Grant Middle School Visit - May 3, 2007

My impressions of Grant. (no website)

Facility/Safety
There are several entrances to the school with only the one closest to the office unlocked. It is off of the front of the school, parking on the side streets is easy. The neighborhood is quiet, the street rather deserted. Not nearly has hopping as the Morey location is. This is a much more relaxing atmosphere. The school is at Mexico and Washington Streets about 8 blocks from McKinley. The building is clean and welcoming inside. We were greeted immediately by a friendly secretary. The principal was not available to meet with us and after five minutes of calling around we were greeted by the Vice Principal who is a younger woman and quite friendly. I got the impression that she was energetic and invested in the school, she introduced us to a special ed teacher who gave us a tour of the school. There isn’t a lot of color inside the school, some classwork posted outside the classrooms but all academic (nothing advertising after school clubs or demonstrating a school spirit.) The building and grounds look well maintained. They have two gyms in the basement. There aren’t extracurricular classrooms per se, I didn’t see evidence of advanced art equipment or an industrial ed shop. The library was very small but well stocked. There was a small full auditorium and a decent looking cafeteria. Classrooms were more closed off and I didn’t see any full science labs. There were at least two computer labs one with Apple equipment and the other with PC equipment. Neither were in use, although the apples in the library were in use.

School make up
360 kids - All traditional students – classes are run on a traditional schedule – 60 minutes for every subject except for language arts which is a double block of 120 minutes. I did confirm that that is a solid schedule – the only double block is language arts and that is required for all students. All students switch classes and teachers for all subjects, a student will have at least 6 different teachers with a homeroom teacher added starting next year. Gym is part of the elective wheel so 6th graders only have gym for 12 weeks of the year, 7th and 8th graders have gym for 9 weeks of the year. I got the impression that this is not negotiable. There rest of the “wheel” schedule includes art & drama. No one could answer my questions about HGT students. They have electives but I didn’t get a clear picture of how electives work or what they are. There are 3 special ed teachers assigned to the general population with 2 others assigned to closed programs within the school. (one classroom with students with emotional issues) (another classroom with special ed students who can’t be mainstreamed.)

Afterschool activities
Morey has organized sports programs in flag football, baseball, soccer, basketball, softball, cross country, and volleyball. They have after school programs that go until 4pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I need to ask more questions about afterschool programs and how they work because I didn’t get a clear impression – I don’t think they are dedicated to keeping the kids at the school until 5pm every day.

General impression
When we were waiting for our tour to start we waited in the teachers lounge. There were flip chart pages on the walls that told a lot about the revamping that is going on at the school. There was a focus on improving academic achievement along with an emphasis on discipline with a phrase about getting the “Bullying” under control. We didn’t spend much time in classrooms but the classrooms I did see were a little on the disorganized side as if teachers were still establishing what the structure was supposed to be in the classroom. I saw many students who were not engaged but rather had that “marking time” look that middle schoolers get so easily. When we walked through the library the librarian was sitting at an elevated desk quite apart from the students who were working on the computers. I saw some web surfing and some obvious playing around by students on the computers. The librarian was not actively involved with the students. Now I don't know what was supposed to be happening maybe this was "free time."

A strange incident... As we left the school and were walking back to the car, a book came flying out of a second story window. There were three other books already out on the sidewalk and in the street. My sense is that the administration has quite a haul ahead of them in turning this school around.

I still have a lot of questions that the special ed teacher couldn’t answer so I plan to email the principal with those questions. But I’m afraid that my first impression was not a very good one. I think high performing confident kids who were up for a challenge might be interested in helping this school turn around. I think struggling or a student who prefers to follow might get lost here.