The Batchelor Middle School faculty convened work on a five year North Central report in the fall of 1999. The faculty, along with students and parents, were assigned to various committees. Each committee submitted a report to the entire staff for approval. From those reports, an Action Plan was prepared by faculty members and presented to the faculty in the spring of 2000. The following year was spent implementing that plan.

After the passage of Public Law 221 in 2001, the school improvement committee reconvened with new members and began to adapt the original plan to satisfy the requirements of Indiana's new accountability law.

The profile committee spent several months collecting, analyzing, and preparing data for presentation. A high concentration of common metric measures, in addition to context-bound measures, was used to make decisions. The data was considered to be the primary guide in making decisions.

The committee believes that it has examined the school in terms of what is currently taking place in teaching and learning; and, in the process of profiling, has learned the characteristics of the students to a much greater degree. The profiling process has helped to produce a document that will now be used as a guide for continuous school improvement.

The School Improvement Committee extends special thanks to all the staff who helped to develop this study.

School Improvement Committee

2003-2004

Susan Alspaugh

Tracy Beane

Janis Brand

Terry Daugherty

Sharon Finley

Eric Gilpin

Claire Schaffer

Dave Witcher

Kim Letner

Chris McAfee

Jill Bailey

Sarah Anderson

Marsha Bradford

Dr. John Coomer

Angela Parker

Sue Talbot

Dave Toumey

I. Introduction 2-8

II. Statement of Mission, Vision, and Beliefs 8-9

III. Summary of Data

A. School Profile 10-25

B. Target Goal #1 – Communication 26-34

C. Target Goal #2 – Problem Solving 35-43

D. Target Goal #3 – School Climate 44-50

IV. Conclusions 51-53

V. Achievement Objectives 53

VI. Specific Areas of Immediate Improvement 53

VII. Benchmarks for Progress 54

VIII. Proposed Interventions 54

IX. Annual Review 54

APPENDIX – Professional Development Program 55

1. Narrative Description of the Community, School and Educational Program

Batchelor Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC). The MCCSC main offices are located in Bloomington, Indiana, the county seat of Monroe County. The town has a population of 69,000 permanent residents, plus over 37,000 students attending Indiana University. Overall, there are approximately 120,000 residents in Monroe County.

Bloomington industry draws from a seven-county work force. Employees work in areas ranging from custodial and maintenance jobs to professors and clerical positions. The unemployment rate has been low in the area in recent years; however, the recent plant closings at Thomson and ABB, and major layoffs at General Electric are a concern within the community.

The presence of Indiana University, one of the nation's largest campuses, makes Bloomington a prime center of cultural, academic, and entertainment interests. The university, in conjunction with the rest of the Bloomington community, sponsors educational opportunities for students including libraries, museums, concerts, and plays. The Bloomington and Monroe County Parks and Recreation Departments, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc., and the recently opened Bloomington Sportsplex offer a wide range of recreational activities.

Batchelor Middle School, located in the southwest quadrant of Monroe County, once served a diverse population with a socioeconomic level of middle to affluent. With the opening of a new middle school in 1998, redistricting occurred. Once serving 950 students representing blue-collar and white-collar families and a balance among city, suburban and rural population, Batchelor became a school with a current enrollment of 523, primarily representing suburban and rural blue-collar families. This year, almost 35% of the students received textbook assistance and free/reduced lunches. As a result of this changing clientele, the staff is dedicated to finding new ways to serve the ever-increasing at-risk population.

In 1999-2000 school started at Batchelor after a major renovation. The fourth floor classrooms were redesigned to provide walls and doors to a formerly "open concept" classroom configuration. A new arrangement of the locker bays with new lockers and new carpet on most of the third floor entry area offered a like-new atmosphere in the school.

The Batchelor staff includes 26 full-time teachers, five part-time teachers, three administrators, one and a half counselors, one media specialist, one health aide, eight classroom aides, six custodians, and five cooks. Built in 1973 and situated on 46 acres, the school has four levels, housing 40 classrooms with computer access in every classroom, a library media center with 10,000 volumes, five computer labs, a gymnasium, an auditorium, and a swimming pool. All computers are networked to a Local Area Network offering a wide variety of software, and computers are connected to the MCCSC Wide Area Network offering Internet connectivity. Each teacher has email and voice mail in the classroom.

Batchelor students receive recognition for outstanding effort in several areas. For example, Batchelor students do well on national achievement and cognitive ability tests, with average scores in the upper one-third of the national norms. The Batchelor Science Olympiad team placed 1^st in the 2002 state competition and 13^th in the nation. Batchelor students have also won several writing contests, including Write Stuff short story, Good Citizen essay, and Mini-Playwriting Contest, sponsored by the Herald-Times newspaper. In the Write Stuff competition nine awards were given last year, and Batchelor students won five of those awards. The Batchelor Academic Super Bowl teams finished in the top 15 teams in the state while several Batchelor students received honors in band and choir contests. Students from the video productions class captured first place in the state and national media fair competition, as well as garnering the Philip T. Farnsworth Television Station Award. Batchelor students are also recognized each grading period for academic achievement and good attendance. Hats, shirts, sweatshirts, food coupons, and pencils were given to over 300 students last year. Finally, at an end-of-the-year awards night, school personnel honor students who have demonstrated achievement and artistic aptitude and those who have made special contributions to the school during the school year. These efforts and their subsequent recognition help to promote a positive school climate.

B. Curriculum – Description and Location

The Batchelor Middle School curriculum is aligned with the standards adopted by the Indiana State Board of Education. Teachers at Batchelor, under the direction of the building principal, provide enrichment of the curriculum with the assistance of district wide personnel.

The academic programs at Batchelor Middle School offer a full course of study designed to meet the needs of all students. The curriculum provides hands-on experiences that enhance and extend students’ skills. It is designed to enable students to explore their interests and discover new areas of individual development. All 7^th grade students participate in a block program, a program that allows students to work with teams of content specialist teachers who integrate their content areas. Programs are available for students with learning disabilities and for students who are mentally or emotionally challenged. An Accelerated Learning Program (ALPS) provides courses in humanities, algebra, English, science, and foreign language, in addition to enrichment in the arts and music. Course offerings for 7^th and 8^th graders in industrial technology, family and consumer science, physical education and health, writing skills, careers, and video production are available for all students, in addition to core curricula subjects. Also, Batchelor has provisions to offer courses that allow all students to become eligible to earn the academic honors diploma. Skill building classes offer language arts and math remediation for those students who scored below the state standard on the ISTEP tests. A reading course is also offered. Curriculum guides for all disciplines may be found in the principal’s office as well as the teachers’ preparation area off the media center. No Indiana statutes or rules are presently waived, nor will a request be made to do so.

In addition to various extra-curricular activities such as National Junior Honor Society, Student Council, sports and drama club, Batchelor also offers opportunities for students to participate in youth outreach programs, many in partnership with local education and community service institutions. All are designed to offer extra support so that students can be successful and eventually earn a high school diploma. They are:

Boy Scouts – This group sponsors an annual Career Day for students so that speakers from the community can share their work experiences.

Boys and Girls Club – Using volunteers from the Indiana Reading and Math Team, this agency provides after school tutoring in the school’s media center four days each week.

Chamber of Commerce/Franklin Initiative – Students participate in the Reality Store to see the connections between specific careers and the lifestyles those careers will support.

In-school Detention and Saturday School – These programs are designed to provide alternatives to out of school suspension.

IU Center for Human Growth – Free individual, small group, and family counseling is offered to students on a regular basis and is designed to assist middle school students and their families in developing the skills to succeed in school and in life.

IU Dept. of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design – IU students are working with a group of Batchelor students to design a plan to improve the physical climate of the building.

Leadership Bloomington – This program provides an opportunity for local business and community leaders to learn more about Bloomington and Monroe County. A team from this group works annually with a group of Batchelor students on a school improvement project.

Monroe County Juvenile Probation – The probation department offers a partnership whereby one officer is assigned to Batchelor to follow up with those students who are on probation or who are referred by the principal as being at risk of being on probation in the future.

Partners in Education – Mentors from I.U. meet with a group of students on a regular basis. The program’s goal is to foster relationships between students and mentors from the University and to offer students opportunities they would not otherwise have in an attempt to increase the likelihood of these students pursuing higher education. Once every month, this group takes a trip to Indiana University to tour various facilities.

Project Peace – This peer mediation program sponsored by the Indiana Bar Association provides students with the necessary information and skills to solve his/her own conflicts peacefully and to help peers solve conflicts peacefully.

Student Coalition – Funded by a grant from Monroe County, this group of students works with the Monroe County’s Youth Network to provide an opportunity for at-risk children to assume leadership roles in an effort to eliminate drug and alcohol abuse. One of the goals is to ease the transition from 6^th to 7^th grade so that students are prepared to resist peer pressure.

Sunrise Rotary Club – Members work all athletic events so that teachers can have more time to work on classroom preparation.

Teen Options – A 10-week pregnancy and disease prevention program sponsored by Indiana University and Bloomington Hospital, this program is designed to help students think about important decisions regarding responsible sexual behavior.

Youth Outreach – Batchelor piloted this successful program for expelled middle school students. The goal is to help students successfully return to the regular school environment.

Batchelor is using the Northwest Evaluation Assessment, which is a computerized test that correlates with the ISTEP in language, reading and math. Students are tested in the fall and spring. The immediate feedback allows teachers to evaluate individual student growth, groups of students, curriculum and instruction. Teacher made tests, observation and a school wide writing evaluated with the rubric used on the ISTEP test complete the assessment program.

2. Statement of Mission, Vision and Beliefs

1. Mission Statement of Batchelor Middle School

We dedicate ourselves to enhancing the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development of all students by seeking out and implementing appropriate innovations in organizational strategies, curricula, and instructional methods in order to develop well-rounded, active learners capable of meeting the challenges of an increasingly global society.

2. Belief Statements of Batchelor Middle School

• Young adolescents have a strong need for personal identity, deepened friendships, expanded social interactions, and excitement and adventure.