Ashworth Middle School 2009-10 Profile

Ashworth Middle School has made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act for the past three school years (2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-2009). By making AYP for the third consecutive year, Ashworth Middle School has been taken off the NI List (Needs Improvement). Our school represents one of 64.4 % of Georgia's middle schools that obtained this status. It is our desire to serve the stakeholders of Ashworth Middle School as we work collaboratively to ensure that all students at Ashworth are achieving at high levels academically. As you will note from the accomplishments listed below, it is evident that students at Ashworth Middle School made considerable gains on the state benchmarks in math, language arts/ reading, and attendance.

• 94.8 % of all students met or exceeded standards on the CRCT in the areas of language arts and reading combined.


• 82.1% of all students met or exceeded standards on the CRCT in the area of mathematics.


• For attendance, fewer than 5.3% students missed 15 or more days of school.  For students with disabilities, 2.5% missed over 15 or more days, an improvement from the previous year by .6%.

We will continue to focus on our school improvement goals that include meeting the new annual measurable objective for the percentage of students to meet and/or exceed expectations for language arts/reading of 73.3%, and 67.6% for math. In addition, we will continue to work with all parents to reduce the number of absences for all groups of students. Below are some areas where we need to show progress in the upcoming school year. If you would like to view CRCT results at Ashworth, please visit the Georgia Department of Education website and follow the links http://www.gadoe.org/.

School Improvement Goals:

READING/ELA:

* All students will increase their achievement in Reading and ELA on the CRCT in grades 6-8 from 94.8% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2009 to 96% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2010.

Targeted Subgroup:

Students with disabilities will increase their achievement in Reading and ELA on the CRCT in grades 6-8 from 77.5% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2009 to 80% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2010.

MATHEMATICS:

* All students will increase their achievement in Mathematics on the CRCT in grades 6-8 from 82.1% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2009 to 85% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2010.

Targeted Subgroup:

Students with disabilities will increase their achievement in Mathematics on the CRCT in grades 6-8 from 63.8% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2009 to 67.6% meeting and exceeding standards at the end of SY 2010.

Highly Qualified Status:

At Ashworth, we are committed to providing quality instruction by highly qualified, skilled staff. 100% of our certified faculty are highly qualified. You can access information on the qualifications and credentials of your student's teacher on our school website. Please visit our website frequently, as we will make updates on a daily basis http://www.gcbe.org/ and click on the link to Ashworth. You have the right to request information pertaining to the credentials of your student's teacher and you will be notified if your student is taught by a teacher who has not met "highly qualified" standards in core academic areas as defined by the state.

Curriculum & Instruction:

The Georgia Performance Standards drive instruction and assessment in our school. Educators teach to the designated curriculum using a variety of resources for reference. The performance standard incorporates the content standard, which simply tells the teacher what a student is expected to, and expands upon it by providing three additional items: suggested tasks, sample student work, and teacher commentary on that work.
Performance standards provide clear expectations for assessment, instruction, and student work. They define the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards, enabling a teacher to know "how good is good enough." The performance standards isolate and identify the skills needed to use the knowledge and protocol to problem solve, reason, communicate, and make connections with other information. Performance standards also tell the teacher how to assess the extent to which the student knows the material or can manipulate and apply the information.

The workshop model is the primary instructional delivery model for Ashworth Middle School and Gordon County Schools. This model is comprised of three components. The opening is a brief orientation that ties the learner to standards/elements and provides the opportunity for demonstration and/or guided practice. The work period makes up the bulk of the lesson time. Individual and/or collaborative group work based on performance task(s) that is connected to standards/elements is presented. Effective research based strategies are utilized heavily during the work period. The closing provides the opportunity for students to discuss their learning and analyze their progress. Student work is used to illustrate individual progress made towards mastery of the standard/elements.

Through our School Improvement Plan we have outlined the specific steps we plan to take to address the continuous improvement of student achievement. Our School Improvement Plan can also be viewed on Ashworth Middle School's website.

Programs:

Specialty programs to better serve students also included REACH (gifted) classes, Special Education (both inclusion and resource settings), ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes, and Speech classes. Ashworth Middle offers acceleration and remediation, depending on the individual needs of the student in every academic subject. In addition, students who have not met the state benchmarks in reading and math will be provided additional reading and math instruction through their connections class.

Ashworth Middle also hosts Standards Night four times a year in the areas of math, reading/language arts, science, and social studies. Standards Night focuses on showing parents and the community the expectations of a standards-based classroom.

PTO and School Council are also in place to offer parents and other stakeholders the opportunity to be active participants in the school improvement process. Because we are a Title I school, it is our obligation to annually review, obtain feedback, and update our School Improvement Plan with parents and the community.

Student Demographics:

Ashworth Middle School has a total student body enrollment rate of 605 students. The student body composition is as follows:

79 % White

16 % Hispanic

2 %Multi-Racial

2 % Black

.64 % Asian

.03 % Limited English Proficient

Home/School Connection:

As parents, there are some things you can do to strengthen the academic achievement of your child(ren). The following suggestions are things we believe will support our school's vision as we strive to improve the academic achievement of all our students:

• Hold high expectations for you child.


• Support Ashworth Middle School in its efforts to maintain proper discipline.


• Instill in your child a positive attitude toward school.


• Make sure that your child attends school regularly, arrives on time and has appropriate supplies.


• Communicate regularly with the teachers of your child.