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Gates Middle School Presents Four‑part Improvement Plan: Math, ELA, Whole‑Child Reviews and Daily Support Blocks
Summary
Gates Middle School presented a school improvement plan focusing on math and ELA growth via STAR benchmarking, a goal to complete whole‑child reviews for all students, and a new daily schedule block to guarantee targeted intervention or acceleration for every student.
Gates Middle School presented its 2025–26 school improvement plan to the Scituate School Committee on June 16, outlining four primary goals: raising math proficiency, increasing ELA growth, conducting whole‑child reviews for every student, and guaranteeing daily targeted support or acceleration time for all students.
The Gates principal said that in 2024 about 60% of students met or exceeded expectations on the MCAS in math and 59% in ELA, and that the school intends to adopt the STAR assessment tool district‑wide for progress monitoring. "We are adopting STAR next year, as our ELA progress monitoring tool," the principal said, explaining the district wants one consistent screening tool across grades because STAR breaks performance into discrete skill strands and provides teacher recommendations.
For math, the principal noted Gates has implemented a new math program and will use beginning, middle and end‑of‑year benchmarking (including STAR) plus locally designed common assessments to measure gains. The school set a high aspirational target—describing it as “an ambitious goal to say we want a 100% of kids to be working at grade level, or exceeding grade level”—while emphasizing data‑driven, subgroup‑targeted supports for students with disabilities, low‑income students and the lowest performing quartile.
The plan’s third goal centers on whole‑child reviews. Gates said it participated in a state‑sponsored academy and, in year two, conducted 229 whole‑child reviews—about 35% of the student body. The school intends to reach 100% by the end of next year by adjusting schedules and committing staff to multi‑disciplinary MTSS meetings.
Finally, Gates described a revised daily schedule that creates a guaranteed block of time each day for targeted instruction. The principal said the schedule will ensure every student receives tiered supports (academic, social‑emotional or acceleration) and that outcomes will be measured by pre/post data for students in targeted interventions, attendance interventions and academic support classes.
The committee asked for clarification about how teacher practice and pedagogy will be observed and supported to ensure the curriculum changes translate to improved student outcomes; the principal acknowledged that measures of instruction (observations, professional learning and coaching) will be included in the action plan and said the school will report benchmark and MCAS progress as it implements the plan.
