Lee Central Middle School’s (LCMS) faculty, staff, students, parents, and community members are devoted to developing our students ' world-class skills as defined in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our daily pursuit is to ensure our students and faculty are hopeful, well-prepared, and focused on intentionally delivering instructional practices that will meet all our student's and communities' academic, social, and emotional needs. We are committed to providing a nurturing environment that is conducive to the continuous growth of our students and faculty.
LCMS diligently strives to provide educational opportunities that are equitable, developmentally appropriate, and challenging for all students. We work to instill hope and confidence that will ensure that our students grow in all endeavors by teaching problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills among students.
Through careful planning and visibility, we toil to create and maintain a safe and engaging environment where students and teachers are supported in their efforts to be successful practitioners.
We continuously analyze formative data and consistently discuss data with all stakeholders, including teachers, students, and parents. MAP (NWEA), Mastery View Predictive Assessments, and EOC Benchmarks are used to gauge student performance. The ongoing conversations regarding data are had with our students and parents to ensure they understand where the students stand and what they need to be by the next assessment cycle. These conversations encourage students to take ownership of their learning by the end of the year. We plan to continue this strategy.
Our Media Specialist worked with Language Arts Teachers to ensure that all Lee Central Middle School students had the opportunity to visit the library media center regularly. During these visits, our Librarian provides instruction to support teachers and students. Book talks were given, and students were allowed to browse the bookshelves and select books to check out. Library cards were made for each student, and students were encouraged to bring their library cards with them when they visited the library. Students were allowed to visit the library individually and in small groups to check out books and return books. Over the past two years, outdated and worn books have been removed from the collection. The age of the book collection has decreased from 21 to 14 years old and will decrease even more with the continuous weeding of the collection and the addition of newer current titles. More books of interest for boys were added this year. We have also ordered magazines that may interest all students. Subjects included were the armed forces, motor vehicles, sports, weather, biography, and STEM books.
Our teachers continue to focus on their individual and collective growth through ongoing professional learning activities within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The professional learning focus within our PLCs included the indicators from the SCTS 4.0 Rubric with a concentrated focus on Instructional Plans, Standards and Objectives, Lesson Structure and Pacing, and Academic Feedback. We also provided professional development on Cognia and strategies for increasing student engagement. Furthermore, guidance on teaching students critical thinking skills to solve Word Problems was given throughout the school year as a focus on Math instruction. The purpose of our focus was to ensure planning for instructional delivery, clarity of what was being taught for both students and teachers, implementing and maintaining an appropriate pace during the lesson, and providing timely academic feedback to improve the individual overall academic needs of students.
We implemented the IXL program. IXL embedded our NWEA MAP Data into the program and provided each student with an individualized study plan according to their MAP data. Students in 6th & 7th grade used IXL during Response to Intervention (RTI) time for 50 minutes daily. We plan to continue to use IXL school wide.
Parent nights were designed to inform parents of our SC READY school data results and their child’s data results. Data talks were held with students and parents so both understood the student’s current performance level, which indicates the student’s mastery and command of knowledge and skills as outlined in the SC grade-level standards. Parents were also presented with information to help them better understand some of the student programs students are expected to use daily. The Parent Night Presentations were facilitated by teachers.
We raised expectations for student success by continuously communicating our expectations to students, faculty and staff, parents, and community members. In the future, we plan for our assistant principal of instruction to focus primarily on instructional delivery strategies and our assistant principal of behavior to focus primarily on PBIS and student incentives. These strategies will allow us to better demonstrate our raised expectations for student success by providing additional time for our principal to facilitate more data talks with students, teachers, and parents.
We are proud to share some of the activities and accomplishments that have contributed to the development of our students, as defined by the Profile of the SC Graduate. They are:
- Middle School Academic Challenge Team
- PSAT
- Bullying Awareness Activities
- Cancer Awareness Month Activities
- Read Across America Day Activities
- Quarterly Awards Day Activities
- Red Ribbon Week Activities
- LCMS Media Team News
- LCMS Student Government – Leadership Activities
- Monopoly Club
- Band Club
- Chorus Club
- Media Team Club
- Student Goal Setting Conferences
- Women’s History
- African American History
- Family Nights
o Title I / Parent Portal
o Student Programs
o Title I / School and Student Data
• Celebrations:
- Teacher Appreciation Week
- National School Counseling Week
- National Bus Driver Week
- Student Attendance
- Student Discipline
- Honor Roll Celebrations
- Student Growth
o Food Service Day
o Support Staff Day
o Media Specialist Day
o School Nurse Day
