Collins Middle School, a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools
(CES), is the only middle school in Salem, Massachusetts,. It houses
950 students and 108 professional staff. The school population is close
to 40% minority, mostly Latino from the Dominican Republic, with many
recent immigrants from all over the world including the other islands
in the Caribbean, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe. The school
has been a member of NELMS since the 1980s and has instituted the recommendations
outlined in the Carnegie Report on middle schools, Turning Points, including
small learning communities with cluster teaching, teachers as generalists,
heterogeneous grouping, long blocks of instructional time, common planning
time, inquiry-based instruction, and personalized learning. One of our
initiatives was cited in Turning Points 2000 (pp. 41-43) outlining our
backward design for curriculum.
Our major goal each year is to increase student achievement in all academics
and specialist (art, technology education, physical education, music,
family and consumer science, performing arts) areas. We work very hard
to meet the needs of all our children on a variety of levels, academically,
socially, racially and ethically. One of the principals of the CES is
that school goals apply to all, and we work hard to assure that happens.
Many of our students are English language learners, special education
students on IEPS, or identified as Title I. Authentic curriculum integrated
learning, modified lessons, differentiated instruction, alternative assessment,
and teaching on a continuum are some ways we address the needs of our
students. Our curriculum includes methods for students to use their minds
well and develop good habits of mind such as persistence, relevance,
evidence, and reflection.
Collins Middle School received the NELMS Spotlight School Award in 2004.
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