  • Review alignment of K–12 curriculum and assessments in reading, English, mathematics, and science, and make recommendations
  • Examine the reading, English, mathematics, and science curriculum sequence, pacing, assessments, and alignment with state proficiency standards
  • Define processes to ensure fidelity of curriculum implementation (e.g., program reviews, analyzing assessment data, supervisory school visits, walkthroughs)
  • Identify and analyze core and elective offerings
  • Establish criteria for course placement
  • Provide recommendations to increase rigor and expand opportunities for all students including special education and ESOL
  • Investigate opportunities for students to earn credit in high school courses
  • Analyze formative and summative assessment data in reading and mathematics to determine trends and patterns in student performance across schools
  • Identify assessments to measure reading proficiency
  • Recommend development of benchmarks and targets for reading and mathematics curriculum
  • Make recommendations to align resources that improve teaching and learning based on student performance data
  • Review research on diagnostic mathematics assessments and make recommendations

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Team

  • Identify all current extended-day and extended-year offerings and determine which programs have been effective
  • Review extended-year program evaluation
  • Develop a process to monitor extended-day and extended-year programs that includes parent notification/outreach, student selection, teacher selection, attendance, instruction, assessment, and resources, and make recommendations for improvement in each of these areas
  • Review the roles and responsibilities for monitoring programs, and make recommendations
  • Develop a plan to increase enrollment of targeted students in ELO programs
  • Identify existing mathematics and reading intervention programs in MCPS middle schools
  • Review the effectiveness of ELO intervention programs for all groups of students and make recommendations
  • Research additional ELO intervention programs
  • Research other specific middle school options for extending time and support for student learning
  • Identify and examine existing extracurricular activity offerings and collect/analyze data on student access to and participation in those offerings
  • Develop recommendations for ELO that maximize student learning

Technology Team

  • Identify ways technology can be used to support and improve instruction for all students, especially for all underperforming NCLB subgroups
  • Identify ways technology can be used for intervention, extended day, extended year, and acceleration for all students, especially English language learners and students with special needs
  • Identify ways to improve access to technology for all students and staff
  • Identify and implement strategies and programs to build or strengthen female students’ interest and preparation in advanced-level mathematics, science, and technology in order to increase opportunities available to them in related fields of study and careers
  • Make recommendations for the types of reports available through Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS) to make instructional decisions
  • Identify ways that technology aligns with the delivery of MCPS curriculums, especially reading language arts, mathematics, and science
  • Determine expectations for middle school student use of technology as outlined in Maryland’s technology standards
  • Make recommendations based on IQMS usage data
  • Review and provide input for the plan to communicate student progress with parents (e.g., interim reports, report cards, assessments)
  • Review and report on the assigned roles and responsibilities of instructional data assistants

Organizational Structure Team

  • Recommend appropriate practices for scheduling and grouping that improve student academic achievement
  • Recommend structures that improve grade-level and school wide instructional planning and vertical articulation with elementary and high schools
  • Recommend appropriate school structures that support professional development
  • Recommend appropriate staffing models for classroom instruction and student services
  • Recommend structures for improving the delivery of special education, ESOL, and guidance services
  • Review the middle school magnet consortium for other potential organizational structure recommendations

Human Resources Team

  • Examine current Maryland State Department of Education certification requirements for middle school teachers and principals and determine the adequacy of current requirements
  • Review the audit of current certification/highly-qualified status of middle school staff and make recommendations to address identified issues
  • Define the knowledge, skills, and content expertise of middle school teachers required to meet the unique needs of middle school students
  • Review job descriptions for middle school teachers and instructional support staff, and make recommendations which define the roles and responsibilities, beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that align with middle school reform
  • Examine and report ways to recruit and attract highly-qualified teachers specifically to middle schools (with priority given to targeted middle schools, high poverty/Free and Reduced-priced Meals Systems, Limited English Proficiency, special education, etc.)
  • Review the pathway to the middle school principalship and make recommendations for improvement as needed

Parent & Community Engagement/Communication Team

  • Review internal and external models for effectively engaging parents of pre-middle school and middle school students in the education of their children, including the stakeholder component of Baldrige
  • Review existing community partnerships and their relationship to improving student achievement
  • Review strategies to engage in two-way communication with parents (including those with limited English proficiency) about curriculum expectations, course sequences and pathways, and opportunities to succeed in advanced-level courses and programs
  • Review existing barriers to effective parent and community engagement

Updated February 27, 2006 | Maintained by Webmaster