Thurston Middle School is one of 48 schools selected this year by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform as a School to Watch, its president, Dr. Irvin Howard, said at an assembly last Friday.
According to the program’s standards of achievement, Thurston has shown it is “academically excellent, developmentally responsive and socially equitable.”
Howard cited teachers, community support and a positive school board as contributing factors in the designation, which is to be reassessed every three years.
The forum, based in Savoy, Ill., as part of its continuing effort to identify and learn from high-performing middle schools, began the Schools to Watch program in 2002; 326 schools have earned the designation through 2012. A truly high-performing middle-level school embodies academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structure, says the forum’s website, noting few schools excel in all four areas.
Photo by Amy Kramer
