Cross Case Features: Context

Clemens Middle School: School Context

Clemens Middle School occupies a large, multi-level building on a spacious campus. Recently, the school’s population of approximately 1200 students has changed from predominantly Caucasian to a diversified mix that includes approximately 20 percent Hispanic and 6 percent African-American students. About 20 percent are special education students and 40 percent are on “free” or “reduced lunch” status.

Professional Development

The impact of state testing extends to decisions about building professional development. At Clemens Middle School, four days are allotted for staff development and several additional staff meetings are devoted to math and reading goals and to Clemens’ focus on writing across the curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to present best practices at a faculty meeting. Clemens “aggressively seeks media attention” and if a teacher gets good press, other teachers will be interested. NCTA teachers have generated good local press coverage of their Asia-related projects.

Teacher Planning and Sharing

Sharing information among teachers at Clemens is informal, based on individual interest in doing interdisciplinary lessons. NCTA teachers have not conducted formal workshops on Asia, but a change this year in Clemens’ core team planning has opened the door to more collaboration. Clemens has three academic core teams per grade level, each including a teacher of Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science. Starting this year, specialty teachers (Art, Industrial Arts, and Home Economics) will have 45 minutes of joint planning with the core teams each day.