At Freeland Middle School, we believe that the development of a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) is what helps our students achieve and grow. Within our MTSS, students have tier 1 or universal instruction that is delivered to all students and focuses on best instructional practices in the classroom. The types of instruction you will see at the middle school include student-driven learning experiences, Project Based Learning units, inquiry based instruction, and a focus on our students truly owning their learning process. Teachers use formative (informal) and summative (formal) assessments to guide their work and make deicsions for what is best for our students.
Three times a year, our students will take a screening assessment known as the NWEA. This is about a 50 minute math and 50 minute reading test where students show us where their skills are at in the areas of reading and math. This test, along with classroom and state level data will be utilized to determine the placement of our students into indvidiualized interventions for math and reading. In addition to this, our test scores will be used to guide our tier 1 instruction. This is Freeland Middle School's first year utilizing NWEA as a tool, and we are excited to be able to use a tool that helps us meet individual student needs. Please take a look at this NWEA Parent Guide for more information on this tool. We are completing our first screening assessment during the month of September. Please know that it will take time to get parent reports out, but expect NWEA parent reports for each child around each semester this year.
Part of our work with MTSS includes an intervention to support our middle school students with homework quality and completion. Ms. Kostrzewa, our Intervention Supervisor, works with all 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students during lunch implementing a program called Homework Is Priority (HIP). Our HIP program is in its fourth year, and its purpose is to provide students an additional space to complete homework they were unable to complete at home. For information on our HIP program, please check out this video! Also, included in the video is a tier 2 (targeted intervention) layer to our HIP program. This year, we are implementing a new class called Student Support Center that runs during 7th hour. Mr. DeRop will utilize HIP data to support students 7th hour who struggle with homework and class work completion/quality, and are not benefiting from our HIP program. A student not benefiting from HIP is defined as any student who is working on the same assignment for more than 3 days, any student who is in HIP for over a week without being able to exit the student, or a student who continues to refuse to attend the HIP program on a weekly basis. This class is meant to be a fluid class where students can come in and out as needed. However, we understand that some students may benefit from having this class for an entire marking period. These decisions will be made on an individual basis.
The focus of our SSC 7th hour will be on teaching healthy habits for study skills, organizational skills, prioritizing work, and record keeping. Students will review their Skyward gradebook upon entering class each day, and will prioritize their time and work in class based on organizational supports put in place in the class.
We have many more indivdiualized and targeted supports for students at the middle school including Intervention Supervisor support, Scholastic Solutions, Leveled Literacy Reading Intervention, and Math Intervention using a program called ST Math. We will continue to highlight our MTSS supports throughout the year to better inform our students and families about the systems we have in place at FMS!
If you have questions please contact Renee Wulff at wulffr@freelandschools.net or Ann Sheffer (Student Support Administrator) at sheffera@freelandschools.net.