Congratulations, 2024 NJ Schools to Watch!
Six New Jersey Middle Schools receive National Schools To Watch recognition for 2024 from the National Forum Advancing Excellence in the Middle Grades.
Six exemplary Middle Grades Schools in New Jersey have been recognized as NJ Schools To Watch (NJSTW) as part of a recognition program developed by the National Forum Advancing Excellence in the Middle Grades. The NJSTW program is sponsored by the NJ Association for Middle Level Education (NJAMLE). The NJ Schools To Watch leadership team met and selected the following NJ schools for recognition and for having met the National Forum STW criteria:
Richard Butler MS – Butler, NJ (Newly Designated)
Franklin Avenue MS – Franklin Lakes, NJ (Newly Designated)
Carl H. Kumpf MS – Clark, NJ (Redesignation III – first designated 2014)
Dwight D. Eisenhower MS – Wyckoff, NJ (Redesignation II – first designated 2016)
William Annin MS – Basking Ridge, NJ (Redesignation II – first designated 2016)
George Washington MS – Wayne, NJ (Redesignation I – first designated 2020)
NJ Schools To Watch now have fourteen schools throughout the state who have been recognized and are active members in the STW process. The recognized schools will be acknowledged at the NJAMLE State Conference at Brookdale College on March 13, 2024 and honored nationally at the National Forum’s Schools To Watch Conference in Washington, DC on June 20-22, 2024.
The National Forum is an alliance of educators, researchers, national associations, and education foundations dedicated to improving middle-grades education for young adolescents. Launched by the National Forum in 1999, the Schools to Watch program began as a national program to identify exceptional middle-grades schools across the country. New Jersey became part of the forum in 2007 under the direction of Dr. Gail Hilliard Nelson and a partnership with the NJ Department of Education and NJ Association for Middle Level Education (NJAMLE).
NJ Schools To Watch state leaders select each school based on four categories that are evaluated: Academic Excellence, Developmental Responsiveness, Social Equity and Organizational Structures and Processes. Schools that apply must complete a written application which includes a self-rubric to identify strengths and weakness while looking for potential areas for improvement. Applications are reviewed by the selection committee and schools that appear to meet the National Forum’s and NJSTW’s criteria are selected for a site visit by a team of middle- level educators and stakeholders from around the state. The site visit team observes classrooms, school activities, interviews parents, students, teachers and administrators to ensure the school is meeting the required criteria.
Schools are recognized for a three-year period and at the end of three years must demonstrate progress on specific goals in order to be re-designated. Schools must also collaborate with other middle-level schools as mentors and to open their schools for other professionals to visit and see the practices that make these schools a School To Watch. All schools must show evidence of continued growth to be re-designated.
The Schools To Watch process is an in-depth evaluation tool to help middle-level educators evaluate their schools and seek ways to improve. Outstanding middle level schools are encouraged to apply and become a part of NJ Schools To Watch. To find out more about NJ Schools To Watch and the application process, The National Forum Advancing Excellence in the Middle Grades, and NJ Association for Middle Level Education, see the links below or contact the NJ Schools To Watch State co-directors Rick Delmonaco and Aimee Toth at schoolstowatch@njamle.org.
NJ Schools To Watch
https://www.njschoolstowatch.org/home
National Forum Advancing Excellence in the Middle Grades
https://www.middlegradesforum.org/
NJ Association for Middle Level Education
https://njamle.org/
