Schofield Middle School is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by developing Ram Scholars who thoroughly exhibit the Cambridge International Learner Attributes: Confident, Responsible, Reflective, Innovative, and Engaged. In consideration of World Class Skills, Schofield Middle School is proud to provide teaching and learning as South Carolina’s first Cambridge International Lower Secondary School. This heralded distinction provides a strong emphasis for providing innovative instructional practices that places learners at the center of lesson-planning, active learner engagement, perspective development, and reflective practice and discourse.

Even amidst the threat to health and safety presented by the Covid 19 pandemic, our Schofield Family experienced a high level of success due to thorough execution of our Covid 19 mitigation plan. Detailed attention and efforts toward the health and safety of all Schofield students and staff as our utmost priority provided the assurance needed by all to feel safe in working and learning at Schofield Middle School. Our students and staff seamlessly adjusted to the transitions from our hybrid learning model to a five-day in-person instructional week. In fact, through teamwork, clear communication and flexibility, we were able to meet our overall annual goal of providing equitable access and opportunity for all students by maximizing instructional time through the strategies of:

• Ensuring equitable access to curriculum and instruction in classrooms
• Managing remote learning opportunities
• Improving pedagogical practices to ensure cultural responsiveness.

We also made notable academic progress even with a significant reduction in traditional teacher-to-student instructional time due to pandemic restrictions. For example, students demonstrated substantial growth in mathematics and literacy skills and concepts from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021 as evinced in our Math and Reading Inventory Assessment Data listed below:

• 14% school-wide growth from Does Not Meet to Approaches, Meets, or Exceeds
• 5% school-wide growth from DNM & Approaches to Meets or Exceeds
• 57-point average growth in Quantile
• 4% school-wide growth from Does Not Meet to Approaches, Meets, or Exceeds
• 6% school-wide growth from Approaches/Meets to Exceeds
• 25-point average growth in Lexile

We even managed to experience considerable achievements and involvement with exploratory, fine arts, and extra-curricular opportunities for students. With dedicated instructors, we offered Theatre I and Art I for high school credits and Gifted and Talented (GT) Art and Theatre to 7th grade students who demonstrated their gifted-ness in the fine arts. Schofield also provided all students an opportunity to experience The Fine Arts through our expansive Orchestral Strings, Symphonic Band, Chorus, and Music classes. Our Symphonic Band students absolutely represented – nine students earned All County Honors, five students earned All Region Honors and one student achieved All State Band honors as the only student in Aiken County to make it onto the Junior All State Band list. Schofield student-athletes experienced tremendous success with our second consecutive undefeated football season and competitive seasons in volleyball, girls and boys basketball and golf. Our cheerleaders also experienced a successful year despite the global pandemic restrictions for health and safety. Lastly, one of our very own seventh grade students won 1st place in the Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Writing Contest and another student earned 3rd place in the Lions International Peace Poster Contest.

Parental and community support for Schofield and it’s staff and scholars was immensely evident throughout the school year despite our health and safety protocols. For example, parent/guardian attendance and participation in our Athletic Awards Banquet, Rising 7th Grade Night, and Academic Awards Ceremonies was substantial. Several local leaders visited our school to speak with our Ram Leadership students and local businesses and faith-based organizations provided helpful donations to our school of Personal Protective Equipment as well as monetary support.

Although the 2020-2021 school year presented what appeared to be insurmountable challenges, our Schofield Family bonded together through clear and consistent communication, crisp execution of our operational plan, care and concern for each other, and Courageous Leadership to provide an exceptional year of teaching, learning, and growing for our students. Martha would be proud!