Schools to Watch

Program Overview

Schools to Watch - Taking Center Stage
Download a copy of our brochure (PDF)

Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage is a statewide program designed by Dr. Irvin Howard, director of the program, and the member organizations of the California Middle Grades Alliance, which include:

California Middle Grades Alliance
California League of Middle Schools
California Department of Education
California Schools to Watch- Taking Center Stage Model School Program
California Teachers Association
Association of California School Administrators and its Middle Grades Council
California School Boards Association
California County Superintendents Education Services Association and its Secondary Subcommittee of the Curriculum and Instruction Steering Committee
California Middle Grades Partnership Network
Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP)

The goals of the Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage program are to:

Create a research-based definition of the characteristics shared by high-performing middle schools.
Identify high-performing middle schools throughout California.
Share the real-world strategies in place at these sites with educators from middle schools throughout the state via web-based school tours, school site visits, and phone or e-mail consultations.
Provide a nationally proven School Self-Study and Rating Rubric (PDF) via the Internet that all middle schools can use to evaluate and improve their school's instructional program.
Establish a statewide network of high-performing middle schools, with every high-performing school actively involved in assisting struggling middle schools that share either a geographic region or student population characteristics.

Each year, the program identifies middle schools that are academically excellent, developmentally responsive, socially equitable, and structured for success. In the words of State Superintendent Jack O'Connell, “These middle schools teach deeply to standards, assess ongoing student progress, and use data to make decisions. They develop confident and capable adolescent citizens, differentiate instruction for all learners, and provide effective interventions to struggling students and English learners.”

The sites selected to be Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage model schools meet the unique challenges of their student populations and share a strong, ongoing record of student achievement. Castaic Middle School is a demonstration site for the Los Angeles County Department of Education's at-risk readers' literacy program. At Alvarado Intermediate School, most students complete Algebra I and move on to Geometry in high school. All students at John Glenn Middle School of International Studies learn Spanish or French for all three years.

Thanks to the Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage program, thousands of middle school educators have accessed free online professional development resources. Hundreds of phone calls and in-person visits have been made to model schools. Strategies are being shared that benefit thousands of middle school children.

The Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage program is affiliated with, and based upon criteria established by, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

The Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage program is supported in part through the generosity of Holt, Rinehart & Winston and the Stuart Foundation.

California League of Middle Schools
6615 East Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 120, Long Beach, California 90803
Voice: 562/430-3136 or 800/326-1880 . . . FAX: 562/430-5607. . . E-Mail: info@clms.net