East Edisto Middle School (EEMS), located in a suburban area of Summerville, SC, is one of seven neighborhood middle schools in the prestigious Dorchester School District Two. EEMS is the newest school building in the district, opening in response to the tremendous population growth in the southwestern corner of Dorchester County. On August 15, 2022, we opened with 868 Students and nearly 100 staff members and faculty and began our journey together.
Our school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by focusing our school on strong literacy and numeracy while also surrounding our students with opportunities in the areas of STEAM, athletics, and extracurricular clubs. All these opportunities are designed to develop the whole child and allow all students to explore their strengths, passions, and areas of growth. This practice allows our Wolves to develop both World Class Knowledge and World Class Skills, key elements of the profile of a South Carolina High School Graduate. These efforts have earned us numerous honors and distinctions this school year as well.
Highlighting our achievements in World Class Knowledge was stellar MAP Growth in both ELA and Mathematics. At our Spring MAP Reward Challenge, almost 100% of our students earned some level of recognition. Our East Edisto Middle School Math Counts team took 2nd place among Lowcountry neighborhood and magnet schools at the Citadel’s annual Math competition. Our READ180 students started a Reading Buddy program with neighboring Beech Hill Elementary School, allowing our up-and-coming readers to model great reading habits. Monthly parent engagement nights were held during the school year, with themes ranging from “Nacho Average Math Night” to our schoolwide Science fair. Each of the programs presented were designed to equip parents with the knowledge required to support high-end academic instruction in the home.
East Edisto Teachers led many initiatives to create opportunities for students to hone their knowledge. In the fall, we began to offer periodic Saturday School opportunities for students to get extra attention on assignments and/or assessments that were pulling their grades down. This effort evolved into the After-Hours Academy in the Winter, where teachers would schedule tutoring multiple days per week, leading up to the end of the school year. This tutoring was available for any student who wanted to work on their academic craft. Our students have access to academic opportunities beyond the traditional four core areas of instruction with elective choices in Spanish, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, Automation and Robotics, and Design and Modeling. In addition, our Wolves who require additional support in ELA and Math have access to online programs specifically designed to get them at or above grade level in literacy and numeracy.
Developing World Class Skills was also a focus of our inaugural school year. Our FLL and VEX Robotics Teams earned regional honors, with one VEX Team competing at the national level. In our first year competing in middle school athletics, our girls and boys basketball teams both completed in district championships and won first place. Additionally, our Fine and Performing Arts programs earned Superior and Excellent ratings at their annual performance assessments. Several of our art students were honored through local competitions, including North Charleston Arts Fest and the SCPTSA Reflections program. Our clubs kicked off with a bang including a STEM Club, Archery Club Team, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Pep Squad, and our Storm the Citadel Club. All groups earned the praises of their sponsor organizations.
Important to developing World Class Knowledge and Skills is building perspective through experiences. To that end, we worked to create a variety of valuable learning experiences for our students. Leading in with a Students First focus, we built our Dedication Ceremony and our Veterans Day Ceremony to highlight student performances, student speakers, and student leadership. This theme continued with our Black History Month activities and programs, which were also student-led. Additionally, our students were able to participate in field trips as grade levels and smaller clusters, to downtown Charleston, the aquarium at Myrtle Beach, and the DDTwo Career and Technology Center. To support our students in understanding and interacting with real-world issues and challenges, our school counseling team hosted “Reality Town” in April. During this simulation, 8th Grade students were assigned a job and salary based on their current grades. Students were required to purchase housing, transportation, insurance, etc. as they made their way through the life simulation. On the same day, 6th and 7th Graders participated in college and career exploration activities. Our schoolwide effort to provide effective learning opportunities for our students was rounded out at the end of the year with different speakers for each of our grade levels. For our sixth and seventh graders, we had a local author and veteran deliver a session on making the most of their middle school years and our eighth graders were treated to a visit from students from Ashley Ridge High School to talk to them about success at the next level of school. A final highlight of the school year came in late May when Channel 2 News in Charleston recognized our Students and Staffulty as the final “Cool School” of the 22-23 school year.
At East Edisto Middle School, we enter the 2023-2024 school year excited about our accomplishments in our first year and determined to surpass those across the next eight months. With continued focus on high literacy and numeracy rates, full integration of our student incentive program, and involving our parents and local community, East Edisto will continue to set the standard for middle schools across the Lowcountry.
