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Middle school sets ambitious targets; credits math intervention and Math Nation success
Summary
Colleton County Middle School presented a turnaround plan with large percentage-point goals for multilingual learners, reading and math. Principal Peebles credited a new math interventionist, mandatory nightly reading logs and Math Nation practice challenges for recent gains.
Principal Peebles told the Colleton County School District board on May 20 that Colleton County Middle School set ambitious targets this year and implemented a series of instructional interventions the school says are producing measurable growth.
Peebles said the school’s resource and equity goal centers on multilingual learners (MLL): the plan aims to increase the share of MLL students meeting proficiency toward the English language target from 14.3% to 51.4% as reported on the South Carolina School Report Card. Performance goals for the school year included raising reading proficiency from 30.3% to 37.3% and math proficiency from 11.6% to 21.6%.
To reach those goals, Peebles said the district instituted daily pull‑out instruction for MLL students, implemented an ELA lab and a math lab for students “approaching” proficiency, and added a full‑time math interventionist who retaught and retested students who did not meet common assessment benchmarks. The school also required a 20‑minute nightly reading log for all students and expanded PLCs and weekly classroom observations to align instruction with state test rigor.
Peebles pointed to interim assessments and i‑Ready growth as indicators of improvement and reported notable engagement with Math Nation practice activities: “last year we entered 500 entries. And this year we entered over 4,000 entries and we were, our region 5 champions… we placed second in the state,” he said, noting that Math Nation provided rigorous, on‑grade practice for students.
On summer work, Peebles said the middle school mailed summer learning packets to rising seventh graders and scheduled distribution for rising eighth graders the next day; the packets include math and reading practice the school hopes families will support two to three nights per week to reduce summer learning loss.
Board members praised staff and asked questions about logistics and family communication; Peebles said packets were sent home, posted to Facebook and accompanied by a letter explaining the school’s goals.
