Much to smile about at Bob Courtway Middle School

By Tally Thornton

LITTLE ROCK — We are off and “smiling” again at Bob Courtway Middle School. Our open house was held on the evening of the Aug. 22 during our first full week of school. We had an excellent turnout.

Our theme this year is “Keep on Smiling,” and we have much to smile about here at BCMS. We were all grins as we opened the evening’s events, happily announcing that our school had made a milestone record by achieving AYP. It is the first time in five years that we have been able to meet the standards, and we are the first school in our district to meet AYP standards.

“What is AYP?” you may ask. AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress. A school must meet AYP standards fortwo years in a row before it is no longer considered to be in need of improvement. If AYP is not met, schools are subject to interventions that would be made by the Arkansas State Department of Education.

AYP was established as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The act requires that each state shall establish a timeline for adequate yearly progress. The timeline ensures that not later than 12 years after the 2001-2002 school year, all students must meet or exceed the state’sstandards. These timelines are guided by federal regulations and are developed by the state Department of Education.

We are very excited about our accomplishment, and the faculty and staff are up to the challenge of a repeat performance by making AYP for the second year in a row. To aid us in meeting the challenge, BCMS has initiated an inclusion program in the seventh grade. The program will serve to build learning communities and enhance exposure to grade-level materials for students who may traditionally have been pulled out of the regular classroom environment for extra support. BCMS is excited to have a special education teacher and a regular education teacher working jointlytogether in the classroom to provide the best possible resources and instruction to all of our students.

We have amazingly dedicated teachers, administrators and support staff. We have two teachers who are nationally board certified, and four teachers who are in the process of achieving national board certification. It takes up to three years to complete their national board certification process and required assessment fees are $2,500. It is no easy task to accomplish, and many do not succeed the first time through.

Bob Courtway Middle School has 312 seventh-grade students and 294 eighthgrade students enrolled. Educators at BCMS hold more than 25 master’s degrees and several faculty members arecurrently taking graduate courses seeking their master’s degrees. We have the knowledge, the talent and the needed support from our administrators to make this year another milestone year of achievement. We also rely on our students’ parents to continue their commitment of being actively involved in the education of their children. Everything we as a faculty do, say and pray, (yes, literally pray) revolves around raising the level of student achievement at our school. We can’t do it without our parents and our community’s support. So come join us this year as we walk the walk, talk the talk, and do it all with a smile.

Keep on smiling.

(Tally Thornton teaches science at Bob Courtway Middle School.)

River Valley Ozark, Pages 76 on 09/25/2008