Katherine L. Albiani Middle School has been selected as a “School to Watch” through the California Schools to WatchTM – Taking Center Stage program, sponsored by the California Department of Education (CDE), National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform and California Middle Grades Alliance.
Albiani Middle School is the second middle school in Elk Grove Unified to receive the “School to Watch” designation. The achievement gap of students at Albiani has narrowed by more than 30 points on the state’s standardized tests since 2007.
In October 2011, Toby Johnson Middle School – a “School to Watch” for the past six years – also earned this recognition from CDE. The school will maintain its redesignation as a “School to Watch” through 2015.
To qualify as a “School to Watch,” selected schools must have in place replicable practices in the areas of academic excellence, responsiveness to the developmental needs of young adolescents, fair and equitable education for all students and organizational processes and procedures that foster and sustain academic growth.
To apply to become a “School to Watch,” middle school administrators must conduct a self-study evaluation and complete an extensive narrative application. Each site is then reviewed by a team of middle grades experts. In order to retain the designation, each school is re-evaluated every three years.
Both schools will be recognized for these achievements at the California League of Middle Schools conference to be held in Sacramento in February 2012.
Schools selected as a “School to Watch” demonstrate exemplary middle school design. Schools are evaluated using criteria for high performance developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. The criteria and its scoring rubric used to determine a “School to Watch” are found in the School Self-Study and Rating Rubric (SSRR). The SSRR is fully aligned to CDE’s 12 recommendations to ensure success and close the achievement gap for all of California’s middle grades students.