• Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 4 - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 19,006
    Student Enrollment: 608
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 7%
    White/Caucasian: 81%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 4%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:25
    % Reduced Lunch: 43%
    % ELL Learners: 1.5%
    Founded: 1872
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Bob Horne
  • CONTACT:
    801 Main Street
    Murray, KY 42071
    270-753-5125
    bob.horne@murray.kyschools.us
Murray Middle School
Murray, KY
Our school improvement philosophy is Every student, every day-tradition, pride, and excellence!
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Our school has utilized home visits at the beginning of the school year to build school-family relationships. We host several family engagement events throughout the school year. Students in the Intermediate grades utilize Student Led Conferences during the fall Parent Conferences to allow students to take ownership of their learning and progress. Teachers utilize Google Classroom for students to have greater access to their curriculum at all times and all places.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
The most successful activity our school implements is the Volunteer Program. Our school district had 25,000 hours of volunteer time logged in for the 2016-2017 school year. Volunteers include parents, grandparents, and community members. Volunteers are actively engaged with students as assistants in the classroom with reading aloud, math flash cards, working with students on assessments as a reader or scribe, eating lunch with students, coaching or other instructional activities. The community has high expectations for our school district and students. Community businesses pour into our students academic achievement by being actively engaged with student interviews during career learning activities, taking part in student instructional learning activities such as 'Shark Tank' and Reality Store, and teaching business/career classes on site in our school for all students.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Murray Middle School's staff and student philosophy of school improvement is "Every student, every day- tradition, pride, excellence!" We know we have a tradition of excellence but our race for continued excellence has no finish line. We know we must continually look at our student data and continue to focus on each individual student and his/her academic needs.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Murray Middle's top two goals include continued small group instruction through RTI research based interventions and supports to reduce overall novice and apprentice with all students to close achievement gaps. The second goal is continued technology integration for individualized learning opportunities for all students.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor in our school's success is the professional educators! Teachers understand the whole child at all grade levels. They understand the academic and social growth of children and strive to help them grow in both areas. The school's culture supports positive relationships and collaboration with all stakeholders. The staff holds the philosophy of 'whatever it takes' to ensure a child's success.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The one initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement is the RTI and Technology Integration initiative. Teachers are focused on RTI data and direct student instruction. We use a live Google Sheet which allows teachers to update student progress data and monitor student achievement in reading and math. All content teachers in each grade level are responsible for student standards in reading and math. Students gauge their own personal achievement by knowing their progress and individualized on going goal setting over the course of the school year.
School funds have been utilized to purchase grade level carts of Chromebooks. Two years ago we purchased one cart of 30 Chromebooks, today we have over 700 Chromebooks and every teacher has a Chromebook device. This allows for technology integration in classroom instruction. All students are focused and engaged with their own personalized learning during Tier I instruction.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds are used to support Family Engagement events throughout the school year. Our school hosts a Family Reading Night, a Winter Math/Problem Solving Night, and an Intermediate Life of Your Child Event. These events expose parents/guardians into the everyday academic lives of their child with activities related to reading, writing, and math with technology integration. Parents/Guardians are taught how to respond to open response and multiple choice assessments much like their child is expected to answer on the state assessment.
Title I funds are utilized to provide for staffing to reduce classroom size for more individualized instruction. Title I funds such as supplemental reading and math materials, technology related instructional devices and programs that supplement instruction in the Tier I, II, and III classrooms are also purchased to aid in overall instruction.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
The critical professional development that we use has focused on classroom instruction with research based Classroom Assessment for Student Learning; Characteristics of Highly Effective Teaching and Learning over the past five years. Most recently we have begun to integrate technology into classroom instruction as well as engagement strategies such as KAGAN. We know that positive relationships, a highly effective learning environment, and student engagement are key to student success. Our school is focused on all of these strategies with ongoing professional learning and collaboration taking place daily.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Our school uses data to improve overall student achievement in academics. Murray Middle has a Data Review Team which meets every six weeks to review student academic data. We use NWEA MAP as our benchmark Tier I assessment in all grade levels and content areas. Students are assessed with MAP in the fall, winter, and spring. Spring results are used to initially place students in a Tier II and/or Tier III intervention class at the beginning of the school year. Once students have completed the Fall MAP assessment and data is reviewed by the Data Review Team, students are fluid in moving in and out of direct instruction small groups. Teachers instruct students on standards and skills that are below the benchmark with on going progress monitoring to gauge student progress toward benchmark. Students in Tier II are progress monitored bi weekly on standards. Students in Tier III are progress monitored weekly on standards and skills.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Murray Middle School houses students in grades 4-8. The school building has an Intermediate Wing and a Middle School wing. This creates a unique culture due to the vast ages of students who make up our school. We have students from approximately ten different countries who speak up to five different languages. We are a student- focused learning community. We have a family oriented culture built around Positive Behavior Intervention Supports. All students are a part of the Tier I culture of learning and behaviors. Our monthly attendance rate is around 98%. We have 43% free and reduced population.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: 4 - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 19,006
    Student Enrollment: 608
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 7%
    White/Caucasian: 81%
    Hispanic: 5%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 4%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:25
    % Reduced Lunch: 43%
    % ELL Learners: 1.5%
    Founded: 1872
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Bob Horne
  • CONTACT:
    801 Main Street
    Murray, KY 42071
    270-753-5125
    bob.horne@murray.kyschools.us