Mexico Public Schools administrators and teachers are looking for ways to improve reading and math skills and they think some of the changes are working.

Mexico Middle School Principal, Julie Lower, and Assistant Principal Kyle Louder met with the Board of Education last month to talk about some of the programs they’ve implemented this year to get kids on track in math and reading. 

According to Louder coming into this year only 26 percent of students were reading at grade level and only 15 percent of students were on grade level in math.

“Looking at that growth is needed,” Louder said.

Lower said the changes they have made focus on meeting each child where they are and helping them grow. She said middle school ages are some of the toughest in child development which is why it is so important.

“They go through a lot of changes both physically and emotionally,” Lower said. “Their brains are growing as rapidly or more rapidly as they did during toddlerhood and they’re figuring out who they are.”

The goal is to get 66 percent of kids to reach their individual goals and they want each kid to meet one or more years of growth in reading throughout the year. Lower said teachers have started “cross-curricular training” and look for data and talk about standards to focus on academic coaching and teamwork.

“Teachers work together daily to help coach kids academically and in other areas,” Lower said.

Louder said in the past they focused on kids who were “in the red” or more than one year behind and that everyone else was thrown into an enrichment class where they would build on skills. 

“What we realized is we were trying to enrich a lot of students who still were more than a year behind the reading level,” Louder said. “Last year we changed it and now our intervention program is reaching anybody who’s behind.”

Louder said the school has implemented an intervention program to reach anyone who is behind. He said previously they were trying to pin point but it became so overwhelming to teachers. They’ve made the program standards and kids are spending more time together and working on those standards together.

“Last year we saw a bunch of growth with that change,” Louder said.

“Last year our end-of-the-year report was exclamation point after exclamation point because we had a tremendous amount of growth from years past with the reformat,” Lower added. “We helped a lot of kids grow in their reading skills.”

Lower said teachers in each department are using a shared leadership approach and coaching their entire teams and other teams. 

“We are building their capacity for leadership in general not just for instructional practices but also the teaching and learning process,” Lower said. “They are modeling for other teachers, they are focusing on teaching other teachers instructional practices that are effective and the why behind it. We are really building capacity with that team this year and it's been effective so far.”

Louder said they’re not just focusing on struggling students but also looking at the students who are getting by but are not really growing. 

“They’ve been able to do enough work to get the grade,” Louder said. “They’ve been able to make their assignment pretty so they get a few extra points but ultimately when the kid goes into the real world what did they learn in that class?”

Louder said they have adjusted their mindset of focusing on what students are doing, what the assignment is they’re doing and what activities are they doing.

“What is that student learning and what are they going to walk out of this classroom being able to take on whatever the next phase is?” Louder said.

Louder said they are taking a look at what standards are provided by the state and what is being asked of students in terms of understanding and demonstration. Louder said it’s a work in progress.

“Day in and day out we’re not chasing work we’re chasing understanding and what those kids know,” Louder said. “We’re working with the high school closely and looking at something going together to try when we look at the scores and look at the numbers we believe this is the next step to improve those numbers.”